#but in the same way willow and gus never felt like luz abandoned them when she started dating amity | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sepublic · 4 years

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Now What?

Seriously. For Lilith, this is an obvious question… She rejected Belos and the Coven System, although it was mostly on Belos’ side that this happened; Her original intention was to keep working for him, because clearly executing Eda was just a one-time lapse in judgment, especially when one sees all of the OTHER good things he did?

She’s at the Owl House. She’s a Wanted Criminal, and her magic is now weaker. Eda knows the truth, but at the same time it feels like they’re closer than they’ve been beforehand? Closer to that bond from childhood, even if they’ll never get it back? So what does Lilith do, does she… Does she try to rekindle? Does she respect Eda’s boundaries? Will she still stay at the Owl House regardless because where else can she go, or does she go off to do some of her own soul-searching?

For Luz and Eda, this question is a bit more obvious, even if not fully-answered; That it’s time for Luz to be the teacher again, to help her surrogate mother get around her disability, to teach her glyphs… For Eda, there’s also the question of how she’ll continue to live life, now that she’s so much weaker and struggling with a new method of magic!

Not to mention, the revolution… Willow and Gus helped spark one, a proper form of backlash against Belos’ reign… That they helped bring about rebellion before Belos could truly solidify and legitimize his rule. That no, it’s not over, it was NEVER over, there was always a fighting chance- And it’s a refreshing take for the rebellion to take place when the dictatorship is still in that infancy stage, where it DID take over, but there’s still bold memories of what it was like beforehand and so people can operate on that! To have explored how the cultural memory of the past was always still there and intact, that people could be swayed either way at this crucial juncture, and now they are!

But where to go, for those who rebelled? Do they start actively fighting back against the Emperor’s Coven? Do protests, spread awareness… Work on legislation to keep Belos from increasing his power? Do some outright abandon the Coven System and go into hiding? Do they go to Eda the Owl Lady for guidance, and how will they react to see that she hasn’t gotten her magic back; Assuming anybody even thought she did, given the last they saw was of her mostly-cursed!

What does Amity do now? Her mentor, no doubt the most positive influence when it came towards the Emperor’s Coven and any support and belief in it, someone so CLEARLY enamored by its ideals to the point where she was entrusted as a literal posterchild (er, adult) for the EC? Amity may have called Lilith ‘Mom’ in the past, but she could’ve also had mixed feelings regarding the Covention Incident, and rightfully so. What does it say that this person she probably felt safer around than her own parents (not that this was hard) has so blatantly rejected the Emperor’s Coven?

Will she try to rationalize it (no doubt with influence from her own parents) that it was Lilithwho was rejected, for being of morally-weak fiber… And that this TECHNICALLY isn’t entirely wrong, that indeed Belos cast her out and that Lilith hadn’t made the active choice to defy him completely, just his particular decision on Eda. For Lilith, she has to deal with the fact that she’s no longer welcome there. For Amity, how does she feel?

She saw what Belos and Kikimora planned to do to Eda. She knows that Luz loves the Owl Lady, that she’s felt more safe and welcomed in this stranger’s home than in her own house… And Amity loves Luz more than she fears anything else, Grometheus taught her that much at least! Luz is no doubt going to defy the Coven System, so now what? What does Amity do, will she simply stand by and anxiously wait to see what Luz does, crossing her fingers that it’s nothing too drastic or confrontational, that there’s still room for negotiation?

Or will she have to accept, from a precarious position as an abused and indoctrinated child, that the Coven System is seen as wholly negative by Luz… Especially since if Bump is any indication, there HAS been formalized education prior to Belos; So even the benefits of formalized education aren’t necessarily intertwined with the Coven System, either! What will her parents have to say, seeing that the person they trusted to tutor their own daughter threw it all away for Eda, who they saw as kids transform into a monster as if by some cruel karmic fate for defying Belos’ order?

Will the Blight Parents focus on making sure Amity is EXTRA obedient, (rightfully) afraid that Lilith has had her influence on Amity? What do Emira and Edric do, do they consider outright leaving Blight Manor as abuse worsens? Taking their little sister with them? Because there’s also doubt left, now that Eda is so much weaker in terms of magical ability, about whether or not the rebellion can succeed(regardless of whether or not it has moral standing).

What of Gus and his father, Perry? What does Perry do, does he try to be a neutral party and bystander? Or does his kid’s act of defiance enable Perry to do the right thing, to actively start working on exposing Belos’ corruption, to truly embrace the freedom of the press! Not to mention, Principal Bump… OBVIOUSLY he’s going to be supporting the revolution in his own way, I wouldn’t be shocked if he was flipping off Belos while the dude wasn’t looking; But at the same time, he’s got a student body to take care of!

Luckily for Bump at least, Belos’ power hadn’t been totally solidified; That it was still technically legal for him to allow stuff like multi-track learning, even if supposedly students would still graduate within only one coven! But after seeing some of his own students make a stand, after seeing how he failed people like Eda in the past… How is Bump going to approach things? Will he actively work with people like The Librarian, to educate students more on the ACTUAL history of the Boiling Isles? Because if those kids get hurt then Bump WILL feel liable, especially if he helped encourage their rebellion, or simply didn’t do much to quell it…

This episode had… SO many ripple-effects! Such a powerful chain-reaction, its own legacy that’s touched just about everyone in the Boiling Isles! There’s no avoiding this, it’s like everyone’s infected, there’s no ignoring what went on in the Conformatorium! Especially with the knowledge that Belos can be wounded, and likely by a mere human no less…! It wasn’t just the main cast’s status quo that changed here, it was the status quo for EVERYTHING and everyone…

Where to go? What direction or path to take? So many potential options and destinies to go from here. It’s an uneasy decision, all right. There was a victory, but it’s also a bit bittersweet, tinged with an undertone of uncertainty, because- Now what?

(At least BELOS seems to know what do… At least I thinkhe does, maybe he’s also confused too!)

And from a meta perspective, this is a question I’m asking myself! I barely handled the Mid-Season hiatus… Coupled with complications of the epidemic, and the wait between Seasons 1 and 2 will no doubt be PAINFUL and arduous! So, now what? What do I, do I just keep doing as I always do, until I likely run out of steam, and wait for new content to invigorate me? Do I just keep acting like I always have, as if there’s just a REALLY long wait for a new episode, but otherwise it’s just the same?

What does the fandom do? How do we speculate, how do we produce content? Where do we go from here? It’s all so infectiously melancholic, like there’s confusion and uncertainty but a glimmer of hope at the very end, that SOMETHING will be figured out in the end, right? So…

Now what?

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house lilith #lilith clawthorne #the owl house gus #gus porter #the owl house willow #willow park #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the owl house eda #edalyn clawthorne #principal bump #the owl house amity #amity blight #speculation

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k7l4d4 · 3 years

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Midnight Striga: Fairy Tail/Owl House Cross Fic Episode 5 Part 9

Hello all, I am back with another exciting segment of Midnight Striga!! Admittedly, this one is slower than the prior chapter, but I still hope you all enjoy it.

Lilith strode forth, Eda hot on her heels. They circled through the Covention, spotting the representatives from the Major Nine assisting. The Construction Coven workers were rapidly working on structural damage dealt to key pillars and walls, members of the invading force held tightly by hastily assembled cells and chains, the Construction Head, and Lilith was genuinely puzzled as to where he had come from, looming over the invaders, personally guarding them. The Oracle, Healing, and Illusion Covens were working in concert, with the Oracles tracking down trapped or injured citizens while Illusionists either guided them to safety, or rescue workers to their locations, and the Healers had set up a clinic to attend to the injured.

The Plant and Abomination Covens worked to root out and capture the remaining attackers, many of whom were thrown into those same cells she had passed alongside the Construction Coven. The Beast Keeping Coven members used their abilities to track down and locate those stuck in areas inaccessible to the abilities of Oracles, allowing rescue workers to bring them to safety, the Bards using their magic to manipulate the pieces that the Construction members couldn’t move safely. The sight of the Covens working together, in harmony, brought a melancholy smile to Lilith’s face. Her mood plummeted further, however, when she saw the bodies.

Piles of corpses, so many they couldn’t lay them out properly and were overlapping in awkward lumps, were arranged before the Healers’ Clinic, families weeping over their loved ones, the ones who had been present with them at least. The rest would need to be informed. And not to mention the numerous corpses of Guards, some having died cleanly… others not so much. Titan, she really was a failure, wasn’t she? Shaking herself from her self-loathing, she turned to her sister. “Edalyn, I must ask, but do you have any idea what has occurred?”

“Well, from the looks of it, a huge fight.” Eda said, faux-humorously. Before Lilith could snap at her, she continued. “But seriously, while you were stuck in la-la land, that guy, Rudolph he called himself, said he and his group were part of the ‘Black Dog Squadron’ whatever that means, and that they were here to kill everyone for someone or something called Oroboros. Beyond that, I couldn’t say.” She recalled, face grave.

Lilith bit back a curse. Taking a deep, calming breath, she attempted to draw more information out of her sister; out of all the adults on the Isles, Eda’s knowledge of humans was estimated to be some of the best, by virtue of her regularly full stores of ‘treasures’ to sell. “Edalyn, I am begging you, if you have any knowledge of how this…” She gestured, to the corpses, to the crying parents and children, the ruined stands and damaged walls, ”all happened, I need you to tell me!” She pleaded.

Eda leveled an even stare on her sister, before slowly replying. “Lily, I had no idea how this happened, or what went into it occurring. As much as I hate Bonehead, if I had ANY idea that something like this was going on, I would’ve either let you know, or tried to stop it beforehand myself, maybe both.” Lilith searched her eyes, an almost desperate light burning within her, before sighing, accepting Eda’s words.

“As much as it pains me to say this, I will likely need your help for the moment.” Lilith said as evenly as she could, the bitter sting of acknowledging just how much her sister still outclassed her rearing its ugly head. “If any of these scavengers are still lurking about that are on the level of that maniac Rudolph, I will likely need your skill to defeat them before they can wreak further havoc.”

“Heh, glad to see you finally admitting my skills,” Eda preened, oblivious to Lilith's mood plummeting at her statement, before growing serious. “And yeah, of course. We may have had our differences, but I’m not gonna cut and run when kids are in the crossfire.”

Lilith nodded, relieved. She hated that she felt relieved; it was just another admittance of how Eda was better than her. Still, Lilith took in the sight of the dead guards, the mutilated children, and felt her resolve harden. It didn’t matter if Eda was better than her right now; justice was what was needed, and she would bring about that justice. She felt her eyes mist. It was the least she could do, as penance for failing them.

Throwing up her arms in confusion, Lilith exclaimed. “What I truly wish to know is how did Humans gain the ability to wield magic!? It should be impossible!! They lack a bile sack, so how did that-that maniac cast those spells!” She whirled on her sister. “Please tell me you didn’t know about this?”

Eda shrugged, feeling guiltily amused at Lilith’s flustered panic. “Eh, only for a few weeks or so. And let me tell you, it sure caught me by surprise!” She laughed. Eda paused, a thought occurring to her, but it was one she was hesitant to share. Biting her lip, she carefully broached the topic. “You know, I think I might know someone who could shed a little light on this whole mess.” She said cautiously.

Lilith zipped into Eda’s personal space, tightly gripping the front of her dress. “Truly!?” She asked, pleading honestly. “Where are they? Who are they!?”

“Well first off, personal space sis,” Eda bluntly stated, lightly pushing Lilith out of her comfort zone. Taking a breath, she added, “As to where they are, they honestly should be right here in the Covention.”

Lilith’s face fell, already fearing the worst. “But, if they were here, then wouldn’t they have had to face…” she gestured to one of the attackers being led to the cells, cackling insanely, “ Them?”

“Pffft! If goons like that were a serious problem, I’d be a little worried, but she’s crafty enough to stay alive, heck, she probably beat a few of them!” Eda cackled, before adding, with a hint of nervousness, “And, well, I hate that I got to ask this, Lily, but please keep an open mind when you meet her? Please?”

Lilith gave her sister a flat stare. “Edalyn, I have just had a rather large portion of my worldview regarding humans and the power and stability of the Isles torn out from under me, as have a large group of others. When word starts spreading, I have no doubt that more than a few people will either go into denial or mass hysteria.” She placed her hands on her hips. “Very little could properly phase me at the moment. So yes, Edalyn, I will keep an open mind.” She said the last part so dry and sarcastically that, if this weren’t serious, Eda would’ve been so proud to call them sisters. Eda nodded grudgingly, accepting her promise. With that, the two headed out. Eda really hoped the kid was okay.

Luz gasped and sputtered, nearly choking on her tears. Willow slowly rubbed circles on her back, calming some of her heaving and screams. Gus and Amity stood on the side, both feeling lost and awkward; neither was as close to Luz as Willow, but neither wanted to see the girl in such despair either. All three just wanted to know what was going on.

“Sshh… sshh… it’s gonna be okay.” Willow whispered, unbothered by the tears staining her dress; it had already been ruined from the blood and grime of the battlefield the Covention had turned into, but even if it was fresh and clean, Willow would gladly soil it for a friend to cry on. “You can talk to us, okay? And if you don’t want to, we’ll be here anyway.”

“She-She can’t be alive!!” Luz spluttered, tears clogging her throat. “She can’t be!! I can’t have abandoned her!” She wailed. It had to be a lie, it had to be!! Because, if it wasn’t… Luz would never be able to stop until she saved her, no matter what she’d have to do in order to do it.

“Who?” Amity hesitantly asked.

“My hostage.” Luz said glumly, her tears drying up for the moment. She reached into her jacket, pulling out a photo tucked inside, showing it to them, a watery smile forming on her face. “My sister.”

“Sister?” The group echoed, leaning forward. Staring back at them was a picture of Luz and, well, Luz! Or rather, they saw Luz standing by what they presumed was her identical twin. The two were still very much distinguishable from one another. The one on the left was clearly the Luz they knew, having a similar style, a wild and reckless grin stretched across her face. The one on the right, however, was shyly glancing away, a nervous smile on her face, hair tied back neatly with a pair of clips.

“Yeah, Vee.” Luz said, a melancholy look of remembrance on her face. “She was always my leash, even before I got drafted into Oroboros. Whenever I had some crazy idea, she’d talk me through it before I did something stupid.”

Willow and Gus sat down beside her, leaning close, Amity standing a respectful distance behind them, clearly listening. Luz continued. “One time, I got this idea to make home-made Lacrimas by shoving a bunch of magic into one spot, and Vee reminded me that neither of us knew how Lacrimas formed, and just stuffing magic into things blew them up.” She snickered, a tear tracing down her cheek. “And this one time, I was gonna try and tame a Wyvern, I actually went out and did it even! But then, Vee reminded me we had nowhere to keep it, and no way to feed it, so I found it a nice hunting ground, and convinced it to defend a nearby town.” She laughed out loud, a heavy, full-belly laugh that sent her sprawling, tears leaking.

She paused, tears in her eyes. “She was my best friend, the person who made every day away from home something bearable. She was my anchor, my rock, and Oroboros used her against me.” Her fingers dug into her hand, a pained look crossing her features. “If she’s actually been alive this whole time…” Her tears were cut off when Willow and Gus hugged her, both having tears of their own.

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll get through this.” Willow stated, pulling away and looking Luz straight in the eye. “Oroboros is going to keep coming after the Isles, so you’ll probably get an answer one way or another. And either way, I’ll be right by your side.”

“And the same goes for me!” Gus chimed in. “Plus, my dad’s a reporter, so I can help find out new info for you to go off of!”

“And if I am available, I would not be averse to using my magic to fight against those who’ve threatened the Isles. Rescuing an innocent will be a nice bonus, I’d say.” Amity primly stated, sporting a confident look.

Luz gave the three an almost awestruck look. “You guys.”

“GET AWAY FROM THEM!!” A voice screamed, drawing their attention. Luz’s eyes widened as Lilith Clawthorne, Eda’s apparent sister, rocketed towards her, staff glowing with magic, her eyes burning with rage. Before she could smash Luz’s face in, however, Eda jumped in, tackling her sister to the ground.

“Sheesh, Lily! Chill out!” Eda cried, desperately wrestling her sister to the ground. “I told you to keep an open mind, remember?”

“What does that have to do with-” Lilith ranted, only to pause, eyes widening in realization. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.” She groaned, hanging her head as Eda sheepishly chuckled.

“U-um… Eda, what’s happening?” Luz tentatively asked.

Eda really wanted to ask Luz why she’d been crying, but decided to put it off, focusing on the current issue. “Well,” She drawled, “My prissy sis here wanted info on everything that happened. And after thinking it over, I thought you’d be the best person to give it to her.” Eda stated, pointing at Luz decisively. As unbalanced as Luz’s emotions were at the moment, she could see the logic in that.

“Seriously!?” Gus cried, incredulous. “After what she just learned!?”

Eda blinked. “What? What’d she learn?” She asked, figuring that whatever it was was the reason behind Luz’s tears.

“Something we can talk about later. In. Private.” Luz stated, her face screaming ‘let it go for now!’ Eda grudgingly agreed.

“Ugh, can we please move back on to the topic of information?” Lilith growled, pulling herself up. She loomed over Luz, a suspicious glare emblazoned across her features. “I have a great many questions for you, human.”

“And I’m perfectly willing to answer them, Miss Clawthorne.” Luz replied, unblinking. She glanced around, taking note of the damage around them. “But maybe it’d be better if we went somewhere more private for this?”

Lilith nodded, seeing the logic in that. “Indeed, better we not be interrupted.” She turned to her sister. “If that is acceptable for you, Edalyn?” She asked, getting a shrug and a nod in return, the Witchlings following Eda’s lead. Lilith clapped her hands. “Well then, we’d better be going back to the main center, as I recall seeing the Covens building something of a camp there to deal with the aftermath of this mess. The Healer’s Clinic should have a room we can use.” And with that the group set off, a tension running through them after their collective ordeal.

Emira paced, frantically glancing about the interior of the Healer’s Station, Edric gloomily slumped next to her. Her eyes scanned the nearby groups, hoping to spot something, anything, that could give her some hint as to where her sister was. She and Edric knew she was here, but where had she disappeared to after being displayed up there with Lilith was the real question.

“Could you please stop pacing, sis?” Edric groaned, clutching his head. “It’s not going to just make her appear if you keep doing it.”

Emira whirled on her brother, fire in her eyes. “Well what do you expect me to do!? Maniacs barged into the Covention, massacred who knows how many people, and OUR SISTER IS MISSING!!! I don’t have a lot of options right now, now do I?” She brutally snapped, briefly yelling in the middle of it, before fading into a broken tiredness. All those people, those kids, all gone. If her sister was gone like that, and her only memories were of her and Edric pranking her… She looked into Edric’s eyes, and saw the same fear, the hopeless, helpless realization that Amity may be gone, and her only memories of them would be of all the times they gave her trouble.

Edric sighed, tiredly rubbing his eyes. “Believe me sis, I get it, but all we can do is wait, and hope she’s okay.” He patted the spot next to him, a clear invitation to sit. Emira gave one last furtive look around, and glumly complied. The two briefly wondered just how their parents would take all of this.

Bria bit her lip, glancing over at Gavin and Angmar. She didn’t consider them friends, not really. Maybe she’d change that? She wasn’t sure. She wasn’t sure about much right now. She… had been made helpless. Magic like nothing she’d ever seen had been on display, and a LOT of people were dead. She, Gavin, and Angmar WOULD be dead. If it hadn’t been for Matty. Matty; goofy, clumsy, always taking the fall, boasting about his skills Matty, had saved their lives. Tears pricked her eyes, as she remembered how close she’d come to death, the sheer heartlessness on display. Was that what she was like? Some kind of monster? ...Was that what everyone was like at Glandus, behind all the excuses about being powerful?

“Hey, I got your drink!” Matty cheerfully replied, holding a glass out to her.

Bria shot him a half-hearted smile. “Thanks Matty.”

“Eh, it’s no problem.” He said, waving it off. “After all, we’re friends, right?”

“Yeah, friends.” Bria muttered, sipping her drink. Maybe… they really were friends. She’d have to talk to Angmar and Gavin about this. Maybe Hexside was still taking transfers.

Skara listlessly handed supplies to Bo, who was frantically patching up as many injuries as she could. Skara just felt so tired, so hollow. So many people had died. She’d seen little kids ripped apart, their parents crying over their bodies. She’d seen the opposite too, parents being cried over by their kids and family members.

Skara only had eyes for one thing, though. Boscha. Boscha was propped up on a bunk, at least two rows away, but still in Skara’s line of sight. She’d been brought in by a little demon, screaming and demanding that someone help her. Skara felt a twinge of jealousy at the thought that it wasn’t her demanding that someone heal her friend. Oh, wait, they weren’t friends anymore. It still hurt to think about, even though talking with Amity helped. The demon was hovering around Boscha, ranting and ordering around anyone and everyone who got close. In the back of her mind, Skara was honestly impressed at how unrelenting and exacting he was with his demands, even if no one was following them.

Then, Skara caught sight of another body brought in, another corpse. It was Batthew, a nice guy who had flirted with her a few times before. He was sweet, in his own way, and was really fond of going over the top. His throat had been slashed open. Skara didn’t fight the tears as they came.

Lilith pulled up a seat, eyes glaring daggers at the human seated before her. One way or another, she was going to get the answers she needed. She briefly spared a glance at Perry Porter, a known and well-viewed reporter upon the Isles, and one known for being unabashedly honest and direct in his reporting, something that earned him several points with the populous, as they knew they could trust his information. The boy, Augustus, had called him in after they’d gotten to the emergency clinic the Healers had established, citing a need for the people to understand what had happened. Thinking of her own impending reveal to the public, Lilith had agreed. If all turned out well, both could be accomplished together.

Lilith leaned forward. “Now then, human, it’s time for you to answer my questions. The People of the Isles are dying to hear what you have to say.” She said, eyes half-lidded.

Luz placed her hands on her chin, a brave smile on her face. “Ask away. I’m all ears.”

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thegoodgayshit · 4 years

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Luz’s mother really doesn’t want to send Luz to camp. She knows once she leaves, there is no going back. But Luz has a knack for getting into trouble, and one day she stumbles into the same type of people her mother would have preferred she avoided. After helping Luz dissolve her high school bully into dust, Eda and Lilith know right away that this kid is just like them - a child of the gods. So Luz hops on a Pegasus and heads to Camp Half-blood, where she embarks on a dangerous quest that makes her both friends and enemies... and she might even save Olympus along the way.

Chapter Five: My Rival Has to Save Olympus

The victory party for the blue team was in full gear in the pavilion, but Luz was too distracted to even enjoy it. Her brain was running a mile a minute, and every time she had a thought she zoned out, unable to ignore it.

She didn’t know how to feel, which was starting to become a habit. On one hand, she had never been so excited in her life. Her father had claimed her, in front of everybody, and announced to the whole camp that Luz was his. She had never known anything about her dad besides what her Mami had said about him, so now that she could really put a name to who he was, Luz felt seen.

But a part of her, a part that she hated that she felt, was angry and resentful with her father. He had known who Luz was her whole life, and he had never once visited her or helped out her Mami when they were struggling. Luz remembered when she had worked three double shifts back to back, and almost collapsed with exhaustion. Hermes could have helped them. He could have been there.

As they were shedding their armor and freshening up together to head to the pavilion for the celebration, she expressed this frustration to Willow and Gus. The pair had shot her sympathetic smiles as Luz shifted Aletheia back to a ring, and tucked the buzzer into her shorts pocket to return to Eda at the celebration.

“We know how you feel,” Gus said quietly. “Most half-bloods never know or meet their godly parents.”

Willow nods, “Gus and I have been at camp for years and never met ours.”

Luz swallows her frustration. That isn’t right. It isn’t fair for a parent to just abandon their kids because they thought they had better things to do.

“But the upside is that most of us have our siblings!” Willow adds with a gleam of excitement. “They make being a half-blood a lot more fun.”

Willow had a point there. Now that Luz was claimed, she couldn’t believe she actually had siblings! Well, half-siblings. After she’d been claimed, Viney and Jerbo had run-up to her and pulled her in for high fives. They told her how excited they were that she’d be staying in their cabin, and even called her their sister. Luz had never felt any kind of sibling love like that before, and without even realizing it, her eyes had gotten misty and her throat had closed up with affection.

“You’re right, Willow,” Luz said, giving her a genuine smile.

The trio walked practically arm in arm to the pavilion, and when Luz saw it, she gasped. The place was practically unrecognizable from the last time she had seen it at breakfast. The tables had been covered with white tablecloths, and there were tasteful blue streamers and decorations hanging from the columns. The sun was setting so there was a beautiful glow over it, and torches were lit everywhere to light it up. The place was packed: with demigods, nymphs, and satyrs all partying together. When they walked in, a demigod from the Dionysus cabin saw them and cheered when they realized they had played on the blue team, laying laurels around their necks.

“Holy Zeus,” Gus exclaimed with glee. “I forgot how awesome the party can get when the Dionysus cabin wins the games.”

Luz was grinning excitedly and she pumped her fist in the air, her previous worries long forgotten. “This is awesome! I love being a half-blood!”

They quickly adapted to the party and Luz couldn’t ever remember having so much fun. A lot of the red team players were there despite their loss, but a lot of them were having too much fun to actually hold a grudge against the blue team's cabins. Luz was soon chatting amicably with demigods from both the Apollo cabin and the Hephaestus cabin, but she did notice as she wandered around that the Ares campers were nowhere to be found.

“By the way Augustus, that was an awesome distraction by the creek today,” one of the Apollo campers, who had introduced herself as Bo, said. Gus rubbed the back of his neck with a nervous laugh as Willow and Luz turned to look at him.

“What is she talking about, Gus?” Luz asked with a frown, and Willow raised a brow as well.

He was starting to look more and more stressed. “Well, I might have suggested to Viney that Amity and her friends had it out for Luz and that if she was stationed somewhere Amity could find her… she’d be willing to put aside her chances of winning to challenge her.”

“You used me as bait?” Luz yelped, her eyes widening. Gus put up his hands defensively.

“Not exactly! I just knew that an opportunity to take the flag might present itself if the red team's best swordfighter was otherwise occupied.”

“You used her as bait,” Willow said with a disapproving frown.

“Sorry, Luz,” Gus said sheepishly.

Luz shrugs, assuring him she isn’t upset. Despite her surprise with the whole situation, Luz wasn’t mad. It’s not like they’d been hurt. In fact, it had been pretty great all things considered, but that wasn’t because Luz was a skilled camper. It was that she had gotten lucky and had a few tricks up her sleeve Amity and her friends hadn’t been expecting.

Amity… Luz was still really feeling guilty about using the hand buzzer. Even if Amity was mean to her, she hadn’t deserved to be embarrassed like that. And even if the buzzer was a magic item and technically allowed, Luz felt like a cheater. Without even realizing she was doing it, Luz started to scan around the pavilion for her, wondering if she was at the party.

As she looked through the crowd, her eyes finally fell on just the girl she was looking for. Amity was standing at the edge of the crowd, with Edric and Emira next to her. Luz put her goblet of lime soda down on the table and excused herself from the conversation, turning and heading towards them slowly, not sure how to integrate herself into their circle.

As she got closer, Luz made out that Amity’s face was bright red. Emira was nudging her with her elbow, and Edric grinned at her cheekily, and Luz wondered if she should just turn around and come back later. But then Amity’s gaze shifted towards Luz and the pair made eye contact, and her blush faded into a scowl.

“Oh, it’s you,” she scoffed, and Luz winced.

“Hey, Amity…” she tried.

“What do you want?” She asked, clearly not interested in humoring their conversation. “Haven’t you done enough to make me look like an idiot?”

“Quit being mean to your friends, mittens,” Edric said, and Amity’s scowl deepened.

“She’s not my friend.”

With that, she turned heel and stormed away, and Edric and Emira laughed to themselves, which made Luz furrow her brow.

“What’s so funny?” She asked them, and Emira cocked an eyebrow.

“The fact that mittens got played today, cutie,” she said, and Luz couldn’t help the embarrassed blush that formed on her cheeks. “She’s the camp's pride and joy, and she just got outsmarted and outmatched by the new girl and her team of underdogs.”

Luz wasn’t sure if she should be offended or not. The twins didn’t give her a chance to decide.

“It’s always fun getting mittens hot under the collar,” Edric added with a sly smile. “Like telling her exactly where you were so she’d ditch the flag and run after you instead.”

“You guys were the ones who told her where we were?” Luz asked in shock. “But you sabotaged your own team and lost!”

“We don’t consider knocking mittens down a peg a loss,” Emira shrugged. “Besides, you’ve seen how she acts. Somebody had to do it.”

It looks like Luz hadn’t been the only half-blood played by the Blight twins.

Luz shuffled her feet guiltily. She needed to talk to Amity. “Look, you guys are cool and all-”

“Mhmm,” The twins nodded together.

“But I need to find mittens, I mean… Amity.”

“Alright, but you’re way too fun for her,” Emira said with a grin, shooting her a wink. Luz definitely needed to go before her face got any redder than it already was.

She broke off in the direction Amity left in, keeping an eye out for green hair. She walked around the back of the pavilion and paused when she caught sight of Amity. She was sitting against one of the columns in the dark, out of sight and away from the rest of the campers. Her knees were tucked into her chest as she sat on the floor, her head pressed against them with her eyes screwed shut. Luz realized that she was on the verge of tears.

She walked towards her slowly and uncertainly. “Amity… I’m sorry.”

Amity looks up at her and her eyes narrow as she scoffs. “Seriously? Just leave me alone.”

“I didn’t mean to embarrass you,” Luz pleaded, and Amity turns and glares at her, but Luz thinks it’s more out of sadness than anger now.

“Well, that’s all you’ve done! First in front of Eda, and now this?” Luz opens her mouth to try and defend herself, but then Amity gets to her feet and strides towards her.

“You made me look like a fool in front of the whole camp!” Amity cries out, and Luz is taken aback by how her voice cracks with hurt. “You think it’s so easy to be a half-blood, but I have been working my whole life to get to the top.”

Luz is realizing now that this goes much deeper than just a fun game of capture the flag. She is speechless when Amity points an accusing finger in her face, her voice rising desperately. “You lost. I had you completely disarmed and you tricked me. You cheated! Say it! Say that you didn’t really win!”

Luz’s shoulder drop and she says to Amity what she’s been thinking since the game ended.

“I didn’t really win.”

Amity doesn’t really know what to say at that, and her expression drops immediately. Luz turns and slides down the column into a sit. Luz reaches into her pocket and pulls out the hand buzzer, showing it to her. Amity slowly sits down next to her and looks.

“Eda gave me this after we saw you in the arena yesterday. I knew I was going to lose after I saw you with your sword. You’re the better camper. But I tried really hard to learn.”

Amity is now looking at the buzzer with a guarded expression like she isn’t sure what to think of it. “It’s enchanted with condensed lightning, I knew the second it touched me.”

“Eda is a daughter of Zeus…” Luz mused, pursing her lips. She turned her head to look Amity in the eyes.

“I’m sorry. This whole half-blood thing isn’t coming naturally to me like it does for you. I’ve had to improvise a little bit.”

Amity’s gold eyes blink into hers before she sighs. “Maybe you aren’t a cheater,” she drops her gaze to the floor awkwardly. “I haven’t exactly been the friendliest camper around. I’ll think on that.”

Luz feels a little smile begin to prick on her cheeks, and she thinks that maybe she had Amity pegged wrong. Maybe she’s not a bully after all.

Suddenly, a scream echoes from the pavilion, making Luz’s blood run cold. It’s followed by another, and then another. Luz and Amity both shoot to their feet, their expressions darting to one another in alarm.

“What is that?” Luz asks, and Amity’s eyes just widen in fear before she draws her sword and races around the column towards the party. Luz swallows and touches her ring, and then she’s holding her knife in her hand and following after her.

When they race into the pavilion, Luz’s heart drops. Campers, nymphs, and satyrs scatter everywhere as a dozen of what looks like literal skeleton soldiers have drawn bronze swords and slash through tables, aiming for any living bodies they can. They are almost nothing but bones, wearing bronze armor and hissing angrily. They all speak together at once, and the words send chills right down Luz’s spine.

“Children of the gods will pick their side,” they say, over and over again like on a rhythm. “The fires of Olympus will finally die.”

Luz sees Eda and Lilith standing protectively around a group of unarmed campers, slashing their swords valiantly at six of the twelve approaching skeletons while King growls angrily at their feet. Lilith swings expertly, hitting two of them in one go as they dissolve. Eda raises her sword to the sky, and the air stinks like ozone before pointing her sword at one, and a thunderbolt streaks across the blade and smacks it right in the chest, disintegrating it. Luz knows she isn’t needed there. The daughters of Zeus have it under control.

Amity has made a running leap towards her siblings who are face to face with two skeletons. She slashes down through the back of one, and her siblings each make a swing with their own swords, so Luz thinks they’ll probably be okay for now.

Luz scans the clearing desperately for Gus and Willow. She hears them before she sees them. Gus thrust his spear through one skeleton as Willow stands in front of Viney, protecting her from two others. The head of the Hermes cabin has collapsed onto the floor, clutching her arm. Luz’s protective instinct kicks into overdrive at the sight, and she roars in anger, charging towards one skeleton and slashing with her knife, dissolving it into dust as Willow’s sword makes short work of the other one.

Luz scans around the clearing and realizes that all of the skeletons have been disintegrated. Eda and Lilith quickly try to rally the scattered campers, and Willow, Gus, and Luz lean down to Viney in worry.

Luz almost blacks out at the sight. She has a deep slash down her arm from a bronze sword, and blood is running down her arm and soaking the ground and the shirt.

“Owwww,” she groans quietly, gritting her teeth. Luz thinks this is definitely not just an “Ow” situation.“What do we do?” Luz yelps in alarm, but Willow is already on it. She has turned to the Apollo campers, most of who are slowly starting to file back into the pavilion after scattering.

“Medic! We have an injured camper!” She yells, and the girl Luz had met earlier, Bo, heads over urgently and drops to her knees, pulling a first aid kit from her belt.

Gus pulls Luz away from Viney. “She’ll be okay, Apollo is also the god of medicine. We need to listen to Eda and Lilith.”

Luz gulps, looking at Viney to make sure she’s ok. The girl smiles feebly at her and gives her a shaky thumbs-up, so Luz does what she’s told and heads over to the circle of gathering campers.

She stands with Willow and Gus in the crowd, and most of the campers have returned to the pavilion post skeleton attack. The other campers who didn’t attend the party have also come when they heard the ruckus, so Boscha and the Ares cabin are there too, with Skara and some of the other Apollo kids right behind them.

Luz sees Amity and her siblings in the crowd too, and Amity is being fussed over by Emira, which she is not having. She pushes her away, wiping at her face. Luz realizes there is a cut on her cheek, which she must have gotten when she ran to help her siblings.

Eda and Lilith stand on a table so everyone can hear them, with King prowling anxiously at their heels. Eda is trying to whistle to get the crowds attention, while Lilith is chatting lowly to the boy who sits at the Head table with them and King. Barcus, the camp’s human oracle. The camp is quiet very quickly, all of them nervously glancing around like at any moment more skeletons might show up.

“Everybody, please calm down.” Lilith eventually says as she pulls away from Barcus to address the crowd. “I know all of you are scared, but everything is going to be fine.”

“How did those skeletons get through the camp’s magic?” One camper called from the crowd, and Luz’s brow furrowed. She’d forgotten the camp had enchanted barriers to protect them and was wondering the same thing. From what Willow described, they were almost impossible to penetrate.

“There are some ways to bypass the camp's magical borders,” Eda answers with a frown, her gold eyes scanning through the crowd. “Somebody inside camp could have summoned them, or an immortal being could have given them our location. That is not what is important. What we need to focus on right now is the call for a quest.”

There was a ripple of whispers at that, as campers eyed one another nervously. Luz isn’t sure what the problem is.

“What’s the big deal?” Luz whispers to Willow, who is worrying her lip. “Quests sound kind of cool.”

“A quest is only given to campers when something serious is happening in our world, or when a god requests one. They’re very rare and very dangerous,” she whispers back. “Only the strongest half-bloods are nominated for one.”

“There is something we have been keeping from you all.” Eda continues, and Lilith seems to pass her an annoyed look, but Eda just continues. “Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, is missing. She was kidnapped from Olympus earlier this week. The gods did not want us to take action until we were given a sign that it was the right time to proceed.”

There is a loud commotion at that. Luz blinks and turns to her friends with her mouth dropped open. “Hestia has been kidnapped? Like… the goddess of the hearth? How is it even possible to kidnap a goddess?”

“It’s happened before in stories,” Gus says offhandedly, fidgeting nervously with his hands. “Hephaestus caught Aphrodite and Ares a couple of times. It’s very difficult though.”

Eda purses her lip at the commotion and then glances over at Viney, who is being treated at one of the tables. She stamps her foot loudly to keep the attention of the crowd. “Now is as good a sign as any that we must have a quest. Barcus is willing to give a prophecy to one nominee, who will be tasked with finding Hestia and returning her safely to Olympus.”

There was another shout of noises as names began to be called into the air. One of the campers shouted, “why don’t you and Lilith go? You’re the daughters of Zeus, and you have plenty of experience.”

Eda and Lilith shared a look before Lilith shook her head. “We must stay here, in case we need to protect Camp Half-Blood from another attack. Someone else must go.”

Luz wasn’t sure who said it first, but then, from around the clearing loud and clear rang out: “I think it should be Amity.”

Once it was said once, the whole camp seemed to be in agreeance.

“Yeah, Amity is one of our most experienced campers!”“She’s one of the best swordfighters I’ve seen…”

“And she’s tough, she’d be able to carry through with it.”

A smile split Luz’s face when she realized what was happening. Amity’s hard work was finally paying off like she’d confessed to earlier. The camp really did see her as the best of the best. Luz turned to find her in the crowd, and when her eyes locked on Amity, her expression made her do a double-take. Amity didn’t look excited, or proud. She looked terrified.

“Why isn’t she happy?” Luz asked with a frown.

“Don’t be too hard on her,” Willow muttered, and Luz was surprised by how sympathetic she looked. From what Luz thought, Willow and Amity’s relationship wasn’t that great. “Being nominated is a hard job.”

Amity eventually took a breath and steeled her expression, moving forward to stand next to Eda and Lilith. Lilith looked at her slowly and then cleared her throat.

“Amity Blight, do you accept this quest?”

“I do,” Amity said, wiping any previous nervousness off of her face.

Barcus slowly stepped forward and shifted the glasses on his face. “Amity, if it’s alright I’d like to give you the prophecy somewhere quieter. It’ll just be for a moment.” Luz had never heard Barcus speak before, but it was a lot huskier than she’d thought it would be.

Luz watched Amity swallow, before nodding her head. The pair slowly made their way behind the pavilion and out of sight.“As per rules of the quest, the nominee may choose two other campers to accompany them on their journey.” Eda continued, shifting the sword in her hand back into Owlbert. The little owl cooed and perched itself on her shoulder. “When Amity returns, she may choose her companions.”

“Gee, I wonder who it’ll be,” Gus mumbles sarcastically, and Luz thinks he makes a good point. Boscha and Skara have already pushed their way to the front, and the campers parted, knowing who Amity would choose.

When Amity and Barcus make their way back to stand next to Eda and Lilith, the crowd seems to be holding their breath. Luz examines Amity as she approaches. At first, she assumes Amity is just being serious due to the situation, but as she looks closer she notices her shoulders twitch, and her gold eyes betray her. Luz would know that look anywhere. Whatever she’s just heard has terrified her.

She doesn’t even wait before speaking. “I choose Boscha and Skara as my companions.”

The two other campers step forward quickly, each taking place at Amity’s side. Luz, like the rest of the camp, figured this might happen, so it’s not surprising. What does confuse Luz though, is that when they stand next to her Amity isn’t looking at them. Instead, she turns looks directly at Luz. They make eye contact, and then Amity quickly turns away. Luz feels the breath leave her body, but she’s forced to turn her head back to look at Eda.

“Amity, Boscha, and Skara,” she says, sizing them up with her eyes. “You will leave tomorrow at dawn to go and find Hestia and return her to Olympus.”

“We won’t fail,” Amity promises, and now that Luz has seen what Amity is actually feeling, she wonders how she says those words with so much confidence. She wonders if Aphrodite’s kids have similar public speaking skills to the Hermes campers.

While three nominees head out of the pavilion with Lilith to discuss their plans for their journey, the rest of the campers are instructed by Eda to help clean up the mess. Luz’s muscles are aching from the game of Capture the Flag, and even more so after fighting the skeletons, but cleaning helps keep her mind off of everything that’s just happened. Besides, she gets to work with Gus and Willow, which is always a bonus.

Eda dismisses the three of them in particular after they almost collapse in exhaustion from lifting one of the broken columns back into the air, holding it in place so a camper from Cabin Nine can use their enchanted blowtorch to put it back together. Luz trudges alone back to the Hermes cabin, and when she pushes open the door she hopes to see Viney back in the bunk. But it’s just Jerbo sitting there alone on the bunk below hers. All her other siblings must still be cleaning up.

“Where’s Viney?” Luz asks worriedly, “I thought you helped carry her to the infirmary?”

“They want her to stay overnight for monitoring,” he says, the exhaustion heavy in his voice. “She’s probably going to be okay though.”

This doesn’t calm Luz down, but she supposes there’s nothing she can really do. The anxiety from today weighs heavy in her belly, so she goes into her chest and grabs her new pj’s and her phone, and she gets ready for bed before hiding the phone in the waistband of her shorts before climbing into her bunk.

She knows she isn’t allowed to have one, so she waits until Jerbo is snoring lightly below her before she opens it up and texts her Mami. After the chaos of today, she still has so many unanswered questions, some of them nobody can answer but her.

Hola, Mami. Eda is letting me use my phone to text you and tell you about today. We played capture the flag and my dad claimed me. I guess you already knew this, but he’s Hermes. He passed along some abilities to me I didn’t even know I had. Did you know I am a really good public speaker? I was able to get my friends to push themselves a little harder today and we ended up winning the game. It sucks it couldn’t come in handy all those times I got in trouble at school. Maybe if I’d known I could have talked my way out of those messes.

She hits send on the first paragraph and worries her bottom lip between her teeth. There are so many other things too, but she doesn’t want to scare her Mami or make her think she shouldn’t have let Luz stay here.

My friend, well, I guess she isn’t really a friend. More like a rival I guess. She got assigned a quest today. She’s going to find a missing goddess and save Olympus. Despite how crazy that all sounds, I’ve never been happier than when I’m at Camp Half-Blood. I think I finally found my kind of people like you always wanted me to do. But I still really miss you. Maybe I’ll ask Eda if I can call you soon. Buenas noches, Mami.

She tucks the phone under her pillow, and before she knows it exhaustion takes over her and she falls asleep.

The dreams come for the second time. This time though, she isn’t at school. She’s somewhere warm, and there is a cool summer breeze blowing in the distance. She feels the rocky ground beneath her feet, and the air is crisp like she’s up high.

Then there’s the laugh again, and the same feeling of the sword poking against her back as the last one. She holds up her hands in surrender.

“Your friends are scared, little hero.” He whispers into her ear, and Luz swallows, trying not to make a sound. She looks up at the sky and realizes she can see the peak of a mountain, the top of it covered in a sheet of white snow.

“The gods were cruel to me, too. They ruined me, made me obsessed with earning their honor and glory. And what did it get me? You are their pawn, just as I was.” The breathing gets closer to her ear, and Luz squeezes her eye shut, willing this to end.

“Think to yourself, what will their glory get you, little hero?”

She shoots awake wildly from the nightmare, panting and drenched in sweat.

#the owl house #Percy Jackson AU #lumity #luz x amity #slow burn #shelby speaks

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goldenglitzer · 4 years

Text

Roots of the Isles

Chapter 1: The One Where Willow Accepts

~ Storm. Thunder sounded around her, and lightning illuminated the sky, giving her surroundings a greenish glow. Before her, an impossibly high cliff -- no, a leg. The leg connected to a charcoal body, towering past the clouds, and somewhere up there, glowing green eyes looked down upon her. And she felt anger, her fury rising and rising and rising- ~

Willow generally considered herself to be an observant person. Whether this stemmed from a caring nature or an analytic ability, she wasn’t sure. What she did know was that she noticed things that the average person wouldn’t, such as how Luz simultaneously tensed up with nervousness and filled with energy when meeting new people, how Gus would hum a pop song under his breath while he was working on a new spell, or how some of the Beast Keeping students’ hoods shifted whenever they were trying to smuggle the cuter animals of the Bestiary out.

Lately, she was noticing how Amity wasn’t being as mean to her anymore.

At first, Willow had attributed it to a lack of contact. After all, with Willow being placed in the Plant track, she didn’t have any classes with Amity anymore (and good riddance, in her opinion). The only times they ever saw each other were passing in the halls, or occasionally encountering each other in town (usually with the popular girls surrounding her at all sides, sometimes even making biting remarks towards Willow).

However, starting after the most recent Covention, Willow noticed that even the existing contact had started to lose it’s hostility. Amity’s glares at her whenever they crossed paths in school began to lose their usual anger, until it was entirely gone (and was then replaced by something resembling sadness? Willow didn’t like to think about that too much). As much as Willow nearly lost it when Amity made the remark towards her while prepping for the Moonlight Conjuring, she had to admit that a secondary purpose of it was to get her posse away from Willow (even if she would have much preferred Amity simply say nothing). And even those sorts of situations had started to disappear, as, after a certain point, Willow saw Amity in town with her friends less, and more with older green-haired individuals that she assumed were her siblings (she vaguely remembers seeing them with Gus sometimes).

And when Amity gives her the slightest of nods as they pass each other in Hexide’s hallways, it takes all of Willow’s self-control to keep her from looking back to see if Amity had suffered a traumatic head injury.

So there it is; while Amity might not necessarily be trying to be nicer, she is certainly trying to be less mean towards Willow. Change that Willow had never expected in a million years, all happening over the span of a few weeks. And Willow only knew one force of chaos and change strong enough to cause this.

In retrospect, she should’ve known that Luz was somehow involved with Amity. It was clear that there was more going on at the Covention between the two than simple opposition and rivalry, even if Luz never talked much about what happened after she followed Amity offstage (Unfortunately, Willow’s was too distracted by the incredibly awesome witches duel between their mentors to follow Luz.) and on the rare occasion that Amity was brought up in conversation, Luz was almost imperceptibly withdrawn and nervous. It only requires Willow to put two and two together, and she has a rough idea of what’s been happening.

And her first reaction is rage. After all, this is a betrayal, isn’t it? One of her best friends, hanging out with her worst enemy (although, a traitorous part of her mind reminds her, that wasn’t always the case). And the possibility that Luz could do the same thing Amity did, leave her behind, and maybe even rub it in her face, fills her with primal anger. She lets the rage fester in her body throughout the school day, feeling it coil and spread as magical power just under the surface of her skin, before storming out of Hexide and immediately into the woods.

And she unleashes it all. She almost feels the rage explode out of her, tendrils of her wrath becoming actual vines and roots that lash out at anything within the relative vicinity. She doesn’t care much; nobody’s around, and right now she wants to rampage, to tear the world apart because how dare it. She feels her consciousness slip, and falls back into the world in her dreams, the primordial green glow and the towering titan and the eyes and the fury-

She snaps back to her senses and almost immediately feels guilt. While she’s certain there are trained witches out there that could cause more destruction, she’s created a small wasteland in under a minute, with broken trees strewn across the ground and caught up in a mess of thorny vines. Had any creature or person been in the vicinity, they would've been killed, and the thought of that makes Willow sick to her stomach. She hopes she’ll never have to use her magic for that purpose.

As Willow tries to repair some of the damage she caused (the area is healthier by the end of it, but it’s not really the same as before), she reasons out her revelation. Yes, there’s still anger there, and a bit of insecurity (only a smidge, she tells herself), but she’s not as overwhelmingly wrathful as before. She knows that Luz isn’t really like any of them; she’s a dreamer, passion and energy incarnate that has arrived in a new world and is determined to make it work for her. She likes to see the best in others, and it’s not unreasonable to think that she’s found some qualities in Amity that she’s found redeeming (what those could possibly be, Willow has no clue). Willow also knows that Luz cares deeply about her too, and as such, it’s unlikely that she would simply abandon her like that (despite what certain parts of her mind keep thinking).

Ultimately, Willow is confused, and decides that the only way she’s going to figure it out is to get the truth out of Luz. Once home, she sends a letter to Luz, asking her to meet in the marketplace tomorrow, finishes her schoolwork, and tucks in for another day. The same dream as the last few nights happens again, and Willow begins to wonder if this is going to be a thing for a while. The next day, school is fairly uneventful, although Principal Bump does pull her aside at the beginning. Apparently having become aware of her outburst, he lets her off with a light scolding, but he does say he will be talking to her later, which leaves Willow slightly scared and intrigued.

When she and Gus pass Amity in the hallways, Amity offers her a subtle nod again. Willow does not grant her a response, and when Gus turns to her and asks “What was that about?” she simply shrugs (it’s nice to know that he noticed too, though).

Finally, school is out and, after bidding Gus goodbye (they would be practicing combo spells later in the day, of course), she heads to the marketplace. Soon enough, Luz arrives there, shouting out her usual energetic greetings with the world’s brightest smile on her face (later, when Willow learns that Luz’s first name means “light” in the human language of Spanish, she can’t say she’s entirely surprised). Still, Willow came here for a purpose, and she interrupts Luz’s happy march towards her with a simple “We need to talk.”

“Oh! Um, okay!” Luz manages to get out, and Willow can tell that, behind the bubbly exterior, there is a hint of panic in her eyes (perhaps she’s been expecting this conversation, Willow muses).

“You and Amity have been hanging out together.”

And there was the full panic.

Luz fumbles with her answer, uttering a series of “ums” and “errs” and “wells”. Willow adores Luz, and finds that she has so many traits that make her a good friend and a great person; however, Willow knows that, when Luz is introduced to an uncomfortable situation that she isn’t used to, she can be dishonest in an attempt to please the people around her. Willow hopes to Belos that she isn’t this time.

With a hallowed breath, Luz admits “Yes, I have.” Confirmation. For some reason, it doesn’t mean as much to Willow as she thought it would. “I didn’t mean to, though! We just kept bumping into each other, and running into danger together, and I kept learning things about her, and-” she pauses, with a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry, Willow. I saw how she’s treated you, and that isn’t right. It wasn’t right of me to betray your trust either. I can stop talking with her, if you want. Or if it’s too much already, you don’t have to be friends with me anymore.”

It hadn’t occurred to Willow that those were options, but now that she thought about it, she was within her rights to decide on at least the last one (and the first one was still understandable, if also very unethical), and from Luz’s body language and the way she had offered the choices, she would genuinely swear to both. However, she could also tell that Luz’s heart would absolutely shatter if Willow accepted either of those options, and when she tried to visualize herself accepting them, all she could think of was the cold fall day when she realized her and Amity were no longer friends. She knew that pain. Did she want Luz to know that pain too?

“No,” she decides. “You haven’t betrayed me, Luz.” She sees Luz visibly untense, and almost feels an aura of gratitude radiating off of her. “I’m just curious about it.”

She’s able to get Luz to talk about her various encounters with Amity, the most significant of which involving life-or-death situations. While at this point Willow has accepted that Luz was cursed to have danger follow her almost anywhere, she was still fairly certain her bubbly friend was going to give her grey hairs by the time she was twenty. She listened as Luz told her about Amity’s more hidden traits; her volunteer work at the Library, her love of the Azura series (Willow always considered the books a bit too unrealistic for her tastes), her older siblings who kinda bullied her (but also don’t, sometimes. “It’s complicated,” Luz says, and Willow lets it be at that for now), and even her bravery when protecting Luz or rescuing her siblings. It occurs to Willow that she never really noticed many of these things about Amity, even before they drifted apart. It somewhat disturbed Willow to consider that, while she knew Amity for almost her whole life, she didn’t “know” her.

“And yeah, now we’re setting up a Secret Azura Book Club together, and we’re going to have our first meetings once the next semester begins!” Luz declares, and Willow can tell from the far-away look on her face and her subtle blush that Luz’s draw towards Amity isn’t exactly the desire for platonic friendship. But that’s a whole other can of worms to get into that Willow barely understands as is, so she doesn’t make a comment. Yet.

Besides, Willow has one more question to ask. “So, did you say anything to her about treating me better?”

Luz’s eyebrows twitch up a bit in surprise. “No, I haven’t. I should totally do that though! It’s been a conversation I’ve been avoiding since, y’know, awkward horrible history and all that, but I know it’s something we can’t avoid-”

“No, don’t.” Willow cuts in. While there’s not a lot that she knows for sure right now, she does know that she’s not ready for that conversation. “I’ve just been… noticing some things.”

Willow then proceeds to describe to Luz what she’s noticed of Amity’s recent behavior. Luz’s eyes practically glow with something akin to pride when she hears that the insults have stopped and Amity has acknowledged Willow’s presence in a non-antagonistic way, but she ultimately says “I know that, when I first got here, I expected things to be very simple, and for transformations to be very easy. I was wrong on both fronts.” Luz pauses to chuckle and sigh to herself, and then continues “I guess, just take it at your own pace. I’m glad Amity’s improving, but no one’s saying you have to make any sort of decision about this.”

From there, the conversation switches back to more comfortable topics, as Willow talks about school and her improvement with Gus, and Luz talks about some of her (mis)adventures with Eda and King (from which Willow gathers two things: that she should be worried about Boscha potentially targeting Luz, and that Luz knows a lot about the writing process). Luz even shows off her new ice glyph, which Willow finds very cool, pun totally intended. Once it’s time to depart, Willow gives Luz an extra warm hug and assures her that she is indeed a good friend, and then she heads off to train with Gus.

Inevitably, Willow’s mind is drawn back to the subject of Amity. Was she willing to admit that the green-haired-witch wasn’t a nightmare-spawn of evil? Maybe. Was she willing to admit that Amity was improving? Yes. Was she ready to forgive her?

...No. There was too much to sort through right now, too many bad memories and good (lukewarm? Willow was still unsure) revelations, too much confusion and hurt and fury-

So yeah, things were still confusing in the Mysterious Case of Amity Blight, and Willow had a feeling that answers weren’t going to come easily (especially with whatever has been going on with her dreams). But still, if Amity was willing to work on turning herself around, then Willow was willing to keep thinking about this too.

And the next time she and Amity encountered each other in the hallway, and Amity nodded to her again (the nods were getting less and less subtle, as if Amity was getting more and more comfortable with the idea of giving them), Willow graced her with a subtle nod of her own.

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Check it out on my ao3 for more info!

#toh #the owl house #willow #luz noceda #amity blight #gus #willow character study #lumity #but is very light rn #it'll appear more later #same as gus

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thegoodgayshit · 4 years

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Chapter Nine: I Kill the National Bird for a Flower Crown

Luz thought Antheia’s flower shop was lovely. It reminded her of those cottages her Mami had always wanted to buy in Vermont. The walls were made of stone and wood planks, all the décor was set in earthy neutrals, and there was a roaring fire stirring some kind of delicious stew.

Luz and her friends were instructed delicately by Antheia to sit in her living room on the soft plush couches. It was behind the cash register and check out, which Luz thought was an odd layout but knew better than to comment on it. Antheia waved her hand around the coffee table and a cup of tea and a tray of cookies appeared out of thin air. Once Luz got over her shock, she helped herself to them eagerly. The tea was perfect: and it was chamomile just like Antheia had said she’d needed. Antheia sat with them, watching them eat and drink with that same easy-going smile on her face.

The place was covered with flowers from head to toe. Some of them Luz recognized, like the pansies in the open window or the tulips (she was pretty sure it wasn’t tulip season) in the hanging basket in the living room. But there were other flowers she had never seen before, and quite frankly, she would have noticed if they did exist. There was an array of what looked like gold roses, a bucket of bronze hawthoria, and on the windowsill… it looked like a group of silver sprouts.

“Is that moonlace?” Willow awed, peeking over Luz’s shoulder for a better look.

Antheia smiled at Willow. “Always nice to meet a demigod with an interest in the beauty of flowers. Yes, before Ogygia was abandoned I went there myself to bring a few samples of moonlace back here. It’s incredibly rare.”

“It’s incredibly beautiful…” Willow sighed, clasping her hands together.

“Are you a child of Aphrodite, dear?” She asked Willow, who shook her head.

“Demeter.”

“Ah, just as lovely,” Antheia said eagerly. “Her children have always been fond of my gifts.”

“This is a lovely shop, my lady,” Gus started, but Antheia tisked gently and waved her hand.

“No need for formalities, Augustus. I am in your debt. You are here to do me a great service.”

Luz looked at Willow and Gus uncertainly, and Gus seemed taken aback. He gently set his tea down on the table.

“Pardon me, Antheia,” he said slowly, “what do you mean by a ‘great service’?”

The goddess looked momentarily taken aback before the smile quickly returned to her face. “Oh, of course, you wouldn’t have been told the full details, after all, I only heard this morning that you would be coming, so there was always a chance you were too preoccupied to put the pieces together.”

Luz looked at her friends again, but before she could open her mouth to comment that perhaps Antheia was mistaken, she had kept going.“My lady always did put her faith in the best kind of demigods, you know. After all, this problem has been going on for so long, and without my sisters to help me, I fear I would be too outmatched on my own.”

Luz was a little dense, but she realized what was happening the moment Antheia spun her hand and her cup of tea refilled.

“Aphrodite offered out services in exchange for the ride,” she said, and Antheia placed a gentle hand on Luz’s shoulders. The gesture immediately filled her with a feeling of warmth she hadn’t felt in so long. Her Mami’s trust, the love of her new friendships at camp, the home she now came to love. There was something else there too, but she couldn’t quite place it. The gesture immediately put her at ease, and she sunk into the couch cushions.

“You need not feign surprise to appease me, child.” She said soothingly, and Luz’s ear tickled as she spoke into it. “I am one of the Graces, an attendant to the goddess of love. I stand for the love and growth of humanity, both flowers and human love itself. I know that a group of kind and compassionate adventurers like yourselves would help me regardless of if you owe my lady. My lady knows this too, or she would not have answered the prayers of her children.”

Luz knew that she and her friends were on a tight schedule, and Antheia knew that too, because now she turned to Gus and Willow, placing a hand on each of their shoulders. Like Luz, they seemed to lean right into the touch, enamored.

“I know you are heroes on a noble quest. Lady Hestia is the fire of Olympus, and without her everything, we know dear will crumble. But my lady has bought you some time, so surely one side stop on your way won’t be too troublesome? In exchange, I will give you something to help with your adventure.”

Luz didn’t like the sound of everything she knew crumbling, but when she looked and her friends she knew their hands were tied. This was the deal the Blight twins had made with their mother, whether they had known it at the time or not. Luz and her friends would have to deal with the consequences.“Alright,” she said, though it wasn’t as confident as she would have liked it to be. “What can we do for you, Lady Antheia?”

She walked to the window, and Luz and her friends hesitantly looked up out it.

“I have stationed myself here, in Mt. Airy Forest,” she said, gesturing to the deep wood. “It is peaceful, but it is not without its pests. I cannot leave my cabin for long as long as the eagle roams the forest.”

“You want us to kill an eagle?” Luz blinked, shuffling nervously. “I’m pretty sure that’s against the law.”

“This is no ordinary eagle,” Antheia said seriously. “This eagle has plagued legends for centuries, and my sisters and I fear it deeply. I would like them to come to visit, but they will not unless this beast is destroyed.”

“The Caucasian Eagle,” Gus said, and Luz spun around to look at him. His voice had risen in pitch, and he looked very nervous. “But it hasn’t been seen in thousands of years!”

“It has returned, and I fear why,” Antheia confirmed. “It was not by the will of Zeus, and therefore it must be destroyed.”

“You want us to kill a white eagle?” Now Luz was really confused.

Willow nudged her shoulder seriously, and Luz quieted. Antheia opened the door for them, and the three demigods headed towards it, drawing their weapons. Aletheia shifted into its sword form, shimmering in the light of the shop.

“The eagle is likely up now, if you destroy it soon, you will be on your way long before the evening hits. If you return, I will have a reward ready for your great service.”

She all but slammed the door behind the three half-bloods, and now that Luz wasn’t all doved up with love magic, she scowled.

“I’m going to kill Edric and Emira when we get back.”

“If the eagle doesn’t tear us to shreds first,” Willow said slowly, gripping her sword tightly.

“It’s not going to be an easy kill,” Gus said quietly, fiddling with his spear. “The Caucasian Eagle was the one sent by Zeus to torture Prometheus. Hercules killed it with a volley of arrows. We’re short on those, so we’ll have to find some other way to get it to come close to us.”

The three of them paced around the forest outside the flower shop, keeping their eyes open for an eagle. But it was quiet on the forest floor, and after almost twenty-minute had passed, Luz was about ready to give up.

“I don’t see this stupid bird anywhere!” Luz groaned, lying down on the grass.

“Luz, be ready,” Gus hissed, looking around nervously. “We don’t know when it’s going to show itself.”

“Well, it hasn’t yet,” Luz shrugged. “Are we sure it’s even around here?”A deafening screech quieted her immediately, and Luz shot up, clenching her sword in her hand in terror. Out of the trees shot a massive bronze eagle, easily with a wingspan of at least ten feet wide. It came soaring down towards Luz, and out of pure instinct she swung, and the bird shrieked, spinning back up towards the sky.

“Holy Zeus that’s a big bird!” Gus yelped, and he reached over to his watch and clicked it. Out expanded a bronze shield almost identical to the one he’d used during capture the flag. When the bird came rearing back towards him with its massive talons, he deflected them off his shield and Willow stabbed with her sword, and the beast spun, narrowly dodging.

“What do we do?” Willow yelled, and Luz ran to regroup with her friends. The bird soared above them, cawing in fury, and Luz quickly began to feel overwhelmed. It could easily carry off one of them in its talons, and they were sharp enough to cut one of them open right there.

“We need to damage its wings so it can’t fly!” Gus said, just before the beast lunged again. Luz rolled right, slashing up with her sword towards it right as its talons snatched right where she had just been standing. She yelped in pain as the edge of one talon scrapped over her shoulder as she rolled, drawing blood. Once again, the bird managed to dodge both Gus’s stab and Willow’s slash, soaring back into the sky.

They tried, but every time the bird lunged, it would spin and dodge their strikes to its wings. Over and over again, the bird would dive, and they would barely manage to clip feathers. Gus kept insisting they had to hit the wings, but there was no way to do it with the bird getting the height on them. It was starting to feel hopeless.

Then, on one tough lunge, the talon had managed to scrape by Willow’s leg, and knock her off her feet. Willow cried out in pain, holding her leg as it bled profusely, and Luz and Gus slashed angrily to get the eagle away as it soared back into the sky.

They ran to Willow, trying to give her cover. She was trembling next to Gus, clearly trying hard not to cry. The slash was long and deep, and Luz knew just by looking at it she would need stitches.

The bird was circling again, waiting to try and pick them off one by one. Luz felt her despair quickly turn to rage. It might have been the pain in her shoulder or the overall frustration with the way their mission had gotten sidetracked, but Luz was getting angry, and when she got angry, she got loud.

“Hey, you stupid bird brain!” She yelled, putting a little distance between herself and Willow. “Over here!”

The eagle cawed angrily, and suddenly, Luz had a plan. She turned her body so she was facing Gus, and waved her sword up at the bird.

“Come and get me!”

“Luz, what are you doing?” Gus hissed, clutching his spear uncertainly.“Trust me!” She just said, pointing her sword back up at the bird.

The eagle spun in the air, it’s sharp eyes pointing toward her furiously. It tucked back its wings, ready to dive.

“Get ready!” She yelled to Gus, and right as the bird was about to make contact with her, she screamed, “Now!”

There was a clang and a crash as the talons of the bird connected against Luz’s sword, and she pushed desperately to keep the bird steady. Then, the bird screamed, rearing back in agony as Gus stabbed right into its back with his spear, and it let go of Luz’s sword in an effort the fly away. But Luz was quicker, and she lunged, cutting right across the bird’s neck with Aletheia, and the bird quieted, dissolving into dust around her feet.

Luz collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily. Gus stumbled backward and sheathed his spear, walking over to Luz and helping her up. Luz winced, remembering the pain in her shoulder, but a cry from behind Gus quickly halted all her own pain at that moment.

“Willow!”

Luz and Gus kneeled around their injured friend, who was clutching her leg. When she looked up at their faces, she feigned a confident smile. “I’ll be fine, it’s not even broken…”

“Willow this is a deep cut,” Luz said seriously. She knew that her Mami would recommend a hospital. It was deep and still bleeding, and Willow’s hands were now covered in blood.

“It’s nothing nectar can’t fix,” Willow said certainly, and Gus walked around and reached into her backpack and pulled out a canteen from it, uncapping it and pouring some of the contents over the wound.

Luz had no idea what they were talking about and definitely didn’t think Gus should be putting that much water on an open wound. “Gus what are you-”

She closed her mouth at Willow’s happy sigh and watched in amazement as the wound began to close until all that remained was a white scar.

“Nectar,” Gus said to Luz with a smile, letting Willow drink a little from the canteen. She immediately perked up and stood, brushing the dirt off her pants. “Drink of the gods. It cures the wounds and illnesses of demigod’s but you can’t have too much or you’ll burn up.”

Luz didn’t like the sound of that, but Gus didn’t give her a choice. He walked over and poured some over the wound on her shoulder, and Luz felt a warmth flow through her body before he let her drink some. It tasted just like her Mami’s Sopa de Lima, which was strange since it looked just like apple juice.

All at once, Luz’s strength returned, and sure enough, when she looked the wound on her shoulder had disappeared. There wasn’t a scar left behind or anything. Even the scar from her game of capture the flag had disappeared.

“Lighter wounds tend to vanish a lot faster,” Willow explained.

Gus closed the canteen and walked over to the remaining pile of eagle dust. Left behind was a pile of bronze feathers, and Gus scoped them up.

“One for each of us. Plus, we can give one to Antheia as proof of our kill.”

Each of them took a bronze feather, and Luz put hers carefully in her backpack, excited to add it to her slowly growing collection of war spoils.

The three of them headed back to the flower shop in much better spirits than when they left. Nobody had gotten hurt, and they still had plenty of time to get on a train or bus west.

“Mt. Airy is just outside Cincinnati,” Gus said with an excited smile. “We’ll be able to find a way west with no problems at all.”

“I don’t know, we’re pretty deep in the Midwest…” Willow said with a frown. “There won’t be many trains.”

“Whatever we have to do, we’ll make it work!” Luz said with a smile. “We just killed the white eagle-”

“Caucasian Eagle,” Gus corrected.

“Caucasian Eagle!” Luz repeated. “We can do anything.”

Sure enough, as they walked into the flower shop with the extra feather, Antheia greeted them with an enthusiastic welcome. She walked up and kissed each of them on the cheek, causing Gus and Luz to blush.

“Thank you, my heroes!” She said enthusiastically. “Now my sisters can visit me without being scared away by that hideous bird. My lady was right to favor you. Now, onto your reward…”

She waved her hand, and on their heads, they each received a flower crown, Willow’s adorned with green flowers, Gus with blue, and Luz with purple. They all cooed in excitement, reaching up to touch them.

“The crowns will wilt over time, but while you wear them you will have my blessing. In Ancient times, the Greeks worshiped me for my gentleness and kindness. You will find that people will treat you the same.”

“Lady Antheia, we are honored,” Willow said, and even Luz was shocked, reaching up to gently touch the flowers with her hand.

“Nonsense, I owe you, children, a great debt,” she said, and then like she was just remembering something, she snapped her finger.

“There is a man approaching in a car ready to take you to downtown Cincinnati,” she said with a smile. “He will do this free of charge, but you must not keep him waiting. I understand the seriousness of your quest, and though he is mortal, he will too.”

Luz and her friends all thanked Antheia, and they left her shop with her smiling from the door, waving a gentle hand.

“Good luck heroes, and oh, Luz?”

Luz turned her head while her friends kept walking, and Antheia shot her a knowing smile.

“Aphrodite has favored you above all others, especially on your quest, but your father has not forgotten you. Remember this on your journey.”

Luz blinked, wondering if Antheia could see through her more than she originally thought. Nodding she turned her head and followed Willow and Gus to the rocky dirt path where a yellow taxi was waiting for them.

#the owl house #lumity #luz x amity #shelby speaks #Percy Jackson AU

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thegoodgayshit · 4 years

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Chapter Eleven: I Get Threatened by the King of Athens

There was a tense and uncomfortable silence. Luz had a sinking feeling in her gut, like pieces of a puzzle were coming together in a game she hadn’t agreed to play.

“What do you mean Amity isn’t with him?” She said quietly, not moving her eyes away from Theseus. If she had thought he was cute before, now the sight of him made her blood run cold. She should have listened to Gus. “Achilles captured her in Boulder. Where is she?”

Theseus pursed his lips. “Achilles isn’t always the most tactful. He has his own agenda too. He was supposed to bring Amity to my boss in Colorado, but he went off the rails, literally, and took her to his new place in Kansas City. Fled from our boss because of some disagreement between them.” Theo scoffed, rolling his eyes. “As if we could even refuse to begin with.”

Luz was stunned. “I have… so many follow up questions.”

“Kansas City? Like… our next stop?” Gus asked with a frown. “That’s one coincidence.”

Theseus hummed in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’ll soon figure out that few things in our world are a coincidence. The gods are pawning you even as we speak. You met the flower crown lady in Cincinnati, who gave you a job to prove to the love lady she made the right choice in favoring you.” He gestures to Luz with a roll of his eye. “Then, your daddy gives you a hand in the train station to make sure you’re on the exact right path they need you to be on, so you can’t mess this one up. So sure, coincidence.”

“My dad?” Luz asks, not sure what Theseus meant.

“The map,” Gus hissed in realization. “As the god of travelers, some kids of Hermes must have special abilities with map reading.”

“Then there was the way she could haggle the price down without even trying,” Willow added with wide eyes. “He’s also the god of merchants.”

“See, what did I tell you?” Theseus said with a smile. “You kids are quick.”

Luz didn’t like feeling like an idiot. But that’s what was happening right now. All the time she and her friends thought they were doing something good, all that time Luz felt guilty thinking this was her fault and the gods had been manipulating their quest from the beginning.

Her anger must have shown on her face because Theseus shot her a sympathetic smile.

“Don’t feel too bad, Luz. It happens to literally every great demigod.” His face hardened. “In Athens, my quest in the Labyrinth was half a test of skill and half a test of wit. My father promised me glory and honor by coming home a hero, and when I got back on my boat I didn’t even have to touch my ship the whole way home. It was like the sea guided my boat home on its own, and I knew my father had blessed me. Do you know what happened after that?”

There was silence between the three of them. Luz remembered the story, but with the look on Theseus’ face, she knew she couldn’t say it.

“Poseidon didn’t raise the white sails when I arrived,” Theseus said bitterly. “My beloved stepfather had asked me to when I arrived so he knew I was home safe. When I arrived, I was the new King of Athens, because he had thrown himself off the roof thinking I was dead. Poseidon killed him.”

Theseus sat back in his chair, a look of complete misery on his face. “I blamed myself too, you know. Then, when I died, the gods couldn’t even spare me then. The judges wanted to send me to Tartarus. But Minos argued that because I slew the Minotaur, I deserved Elysium. In the end, I was punished to roam the Fields of Asphodel forever.”

Willow and Gus were looking at one another, but Luz was so enamored by the story she couldn’t tear her eyes away. She had always been a sucker for a dramatic tale.

“I forgot everything. Who I was, what I stood for. And then my boss came to me and pulled me from my torment. I was alive again, and a new man. I would never serve the gods as long as I served him.”

“The man in the mountain,” Luz whispered, looking at Theseus unable to disguise her fear. “Who is he?”

“The reason I’m here is so you never find out,” Theseus said slowly, and the three of them flinched. Theseus chuckled under his breath.

“Sorry, not like that. I’ve come as his messenger to offer you a deal.”

“A deal?” Willow said with a frown. Luz shared the sentiment. Why would the man who had been tormenting Luz’s dreams for weeks want to spare them?

“Look, you kids have a good heart.” Theseus continued, eyeing each of them carefully. “My boss knows that. I’ve now seen it myself. We’re all pawns in the game, we always have been. You didn’t ask for this quest, so my boss is giving you a chance you won’t get if you continue forward to Colorado. Go to Kansas City, take Amity from Achilles, and go straight home. Leave this whole thing alone and spare yourselves the pain and heartache.”

“But all of Olympus will fall without Hestia,” Gus protested, “we have to save her!”

“But why?” Theseus asked, and Gus fell silent. “Why can’t an old age of pain and suffering just end? My boss will allow a new era to rise, and demigods can live peacefully with the other mortals. I can see my father again. You can all go home without needing to fear a monster will hunt you down. Luz, you can have a normal life with your mom where she doesn’t have to worry.”

Luz flinched, and Theseus smiled slightly. She didn’t know how he knew about her Mami, but she didn’t like the way it rolled off his tongue.

“Stop that!” Gus demanded to Theseus, and he looked over at him innocently. Willow reached over and put a hand over Luz’s.

“I am just being truthful,” Theseus said, and Gus’s eyes hardened.

“No, you’re not. You’re deceiving her. You went to Tartarus because of how you treated Ariadne. You abandoned her on an island and she would have died there if Dionysus didn’t save her and make her his wife.”

Theseus froze, and for a moment his expression changed, going from sympathetic to cold.

Willow nodded along to Gus, pointing an accusing finger at Theseus.

“You were a war criminal too. You kidnapped the Amazons and the Spartans and caused a war for the Athenians between them. You were exiled because you treated others so terribly. The gods didn’t force you to be awful.”

Theseus’ eyes flashed furiously. “I am offering you demigods a way out! A chance to escape the prophecy.”

“Why would we want to do that?” Luz butts in, narrowing her eyes. “The prophecy told us we would bring Olympus peace.”

“The prophecy says nothing of the sort,” Theseus growled. “Don’t trust the words that can be so easily twisted. It also says you will dawn a new age. That is exactly what my boss is trying to do. And unlike you, I’ve heard it in its entirety. One of you is doomed to die, and that is why Amity would not tell the camp what she heard. She assumed it was her, and that is why she told her companions to run. But I know better. It will be one of you three.”

There was silence again, and Luz felt her mouth open and close fearfully. She didn’t know what she was going to say. Theseus got up from his chair, adjusting his notebook and pen to tuck it under his arms. Luz realized he was leaving.

“You don’t need to decide now,” Theseus said carefully, though he was clearly still angry. “My boss just asked me to pitch the offer to you. You’re still heroes, and now that you know where Amity is I imagine you’re going to go find her. Last we heard, Achilles was planning on hiding in the musician's manor in Sunset Hill on the west end. Look for the gold lyre outside.”

He pushed his way into the aisle, turning his head one more time.

“If you chose to continue, my boss will not hold back. We will do everything we can to finish our mission, and that includes stopping you if you get in our way. And I can promise you this, you are no match for my boss.”

Luz’s chest flared with anger as the entire conversation hit her at once. She hated Theseus. He was a huge bully, who was so mad at the world he blamed everybody else for it but himself. Luz knew better, and if his boss was anything like Theseus, then she hated him even more than she already did. Standing up, she balled her fists at him and stared him right in the eye.

“You’re no hero. We’re going to finish this quest and free Hestia, and we’re going to do it right. You can tell your boss we’re on our way.”

Theseus paused, but he didn’t say a single thing. He just looked at Luz sadly, like he was trying to decide what color coffin would go best with her skin tone. He walked to the front of the bus and whispered something to the driver. The bus screeched to a stop, and Luz had to grip Willow’s hand to keep herself steady. Theseus got off, and the bus started moving again. Luz collapsed into the seat, and Willow leaned into her shoulder comfortingly.

“That was really brave, Luz,” she said, and Luz shook her head.“No, it wasn’t. It was stupid. My Mami was right, I have a terrible habit of making enemies.”

“Theseus is an enemy,” Gus assured her, “but now we at least have some information.”

“Yeah, like how Amity is in Kansas City,” Willow said. “We can go get her tomorrow morning.”

“That, and that the man in the mountain is more scared of Luz than we originally thought.”

“What?” Luz sat up and looked at Gus like he had three heads. Gus shrugged his shoulders. “Theseus was trying really hard to cover it up, but their plan is dangerous. He is trying to keep us away from the plan, not protect us from it.”

“That’s a bold assumption, Gus,” Willow said with a smile. “But it’s also optimistic! I like it.”

“What about the little detail that one of us is going to die?” Luz said with a frown. “I don’t like those odds at all.”

“We won’t know what’s happening with the prophecy until we find Amity,” Willow reassured her. “For all we know, he could have been lying to us to try and scare us into submission. We can’t think like that. Trying to change a prophecy never works.”

Luz groaned, covering her head with her hands. “This is so confusing. I’m sorry I dragged you guys into this mess.”

“We want to be here, Luz,” Gus said with a smile. “Besides, I always knew Theseus was not the greatest, but today my theory was actually proven!”

“Yeah, what a jerk.” Willow agreed. “Sorry we didn’t believe you, Gus.”

Gus rolled his eyes and nudged Luz playfully. “Don’t. I saw the way you guys looked at him. We can’t trust every attractive demigod we run into anymore.”

Willow blushed, but Luz laughed, nudging Gus back affectively. “He has a point.” Luz reached down to her lap and picked up the Tupperware Theseus had given her. “Do we think this is safe to eat? Because I’m starving and I don’t want to go find Amity on an empty stomach.”

Gus snatched it out of her hands. “Don't eat that! For all we know it could be poisoned. It's enemy food.”

Willow had completely ignored both Luz and Gus and was busy eating half of the sandwich. “I had some when he gave it to us. It’s safe.”

“Great!” Luz snatched the container out of Gus’s hands and popped it open, her mouth watering at the sight. It was a fresh PB&J on white bread and an assortment of crackers grapes and cheese. She dug in, finishing the contents in what must have been a record time.

Gus grumbled something about how we were risky and totally stupid, but he ate along with them. By the time they had finished, the three of them were sitting together comfortably, and Luz’s eyes were getting heavy. Willow nudged her with her shoulder.

“If you and Gus want to sleep, you can go ahead. I’ll take first watch.”

“Are you sure?” Luz definitely wanted to sleep, but she didn’t want to leave Willow watching by herself.

Willow chuckled, putting her backpack between her and Luz, so she could rest her head on it. Gus settled in next to Luz, resting his head on his own pack against Luz’s side.

“I’m sure. Try and catch some sleep. We don’t know when we’ll get another chance.”

On that happy note, Luz wasn’t sure how she would be able to get to bed with her mind whirling. But as soon as she rested the pack against her head, she found that she was so exhausted from the day’s events she fell right asleep.

The dreams came again, and Luz found herself standing in the mountain, hiding behind a huge metal shipping container. She poked her head out and saw the man in the mountain, his back turned to her, staring straight forward at a huge metal cage. Inside was a girl, no older than fifteen, dressed in white rags and sitting with her hands bunched up to her knees. Luz thought she might have been very pretty if she wasn’t looking so haggled, her copper-haired pulled back messily and her eyes sunken and tired. Despite her half hazard appearance, she was staring at the mountain man with disdain, like he wasn’t worth her time at all. Luz liked her instantly.

“Why won’t you just give in?” The man said angrily, slamming the base of his bronze staff into the ground. Luz had never seen him with the staff before, he usually had a sword. He was cloaked in dark robes, and Luz could see parts of a dark mask sticking out from the front of his head. “You’ve been here for weeks now. Your fire should have died long ago.”

“The fires of Olympus are not so easily extinguished,” the girl said softly, frowning at him. “As long as there is hope, I will remain here.”

“I will crush your hope beneath my feet!” the man roared, and Luz flinched at the volume. The girl in the cage did not seem so easily frightened, and instead, her eyes flickered beyond the man and towards Luz. The two of them made eye contact, and Luz was shocked to her core by the warmth that flooded through her. Her eyes were the color of dying embers, and Luz couldn’t help but smile.

“Hope remains,” the girl said, but not to the man. She was looking directly at Luz. “And so I remain.”

Luz didn’t realize the dream had shifted until she was somewhere else. She was standing in a huge room reminiscent of an old ballroom. The tiles were white and smooth, and the walls had a golden wallpaper draping them. Everything inside was expensive, but the furniture was pushed against the wall like it wasn’t needed. Outside the polished white windows, Luz saw a massive garden and a long driveway, and then towards the street, she saw a stone plaque that read “1200 West, 55th Street”.

As Luz turned her attention back to the center of the room, she did a double-take. There was Amity, chained to the middle post with her eyes closed, looking worse for wear. She was still in the clothes she had worn when she left camp two weeks before, and she was grubby, with cuts and bruises all over her body. Luz lunged forward to help her, but the sound of laughing from another room startled her so badly she diverted and slide behind one of the expensive sofas hiding from view.

Two men emerged, talking amicably with each other.

“I don’t know how you managed to get away, you’re bound by eternal oath.” The first said, and Luz peaked over to get a closer look. He was a tall and skinny man dressed in simple white cotton pants and a blue shirt, with long black curly hair that sat messily on his head.

“I haven’t technically broken any oath yet,” the second said, grinning deviously. He was much larger than the first man, with muscles on muscles. He wore a sleeveless white shirt that was so tight Luz could see the outline of his stomach, jeans, and white sneakers. His dark hair was close-cropped to his head, and he had two swords hanging loosely on his belt. “Belos can wait a little longer. Besides, this is in his best interest. The prophecy says so.”

He reached down towards Amity, cupping her chin with his index finger and thumb, and Luz felt a snarl pulling itself angrily from her lips. She tried to rush forward but her limbs felt like lead, and she was frozen in place.

“She doesn’t look good. Keep her alive until the other kids get here. I put a bottle of nectar in the fridge.”

“Belos better come through with his promise.” The first said lowly, crossing his arms. “Taking out three demigods on my own is not how I planned to enjoy my new life.”

“You will be compensated for your work,” the second said with a shrug. “If there is one thing he is, it’s practical. He appreciates your time and effort on our joined mission.”

The first sniffed disdainfully, “very well.” He looked over at Amity, and his eyebrows pinched in concern. “Are we sure she’s breathing? You know I don’t do well with pets…”

Luz was interrupted by something shaking her violently, and she woke up with a yelp, her head smacking into something. She groaned in pain, rubbing her forehead.

“Ow!” Both she and Gus said at the same time.

Luz looked around and realized she was back on the bus, and that it was now almost dawn. The hard thing she’d collided with was Gus’ own head, and the boy was now standing up and leaning against the seat for support.

“That’s the last time I wake you up,” Gus moaned, shaking his head like it would get rid of the pain.

“We’re here,” Willow said, doing her best to stifle the laugh. “We just arrived at the Kansas City bus terminal. We have to get off and look for Amity.”

“No need,” Luz said certainly, standing up and throwing her backpack over her shoulder. “I know exactly where she is.”

#the owl house #lumity #luz x amity #Percy Jackson AU #shelby speaks

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