The Owl House: Emperors and Thorns

Hollow Mind

Luz slowly opens her eyes and groans. She looks to her left and then sits up, finding herself in a dimly lit corridor. On the walls of both sides, there are multiple huge paintings. She then looks to her front and gasps. In front of her, there is a huge painting depicting Emperor Belos holding his staff while looming over her, Cerise, King, Lilith, and Eda in her Owl Beast form. Below the painting is a plaque which says "TRIUMPH OVER WILD MAGIC". She then stands up and moves backwards with a frightened expression on her face.

"Triumph over wild magic?" Cerise gives a scoff, making Luz turn to her, "Yeah, right. What a joke."

"Cece!" Luz hugs her, "What is this place?"

"You know exactly where we are, human." Hunter spoke up as Luz turns to him, "You got us trapped in the Emperor's mind!"

"Huh?!" Luz looks around incredulously, "We're in the Emperor's mind? That's bananas!"

"I don't know what those are, and I don't care too. Remember what happened at the Night Market?" Hunter raises an eyebrow.

...

"Teeth! Get your teeth! We got all varieties and qualities!" a peddler puts his hand on a witch girl's shoulder, "I even do trades." the peddler takes out a pair of pliers as he speaks.

"What was that?" Hunter, in his Golden Guard attire, pulls Cerise out of the peddler's grip.

"Oh, I...mean, why would I trade teeth? That's illegal and unsanitary. But, I mean, if you're interested..."

Hunter notices three hooded, suspicious figures walking nearby.

"Cerise and I were on a date when I heard whispers of an attempt to invade the Emperor's mind with wild magic. I decided to take the villains out myself."

"He wanted to impress me."

"What?! No!"

Hunter follows the three hooded figures into an alley and hides behind a barrel with Cerise sneaking with him. Although not outright shown, the three figures are implied to be Raine, Darius, and Eberwolf. After Eberwolf finishes drawing some circles on the ground, Raine starts playing their flute, while Darius mixes up some liquid in a test tube he is holding. He then puts the test tube on the ground, and transforms his left hand into an Abomination hammer, preparing to break it.

"But just as I was about to stop them..."

Hunter jumps out from behind the barrel and confronts the trio, taking out his mechanical staff, "Halt! For crimes against the Emperor, you are under arrest!"

Luz suddenly interrupts, "Oh, wait! I remember now!"

"Hey!"

...

"Eda took me and King to the Night Market to repair my witch's wool cape. But, we ran into some trouble."

Eda knocks on the glass panel, "Hello? Prim? Did you get into the Night Juice again? Hello?"

King's voice comes up from a walkie-talkie Luz is holding, "Is this thing on? Demon King to Luzura, you copy?"