A True Witch (Part 1)

One Last Day

Camila stared for a moment, before smiling and nodding.

"That sounds like a wonderful idea, mi pequeña luz."

Luz smiled back and took a slice of pizza. It'd been years since her mom called her that.

So while sure it'd break her mom's heart to leave again, maybe after spending a day together the blow could be softened.

The next morning Luz quickly got up, dressed, and went downstairs for breakfast, wanting the day together to be as long as possible.

It seemed like her mom had a similar idea as instead of making breakfast like usual she left out a bunch of breakfast options.

Luz grabbed a breakfast bar and went to the door, where her mom was already pulling on her jacket.

"Ready to head out, Luz?"

"Definitely."

Luz and Camila got into the car and drove into the downtown area. They parked by the park and walked everywhere else.

When they got to the town square, Luz couldn't help but stare at the statue.

"A memorial to the famed witch hunters and protectors of Gravesfield, Philip and Caleb Wittebane, ~1610-1647"

"Damn liars." Luz grumbled under her breath.

"That Caleb looks a lot like Hunter." Camila said.

"It's a long story. To simplify, Hunter is a clone, technically Grimwalker, of Caleb that Philip, who is also Belos, made after a perceived betrayal caused him to kill Caleb."

"Which is why Hunter sometimes calls Belos his uncle? Because he's the kind of son of his brother?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Also, those dates aren't when they actually died. It's when they went to the isles for good."

"So if you got a statue it'd say 2008-2022?" Camila asked almost mournfully.

Luz was taken aback and turned from the statue to look at her mom who, though smiling, looked like she would break any moment.

"You want to go back to the demon realm with your friends, don't you?"

"Mom I don't know what you're-"

"Mija, I know you. And you want to go back with your friends. You care about them, you have people you want to save, and you even call that place home."

Luz felt paralyzed with guilt. She wanted to tell her gently, ease her into it, not like this.

"How long have you known that was my plan?" Luz choked out.

"A few weeks now I've figured, but when you called it home yesterday, I knew. Even if you hadn't asked to spend the day together, I would have offered it."

"So...you're not gonna try and stop me?"

"I thought about it, but no. I won't. Even if I tried I wouldn't be able to stop you. Now come on, we have an appointment to get to."

Camila brought Luz to the local general doctor's office.

"I wouldn't want you to go adventuring without knowing you're healthy, would I?" Camila said, seeing Luz's confusion.

They checked in, sat in the waiting room, and after a bit were called back.

At first everything seemed fine from the initial questions and checking Luz's ears and eyes, but something seemed off when they got to checking her blood pressure.

"Strange. It's really high. Are you anxious right now? Or feeling any other extreme emotions?" The doctor asked

"Uh, I don't think so." Luz said.