A True Witch (Part 1)

Home Again

Eda was starting to tear up but quickly wiped the tear away. She pulled out a plant glyph, burnt up the flowers, and blew the ash away.

"Heh, can't let the Collector see the flowers and find this. It sucks but what can ya do?"

Eda stood and stretched. She was about to turn and go away when she noticed the footprints in the bone dust leading up to the memorial. As she looked down the trail, she saw the rebuilt portal door shut and finally collapse.

"Was that...real?"

Luz couldn't take just standing there any more and had Gus drop the invisibility and suddenly they were all standing together in front of Eda, fully visible.

"Yeah, it was." Luz said, tears welling up in her eyes.

Eda slowly walked towards her. She held Luz's face in her hand, and then smiled. She pulled Luz into a tight hug and started to cry tears of joy. Luz quickly reciprocated the hug and was also crying.

"I can't believe you're really here. When? How?" Eda asked, leaning back from the hug but still having her hands firmly on Luz's shoulders.

"Just a few minutes ago. I rebuilt the portal in the human realm." Luz answered.

"Hah! That's my girl. Look at you! You've grown up so much."

"It hasn't been that long, Eda. Just, what, 194 days?" Luz chuckled.

"I see you've been counting closely just like me."

"Why wouldn't I? I've missed you and the others so much. Wait, the others. Are they safe? Last thing we saw before getting blasted through the portal was King being taken by the Collector as they disassembled the Titan's skull."

"That's where King is? Oh thank the Titan they're safe. We don't know a ton about what that kid is planning, but they keep taking people for some game. They're keeping them imprisoned somewhere but thanks to a bit of intel, we know they're safe, just trapped. We found out the symbol from the place we found King actually makes whatever it's on, or whoever is wearing it, invisible to them so anyone we find we give one of these handy clips. Also thanks to that, we have the perfect hiding place."

"You have a secret hideout!" Gus gasped.

"Yep! But, it's pretty far away. You kidshave your staffs?"

Hunter, Willow, Gus, and Amity all pulled out their staffs. Eda smiled at them all and summoned Owlbert and handed him to Luz before turning into her harpy form.

"Alright kids, just follow me and stay close."

Eda shot up and they followed close behind her, flying over the once bustling island that was now barren and lifeless.

"Everyone who wasn't captured immediately by the Collector ran. The first few days, me and some others hid out in Blight manor but it stopped being safe. I realized King's tower is the perfect hiding place and we've kinda set up shop there."

After a while of flying, the group went through a wall of fog, on the other side of which was the island. They landed on the beach and started walking through the woods to the tower.

"This place is incredible." Gus gasped.

"Right! I forgot you guys haven't been here before," Luz chuckled, "This is the place King was born and where Eda found him."

"That's so cool!" Willow said.

After some more walking, the group arrived at the tower. From the outside, it looked just like how Luz remembered, except the part of two of those weird flesh demons in the doorway. Luz tensed up, ready to fight, but Eda lay a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry kid, those things are with us. We figured it'd be good to have some protection so a few of the people with beastkeeping magic awoke a bunch of them and were able to explain the whole situation. Once we told them about King, they agreed to let us stay here. They're actually the ones who told us about the symbols!"

Nervously, Luz walked through the door and, sure enough, they didn't attack. They even seemed to nod to Eda in respect.

Luz and the others were amazed as they looked around inside. There were tons of people everywhere doing various things, staircases and pulley systems bring people to some of the hundreds of rooms, and as they looked around, a familiar face ran up to them.

"Mittens!" Edric exclaimed, tears in his eyes as he pulled Amity into a hug, "I can't believe it! You're back! You're really back."

Amity was overjoyed to be with her older brother again and hugged him back.

"You look amazing and your hair is so long now! Maintaining the purple, I see? Odalia would be furious."

"Good." Amity laughed.

"Hey guys! We got some new people here!" Eda yelled, getting everyone's attention, "Back from the grave, they're actually here."

Luz, Hunter, Gus, Willow, and Amity waved to all the people there, getting cheers from them all.

"So Eda," Luz said, turning to her, "What's the battle plan?"

"Battle plan? What are you talking about?" Eda chuckled.

"The plan to fight the Collector! How are we going to take them down? That kid has taken so much. The five of us will totally help. While we were in the human realm we were actually thinking of some ways to-"

"Luz, we're not going to fight."

"What? Why not!"

"You only saw a fraction of what he can do. But us? We've gotten a real good look. All we're trying to do is get as many people as we can save to prevent whatever game they want to play. Hopefully, they'll just give up and go. There is no way we can fight them."

"Eda, we have to do something! If you just let me-"

"NO!"

Everyone who was around froze. Eda almost never yelled so to have her be so mad was surprising.

"Luz, the Collector is a god-like being that we only know a little about. We can't risk fighting him and losing people. I can't risk fighting them and losing you. We aren't going to fight. End. Of. Discussion. Edric?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Just, get these kids a room. It's been a long day. I have some things to update with them being back."

"Of course."

Eda walked away, rubbing her temple. Luz and the others awkwardly turned to Edric.

"So, who's ready to see their rooms?"