✨ Bijou The Ascended (Part 1) ✨

Sense and Insensitivity

"So my runner-up dream was to be a writer. I've had this 'about the author' picture since I was seven years old," Luz said, holding up a picture of herself at the age of seven. "I know my good angle. I'm gonna enter that competition!"

Before any of them could take a step forward, she was bumped into by a Hexside HAS member.

"Ugh! What are these basement-dwellers doing out in natural sunlight?" King exclaimed, slightly disgusted.

Tinella Nosa approached them.

"Um, we're in line for John de Plume, most famous writer on the Boiling Isles, famed author of the Realm Warrior series," she grumbled, likely due to his dismissal. They stood there watching the author sign the girl's book. "I'm gonna have him read my story. And marry me."

"Um, good luck with that, I guess?" Hazel murmured, not knowing what to make of it.

A demon supported his pig child. "John, will you sign my child?"

"I'll sign anything," he said, laughing.

"Such power," King exclaimed, impressed. "Such command he holds over his minions. I must have the same. Luz the human, I, too, shall enter the competition!"

"So are we," Bijou and Hazel chimed in.

"Really?" she asked, surprised, and then exclaimed. "We could work together! It'll be perfect. We're best friends, so we'll make the best team."

"Team! Yes!" he exclaimed. "My name goes first on the cover."

•°•°•○•°•°•

Meanwhile, Eda was looking around and throwing books away.

"Boring. Boring."

One of them smacked a child on the head. She chose a pink one that had a mirror.

"Boring," she said, but then she noticed something and gasped in the mirror. "Another wrinkle. The curse is quickening."

"You. Blacky."

She flinched as she heard a familiar voice and dropped the book. She crept beneath a 'read or...die' banner and hid behind it. She looked up to see her sister standing alongside a Coven Scout.

"Lilith," Eda growled.

Lilith asked a cat demon, "Do you have the item we discussed?"

"Oh, yes! Right here," he said, pulling a map from a drawer, and she smiled as she opened it. It glowed the moment she looked at it.

"This is excellent! A map to the Bloom of Eternal Youth. I think the Emperor will be very pleased."

"Ma'am, shouldn't we be searching for the Owl Lady to join the coven?" the Coven Scout inquired. "Remember that whole plan? And that human girl and the almiraj that escaped our clutches?"

She just laughed at the question. "My sister's curse has left her frail, but she'll still be here when we get back. And I wouldn't worry about the human girl and her almiraj companion too soon, as well. They're nothing but weaklings themselves."

Eda growled. She, Bijou, and Hazel were far from weak; she remained the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles and the Bijou and Hazel were still capable of fighting their own battles.

"This comes first. It's for the Emperor, after all."

"Yeah!" exclaimed the Scout, knocking all the books off the table. "All hail the Emperor!"

"Very good, Steve," Lilith said as she patted him on the back.

"Shoulder pats for Steve," he exclaimed as they walked away. Eda then emerged from behind a table, where she had been hiding.