Luz was looking through as many books as she could get her hands on. She wanted to know what she did wrong on the door. Maybe then she could explain to her mother why she left and, well, the whole Demon Realm thing too. Luz looked at the echo mouse that ate up the contents of Philip Wittebane's diary, which was running on a hamster wheel.
Luz sighed, "You and me both, buddy. I can't figure out what I messed up when I made that ding-danged door."
Suddenly, Luz heard a clinking noise from the living room and decided to figure out what it was. As she walked there, an arm suddenly stopped her from going into the room and into the shadows. Luz almost yelled out before she noticed Hunter was the one who pulled her in, Flapjack was flying right next to him.
"It is so nice to be surrounded by all of Lulu's dearest friends!" Hooty exclaimed from the living room.
"Luz, I think that they're holding a secret meeting of sorts, I believe Hooty and Lilith have betrayed us. I mean even Steve is there!" Hunter whispered.
"Tweet, tweet!" Flapjack chirped.
"I'm not going insane," Hunter answered.
"Yeah! All hail Lulu!" Steve could be heard saying from the room.
Luz peeked over to see the 'meeting' which was really just a party for Lilith as Hunter continued on.
"Scratch that, it seems to be a cult where they're worshipping Lilith because Steve just said 'All hail, Lulu.' Maybe that's what she's referred to in the cult, while us normal people just call her Lilith," Hunter rambled on, still whispering.
"We're here to celebrate the new assistant curator of the Supernatural Museum of History." Hooty lifted up his cup, "Here's to you, Lulu!"
"Cheers!" Everyone shouted.
"Hunter, they're just celebrating Lilith getting a job! C'mon, you should come with me!" Luz exclaimed grabbing his hand.
"Nope!" Hunter yanked his arm back, "Steve has seen me without my mask once, he'd recognize me. I'll just meet you outside instead."
Then Hunter ran away from the room, presumably to jump out of a window with Flapjack following closely behind. Luz pulled a party hat out of her pocket and put it on.
"I still wonder how I can do that!" Luz muttered optimistically as she walked towards Hooty, "Hooty! Did I miss the toast?"
"Yes! But not the "app-pellet-tizers!" Hooty exclaimed, showing Luz a plate with a couple of owl pellets on it.
Luz found it hard not to gag when she noticed one of them was still moving.
"You want a- There's an extra one. I'm working on it," Hooty began to try coughing up another one.
"No, no, no! That's okay! Uh, where's Lilith? We want to congratulate her," Luz raised up her hat to reveal the echo mouse under it.
Suddenly, a whip from outside grabbed one of the app-pelt-tizers and brought it outside. Luz, intrigued, decided to follow it.
"Oh, I wish I could stay longer," an unfamiliar female voice began, "But I must be off on my next adventure."
Luz peeked out the door just soon enough to see the woman throw the app-pelt-tizer. Lilith was standing next to her.
"t's such a delight to see my little bookworm back in the historical world after all these years!" the woman exclaimed.
Luz wondered how they knew eachother.
"Uh, thank you, Flora, but it's just a small job, only an assistant. I'm surprised you even heard about this," Lilith replied.
It seemed the woman's name was Flora then.
"The Emperor wanted to make sure you weren't getting into any trouble, and to clear out your office, I left a box of your knick-knacks inside. Wish you took more from my tutelage, dear, history's supposed to be exciting after all!" Flora exclaimed.
She then used her whip to drag a griffin down and flew away with it.
"Who was tha- ahh!!!" Luz had finally got out of her hiding place, only to be tackled by Hunter.
"I won't let her join your cult!" Hunter exclaimed.
"Cult? What cult? What are you talking about?!" Lilith asked as Hunter and Luz stood back up.
"Don't play dumb with me, 'Lulu!' Is that your, I don't know, code name or something?!" Hunter exclaimed, standing up in a fight stance as Flapjack tweeted again, "I'm still not going insane, Flapjack."
"Hunter, this is a party for Lilith, it's not a cult," Luz explained.
"You've already brainwashed her?!" Hunter exclaimed, "And who was that lady?! Did you also brainwash her?!"
"Flora D'splora, bad-girl historian, celebrity, and my formal mentor in the Emperor's Coven," Lilith sighed.
"I have some questions about that name," Luz said from behind a very skeptical Hunter.
"And I have questions about MY LIFE!!! All I ever got to do was desk work, while she goofed off riding wild snake horses and-" Lilith ranted.
Luz's eyes lit up, "Snorses!"
"- And- and eating mummy jerky! Well, I can be just as exciting as Flora! I'll come up with an exhibit that'll knock the Titan's socks off!" Lilith exclaimed.
Lilith stormed into the house.
"Congratulations on your new jo-" Luz's last words were muffled by Hunter covering her mouth.
"Don't talk to her, she's already brainwashed you," Hunter whispered scornfully.
Luz, who was in the living room, was looking at the screen that the echo mouse was displaying while Hunter, Flapjack perched on his shoulder, guarded her in case "the Cult Leader," a.k.a. Lilith came around.
"After careful analysis during this Deadwardian Era, I believe the current human year is 1660- or is it '70? The years are flashing by, but it will all be worth it. I've gathered all the ingredients including Titan's Blood, all that's left is to seek out The Collecter, and he will tell me what I need to complete my mission, but first, my companions and I must face-" The recording suddenly ended just as Philip was about to continue.
"The Collector, I've never heard that name," King stated.
"Me neither, what kind of jerk puts 'the' in front of their name anyway?" Eda remarked as she put some garbage in a trash bag.
"Uh, you," Hunter pointed out, "You're 'the' Owl Lady."
"Say's the one who thinks think's my sister is a cult leader!" Eda sniggered.
"Say's the one called themselves a jerk!" Hunter countered.
"Why are you protecting just Luz anyway? Don't I mean anything to you?" Eda teased.
"I don't have to worry about you because you worship yourself too much to start worshipping your sister," Hunter replied.
"Touche... How about King?" Eda asked.
"Well for starters, I can trust that you'll protect him anyway. Second, I care more for Luz," Hunter responded.
"Hey!" King wailed.
Luz usually would've teased Hunter about acting like a brother to her, but she was too focused on thoughts of the portal, the Collecter, whoever that was, and her mom that she didn't even hear what they were saying.
"The Collector may know how to make a real portal door, he may know why mine is so unstable, I just... I messed up so bad last time, I need to do better," Luz suddenly blurted out, voicing her thoughts.
"Luz, I've got leg hair older than you. This Philip guy worked on his door for years. Try not to beat yourself up too much," Eda replied.
"Yeah, I just wish I could go back in time and talk to him..." Luz suddenly jumped up, "Eda! Is time magic a thing?!"
"Not really but," Eda took a book off a shelf and opened it, " I was a bit of an urban-legend junkie, Twig Foot, Lenderman, possums..."
"Those are real," Luz pointed out.
Eda snorted, "Yeah sure, kid. Anyway, there are stories about these things called Time Pools, mythical puddles that act as windows into the past, but they're never in the same spot twice. Me and Lily used to search for them, she'd say I forced her into it, but I think she had more fun than me!"
"Lilith! Of course! Thanks Eda!" Luz exclaimed running off.
She could just hear the, "No, Luz, don't! She's going to make you join her cult!" from Hunter as he ran after her.
"Lilith!" Luz shouted, startling her.
"Luz, I told you not to!" Hunter complained, attempting to catch his breath as Flapjack flew into the room, Hunter looked at what Lilith was working on, "What in the Boiling Isles are you doing?"
"I'm plotting out my first exhibit for the museum. It's almost as if the Emperor wanted Flora to tick me off. Well, I'll show her that she's not the only bad-girl historian in town. I'm thinking..." Lilith pulled out a board covered with information about Deadwardian Balusters, "'The Architecture History behind Deadwardian Balusters!' "
Luz smiled awkwardly, looking down at the board, while Hunter glared at Lilith bitterly.
"This won't work, will it?" Lilith asked miserably.
"Don't let Flora get you down! I even started calling you 'Cool Aunt Lilith' in my journal!" Luz encouraged.
Lilith looked up, "Uh- Oh, really?"
"Brainwashing," Hunter hissed quietly enough for only Luz to hear.
"You can be a bad-girl historian, and I know how!" Luz exclaimed, covering Hunter's mouth with her hand.
Luz held up the book with the Time Pool page in her other hand.
"Oh, I remember these! In the Premysteric Era, it's theorized that coagulated Titan Blood mixed with the magical algae of the Boiling Sea created temporary holes in time!" Lilith exclaimed.
Yeah, Luz didn't understand any of that.
"Time magic, baby! You can make an exciting exhibit on Time Pools, and maybe I can get information on how Philip made the portal door! And- Are you licking my hand?! Uh, AGAIN???" Luz instantly moved her hand away from his mouth.
"I... did cobble together a device to find these with Eda. It should be in the box Flora returned to me, but it was faulty, it needed more power than I could ever give it," Lilith explained.
Suddenly, Luz thought of the Titan's Blood, "Stay right there!"
Luz ran out of the room, this time Hunter and Flapjack not following, and into her room. She grabbed the glove, accidentally knocking down something, and ran back into the room panting.
Luz held up the glove, "Would Titan's Blood do the trick?"
Lilith glanced at her board before answering, "Let's do it!"
The three, plus Flapjack, set off in the forest with Lilith's newly powered machine. Luz and Lilith searched eagerly while Hunter, Flapjack following him around, watched Luz's back. By day two, they had found the supposed location of a time pool.
"The time pool should be..." Lilith pushed apart two large leaves blocking their view, "Here!"
It revealed an empty, small, beach-like area.
"But... I triple-checked all my calculations. My equipment is first-rate!" Lilith cried before tripping on something, "Stupid rock!"
Luz watched as Lilith hit the rock before deciding to wander around. She found a pebble and kicked it. To her surprise, it sank into the spot it landed. Luz kneeled down at the area the rock fell in to examine it.
"Maybe the Titan Blood was too dry? Is it not algae-blooming season?" Luz could hear Lilith saying.
Luz pushed her head into the area where she had thrown the rock. Suddenly, her head came up into a completely different looking world. A large creature walked in front of Luz and screeched. Luz picked up a strange seashell-looking thing before taking her head out of the sand.
"Was it my tools? Are they broken?" Luz could hear Lilith sniffing, "Am...I... broken?"
"Look if you do anything to Luz, I'll stab you but... You aren't broken, Lilith. I like to think that none of us are really finished pieces until the end of our stories. You can't expect something to be perfect if it isn't finished, right?" Hunter replied.
Luz watched as Lilith smiled. She snapped a quick picture on her phone.
"Lilith! You did it!"Luz held up the shell thingy she took earlier, "You found the time pools!"
Luz watched as Lilith gasped before pointing to her reflection in the water.
"In your face!" Lilith yelled.
While Lilith examined the time pool Luz had just discovered, Luz and Hunter were checking all the other pools, Flapjack following Hunter.
"A Stonesleeper from the Hecktacious Period," Lilith turned to Luz, "Did you know that they have a ticklish spot behind their ears?"
Luz was somewhat listening while poking the sand for any more time pools.
"Luz, are you listening?" Lilith asked accusingly.
Luz ignored her, "Come on, time pools, mama needs to commune with the dead!"
Inside the portal, she saw two rather medieval-looking people talking to each other.
"Tonight I shall revel so hard, I shan't stand any longer!" The first one exclaimed.
"I shall revel mineself to death!" The second replied.
Luz pulled her head out of the sand and looked toward the area in the present where the two people were talking, only to see the second person's skeleton giving her a thumbs up.
"No wonder no one's found these before, they're completely hidden from sight!" Lilith stated before shoving her head into another time pool.
Luz submerged into another time pool just as Lilith pulled her head out of the one she was in. Her head peeked out on the other side as she turned around and saw a considerably smaller Bonesborough.
"Wow, it's a little Babysborough!" Luz commented.
Luz noticed someone walking by and decided to ask her what was the era.
"Yo! What era is it?" Luz asked
"Tis the Deadwardian Era. What ye be doing in the sand? Be ye a crab maiden?" The random person asked.
"Philip's time!" Luz exclaimed, ignoring her.
Luz pulled her head out of the time pool before deciding to go back there for a few seconds. Luz head popped back out of the ground.
"And yes, I am a crab maiden," Luz replied.
Luz came back into the present times.
"Luz, did you find anything?" Hunter asked as Lilith obsessed over barnacles on her head.
"I found it! I found Philip's time!" Luz shouted.