The Conserver stared, infront of him there was that same human girl sitting on her knees with his tablet in her hands. He looked up from the Tablet to get a better look at the human girl, she had tan skin with short brown hair and vibrant brown eyes. She wore a pair of ebony earrings with a short sleeves jacket that cut just below the waist with the lower half being indigo and the rest white, she also wore jean shorts which reached high above the waist line with dark grey capris leggings and simple white loafer shoes.
"Hello hu-"
"AHHHHHH! ITS A SCARY LITTLE SHADOW GIRL!" The Human screamed throwing the tablet and curling into a ball, she put her hood up revealing two cat ears on top of the hood. Wait, did she just call him a girl...?
"I AM NOT A GIRL!" The Conserver yelled mad that he had somehow been mistaken for a girl of all things. He did not look like a girl in the slightest! The human peeked at the Conserver through their hands and then used one hand to motion to his hair "so!? I just like having my hair up, that doesn't make me a girl!"
"But you're wearing a dress?" The human added no longer curled in a ball and just pointing at the Conserver's cloak.
"Dre- Are you kidding me!? This is a cloak not a dress" The Conserver clarified wondering how the heck their cloak could be confused for a dress. The human squinted looking closely at the Conserver's cloak, she looked skeptical
"Are you sure its not a dress...?"
"Yes, I'm very sure! Alright, back on track now" The Conserver said before breathing in letting darker shadows take over his form to make the white of his eyes stand out "Hello, human- No! Nevermind! That entire conversation just ruinined this entire moment"
"Oh, sorry" The Human apologised, she smiled and held out her hand but the Conserver didn't do anything for obvious reasons because he's... well... a shadow, the human realised her mistake and drew her hand back "Sorry! Forgot the whole being a shadow thing! But what exactly are you, wait, are you a genie!?"
"Genie...? Where the heck are you getting all these ideas from? No! I'm clearly not a Genie considering they don't even exist" The Conserver quickly shot down that misconception, the human was about to speak but he quickly got to handling everything else that would disprove the him being a genie theory "one, the reason I came out my Tablet when you wiped it is because you invited me out by making a motion from the star to the outside area willingly. Two, The reason I'm even attached to that Tablet is because I've been cursed and trapped inside it. Three, the reason I look so different is because I came from the stars and came to the Boiling Isles around 900 years ago with my brother"
"Oh, but still, what are you if your not a genie?" The Human asked repeating their previous question
"Again, genies don't exist. And I'm the Conserver, a collector which is basically a race of celestial god-like beings created from different stars and planets from across every galaxy to ever exist" The Conserver explained lifting one hand over his chest with a solem look after he finished "but, now I'm just a shadow with no physical form and no access to my magic thanks to the Titan who trapped me"
"Wait, the TITAN!?" The Human exclaimed
"Yep, the Titan, him trying to play hero resulted in my unfortunate trapping and the imprisonment of my brother who is literally just a child. But on the bright side that hypocritical idiot is nothing more then a corpse now!" The Conserver cheered, he realised how weird that likely sounded and quickly dropped the topic "anyway, I told you who I am, so who exactly are you?"
"Oh, uh- I'm Luz, Luz the Human! And also a witch in training" The Human named Luz exclaimed
"Huh...? I'm sorry, a witch in training?" The Conserver muttered stifling a laugh "yeah, I don't think so little human"
"What? Why?" Luz asked seeming confused by what the Conserver had said
"To put it simply" The Conserver began "Humans can't really use magic, not naturally at least. Have you ever heard of magical potential or magical ability before?" Luz shook her head "Magical Ability refers to somethings natural ability to use and control magic while Magical Potential refers to the potential or likely hood for a creature to harness or use magic in an effective or powerful way. Humans have no Magical Ability whatsoever and therefore most have no Magical Potential either"
"But, then how can I, a human, use magic?" Luz asked refusing to accept she couldn't use magic, wow, this human really was stubborn? If he knew no better the Conserver might have actually assumed she had determination in her soul!
"Luz, your stubborn" The Conserver said with a sigh thinking for a moment "but, theoretically, there is a way for a human to do magic. And if that theory is right then training under a witch won't help at all"
"Please! Tell me how!" Luz begged, the Conserver sighed and shook his head
"Fine, but I want something in return" The Conserver said "If I'm going to help you learn about how to use magic then I want you to help free me"
"Well how do I free you then?" Luz enquired further
"Right now? You can't, but you can help me find something that can and use it to pull me out the Tablet. Look, I just want to be free and find my brother but to make sure that happens I need to form a contract so you don't try to trick me" The Conserver explained
"Oh, well, how am I going to sign a contract? How are you going to sign a contract? You're a shadow, wait how do you even hold a pen?" Luz asked catching the Conserver off guard.
"W-what?" The Conserver muttered "you- but- but I wasn't being literal!? I ment a magic contract! A seal between two souls that makes a deal between two people which if broken will create and hold any circumstances or terms intended for the deal"
(My art as usual)
"Oh- yeah! I knew you were talking about something magical!"
"No you didn't"
"Yes I did"
"No, I'm pretty sure you didn't"
"Look I did, now can we just form a contract already?"
"I'd prefer that as well" The Conserver slid down the ground his legs fusing to a whip thin point which curled below the tablet as he took a spot beneath it with his shadow body pinned to the ground and wall, one hand was placed where the star was showing a palm facing outwards with all the fingers spread wide "Just, take my hand and grab on, don't pull and don't push just hold on"
For just a moment, Luz hesitated but she put her hand out laying it over where the Conserver had placed their hand. Slowly she pressed down with her fingers and gasped when her hand sunk inside the stone and she felt another hand grasp hers as the shadow moved. A purple light glowed around the shadows hand and stretched up to the stone soaking out and wrapping around Luz's hand soaking into her skin with another bit of light gliding up her arm and the right side of her right eye creating three stars that got bigger as they curved down as well next to her eye as well as three thick lines on her right wrist.
"Alright, now that a contract has been formed" the Conserver said with a smile "I can tell you about how it might be possible for a human like yourself to use magic, look closely at what I draw with my scarf" the Conserver slid up the wall their body spinning inwards as the four glyphs of the last remaining Titan formed from the majority of his shadow while a smaller version of his shadow walked around holding a pointer stick that teachers would use "these are Glyphs, four symbols that can be used to manipulate and control magic. Witches create magic by mixing and matching these glyphs in a bile sack connected to their heart"
"So if I managed to draw glyphs I could do magic?"
"Yep!" The mini Conserver said with a clap, the mini Conserver used the pointer stick to draw lines between all the Glyphs with his shadow "then we have combinations, each Glyph serves a specific purpose so to create new spells we have to connect these glyphs in different patterns to achieve different results. I don't know everything because of how little time I had to study glyph magic but I can teach you what I do already know so you can create your own spells later on"
"So do I just trace them then?" Luz asked getting a lot of paper and a small sparkly pen with a pink diamond on the end, The Conserver nodded shrinking the shadows so the glyphs would fit on the paper "but what if I run out of paper or can't draw the glyphs? What if I forget a combination!?"
"Thats where the next part comes in, we're going to want to get you a staff" The Conserver said throwing the pointer stick in the air and morphing it into the shape of a staff which he caught and spun around above his head.
"A staff... like a palisman?" Luz asked
"No, totally different" The Conserver said spinning backwards in the wall and returning to a normal size that matched his actual size while floating upside down "Palisman increase a witches power but the staff will help with glyphs, it will create and mix glyphs despite you not always drawing them to mimic a witches magic if we make it correctly"
"AMAZING! Sorry! Its just that I've wanted a staff forever but eda never got me a palisman or showed me how to make one. I already have so many ideas for the staff! We are going to need so much glitter" Luz said in a cheerful tone "what do we need!?"
"We need Tarman wood, A type of magic absorbant stone or crystal and sand paper" The Conserver said knowing the staff would be simple and didn't require much as long as they got the proper material and created it correctly. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between the two
"Is... is that is?" Luz asked seeming surprised by the simple and rather short list "nothing like, I don't know, scales from a predator in the deepest parts of the Boiling sea, feathers of a titan bird from the peak of the raging snowy mount skullmerry?"
"First off those things don't exist. secondly, no, it's a pretty simple thing to create and even easier to get most of the materials"
"Huh... so could I just walk up to eda and ask her to get these things for me?"
"Pretty much, but it should be pretty expensive if we want to get it in good quality but it'll be worth it"
"Oh, alright!"
💚
"Luz! Pay attention! This information could save your life some day!" The small black furred demon look alike known as King scolded, Luz was distracted with her phone trying out different filters and things like that on King while she waited for Eda to get back with everything she needed for the staff that the Conserver was going teach her to make and use. She dropped the phone and looked up
"This is my paying attention face" she said kne hand infront of her and the other at her chin as she nodded with a hum each time, she jumped when black flashed in the owl house and thunder struck just outside. She quickly turned around as king spoke
"Uh oh, looks like it's going to rain" He said, Luz gasped and pushed herself up running to the door
"I love the rain!" She cheered pushing the door open and spinning at the front of the door eyes sparkling as she looked up in excitement "I always love feeling the first few drops in my hair" she walked to a flower and knelt down "and I bet you do too little flower" a drop of acid rain fell right at that moment and made the flower burn to a crisp much to Luz's horror "WHAT-"
"BOILING RAIN!" Eda yelled a hand over her head as she ran towards the Owl House with a heavy bag in her hand "everybody inside now!" She grabbed Luz and threw her inside as she slammed the door shut behind them. The bag she was carrying fell to the ground causing the contents to spill out on the ground "woo, that was close, but most importantly you didn't get hurt"
"Yep. AGH!" Luz yelped laying on a pile of broken plastic, wood and all other very unsafe things. She looked over and saw the bag, when she realised what was inside she gasped and reached ove- OW! She winced and grabbed her arm noticing a deep scratch on her arm with a bit if glass wedged inside the wound, she sat up and tried to grab the bag but Eda quickly snatched that away
"Kid, there is glass in your arm. You can do whatever you wanted to with that stuff after we get your arm checked" Eda scolded placing the bag in a high up cabinet out of reach of Luz usually used to store random potions Eda picked up from the night market because they were on discount.
"But I need to-" Luz spoke but was cut off
"You need to do nothing right now, it's raining and as you can see you don't like rain here" Eda said as if scolding a child "now come on kid, we got to get your arm checked since I don't want to be sent to prison for something as stupid as child endangerment"
💚
"Look! Now we're boo boo buddies!" King cheered putting a bandaid on Luz's arm, she smiled and stared at the small black furred 'demon' with glimmering eyes. She was still upset she wasn't able to make the staff yet but she'd able to wait a few more minutes
"Oh my god I love you so much" Luz said before turning to look at Eda who was standing outside in the rain with a protection spell that made a yellow shield of light above her to stop the rain from hitting her "a boiling rain storm on the Boiling Isles, the weather here is so fun!"
"Yeah, we don't have weather" Eda said cutting into the conversation, she turned just enough to not be facing Liz directly but enough to see the human in her sight. She was confused about the marks that had appeared on her wrists and next to her eye but whenever Eda tried to do anything about it or did as little as Brough it up Luz suddenly got tired or remembered she needed to go do something which was a blatant lie most of the time "we have plagues, gorenadoes, shail hail, painbows"
"It's like a rainbow, but looking at it turns you inside out!" King not so helpfully explained, Luz grabbed her hood and covered her face wondering how bad her nightmares would be tonight. Maybe the Conserver could teach her a spell that erases nightmares?
"So until the boiling rain stops no-one is allowed outside tonight" Eda said in a matter affect manner still working on stabilising the spell.
"And if the rain doesn't get you the snaggleback will" King said bringing out this random demon he was either obsessing over or trying to get Luz to obsess over "they wander the rains, feeding on boiled tourists!"
"Well, whatever the case, this force field spell should protect us and the house from boiling rains" Eda said, she suddenly smirked and leaned forward towards King "and made up demons"
"Hoot! Well hurry it up with that forcefield, that rain is getting closer to my precious stucco!" Hooty hooted from the door looking noticeably angry
"Yeah yeah, I got it!" Eda said quickly dismissing what Hooty was so concerned about, she lifted her staff over her head spinning it above her as she released the hand still holding the ball of magic letting it mix with the head of the staff where owlbert was. She then brought the staff down hitting the ground beside her hard as the light scattered taking place in the shield above her before forcing a part of it out creating a secondary shield which formed around the Owl House.
"Wow, someday I'd like to be as cool as Eda the Owl Lady!" Luz remarked in a cheerful tone as Eda let her staff rest by her side and walked over to the owl house "Magical, sassy, surprisingly foxy for her age" Luz paused a thought coming to mind "Hey, why do they call you the owl lady anyway?"
"Cause I'm so wise" Eda said boosting her own ego but Hooty cut in
"It's because she coughs up rat bones" He said in that high pitched voice of his
"I think it's because she's attracted to shiny object!" King cut in sounding way too sure of himself. Wait, Eda was attracted to shiny objects...?
"What!? No I don't!" Eda objected sounding I credibly insulted which Luz could understand. King didn't say anything and just reached up and pulled a pen with a sparkly pink diamond ordement on the end out from beneath his hat, he clicked the pen making the diamond light up. Eda's eyes grew wide as she marvelled at the shine
"It's sparkles and shimmers it shines and delights" Eda muttered way to fast ti comprehend what she was saying. So much for not being attracted to shiny objects huh? "I must have it for my nest..." Eda leapt forward and King pulled his arm back stuffing the pen back under his hat. For a moment Luz swears Eda's voice sounded ever so slightly different, like a person with a darker voice was speaking under her own. Wait, she has a nest!? Now that is important
"You have a nest!? I want a nest! Nest party!" Luz cheered falling to the ground behind Eda on purpose, she grabbed her arm and pulled Eda back up completely forgetting about the whole voice thing.
"Ugh, that spell really took it out of me" Eda groaned grabbing her head
"Uh oh, taking it a little slow. Is the age finally catching up to ya?" King asked trying to poke fun at Eda like she had to him, she grabbed his hat and drew it down his eyes "AH! DARKNESS!"
"This is perfect" Luz exclaimed looking down to King with her hands clasped tight together "with us being locked in all night Eda won't have any excuse to not teach me about magic!"
"But- don't you want to finish our lesson...? I was going to let you scratch a demons tummy. Me" King asked, how hurt he was clear in the way he spoke.
"Oh, umm, sorry King, but magic" Luz apologised turning to face King for a moment before running to Eda just missing the look on his face that would make someone guess he just saw his entire life crumble away right infront of his eyes. Eda walked behind a propped up paper changing curtain snapping her fingers and instantly changing to something more cozy and far better for sleeping in, she threw herself onto the couch ready to sleep.
Eda shrieked looking up to see Luz standing over her with a large smile, those marks were still on her skin and seeing the star marks she knew for a fact weren't there the day before it only bothered Eda more.
"Oh Eda, have I told you how rad your fang looks today?" Luz said trying to suck up to Eda
"Whatever it is, no, I am not being payed to deal with your witch fantasy right now, so, no" Eda replied with a sigh, that trick might have actually worked if she wasn't already exhausted and ticked off by the stars next to luz's eye. Those were not there before.
"And your hair is like... girl"
"I am not teaching you magic tonight. I'm sleepy. I'm a sleepy little owl" Eda pulled a blanket over her body wrapping herself up.
"Please Eda please! How Am I ment to use a cool staff if I don't know any spells?" Luz begged, she didn't want to go back to the Conserver just yet since she also needed to carve the staff with them and that would take forever.
"That is not my problem, your the one who said they were making a knock-off staff out of nowhere as soon as I woke up" Eda rejected once again, turning and tugging the blanket tighter around her body. But then she got an idea, she turned back around with a grin "but, if you tell me something then I might teach you a bit of magic"
"REALLY!?"
"Yep, just tell me why those stars are next to your eyes and there are lines on your wrists now when I know there weren't before?"
"Nevermind! I'll just go carve the staff now!" Luz rejected not willing to give away the secret that was the Conserver, she didn't know how Eda would react and didn't really want to risk anything happening to the tablet.
💚
"And that's all" The Conserver said sliding across the ground and crawling up the wall, Luz held up the staff he'd helped her carve. It was a long but thin staff being a dark purple-blue, yellow emerald ordements were clipped at the end where the wood carved around in a hook shape holding a gem carved in the shape of a star which radiated magic and had the four glyphs drawn into the inside in a very specific pattern before being sealed and placed in the staff's head.
The staff was ment to mimic how glyphs worked without needing to redraw them and connect lines all the time by having them arranged in a certain order so close to eachother so the staff could work by tapping it against anything to hit and trigger the glyphs over and over with ease. She wanted to try it out as soon as the staff was finished but the Conserver said otherwise, the thing was just made and Luz hadn't practised with glyphs before. She needed to learn the first four first which was only safe in a not so crowded area where if something went wrong not much damage would come as a result.
The Conserver slid up the wall lingering around the edge of the window at the back of Luz's room which had been shuttered down because of the boiling rain. He saw Luz run out and wanted to stop her since he remembered when he and the Collector first found out about the boiling rain... Collector... hopefully he's alright...
They shook off the thought and broke their shadow apart forming the four glyphs on the wall in his white shadow parts, he created his mini figure with what shadow he had remaining using a teachers pointer stick once again. Just because they couldn't do practical work didn't mean he wouldn't hold up on his promise to teach Luz how to use magic starting with basic spells which would steadily increase in complexity as the lessons continued and Luz managed to perfect her use of the glyphs.
"We'll start by looking at each Glyph individually over the next few lessons starting with the Light Glyph, the simplest one" The Conserver explained, the other three glyphs curled inwards adding to the mini Conserver's shadow as it and the light glyph expanded as if zooming into an image "as you know this glyph is the Light Glyph, when used on its own it creates an artificial magic light. The size of the glyph and the amount you draw can change the size of the spell and create multiple of the same spell in different areas, try copying this one with your staff since it's the safest to practise inside"
"Alrighty then!" Luz said proudly as she spun the staff, or at least tried to, the staff fell to the floor when she tried
"Just draw the outline of my shadow already, we can't afford to waste time and quite frankly I would like to teach you as much magic as possible so you can help release me" The Conserver said with a sigh, the Mini Conserver crawled up the wall shifting to the shape of seven stars which shot down forming a flower with a butterfly flying out. The flower turned white while the butterfly was black and grey, it shifted with the butterfly forming the Conserver's regular shadow body and the flower his scarf.
The remaining shadows split off forming nine circles which formed in the shape of Light Glyphs. Luz quickly picked her staff back up and drew the end of it along the outline made by the shadow, she sped up as she went somehow managing to create perfect circles. The newly drawn glyphs lit up creating orbs of light that formed in a star pattern, an eight pointed one like the symbol of her new teacher.
"I did it, I actually did I! I did magic!" Luz cheered thrusting her arms in the air staff in hand.
"Perfect!" The Conserver cheered surprised that the human was able to do glyph magic so easily. He knew he made the right choice by asking her to be the one to help release him if she could perform magic this easily despite never having done anything like it before. He slid across the wall and down to the floor taking the shape of a black cobra with white and grey stars across its back, he circled Luz creating more glyphs on the back of the snake before sliding up the wall where the door was shadowing over it. A white outline formed on the door and the black squeezed inside forming his shadow body while leaving the glyphs on the ground around Luz.
"That was a pretty simple spell, it acts as a base for every other spell you'll learn to case and replicate so it's important to know what exactly your doing when you use the light glyph and what it's is ment to represent in a spell" The Conserver pointed at the glyphs on the floor "Light Glyphs act as a base for most none-combat spells, things like Illusions and distractions..."
The Conserver paused halfway through his explanation and looked back at the door confused for a moment, his cartoonish eyes widened and he ran back to the Tablet pushing himself back in just as King opened the door and walked in.
"Luz! Are you ready to learn about all the fun ways a demon could kill you yet?" King asked, Luz scrambled over to the Tablet stuffing it under the pillows and making sure King didn't get the chance to see it. King held up a picture of a demon "Look how teethy! Bite, Bite!"
"Oh-ummm, hey King! Sorry but maybe we could do this later instead?" Luz said in a low tone more intrested in continuing her lesson with the Conserver.
"But don't you want to hear about the most spine-chikling demon: smoochie pie the sweetie baby!" King asked holding up another picture this one of a large fish with two oddly human hands instead of gills "hes- he's a lot more threatening then his name implies..."
"Not now King, I'm busy learning to use my staff!" Luz exclaimed holding up her new staff so King could see it
"You don't even have a bile sack! Why do you want to learn magic so bad anyway!?" King asked clearly offended and hurt by what Luz was saying and doing. She paused but sat down beside King
"Look, I was a nobody back home. But becoming a witch? That's my chance to finally be a somebody!" She said "do you know what it's like to have no one take you seriously...?"
"...if I helped you perform magic could we finish our lesson" King asked hesitantly after giving a sigh
"King, do you even know how a human like me can do magic?" Luz asked, last she checked she could only do magic through glyphs and King? King didn't know what glyphs even were
"Well! I have a theory! Everyday I notice Eda drinking this weird potion and after she does she gets this boost of energy. That must be where she gets her magic from!" King exclaimed. That didn't sound right to Luz, the Conserver told her that the only way she could cast spells was with glyphs but if it was possible for her to cast magic without them then why didn't he tell her about it? Well, they were trapped over 900 years ago... maybe this is just new and they weren't able to learn about it?
It's worth a shot...
💚
Luz held the golden elixer in her hands, she look at it taking in every little detail about it while being hesitant about taking it. The Conserver was ment to know everything... why wouldn't he tell her about this if it was possible to use it to cast magic? Why wouldn't Eda tell her? She sighed and pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, she lifted the potion up to her mouth and-
"AHH!" Luz yelped, she jumped loosing her grip on the potion. It fell from her hands and she reached to grab it but failed as the potion fell to the ground, the glass shattered and the liquid contents spilled out. She stared in shock, she had just broken eda's potion... she just BROKE one of Eda's potion! She's going to kill her when she gets up!
"Oh. well who needs magic anyway? We have a perfectly functioning home with lamps and heating!" King announced, the lights shut off just as he said that "Oh, well Hooty controls the lights so he probably just fell asleep" just as that moment hooty began to scream in hoots
"HOOTY!" Luz yelled getting up and running towards the sound of hooty's screaming. She stopped at the main room and gasped, a large hunched over creatures hidden by the shadows had knocked down the door and hooty as well by extension. The creature growled yellow light emitting from its eyes as it dragged it's claws against the wood of the door, it crouched lower down before darting off to the other side of the house. Luz ran over to hooty who looked as if he was dead "hooty! Hooty are you in there!? Whatever did this escaped into the rain! What could even survive that!?"
"Oh my gosh- The Snaggleback! It feeds during the rains! It must have come across our house and saw us inside!" King said. The creature howled and leapt inside through a window above them, the window to Luz's room.
"This is terrifying! So why do you look so happy!?" Luz asked shocked by how King was so excited.
"Because this is a perfect opportunity for a lesson!" King said sounding more excited and happy then anything else. God, even the Conserver's worse teaching would be better then this! "It's a perfect opportunity for you to see a demon up close and personal!"
"You want to go towards those creepy sounds!?" Luz shrieked "NO WAY!"
Wait... a thought came to Luz, or rather she remembered something that the Conserver had told her when she asked about his stone tablet. If that broke then the Conserver's couldn't be released.. There were multiple tablets but the Conserver could only be released or exit his realm from the first one whilst the replicas just acted as better windows to the outside world and magic conductors. So if that Tablet was broken then there was no water to release the Conserver...
"Actually, I'm totally okay with that now!" Luz said in a chipper tone. Luckily, King didn't find it suspicious how quickly she changed her mind and the two went inside to find the creatures that broke into the owl house.