Luz, Amity, Hunter, Willow, and Gus stood, stunned at the landscape in front of them.
They were back, that was sure, but everything looked so different.
For miles the landscape was barren. Not to mention the Titan's head, where the portal had led them, was completely gone.
"What on earth happened here?" Luz softly asked no one.
In the distance, there was some weird thing. Luz began to walk towards it, the others following close behind. With every step they took bone dust was kicked up, leaving footprints in their wake as they got further from the door.
As they got closer, they saw it was a marble-like monument that was slightly taller than Hunter. It had a rectangular base with strange symbols carved into each side.
Luz dragged her hands across it as she walked around until she got to what was the front and read the inscription carved into it.
"Uh, guys. You need to look at this."
"Here stands a memorial to those who disappeared on the Day of Unity
Gus Porter
Willow Park
Amity Blight
Hunter Demonne
Luz Noceda-Clawthorne
And
King Clawthorne
Their sacrifice to defeat Belos and save so many lives will be remembered"
Gus, Willow, and Amity were in shock and felt so bad for their families, thinking that they're dead.
Meanwhile, Hunter and Luz were nearly brought to tears. Hunter was absolutely shocked that Darius saw him as so close to family that he put his last name on was was basically Hunter's grave. A man who is known for having a perfectly clean image for decades actually accepted him as a part of his family.
Luz, on the other hand, was devastated. Eda actually considered her a daughter and had no idea where she was. One moment she's sending her off to be with her girlfriend, and the next she and King are gone.
Before she could go further into her thoughts, she and the others heard a strange noise and the sound of footsteps. Gus quickly threw an invisibility illusion over all of them. The person got closer. They were wearing a red cloak that hid their face and they had a golden clasp on the cloak with a strange symbol on it. As they got closer to where they were hiding, Luz recognized the symbol as the one from King's collar.
The person went up to the memorial stone, knelt down, and slid off their hood, revealing them to be Eda. Her hair was cut much shorter and she looked so tired. And, when Eda began to draw a glyph on the ground, the group saw her left arm was replaced with abomination tech from the elbow down.
Eda finished drawing the glyph, which Luz found was a plant glyph when 6 flowers sprouted from it. One red, one green, one blue, one lavender, one yellow, and one purple.
A flower for each of them plus King.
"Hey kid," Eda softly said, speaking to the stone, "Sorry for not visiting yesterday. Things in the hideout have been really busy, so I hope you can forgive me. My arm was acting up so Alador had to make a few modifications. Well, it was less just acting up and more like when I changed into my harpy form I broke it and Alador had to make one that could withstand the transformation. He even made it so it senses when I do and changes accordingly to mimic my other arm!"
Eda paused for a moment, staring at the memorial.
"I wonder what you'd think of me if you saw me now. It's been so long. I'm holding out hope that you're still okay. You, King, Boots, Goops, Golden Boy, and Plant Girl. I know you're a strong kid. And I'm trying to make a portal but I don't have the time, resources, or any clue how to make it. We still can't find your echo mouse, so that info is as good as lost. But, uh, I believe in you. You are the best witch I know, kid. Not because you have the strongest magic, but you have the strongest heart. I miss you so much. So, Luz, please. Come home."
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?"