"Everyone that was too close to the spell and had an Emperor's coven sigil was hit the hardest." Emira explained as she and Luz walked along the hospital beds, "With all the magic drained from their bodies, they fell comatose. We keep them here to monitor them and keep them away from most people. The scars show where the spell ran along their bodies."
As they got to the end of the room, Luz noticed a medical curtain surrounding a bed. Emira noticed her curious look, sighed, and opened it.
Laying in the bed was Odalia. Shoulder, chest, and face scared.
And her left arm was completely gone.
"As the spell worked through her body, she likely tried to cut off her arm to stop it. However, it seems the sigils are made so the effects are worse if you try to remove it. That combined with the trauma of cutting off a limb made her pass out before she could finish. When we found her, her whole arm was infected and we had to amputate it. This is what Alador doesn't want Mittens seeing."
Luz looked around the room, seeing all the innocent people stuck in comas because of Belos.
"Do you have any idea on how to wake them up?" She asked quietly.
"With Odalia, I assume it shouldn't be too much longer, she just needs to heal from the physical and mental trauma. As for the others, we think maybe if we can get the sigils off they'll wake up. But, we have no idea how to remove them without hurting them."
Luz thought to herself that maybe if they could find a branding glove, maybe they could modify it to remove sigils rather than give them.
"I know this is...a lot. As I said, there's a reason this room has restricted access."
"Because you don't want people to be scared?"
"That and seeing the people who are supposed to be the most powerful like this is really disheartening. For the sake of morale, Eda just tells people the coven heads are likely just somewhere we can't find. Even she barely comes back here because it hurts to see her sister and Raine like this."
Emira looked at Luz, sighed, and grabbed a small vial from a drawer and handed it to her.
"You were out all night. Just because Hunter can pull off eyebags doesn't mean you should see if you could too. Drink this and get some sleep. It is infused with sleeping nettles, so don't worry about your thoughts keeping you awake."
"Thank you. How is Hunter doing?"
"Frustrated he actually has to let people take care of him instead of helping, but overall doing okay. Now, go get some sleep."
Luz nodded and left. As she wondered, trying to retrace her steps, she got good looks a bunch of different rooms throughout the base. There was a greenhouse, a lab, what looked like a makeshift classroom with lots of books, and a few training rooms. With some help from other residents, she did manage to get back to her dormitory and went straight to her bunk.
She kicked off her shoes, tried to get comfy, and drank the potion. Just a few seconds after setting the empty vial down, she was out like a light.
Luz's eyes opened up and she was back at the owl house, the real one, not the copy the Collector made. She was in the living room on the floor, with Eda, Amity, Gus, Willow, Hunter, Vee, and her mom all looking at her, faces in shadow. She tried to get up and move towards them but was pulled down by something. When she looked behind her she saw her hands were cuffed by the same magic restricting cuffs she was chained in when she and Eda got arrested. When she looked back up at everyone, they all looked terrified of her.
"Guys, what's...what's wrong? What's going on? Please, get these things off me."
"We can't Luz. You went too far." They all said with a creepy, monotone voice.
"Went too far? What do you mean?"
"We mean your magic. You're out of control."
"What? No! I-I just need to practice. I'm not dangerous! Amity, please, you gotta believe me."
"How can I believe you?" Amity said, walking forward and revealing her face to be scarred by fire, "When your magic did this to me?"
The house disappeared and they were all back in the Titan's head. The Collector appeared behind them, laughing manically. He put all the others in bubbles and began to take them away. Luz struggled against her chains, and they finally broke, crumbling and allowing her hands to be free.
"Don't worry guys! I can save you!"
Luz did a spell circle that started out blue, but changed to a deep red. The Collector began to be petrified, though they didn't stop laughing.
"Yeah! Take that you...you..."
Luz looked and saw everyone else slowly getting petrified. They tried hitting the bubbles to escape but couldn't.
"Luz!"
"Stop this!"
"No!"
The screams and pleading began to become overwhelming. She couldn't stop the spell no matter what. Her arm began to rot, becoming green and goopy like Belos'. She watched as the curse spread over her body, her unable to do anything. As the slime covered her eyes and turned her vision dark, she heard his voice ringing in her ears.
"Little light, thank you for everything. I couldn't do this without you, Luz. Luz. Luz! LUZ!"
"Luz! You okay?"
Luz shot up as she awoke from her nightmare. She saw Eda crouching next to her bunk, a concerned look in her face.
"You were crying in your sleep. Are you all good?"
"Y-yeah. I'm fine. Just a nightmare." Luz shakily assured.
"Lot of stuff on your mind, huh?"
"Yeah, you could say that."
"You wanna talk about it?"
She was filled with panic at the idea of admitting to Eda that not only was Belos still alive after everything, but she didn't try to get rid of him right away.
"Oh, no, it's nothing. Really."
"Well, I know a great way to clear your mind and think of something else."
"Really? What?"
"What do you say you get your first real magic lesson?"
Luz was too confused to say anything as Eda led her to one of the training rooms. Eda closed and locked the doors behind them, covering the windows as well so nobody could look in.
"I managed to get one of these reserved for a while so nobody will bother us while we teach you how to use your magic. One of the perks to being the head of this whole operation.
"Wait, we? Who's we?"
"Well you can't expect someone with no magic to teach you, now can you?" Hunter said, walking out from behind a set of training dummies.
He was looking a lot better than how Luz last saw him. His arm was still in a cast and he was pretty bruised up, but way better than after the fight with the Collector.
"Since Eda and I are the only ones who know you can do magic and have done magic, we figured we both could teach you! Plus, once I'm healed up I can teach you how to fight. Knowing how to do magic is great, but you should always be able to hold your own without it. For now though, I'm mostly just here for moral support."
"Now that explanations are out of the way, let's get into it."
Luz excitedly followed Eda as she led her into the center of the room and sat down.
"Alright, let's start off with you showing me the light spell again."
Luz took a breath and drew a spell circle, creating a small ball of light and letting it float in front of her, before it faded away.
"Good. As you know, magic comes from the bile sac connected to a witch's, or your, heart. Spells depend on the spell circle, so the bigger the circle, the bigger and more powerful the spell. Go ahead and do the spell again, but a bigger circle."
"Haven't you given me this lecture before? That night you told King and I about your curse?" Luz asked.
"Yes, but that was nearly two years ago. And back then, you couldn't do spells like most witches. It's never bad to reiterate."
"But I've done light multiple times now and did fire when I fought the Collector! Why can't I learn some of the cooler spells? Like the ones you and Lilith did before you split the curse? Or like Willow, Gus, Amity, and even Hunter?"
"Look kid, you learned magic your way by learning the four basic elements then combining them. So, we'll make sure you master them with the type of magic we do. After that you'll learn the glyph combos you know."
"Then I can learn cool spells?" Luz asked.
"Then we'll work your way up to them. All your friends who can do cool spells have been doing magic for more than 10 years. You've done magic with paper for 2. You need to learn the basics."
"But-"
"No buts. I'm your teacher and you need to do as I say. Heh, I sound like Lily right now, going on about basics and taking time."
Eda sadly smiled at the floor, making Luz think about the state she saw Lilith in in the medical room. Comatose and scarred, near lifeless, being monitored constantly.
Luz knew she could find a way to help everyone. She figured out a lost way to do magic. Why wouldn't she be able to undo some magic that almost no one knows how to do in the first place?
"Anyways," Eda continued, shaking off the negative thoughts, "let's get back to work. Now, as you should know from glyphs, magic is complicated and reacts on what you command it to do. So let's do that light spell some more but with different intentions for the spell."
It felt to Luz like the lesson was lasting hours. Just doing the same spell over and over with different sizes, effects, and durations. She thought magic lessons would be more...magical than this. Even her teachings weren't this boring when she taught Lilith and Eda about glyphs.
Eventually, Luz had enough and didn't even try to hide her sigh. She got up and began stretching, which somewhat confused Eda.
"Want to take a break, kid?"
"What I want is to actually have lessons that, I don't know, teach me something useful!" Luz said, sounding exasperated, "I've been watching people do magic for two years! I know the basics! If the Collector finds this place, I want to be able to do more than just flash a light at them."
"I know you're probably frustrated but you just developed the ability to do magic. You have to do the basics because you just aren't ready to do more complicated spells. You need to pace yourself so you don't hurt yourself. Or anybody else."
The last sentence made Luz's heart sink. Did Eda really think she'd hurt someone? Did she trust her that little? Or did her magic scare her, the most powerful witch on the boiling isles?
She thinks you're weak. A voice in the back of Luz's head whispered.
"I'm not weak." She mumbled.
"Luz, I never said you were weak." Eda said, sounding concerned.
But she thought it. She doesn't want to believe you're strong. She doesn't want to be dethroned from being the most powerful witch.
"Just shut up, okay?!"
Luz was shocked at herself for yelling, and from Eda's face she could tell she was too. When she glanced over to Hunter, he didn't look shocked.
He looked scared.
"I-I'm going to take a break." Luz quietly said.
She turned towards the doors and left as fast as she could. She ran down the hallway, trying to get far away. She continued running until she hit a hallway she knew led to the exit. She felt bad for yelling, but she was still frustrated Eda wouldn't teach her anything that would actually help.
She could do more. She knew it.
After looking around to make sure nobody would hear, Luz sighed and leaned against the wall.
"Belos? You there?"
Luz felt a slimy texture move along the back of her ear.
"Yes, Luz. I'm right here. Do you need something?"
"Yeah. I-I thought about your offer."
"And?"
"Yes. My answer is yes."
Luz stared out the exit, looking towards the woods and sky.
"I want you to teach me magic."