Luz let out a steady breath as a cool feeling washed over her hand. She had gotten distracted and sent an ice spike clean through her palm. Thankfully, Belos was able to quickly heal her up and make the scar fade away. Sure her palm now didn't have as much feeling, but it was better than having a hole going clean through it. Luz flexed her hand to get the feeling back in it and nodded, satisfied with how well Belos was able to heal her. She drew a spell circle and repaired her glove, thankful that most clothes in the isles were made of organic material and thus could be repaired with plant magic.
"You're getting a lot better, Little Light. Much stronger than I thought you'd be at this point."
"Yeah tell that to all the scars you handily hid." Luz chuckled with a mix of joking and sarcasm.
"I'm serious. I've been helping you for just over a month and yet your magic is more varied than mine ever was and is getting to be as strong as your friends were before you met them."
"You really think my friends only got stronger because of me?"
"Not just because of you, but you helped. You have a habit of befriending prodigies. Your friendship just helped them realize it."
Luz flushed slightly from all the praise, thankful that Belos thought so highly of her.
"Thank you, Philip."
Suddenly Luz thought to check the time and was filled with panic.
"Mother of Titan I'm late." Luz sighed.
Quickly, Luz dissipated anything she had made while training, including the blood stained ice spike, and left the cave in a rush, leaving her bag behind. She ran down the beach, through the woods, and into the hideout. As she got inside she took off her pin and tucked it in her pocket.
Luz went through the halls and eventually got to the training room. She slipped behind a small wall of mats that were standing on their ends and used a spell Eda had taught her to instantly change. When she walked out from the mats, she was in a long sleeve exercise shirt, leggings, athletic shoes, hair tied in a bun, and fingerless gloves. She looked around, trying to see if anyone else was there. She quickly realized Hunter was, in fact, there when the invisibility glyph he used faded and he swept her legs out from under her, sending Luz falling face first into the foam padded floor.
"And that's what you get for being late." Hunter said with a smirk, standing with his arms crossed, already changed into his workout clothes.
"Yeah, yeah. I get it." Luz chuckled, turning over and sitting up, "Now can you help me up?"
"Once you tell me why you were late, sure."
"I was taking a nap and overslept." Luz lied
"Yeah no, I know you get less sleep than me. Try again."
"I was with Amity and lost track of time."
"Once it hit 10 minutes past when we were supposed to start I asked her and she said she didn't know where you were. Just tell me Luz honestly, why were you late?"
Luz's mind began trying to think of what she could say next that wouldn't make him not believe her, or get mad. He seemed to be in a good mood and it was always hardest to get things past him when he was actually doing good. So she couldn't lie, but she also couldn't tell him the truth because, Titan knows out of everyone that'd hate her the most working with Philip, it would be the person abused by him. So, really, her only choice was to give a good old lie of omission, which had been a bit of a go to strategy for her basically ever since she got back to the isles.
"Okay, okay, I was practicing magic on my own." Luz sighed, "Now can you help me up?"
Luz extended her right arm to Hunter. He paused for a moment, then grabbed her hand and pulled her up.
"You know you're not supposed to practice without me or Eda. You might hurt yourself if you do it alone."
I hurt myself even when I do practice with someone. Luz thought, though she quickly brushed that notion away.
She just slipped up or got sloppy or clumsy. It wasn't Philips fault. Besides, he didn't have any way to control her body, so it couldn't be his fault.
"I know you weren't napping, but I have to ask, how much sleep do you get?" Hunter asked.
"How much do you? You might get more than me, but by how much?"
"Okay, okay, I'll stop with the questions." Hunter chuckled as he turned and began to walk to the center of the mats on the floor, "Now let's get to work."
Luz followed behind him and joined him in the middle. Instead of doing something new, Hunter just had her spar with him, giving occasional notes and comments as they did.
"I've said it before, don't block with your face. Remember your center of balance. If I was still working with the coven I could easily kill you right now. No magic! That was good, keep doing it like that. You almost got me there. You're allowed to hit me harder than that! Aww, my little sis has grown up so much since the first time I tried to kill her."
Everything was going great and, despite her exhaustion, Luz was having an amazing time. Training with Hunter always put her in a good mood. It was just the two of them doing something they both enjoyed with no fear of interruption. It got their minds off everything.
Or, it was until Hunter grabbed Luz's right hand and she let out a quick, pained scream, the center of her hand still very sensitive from accidentally stabbing it earlier. She stumbled back a few steps and Hunter felt awful.
"I am so sorry Luz. Are you okay? Did I grab too hard?" He asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, I'm fine." Luz assured as she recomposed herself, "I just hurt my hand a bit ago and it's still a bit sensitive."
"Do you want to take a break? Maybe see if one of the healers can help out?"
Luz panicked as she thought of a healer checking her hand and sensing some sign of Belos' curse or him healing her.
"Really, I'm all good. Don't worry. Let's...let's just get back to work."
Hunter was still a bit concerned, but trusted her. They got going again, but after a few minutes, Hunter accidently stepped on Luz's right foot, the one she also accidentally stabbed through a week ago when working with Belos. She let out a sharp yelp and stepped back, tripping on a corner of a loose mat on the floor and falling.
"I'm okay!" Luz quickly said before Hunter could even ask, extending her right arm.
Hunter was looking even more worried and went to help her up. He grabbed her forearm where she had been scarred from the curse, which made Luz hiss in pain and tear up slightly. Hunter instantly let go and Luz got up on her own.
"Luz, go see a healer." Hunter said firmly, "You're obviously really hurt. It's a bad idea to just go around injured. I should know. Belos never let me see a healer. Letting injuries go unhelped will just make them hurt worse, longer and even have permanent damage. My right wrist isn't as strong as my left from when I sprained it really bad years ago. My nose only looks like this because it got broken too many times. My right shoulder is still in bad shape from our fight with the Collector. Hell, I even have a small bald patch on the back of my head that I keep hidden because of the amount of times it's been burned out or had hair pulled."
"I'm fine. Stop worrying about me." Luz said, starting to get frustrated with how insistent he was.
Internally, she was freaking out at the thought of Belos' magic he used to heal her fading, because if her scars became visible, or if the healing just vanished and all her wounds returned, she was in trouble. Because if bleeding out didn't kill her, her friends would once they saw how injured she got training, and training with Belos of all people.
"Luz, you know I think of you like my little sister. I'm not going to just not worry about you if when I grab you too hard, or at all, you feel what looks like really bad pain. If you don't go to a healer, I'll drag you there myself and if that hurts too much, I'll have Emira or Viney or whoever come here."
"Hunter! I'm fine! Just get over it! I've dealt with way worse than this. You certainly have too and you're just fine." Luz argued.
"I'm not going to argue with you about this. And I'm certainly not going to train with you if you're in such bad shape."
"Fine! We don't have to."
Luz walked behind the upright mats and changed back into her normal clothes. She immediately stormed towards the doors.
"Luz! Where are you going?" Hunter demanded.
"I need to cool down! I'm taking a walk!" Luz yelled back as she left, slamming the door shut behind her.
She walked swiftly through the halls of the tower grumbling to herself and trying to find a nice and secluded place. Eventually, she got to an empty looking wallway and sat on the ground, letting out an exasperated sigh.
"Belos, why are my scars hurting so much?" Luz asked, her fear poking through her anger.
"I don't know for sure, but I have a few theories. My curse and magic don't really get along too well. As Hunter is a grimwalker and made of nothing but materials with potent magic, as well as a few recycled parts, he might be causing some negative responses to the traces of my curse. It's why he scars so easily. In fact, I'd bet if I ever did with him what I'm doing to you, my curse would leave behind much bigger marks than the ones you get from using my curse."
"So I can't touch Hunter with any part of me that's been hurt? That'll be easy."
"Little Light, there's no need for you to have such a tone."
"Isn't there, Philip? I'm already getting hurt enough and now I know my basically brother can't touch me without one or both of us getting hurt."
"That's true, but there's still no reason to have an attitude. I'm simply theorizing here. I can try to think of a way to mitigate any pain or discomfort for both of you."
Luz gave a slight nod, then buried her face in her knees. She sat there for a few minutes, when she distantly heard some commotion. Confused and curious, she got up and tried to find the source. It didn't take long for her to get to the entrance of the tower and see a small crowd, with Eda in her harpy form, Darius with his arm an abomination scythe, and Raine holding their violin at the ready standing at the front, looking ready to fight. Two of the stone golems were holding a large figure that felt familiar to Luz. Upon closer inspection, the identity of the person hit Luz like a truck.
Instead of their regular attire, they were dressed in normal, if outdated, clothing, had no makeup or symbols painted on them, had a small scar on their forehead, and their right arm had a hole in it. However, it wasn't too hard to see that the person that was currently captured and being interrogated was none other than Tarak.
As Luz stepped forward, she recognized more and more faces in the crowd. King was standing terrified just behind Eda, Boscha and her mom were near the front of the crowd, all the Blights were dispersed throughout, Luz's other friends weren't too far from the action, and a few other familiar faces were scattered throughout. Luz even spotted Hunter coming into the entry room from a different hall, apparently having heard the commotion too. As Luz walked through the crowd, she noticed Boscha had spotted her and started to try to signal to her to go away. But she just had to know what was going on, so Luz ignored her and continued forward.
"What are you doing here? Just had to try and kill my son again in the name of your god?" Eda growled at Tarak.
"I assure you, Owl Lady, I do not come to harm King, son of the Boiling Isles. I have been enlightened and have left the Titan Trappers. I come with important words for the truly most powerful witch, the one chosen by the Isles themselves. I have pledged myself to them and as I had promised to do, wish to speak with them."
"Most powerful witch? Uh, speaking. Now what info do you have?"
"You? Hah! You are not nearly as great." Tarak laughed.
"Are you sure about that?" Raine scoffed.
"The one I serve is as great as all three of you combined. Or at least has the potential to be. Now, have your creatures release me and bring me to them."
"We can't exactly bring you to anyone without knowing who they are." Darius pointed out.
"Surely you can not be so blind as to know who they are! I mean-"
Tarak stopped as he locked eyes with Luz, who was currently in the front of the crowd. Luz felt her blood run cold as she realized she definitely should have turned back when Boscha told her to. When she glanced at Boscha, she knew they were just about terrified as she was.
Tarak began to fight against the golems and managed to get out of their grip. He moved quickly to Luz and kneeled to her.
"Oh Luz, the Great Human Witch, as promised I have returned with news. I have the location of the Collector's whereabouts. I was not able to convince any of my old brothers and sisters to join me in the truth, but that does not matter. I know of your glory and shall honor you."
"I-I don't know what you're talking about." Luz stammered.
Boscha shoved through the crowd and tried to get to Luz, knowing what happened last time Tarak pissed off Luz. Eda, Raine, Darius, Hunter, and anyone else close to Luz were confused about what was happening. King was worried about what this guy that tried to kill him was going on about with kneeling to and praising his sister.
"You mustn't be so modest. You have shown me your magical gifts, Great Human."
"You are delusional if you think the human's glyphs are anything that would make her the strongest." Darius sighed, "They're nothing to sneeze at, but they aren't worth that much praise."
"You must be the delusional one if you believe those paper squares are the extent of her power, former coven head. The merciful human witch, the one gifted with a bile sack from what must be your Titan has no need for glyphs any more. I have seen her do magic without any handicap with my own eyes. The great and merciful human witch has shown me herself the error in my ignorant thinking, the same thoughts you're having right now."
"Oh really? And how exactly did they do that?"
Luz's panic rose as she knew Tarak was going to out, not just her magic, but her almost killing him to everyone.
"I did not always have this scar on my head, nor this hole in my arm. The human witch could have sent the spike of ice they wielded straight through my skull, as their eyes glowed blue with power and fury, and their voice echoed with rage. But they spared me and I am forever in their debt."
Hunter's breath hitched at Tarak's words. He didn't want to believe what was being said. Luz assured him the glowing eyes and distorted voice he thought he had seen all those weeks ago was all in his head. But she wouldn't lie about Belos, right? Hunter turned and ran before he could hear anything more, although Flapjack stayed back. He also had an idea of what was happening, but he wanted to make sure the human so close to Hunter would be just as safe as Hunter was running.
Make him shut up, The voice in Luz's head whispered, Shut him up if he affects you so. You know you can. Reveal your magic. You want to.
As Luz stood frozen and near shaking, Eda was gradually getting more and more confused by the whole situation. Luz had lied to her. She never mentioned a fight or any Titan Trappers. Ann was also confused, but she was also mad her daughter had lied to her. But before she could tell Boscha off, she saw she was already over by Luz.
"Hey buddy, why don't you cool it. I mean, everyone already knows you religious fanatics are crazy, but this? This is low." Boscha remarked, standing between Luz and Tarak, "Now how about you cut the crap, or leave. Or better yet! Cut the crap and leave. How about that? Now I have also grown quite fond of the human but do you see me worshiping her? No! Luz doesn't have a bile sack. Just glyphs, which I'd say is impressive enough."
Tarak seemed genuinely surprised by either Boscha's confidence, or the fact she was sticking up for Luz. Or maybe both. His mind was rushing through too many thoughts and plans for any one thing to stick around too long.
Boscha turned to Luz and gave her a soft smile. Luz mouthed a thank you. Boscha nodded and turned back to Tarak.
"Are we done here?"
Tarak narrowed his eyes at her and grumbled something.
"I said, are we done here?" Boscha asked harshly, punctuating each word and leaning close to Tarak's face.
"Not until I show you all how ignorant you are." Tarak growled.
Before she could react, Tarak leaned back then slammed his head against Boscha's with enough force to break her nose and send her stumbling back. So nobody could stop what he was going to do next, he cast a paralysis spell on everyone in the room except Luz. She watched in terror as everyone fell to the ground limp, eyes wide in fear but unable to do anything.
"Oh great one, I must show these nonbelievers the error in their thinking. You showed me your true glory when you were filled with fury. I must reignite that anger so you may reveal your true power to these ignorant witches."
"Tarak, you don't have to do this. They don't have to believe you." Luz tried to reason.
"You are too kind, oh great human witch. But I can not stand knowing your true power is being hidden from the world." Tarak explained as his eyes scanned over the paralyzed bodies, trying to see who might affect Luz the most.
Luz froze when she saw his eyes land on a terrified Amity, who, based on her eyes, knew what was coming. Tarak walked over to her and lifted her by her right arm, picking her up easily. Spending his whole life training to take down Titans meant he was extremely strong.
Take him out swiftly, The voice in Luz's head encouraged, Take him out now.
"Little Light, you can find a way out of this. Just stay calm and try to keep a level head. You can make sure nobody gets hurt. Remember the calming exercises I taught you." Belos said.
Even as she tries to stay calm, Luz felt her skin starting to bubble as Tarak brought Amity away from the crowd to a few yards across from Luz.
"Do you think you could replicate the stun spell? Or maybe that sleep spell?"
Even with Belos' ideas, Luz was too scared to move a muscle.
"How about I try doing to her what you did to me? That should get you to show your true power!" Tarak said.
In his free hand, he created a dagger made out of ice. Luz looked between him and Amity desperately, trying to figure out what to do. She flinched but couldn't get herself to look away when Tarak moved the hand holding Amity's arm down and snapped it easily like a twig. Unable to scream, Amity's jaw just fell open as a few tears started to fall down her face.
"Please, Tarak, you don't have to do this. You're just going to get yourself hurt." Luz tried to reason.
"A small price to pay to show your glory."
Tarak lifted the dagger and brought it down towards Amity's skull. As it got closer and closer, Luz felt like time was slowing down around her. Her breathing came to a halt. Her heart slowed down.
"AMITY!" She screamed, eyes turning bright blue and her voice distorting into something unfamiliar.
She barely noticed as she stepped forwards and drew a spell circle in the air, sending a blast of fire towards Tarak. He noticed just as he was about to strike Amity. His confident expression morphed into fear. His and Amity's eyes widened in fear as the ball of fire rocketed towards them. The icy dagger cut across Amity's forehead, but it didn't get any deeper than skin as Tarak flinched away from the incoming danger. The blast of fire instantly melted the dagger as it got close and Tarak dropped Amity to the ground. He stopped the paralyzation spell and fell to his knees.
And the slow motion Luz had been seeing vanished.
She took one more step to regain her balance and looked at the sight in front of her. But she wasn't upset or scared as she saw Tarak clutching his hand, in shock and pain from the second and third degree burns marking his hand, his breath stilted and awkward.
Luz didn't bat an eye at Amity's screams as her right arm lay broken in two and the left side of her face burnt to a charcoal black, her eyelid gone and her eye a yellow so pale it was nearly white. The skin on that side of her face was flaky, and with any movement pieces chipped off revealing muscle, bone, and tissue.
The only thing Luz cared about in that moment was the ex-Titan Trapper on his knees and making him pay.
She used the quick dash to instantly get to Tarak and lifted him by his shirt, unbothered by his weight and nonplussed at her sudden strength.
"Oh you messed up now buddy." Luz laughed, her voice terrifying everyone, even the few that had heard it before, "You see, it's one thing to try to sacrifice me and Boscha. But threatening my girlfriend? And just to get me mad? Well congratu-FUCKING-lations my dude."
Luz dropped him to the ground and grabbed him by the throat. The tips of her fingers sharpened into green claws and stabbed into the skin of Tarak's neck as she squeezed. She was only slightly amused as she saw the blood rushing to his face and her fingers began to be stained with a deep red hue.
"I shouldn't have listened to Boscha when she pleaded for me to let you go. It'd be merciful for me to kill you right now you insane, religious, waste of space. I am done playing nice because I am going to make you suffer for everything you've done. You better pray hard to whoever you believe in because if you don't, I doubt anyone in heaven or hell will be able to hear you."
Luz was suddenly pulled off and fell back on the ground. She struggled as whoever grabbed her had her arms pinned back.
"Okay human! We are not doing this again." Boscha said firmly, her voice slightly strange from her broken nose but as commanding as ever, "This son of a bitch will get what's coming to him, but you aren't going to kill him. Especially since you have better things to worry about."
"WHAT THE HELL...is....that...supposed to..."
Luz's voice was normal again as she trailed off and the blue faded from her eyes. She felt the green fade from her fingers, leaving no scars but the skin under her nails was a dark black. Her fingertips were still stained with Tarak's blood.
She looked around and saw all that had happened. Tarak had small cuts on the sides of his neck and he was gasping for air. Amity was softly sobbing as she was trembling in pain. And everyone was staring at her.
"Luz!" Gus called as he and Willow ran up to her, "What the hell was that? You have magic? Since when?!"
"Why didn't you tell us? We could have helped it not be so...unstable." Willow said, a hint of sheepishness at the end of her sentence.
"Ok, lay off Luz." Boscha said, standing next to Luz and wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "She had no responsibility to tell you anything she didn't want to. Being friends doesn't mean you can't not tell each other things."
"And why are you defending Luz?" Willow scoffed.
"Wait, did you tell Boscha before us?" Gus asked.
"Look, it's all complicated." Luz explained, "I've known I had this magic for a little over a month now. Ever since Hunter and I saved King. And Eda told me not to tell you guys so it wouldn't spread and people wouldn't freak out. I swear I wanted to-"
"Who?" Amity asked weakly in a raspy voice, "Who else knew? Who was allowed to know something that your friends, your girlfriend, couldn't?"
"Hunter and King found out first when I tried to attack the Collector. Then I showed Eda, who has also been training me. She brought me to be examined and Viney, Emira, and Alador found out." Luz paused for a moment when she saw Amity's sense of betrayal grow knowing half her family knew before her, "And on my scouting mission, Boscha found out. And then Tarak. But with those two I had to use magic to protect myself and Boscha! Eda told me when I was scouting I didn't have to hide it. But, uh, that's everyone. I mean, besides the Collector. I think they knew before even I did, though."
Amity didn't respond. She just looked away. She couldn't even look Luz in the eye knowing that she was still hiding things. Gus and Willow were in similar silence. The only one that seemed to be on Luz's side was Boscha.
Finally managing to shove through the crowd that was around Luz, Viney and Emira carefully lifted up a silent Amity to heal her, Gus and Willow following them out to keep an eye on Amity. Eda also had shoved through the crowd, having an easier time than Viney and Emira had thanks to her being in her harpy form, and grabbed Luz by the shoulders.
"Kid, what the hell was that? Are you okay? What happened? You were so...not you. Did something happen? Luz I need you to tell me." Eda demanded.
"I just want to know how long your apprentice has been able to fight like that! With a little more training she could easily lead the charge against the Collector." Darius said, "I mean, you should make sure she's doing okay mentally, I guess, but open up the job of training her to coven heads, and we might be able to make the most powerful witch ever, no offense."
"We aren't making a child fight a god! She is clearly going through something and her mental health shouldn't be a problem to be avoided so she can become a weapon." Raine countered.
"How does the human even have magic?" Someone from the crowd yelled.
"She was willing to kill someone! She's dangerous!" Another yelled.
"Isn't she the one who changed the branding gloves? Just how strong is this human?"
"She's unstable!"
"She's too strong!"
"She shouldn't do magic!"
"She should practice more!"
Soon everyone was yelling at once. Those who didn't know Luz called her dangerous. Those who did said she should be doing more. And in the middle of it all was Luz herself, standing behind Eda and relying on Boscha to hold her up as her legs felt barely strong enough to hold her up. She wanted to scream. Cry. Fight. Hide. Thoughts raced through her head faster than she could keep track of as her heart pounded in her ears.
And then, everything was silent except a ringing in her ears. Her breathing slowed down to a near halt. Her heart rate dropped. Everything felt numb. Her vision became blurry and seemed to have a tinge of dark green creeping in around the edges. Luz stared blankly at the crowd around her that looked like it should be deafening, but was instead silently screaming around her.
Let go. The voice in her head whispered.
She slowly blinked. She hardly noticed as the green had almost completely engulfed her vision.
Suddenly, Luz was snapped out of it by something being shoved into her hands. She looked down and saw a potion bottle that Boscha handed to her. When she looked up, Boscha was in front of her and had a small, empathetic smile.
"Fog brew." She explained.
"Thank you." Luz weakly replied.
"Now go. I'll cover for you."
Luz nodded and threw the bottle to the ground. It shattered and a yellow fog enveloped the area. Just to be safe, Luz turned herself invisible and ran while everyone else was confused. Nobody saw her leave.
Or so she thought.
Luz sprinted through the woods, trying to get back to the cave as fast as possible. The numbness she had felt before was gone and was once again replaced by the pure feeling of panic. She didn't even notice she was crying until she tripped over a branch and saw wet spots on the ground when she pulled herself up. She emerged from the woods and went straight for the cave. She fell to her knees and let out the scream that had been building up inside her for so long.
"You're okay, Little Light." Belos assured her, finally speaking up after having been silent for everything that happened, "Breathe. Just breathe. The curse gets worse when you're stressed."
Luz couldn't speak. When she tried to push herself up, she fell into her face as her arm felt like it had snapped. When she looked at it, she saw it was okay, but long and rotten and green, bones extended and showing with little muscle to speak of. She just let herself lie on the floor and sob as she tried to catch her breath from all that had happened in the past few minutes.
"I know you must feel horrible. I too have felt the pain from hurting someone you loved."
"How do you know how I feel?" Luz yelled, "You killed your brother after he supposedly betrayed you. I burnt half of my girlfriend's face like I was Ozai punishing Zuko!"
"You should know I don't understand your references."
"How should I!? Because it feels like you're not just on my face but in my head. You know exactly what to say and exactly how I'm feeling. You're not just being observant, you're inside my brain! Are you the voice in my head? Are you the one who keeps telling me to hurt people?"
"Luz, I don't know anything about a voice in your head. I've lived for 400 years and have just learned a thing or two about the psyche. Human or witch. I have never told you to hurt anyone. That voice is just intrusive thoughts. My only goal is to protect you. I am done hurting people unnecessarily. The only reason I'd even think to suggest that you hurt your friends is if I believed it was truly for your sake and betterment."
"That's rich coming from the murderous, serial grimwalker killing, self cursing, palisman eating, attempted genocidal maniac."
Luz groaned as she felt her legs boiling with the curse.
"I can help you Luz. I'm not in your head now, but I can be. I can help you not feel this pain. All these awful feelings. But I won't do it without your permission."
"We are done, Philip. I am through. You haven't proven to me you can be trusted more than my friends, and as such I can not trust you to help me. So I'm done with this." Luz growled as she reached for her ear.
"Wait. Wait wait wait! Luz! Little Light! Please! You can't handle the-"
Luz stopped hearing Belos' voice as she moved him away from her ear. She dropped him on the ground and encased him in ice on all sides, then wrapped that with vines and moved him to be hidden on the wall. She clutched her monsterous arm as she slowly got up. She staggered to the entrance of the cave as she felt the curse spreading over her face.
"Was that a mistake?" Luz whispered to herself, stopping a few feet from the entrance, "Am I being too harsh on Philip? He has helped me multiple times. He's helped me learn magic and handle the curse. Maybe I shouldn't leave him for good. I-I just need a break to have my mind by itself."
She sighed, deciding to come back for him eventually, and continued her slow limping to the cave entrance. As she was about to move the vines out of the way, Flapjack flew in.
"Flapjack!" Luz gasped, recoiling at herself when she heard the voice.
Flapjack looked hesitant as he stayed flapping just inside the cave in front of Luz.
"Oh I'm so glad you're here! This is all, hah, really crazy! And I know you know Belos really well thanks to him killing all the grimwalkers, but it's all good! And I-I just really need s-someone to help me with this INSANITY! HAH! How did I even get here? In life I mean?"
Luz felt like she was going insane. Her mood was fluctuating between rage, almost manic joy, and deep sadness. This worried Flapjack and he backed up some.
"Wait!" Luz yelled, grabbing Flapjack with his monstrous arm and pulling him close, much to his terror, "I-I'm sorry. But, you palisman have magic. Right?"
Flapjack hesitantly nodded.
"Okay. I need you to knock me out. Use a sleep spell or something then get the others. I'm way too unstable right now but I need to explain things. Maybe not everything, but they deserve to know. I might even help them see that Philip has changed! I think. He mostly has. Well, he doesn't want to commit murder anymore which is an improvement, right?"
Flapjack looked at the curse and narrowed his eyes at Luz.
"I know it looks bad but I can treat this. Eda or Lilith or Boscha can maybe see if they can make me an elixir so I won't have to eat palismen!"
Flapjack seemed scared by the mention of Belos' method of treating his curse.
"No no no, I won't hurt you. I'd never hurt you Flapjack. Just, please. Help me."
After a few seconds of thinking, Flapjack slowly nodded and chirped. Luz let go of her grip on Flapjack, which had been tighter than she realized. Flapjack flew up and nuzzled his head against her forehead. Luz instantly felt a wave of exhaustion, both from the spell and the strange tiredness she had been feeling for the past month. She slowly sank to the ground and her eyes began to close.
The last thing she saw was Flapjack landing on the ground in front of her and the curse receding, leaving behind massive scars that quickly faded away.