I've decided to start uploading whenever I finish writing a chapter. My schedule has become really inconsistent at the moment, since my job is actually a nightmare.
Enjoy, see you soon!
Taco <3
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Since Eda came back last night, you were on edge.
The idea of the coven coming to find you by force had somehow never crossed your mind.
A raid?
Hunter??
You had almost forgotten what proper panic felt like.
Eda would say the same thing whenever you mentioned it,
"Kid, let me and Lilith handle it. We're the adults. We've kicked the coven's butt before, and I bet we can do it again, even without magic."
Then you'd yell back.
"But I'm the most powerful witch my age on the isles! Let me help, I can help you!"
You only recognised how powerful you were when it came to proving your point. Unfortunately, it never sunk into your self esteem.
"Your power is exactly why we're keeping you here in the first place. The Emperor is going to hurt you over it, and I like you too much to let that happen!"
That line would always stop you.
Having a mother figure was weird. At least, one that didn't ridicule you for existing.
You huffed as you reminisced, and sat cross legged on the window seat in the kitchen, looking outside to Luz, Eda and Lilith.
The voices were muffled, but you made out the words,
"Welcome to day three of Luz's magic boot camp!"
Glyph magic.
You'd always wanted a chance to learn it, unfortunately all the lessons were taking place outside to avoid proper damage to The Owl House, and the last time you tried to step foot outside, you almost broke down.
That, and Luz still wasn't fully trusting of you yet, so she was hesitant to share her magic with a coven official.
You'd caught little glimpses of what they were doing, but never got a full look at the blackboard to catch the actual drawings of the glyphs that Luz was creating, so you never got them right.
"Ok, you two keep practicing your magic, I need to get my bag for school!"
You saw Luz head for the front door, and Hooty let her in.
Making brief eye contact as she stepped a few feet into the kitchen to get her bag off of a coat hanger, she decided to make conversation.
"Hey, uh... I'm going to talk to Principal Bump. Even though you're on the run, you still deserve to see your friends at school. I'll make sure he doesn't rat you out to the Emperor's coven."
She looked at you, her eyes filled with emotion you couldn't fully read.
"Thank you, Luz. That means a lot. It may still be a while until I'm ready to head back, but I really appreciate everything you and Eda are doing for me... Even after what I did."
Her face shifted to a soft smile, and she nodded, before Hooty quickly shoved her back outside to head to Hexside.
"King's in charge while I'm gone!"
Luz yelled, the straps of her bag holding her up off the ground while Hooty carried her.
"Ha-ha! Power!"
King cheered.
After that, you sat up and walked over to one of the shelves in Eda's living room. A set of books to the right of the mirror that hung above the fireplace. You found that one of them was blank yesterday, and Eda let you use it to write in.
"Keep a diary or something. Get stuff off your chest. I can tell there's a lot that needs to be written down."
She smiled, and handed you a pen.
So far, you hadn't written much. You'd ended up writing about your parents mostly, letting the slow realisation of what they did to you get more powerful with every word you wrote down.
Eventually, if someone was reading all of this, they'd get bored of your constant nagging.
Which was the plan.
A dozen or so pages in, you stopped talking about yourself, and committed every inch of your memory to a layout of the Emperor's palace.
Corridors, rooms you trained in, guard locations, maps of the stairs and a convenient route all the way to the throne room.
After you'd messed with the scrying potion yesterday, you'd had an even clearer memory of where everything was.
You'd also figured out which room Hunter stayed in, for the sake of kidnapping him.
You made no attempt to look inside however, it was an unnecessary breach of his privacy.
But you found which spire he resided in. Like a prince in a tower.
All you needed to do was get the courage to... go outside.
Then craft a staff. Or steal a staff.
Then figure out how you were going to avoid security, or The Emperor.
Part of you felt you had the skill to break in immediately. The other part of you knew that you would probably be killed if something went wrong.
You needed to wait for the perfect moment, and right now was not the right answer.
Maybe, if-
A loud crash made you jump and slam your diary closed,
"Ugh, no way am I listening to her. Let's create some chaos!"
Eda had kicked the door open.
You turned to look at her, hunched over your book with a pen in your dominant hand.
"Did I... walk in on something?"
She chuckled.
"No, I was just writing. Secret diary stuff."
You lied, ish.
"Oh, fun! Anyway, I'm going to make some glyph combos that will blow Luz away!"
She dived onto the sofa and pulled out some square pieces of paper.
Huh, real glyphs.
A chance to actually look at how they worked.
Well, sort of how they worked. You had a feeling that Eda was going to mess with them somehow.
It had only been three days, there's no way she had already mastered glyph combinations.
But, she seemed so calm. You couldn't sleep last night thanks to the worry that someone was going to try to break in overnight.
There were pieces of paper with overlapping glyphs, and sigils. Piles of different techniques to try and create a blast of magic better than Lilith's.
You could feel yourself twitching from the impending feeling of dread. Until, Eda cut you out of it again.
"Why so twitchy, witchy?"
Eda asked, her gold fang accenting her smile as she grinned at her own play on words.
"I'm just... worried."
You sighed, sitting down next to her.
She wrapped an arm around your shoulder and pulled you into her side.
"That's all you seem to do nowadays, huh? Were you always like this?"
"Yeah. Pretty much. Worried about parents yelling at me, grades at school, my toxic friend group. I just want to be good enough for everyone."
You wrapped your arms around her for support, and she made sure you didn't have to let go.
"I get where you're coming from kid. Just know you're not alone."
She grabbed a pen and put down a piece of paper, ready to write a glyph.
"I felt the pressure you feel now when I was younger, just about your age."
Her hand made the first smooth stroke on paper.
"There was a constant desire to be better, to prove my worth to the people around me. Especially since I was newly donned 'The Owl Lady'."
A full circle, then Eda's pen broke connection with the paper.
"Eventually, that craving for attention meant I couldn't keep myself healthy anymore. My curse would grow stronger and I didn't have the power to do everything I wanted. I was too busy focusing on the wants of other people."
She sighed, completing an inner circle and working on the glyph intricacies in the middle.
"I needed to learn to appreciate the then and now. To take time to look after myself."
Stroke after stroke, the shapes slowly started to come together.
Eda set her pen to the side, and waited for the ink to dry.
"Then, I could take things one at a time. until eventually I loved myself enough to know that other people's opinions of me didn't matter."
She tapped her finger against the paper, and it coiled and crinkled. Condensing into pure light that rose in front of the two of you.
You sat in silence for a minute, watching as the light floated, and pulsed with energy above the two of you.
"One thing at a time..."
You said.
"Maybe that's why Luz's glyph combos work, and the crazy ones you make don't."
"Hm?"
Eda looked at you, waiting for you to continue.
"Luz's glyphs are all one big circle, with everything neatly separated, from what I know. The spell can take one thing at a time and create something beautiful at the end."
You pointed to the light above both of your heads.
"The combos you make are on top of one another. Like you're making the spell do everything at once, which it can't handle, so it doesn't work."
You picked up a combo Eda made and tapped it to watch it fizzle, you backed up your point.
"Kinda like your burn out, huh?"
Eda smiled and ruffled your hair.
"I guess..."
Burn out. Hmm.
Was what you felt that bad that it needed its own name?
It probably was, considering how rough you'd been feeling recently.
But you had time, and a space you felt safe in. There was enough time for you to recover here now, away from it all...
"Hands up, Clawthorne! We don't work for you anymore!"
A flash from outside stopped the moment and the two of you were suddenly on high alert.
"Y/N, hide."
Eda tried to coerce you behind one of the sofas.
"What? No, I-"
You slapped her hand out of the way, ready to bicker, hands clamming.
"Hide."
She almost hissed, and you finally let it sink in that you weren't allowed to help.
There was a clattering thud against the door as you ducked behind the furthest sofa on your hands and knees.
Your nails dug marks into the wooden floor as it took every fibre of your life to stop yourself from shaking.
There were sets of feet in the Emperor's scout uniform casting shadows on the floor from the strong light of the day outside.
Oh Titan. This was it. This was the raid.
"You pest! Leave them alone! They don't deserve this!"
You could hear Lilith scream from outside as Hooty did his best to knock over a few of the guards.
"You lay a finger on that kid, and I'll tear you all down bit by bit!!"
Lilith let out a yell afterwards as she took a spell to the face, causing her to crash into the ground underneath her.
There was a sick chuckle from the person in front. The scout to take their first step into The Owl House.
"We meet again, Owl Lady. I'd say it's a pleasure, but it isn't."
You could see pairs of feet slowly walking inside. Masked scouts preparing to check every corner they could to track you down.
You... you knew that voice.
"Golden Guard. Lilith told me that you were a brat. You're really living up to that name."
You could hear Eda growl as she stepped back into her house.
Even now, she was covering you.
Owlbert flew to her side, and you jumped when the bottom of Eda's staff hit the wood in front of you.
"Of course she did. Probably because I'm more competent at her job than she ever was."
Hunter chuckled.
Wow. He was... Mean.
"Now, I'm asking one more time. Give up the Copper Commander. The Emperor demands it."
You could feel your heartbeat rise.
The Emperor wanted you.
Oh Titan, he was going to hurt you. Even worse, turn you into a statue for the centre of his royal gardens...
Beat after beat, and your pulse grew faster, as The Golden Guard and The Owl Lady exchanged words.
"Why would I ever give someone like them to you?! What gives me any reason to believe that they would be safe. I bet you can't even count the scars Belos has given you!"
Hunter almost stumbled back as his guards turned to look at him.
You ran your fingers across your lip. The scar you got from your training at the palace was still there.
"That isn't important. My scars were my own mistakes. Don't bring The Emperor into this."
You felt the Guard's act come together again.
"Tell me where they are. I-"
He fell silent for a second,
"The Emperor needs them. For the day of Unity."
Hunter held his staff out in front of him.
It was pointed towards Eda. It was pointed, unknowingly, towards you.
You shuffled a few inches back, catching your foot on something and flinching from the noise, you hit your head against the top of the sofa you were hidden under.
"Uhf!-"
You groaned, but it was loud enough to hear...
Eda's face turned pale and she felt herself think at the speed of light.
Oh, Titan.
Oh no.
"Guards, stand down. I can handle this."
Hunter turned towards the cause of the noise, you, and slowly walked forward.
Suddenly, you were twitching.
It was Hunter.
He liked you.
Why were you suddenly so scared...?
It wasn't him. It was what he represented.
You'd only just started to heal, but he was here. Seeing him meant returning to the palace.
Seeing him meant being captive again.
No matter how much you liked him, he was the symbol of everything that was ruining you.
Hang on...
He was here. At the Owl House.
He'd done all of the hard work for you. That entire plan you had about sneaking into the castle and taking him. He was here.
You just had to stop him from leaving.
Hunter had basically kidnapped himself!
Finally, a sense of power. A chance to act!
You had no idea it could be this easy.
But of course, it wasn't...
Your hand stretched out from underneath the sofa, grabbing onto Hunter's ankle. Pulling, you saw him fall backwards, finally getting a glimpse at his mask again.
You heard him gasp and felt him struggle as his hands were empty, reaching to grab the staff he had dropped.
He made a circle with it, pulling himself backwards and out of your grasp.
You could almost see into the mask from the position he was in.
You saw Eda get ready for an all out attack,
"Alright, Golden boy. Dodge this!"
But Hunter couldn't hear the words.
He saw you.
Oh Titan, you were alive! You were breathing! He was so close to getting you back!
Why, were you hiding from him...?
"Y/N!-"
He couldn't finish saying your name by the time Eda had sent him flying out of the door with an ice glyph.
Shards of water that created enough force to send him flying.
His staff followed him, falling into his hands and holding him up in the air, hundreds of feet away from The Owl House.
Your easiest chance at success. Gone...
"Oh yeah! Look who just mastered glyph combos! If anybody else wants an icicle to the face-"
Eda chanted,
"We're more than happy to oblige."
Then Lilith morbidly finished, glyph paper in hand.
The rest of the coven scouts politely surrendered, now that their leader was no longer nearby, and simply walked outside, swearing to return.
You could sigh again, whether in grief or joy, you didn't know.
You attempted to crawl out from underneath the sofa before the world started spinning, and you slowly grew weaker, losing your conscience as your head hit the floor...
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"Hey guys..."
Luz mumbled, covered in debris.
School didn't finish this late. She seemed to have been through another adventure of hers.
You were slowly gaining your vision as the lights of the house's candles slowly flickered in your peripheral.
Titan, your head hurt.
"Ugh..."
How long were you out for...?
At this point it didn't matter. You weren't in the castle, and Hunter wasn't with you.
"Hey teacher, both Eda and I figured out how to do glyph combos!"
Lilith pressed her hand down onto another sheet of paper and created a puff of heavy smoke, pouring off of the table and covering the floor in a mist. Presumably to cover how wet the floor was after the ice Eda cast had melted.
King had his head buried against you, the two of you had been napping together. He was like a big hot water bottle.
You could feel yourself breathing normally again. Your pace had slowed, you were calmer..
"Oh, wow! That's amazing! But, can you show me properly tomorrow? I need to lie down..."
Luz groaned, presumably feeling your pain, and plodded upstairs to her room.
Staying awake was getting hard. Good thing you were already laying down in your bed, all you had to do was close your eyes.
Lilith and Eda were sat in front of the sofa, looking at all the work they had made on the table in front of them, seemingly just having finished a conversation about glyph magic and its practices.
Eda turned to look at you subconsciously,
"Oh, you're awake! I was worried I was going to have to call the healing coven."
You couldn't really talk yet, but you smiled knowing that Eda and Lilith cared so much about you.
Ever since your brother became the heir to the business, you were pretty much valueless, it was nice to be treated with respect by your family.
Your family...
Yeah, that sounded nice.
"Thanks for looking after me."
Your throat was sore, but it was going to wear off after a good night's sleep.
"No need to thank us. You're with us now, that won't be changing any time soon."
Lilith smiled, then gestured to a hot drink she made for you on the table by your head.
"We're going to head to bed now, so sleep well kid. I'll see you tomorrow. Don't think too much about what happened today, ok? We'll talk about it tomorrow."
Eda smiled with her fangs and huffed out a few of the candles in the living room, leaving Hooty to the rest.
"Night Eda! Goodnight Lilith!"
You smiled, trying not to shout too loud as Eda walked up the stairs and her sister slept on the other sofa in the room.
You were home.
You were being kept safe
You could sleep sound for once...