"I'm coming in." Eda whispered.
Eda walked into Luz's bedroom, carrying a bowl of peppered noodles. Her hope was that the food would be comforting.
Luz barely moved from her position, but she did seem to notice Eda come in. She leaned into Stringbean, who was giving free snuggles today.
Eda sat at the edge of the bed. She placed the bowl next to Luz, who eventually sat up to begin eating it.
After her silent return the night before, Eda wondered what could have Luz so upset. Eventually, the young witch had told her thee next morning. So far, the day had been spent with comfort in mind.
"I know that this is hard... but you'll heal overtime. Maybe after a bit, you and Blight can talk things out." Eda said this, trying to be helpful.
But Luz knew better. She hadn't said a word about Lilith, or the realization she had. Even if she wanted to talk about her feelings to Amity, she would just be putting her crush in danger.
Luz sighed, deciding to eat her food. It was pretty good. "Thank you, Eda."
"No problem, kid."
Ding.
Eda got up to get the doorbell. She was hoping it wasn't Lilith again.
Once she finally reached the door, Eda looked through the peephole to see who it was. She was pleasantly surprised to see who it was, and opened the door immediately. "When did you find out my address?"
"Sorry for the unexpected visit." Willow said. Something about her smile felt a bit forced.
"Luz sent a message a while ago. W just never got to come over." Gus pulled out his phone to show the proof, but Eda stopped him.
"Come on in." Eda gestured for them to follow. "Honestly, this is probably the best time the two of you could have shown up unexpectedly."
Willow and Gus gave each other looks of confusion. Why would now be the perfect time?
Once they reached Luz's room, everything made a bit more sense.
"Oh, hey guys..." Luz scrambled out of bed, trying to make herself presentable. Her hair was a mess, and she still had pajamas on when it was 1:23 in the afternoon. "I-I didn't realize you'd show up today. Welcome to my room."
"Uh... are you good?" Gus asked.
'Y-Yeah." Luz lied.
Willow looked around. It didn't look very personalized, without any posters or anything like that. But considering Luz had been here for less than a year, it made sense.
"So, what can I do for you?" Luz asked in an overly cheery way.
Willow rubbed her head. "We were hoping you'd be able to come with it to the fair. Since you got to scout it out yesterday."
"O-Oh." Luz's smile faltered, but she tried to shake off her funk. "Sure. Just give me a few minutes to get ready."
Willow and Gus left the room so she could change. Once the door closed, Willow leaned against the wall.
Gus patted her shoulder. "We just need to find the right moment to ask. We've got this."
"I know." Willow responded. "But last time I confronted her, I only made things worse."
"Last time, you were gatekeeping Luz over her social life." Gus stated. "This time, we're confronting her on more telling us about an invasion."
Willow nodded, but her unease wasn't lessened.
Gus gave her a strained smile. "Now come on. We have a carnival to go to."
---
Edric knocked on the door. "Come on, Mittens. You're burning daylight!"
He heard a muddled response come from his sister's room. "Daylight can't burn..."
"Yeah, but Ice Cream can."
Emira joined in. "We're going to get strawberry in a cone. If you don't come now, it'll melt before we get home."
Nothing. Amity had been responding on and off to the twins all day. They pieced together that something happened at the carnival, at least.
Otherwise, neither of them were good at guessing games.
Emira sighed. "Look. Neither of us can force you to talk, and we won't try. But spending the whole day sulking... well, it sucks. If you get Ice Cream, you'll at least feel better."
She was struggling to find what to say.
"We want to help." Edric pleaded.
After a few moments, they heard shuffling from the room. It didn't take long before Amity opened the door. She seemed a bit tired.
She had bedhead, with no ponytail for one. Otherwise, she had on casual clothes.
"I want mint." Amity casually demanded.
Ed and Em smiled: clearly their sister felt a bit better.
---
Luz barely interacted with her friends at the Carnival. She was too focused on not breaking down in tears.
Half the rides Willow and Gus took get to were ones she had gone on with Amity. Every time, her mind went back to last night.
This eventually led her back to...b she always managed to distract herself.
Gus mostly let her be each time. He would ask if this was a ride she already went on and leave it at that.
Willow tried to be cool about it, but she started struggling to after a while.
She always stayed them to the nearest ride trying to make Luz smile. If Luz was feeling happier when they confronted her, then maybe the conversation would go well.
So when Luz only seemed more depressed, Willow's hopes began to dash away.
They spent nearly an hour going around the fair, when Willow made an executive decision. "Maybe we should find somewhere else to hang out."
Gus gave her a surprised look. This was not part of the plan. But one returned stare made him decide to go along with it.
"How about Robin's?" Willow asked.
Luz didn't register what she was asking for a second. "O-Oh. Sure."
She put on another fake smile, but she was struggling to keep up the act. Honestly, this whole time she felt like a buzzkill.
The group made their way to Robin's Roast Café. The entire time, Luz seemed distracted. She had to be stopped a couple times from walking out into the road.
After the third time this happened, Gus stopped them. "Hey, we wanted to talk about something."
"Is something wrong?" Luz asked.
Willow hesitated. "Gus..."
"It's witch related." Gus said.
Luz immediately froze up. She laughed nervously. "W-What about? If you're worried about the guys who showed up, I took care of it! They haven't shown up, so no worries!"
Luz began walking again, trying to ignore the conversation. "The Cafe's not too far."
Willow grabbed her shoulder. "Luz... we know about the invasion."
Luz stumbled a bit, before stopping in her tracks. "W-What... are you talking about?"
"We found the Golden Guard yesterday. He got away, but we found out that Belos is coming here."
"He's just trying to scare you!" Luz claimed. "We're fine."
"He said that you've known about it since Gravesfield." Gus said. "Luz... you have to tell us this kind of things."
Luz rubbed her head. She really didn't want this conversation right now. Unfortunately, she was realizing she didn't have a choice. "I-I was trying not to worry you guys."
"But we are worried!" Gus said louder than he meant to. "We already know about Belos... things would be scarier if we didn't know."
"Why didn't you tell us?" Willow asked. "We can to help."
"How?"
Willow tilted her head. "What do you mean how?"
"How can you two help?!? What can you do against Belos and his Coven?" Luz was tired of this. "You can't do anything against him! So I didn't want you to worry."
Clouds in the sky began to grow darker, but no one seemed to notice.
Willow pushed up her glasses. "We helped when the Golden Guard attacked. When Grom took over the school, we kept his shadow minion things busy."
"I distracted Grom for you." Gus added.
Luz shook her head. She wanted her friend to understand so badly. "You got kidnapped by Golden Guard... and he was only one witch! When Grom attacked, you and Amity got swarmed. Gus, you nearly died distracting him. This is bigger! I won't let anything happen to you to!"
"It's our decision to fight with you!" Willow exclaimed.
"I can't lose anyone else, okay?!?" Tears began rolling across her cheeks. "I've lost enough!"
Willow and Gus stopped arguing. It was clear her life wasn't easy in the Boiling Isles, but they didn't actually know what she went through. The number of darkened clouds in the sky grew, notably making the city a bit darker.
What did Luz mean by she lost enough?
Before either of them could ask this, they felt a small shake in the ground. It wasn't an earthquake, but something was creating strong enough vibrations to feel through the ground.
Luz noticed this too. She turned rapidly, trying to see where the source of the rumbling was coming from. She then realized that the sky was darker, and the wind seemed to blow a bit stronger.
Then, Luz felt it. A source of magic strong enough to feel from miles away. It came from the area of the fair.
Only one time before had she experienced magic this powerful. It was not any witch she'd met, not the Bat Queen, not even Emperor Belos himself. But it did come from a creation of Belos... one that had brought her to Earth in a flash of lights.
"W-What's happening?" Gus stuttered. He began looking in the same direction of Luz. He realized that there were an abnormal amount of shady clouds in the same direction. "Luz? What is that?"
Luz stood completely petrified in fear. Her worst nightmares were coming to fruition right now.
"Belos."