Her walk home has been quite uneventful, her mind too busy and only her knowledge of the area was guiding her forward.
'What am I going to do..?' she asked herself, Luz had no idea what to do about this situation, her mother did not believe her, or well..in her..that much was certain, but if she was affected by something, she could not just ignore that, could she..
She needed to get it all together and think about this, seeing a bench in her way, Luz sat down, pulling out her phone and texting her mother, saying she would be home shortly, just so Camila wouldn't organize a search party.
Before leaning back and staring at the night sky, her thoughts stayed with her mother.
'She doesn't like me doing magic..so If I want to continue doing it, I need to keep it a secret from her.'
'Going to school would not be impossible, but I want the time to spend at the library, so if I could avoid it that would be best.'
'If I am not telling her about magic, telling her anything about Amity or others would be a bad idea, she would wonder why I am not doing anything to save them, or at least stressing about it.', 'But then again..when we talked before I told her a few things..', Luz could not remember what she told her, she leaned back forward and put her hands on her face, letting out a tired groan.
She had no idea what to do next, her original intention was to somehow create another portal and travel back, but with the new information she has gathered, that did not seem like a possible idea.
Luz was not sure about the exact date of Jacob's last entry and the closing of the portals the Order used, but it was several hundreds of years minimum, seeing as the first mention of The Inquisition was from the 12th century.
She also knew that Jacob was here in America..which was discovered in 1492, meaning that Order was still somewhat around 300 years after The Inquisition.
That meant those witches had plenty of time to try and create their own portals.
What could she do that a whole Order of witches much older and experienced than her could not...
She needed to think about it, analyze the situation..
'Okay, is there something different?', she asked herself.
Well, a lot of time has passed.. centuries.., that could make some difference, there was a working portal here in Gravesfield once, but that worked on titan blood and she did not have any, 'There could be more tho..', she jumped up, almost running to look.
'What good would that do..', interrupted a rational part of her, rooting her in her place..
'I could get back to Amity and others..' thought Luz, slightly confused.
'And do what exactly??' countered her mind, 'Trip collector over a vine? Blind him with light?? If there is some more blood here, it will open a temporary portal, you will not get back..' this thought surprised her, it was right, but did she want to come back at all??
'That's not the point..', said her thoughts,' If you can not escape back with them, then you need to defeat the Collector to be able to stay', said her thoughts truthfully, 'Can you do that?', she asked herself and involuntarily giggled, she had a snowball chance in hell defeating the god-like Collector.
Hell..god-like may be unfair...Collector was a straight up god..she saw as they moved a freaking moon aside, with one finger.
'What about the Guardians..' she thought about it for a moment.
'I think that's a terrible idea,' she concluded, after what she read about them, trusting them would be downright stupid, besides even if they decided to help.. could they?
Luz was not sure, the book mentioned they could have closed the portals, it presented no evidence if they did or did not, but the fact is they used the closing to their advantage was saying something..
'They could have just used the opportunity', said her inner voice, 'Or orchestrated everything', said the other.
'Are they even still around??', that was another important question, she never heard of any Guardians, in the age of the internet it would be very difficult to hide such an organization..
'Well,.. let's google it, we will see what comes up,' thought Luz, while getting up and continuing her journey home.
Pulling up her phone and starting to type into google..
*Heroes of Paris*
*What are The Miraculous?*
*Secret identities of Ladybug and Chat Noir - speculation*
*The order of Guadrians - who are they?*
Luz stopped dead in her tracks, 'Well.. that was easier than I thought,' it seemed like the Guardians were still around, she was unsure if that was good news for her.
All of the articles were relatively new, released after she went to the isles and got her internet cut off.
'I need to investigate this thoroughly, but first I have another hurdle to overcome,' she thought, arriving in front of her home.
She still had no idea what to say to her mother.., getting sidetracked by her plans about getting back, but she could not just walk away for a few more hours to think about it, she doubted a miraculous solution would come to her mind anyway.
'Let's be as honest as I can.', she decided as she opened the doors.
"Luz?? Is that you?", asked Camila from the kitchen.
"Yea Mamma it's me.." answered Luz reflexively.
In a flash her mother stood in the entryway "Luz..I..I am sorry," she said, with a barely contained sob.
It did not even occur to Luz how much she wanted to hear that until her mom said it.
She quickly drove away the tears, now was not a time for them, "I changed mom, I know I have not been long for that long but.."
"I know Luz.", her mother interrupted,"I should have taken that into an account, but I was just so scared, I saw what doing magic did to you and I just..overreacted.", said Camila.
"I know mom.", said Luz, her brain now working at twice its normal speed.
She felt as if she was standing on a crossroad.
There were two paths presented to her, she could tell her mother everything, try to make her see, try to convince her that doing magic was alright, tell her about her friends and Amity, how she needed to find them, about Eda, King, Hooty(maybe not him..the tube demon was nightmare fuel), about the Demon isles and how accepted and at home she felt there.
But, what if her mother disagreed, if she could not reason with her mom, Camila would start watching her, making sure she was not hurting herself aka. doing magic, could Luz take that risk..?
'But its not only that,..you are a Magus.', she remained herself, that was right, whether she wanted it or not, she had that 'Defence mechanism' now, which meant that if her mother disagreed with her and could not be convinced, the resulting arguments, surveillance and limiting her, could have consequences for Luz, as she would feel mistrusted and depressed.
She did not see any other path, then the one where she was alone.
"It's okay mom, I just...needed to process it, I still am..going through it all.."
"Oh I know Luz and I am so sorry you had to go thru all that.", said her mother, hugging her, "I am sorry for not trusting you, what I did earlier today."
"Its okay mom.", said Luz quickly, seeing her mom was about to cry, "I do not blame you,.. do we have any food..I have been out for quite a while.." said Luz, leading the conversation elsewhere.
"Of course! Come into the kitchen," said her mother, taking a while longer to let her go, before leading Luz to the table and herself continuing to the counter to make some quick food.
"About school..", said Luz carefully, speaking to her mothers back, "I do not want to take school away from Vee, she seems to be enjoying it..", she continued.
"It's true she really is enjoying it..", said Camila.
"Where is she?? In her room?", asked Luz, noticing the absence of her shape-sister.
"Yes and she has.." Camila paused, turning to Luz, "She has a friend over to visit..", said her mother, it took Luz a moment to figure out her mother's expression.
'OH, riiiight she looks like me and uses my name, so I should not be seen here should I..' "Should I hide somewhere??", asked Luz, kinda amused by the situation.
"I do not think you will have to..", said her mother, giving Luz a small smile, "I doubt said friend is going to take their eyes of Vee for long enough to notice you..or the other way around for that matter."
Ohhhhh, now this was interesting development, "Their?" asked Luz, noticing the way her mother avoided he/she.
"Well Vee has not told me anything, but I noticed her using they/them when she speaks about them."
"I see, does she speak often about them??", asked Luz, seeing it as a good way to lead the conversation elsewhere and also being really interested.
"As often as you spoke about anime, Good witch Azura and fan-fictions.", said her mother, returning back to the table with some sandwiches.
"So she does not speak about anything else...got it," said Luz with a small laugh, it has been a long time since she last read a fan-fiction, she kinda doubted she would have time even now that she was back.
"Are you not worried about leaving them both up there??"asked Luz, she did not want to spoil Vee's fun, but it was a little strange, her mom was flexible..but she had her limits.
"Well, I for one kinda feel bad constricting her..", said Camila and Luz understood what she meant, watching Vee, making sure she was not doing anything she was not supposed to, while necessary...it could be kiiinda taken as prison warden behavior, which would definitely be kinda cruel.
"Okay..", said Luz, deciding to leave that whole can of worms closed, getting up from the table, as she had finished her meal.
"But do not come to me, if you become a grandma..", said Luz, grinning at her mom, feeling only a slight bit of jealousy for not being able to have Amity in her room, showing through the cracks in her smile.
"They are both girls,.. I mean..well...you know what I mean..", corrected her mother swiftly.
"Vee is my shape-sister tho..", said Luz, smiling at her pun, "So I think she could shape me a niece if she really wanted," added Luz, raising an eyebrow at her mother, before continuing upstairs.
Soon she heard footsteps behind her, she just looked back at her mom and raised eyebrows again in question, "I am just going to check on them...", said Camila, looking kinda nervous for 'some unknown' reason.
Luz laughed when she entered her room, mentally apologizing to Vee and hoping the two of them weren't actually doing anything inappropriate.
But she had other worries, she needed to research the clues she found online on her phone, 'I hope I am going to find something useful,' she thought, while sitting down with her old laptop.
*Several hours later*
'Well this was pretty much a waste of time..', thought Luz, looking at all the notes she took during her search, nothing about the demon isles, portals, Order or anything else she was interested in finding.
Thankfully her search was not a complete waste, the stuff about the heroes of Paris was pretty interesting to say the least, as far as she could tell..there were young, kinda like her or if not exactly..not that far off, and there were fighting another 'Miraculous user', which was probably the correct translation of User of Miracles, and that was certainly interesting..
Luz thought about it for a moment, 'Is this some kind of civil war?? Why are they fighting each-other..?'
'What does it mean..' Luz got up from her bed and started pacing her room.
'There is only three of them..', 'One of them has the power to turn other people into monsters but still..', Luz was not sure about the exact numbers of the Order and the Guardians, but with the way the book spoke of them, the 'Only one tenth of the Order remained' and how long it took the Guardians to get rid of them, it seemed to her like there was a lot of them on both sides, hundreds maybe thousands, 'so why leave three to fight each other in France.'.
The Guardians remained hidden for so long, they must have put real work into keeping it that way... and now they abandoned it..just bursting into the open like this?
'Yea that was not happening..', but then why were they not interfering, if one side was backed by them, they should have won a long time ago, but no,.. the stalemate continued.
'All three could be deserters..', 'Ooor there could be no other Guardians who could back any of them up..' Luz was not sure which option was better, if there were no Guardians, the possibility that anyone could know something about portals was pretty much zero, but then again she would not have to deal with them and could cross them out of her mind as bad guys from the past.
She returned to bed and read through her papers.
*Ladybugs power is capable of creating weapons and tools she uses in her fight against Hawkmoth and his Akuma and she also restores the city after each fight, repairing everything and returning it back to the state before the attack.*
*While Chat Noir has power of destruction, wielding it, he can destroy pretty much any object he touches.*
This sounded familiar to Luz, she searched her memories..
*Some of them come to our aid, betraying the Guardians and trying to help us. Even the two main Miracles of creation and destruction came , but it was too late and the users of those Miracles paid heavily for their attempt.*
That was it, she remembered the passage from the book, it must have been these two, they were rebels so far as Luz knew, trying to help the Order back then, if the rest of the Guardians were sitting back, it would make sense for them to come running and trying to save the day.
'So at least in the past they were friends..','Well..friends of the Order..not yours..', she needed to remind herself...but still..
If she was being completely honest, the thought of restarting the Order trying to rebuild it, did not seem like that bad a goal, she needed to read more books and find out more about them, but..
Well that did not matter right now, right now she needed to decide if she was going to do something about this or not.
'Could you do something even if you wanted??' well that was a hard question, France was half the world away, she could speak a little french but not much and her mother would never let her go there.., Camila would find out about the heroes and see thru Luz immediately.
Her head was starting to hurt, she needed more information and it was getting late, 'I need to go back to the library tomorrow.', Luz resolved herself, while changing into her pajamas and getting ready to sleep, 'I wonder what those two are like..I would really like to meet them someday, even if its just to say thank you for helping Jacob's friends,' thought Luz as she slipped under her blanket, sleep claiming her immediately.