Valeween was a time in the Boiling Isles that, if someone wanted to make it out unscathed, their best best was to follow the rules of engagement that had been learnt through centuries of facing off against the creatures. Constant experimentation, the testing of new ideas, and risk were all fundamental to what little the Witches of the Boiling Isles had come to know about their otherworldly invaders, and if one wanted to get through the event with the best chance of not being infected by them, if they valued their social standing, and in some cases, their lives, they would respect those lessons learned.
One of those rules was a very simple one. One that was absolutely foundational to the event unharmed, and with the best chances of wellbeing. It was one that was just as fundamental to the basic laws of nature, and eternally applicable to Witches and to Humans in life-and-death situations alike.
'Never be alone.'
-Valeween for Witchlings, Chapter 8, Page 78
Cherubim were predators, and they acted as such - They would always go for the weakest target whenever they got the opportunity to. The old, the ill, the weak, and the young. Of every group though, someone who was alone was an easy target, every single time. One person could easily be outnumbered, out powered, and if need be, outlasted. So if someone was thinking right, or had a sensible head on their shoulders, they wouldn't go off alone. They would stay in a group, and make sure they had at least one other person besides them, no matter what.
But this was not a rule Luz was willing to respect right now.
There wasn't any time to grab hold of anyone, and there wasn't any time to tell anyone where she was going. There wasn't even any time to even think about doing either of those things. Luz didn't even think in the slightest.
She just ran. She ran as fast as she could, her body moving on its own as she darted down the streets and the alleyways needed to get to Blight Manor.
A part of her mind knew what she was doing was dumb - That there was a very good chance that she got injured of infected by the Cherubim, and that she was probably going to be berated by everyone she knew when all was said and done.
Right now though, she couldn't care less.
Light blue flames continued to bellow into the sky from Blight Manor, and Luz had to work really, really hard to not let those flames fill her entire vision, lest she not see an incoming Cherubim, or God forbid, an Adult Cherubim. But she couldn't tear her eyes away from it for too long either. And every second that passed motivated her to pick up the pace, to run faster, to get there as quickly as she could.
Thousands of questions ran through her mind, all at the same time.
What had caused the fire?
Were Cherubim responsible, or was a Witch?
Was anyone in the Manor, or had it been abandoned for Valeween?
Where was Amity?
Was she okay?
A swarm of Cherubim spotted Luz, and began to swoop down at the Human as she ran as fast as her legs could carry her. She saw them flying in, coming at her in a direct head-on assault. The lead Cherubim had already cracked it's jaw open, and was charging it's Cherubim Ray in it's eye, ready to fire.
Desperation and fury fuelled Luz's movements as she reached into her jacket, and slammed three Ice Glyphs into the ground as soon as the Cherubim flew in close.
Spikes erupted, and ran through about half of the Cherubim before they even got close to the Human. Chunks of ice formed stepping stones, allowing her to jump between the gaps, and slam her baseball bat with all her might against the Cherubim that had managed to dodge the ice.
The final Cherubim, Luz attached a Light Glyph to, and she took immense satisfaction knowing that the heat of the Light would turn the creature into dust. She didn't look back though.
She just kept on running, straight to Blight Manor, as the creature burnt up behind her.
Amity was all that Luz had on her mind. All she could think about.
All that mattered right now.
There was a distinct possibility that Amity wasn't even at Blight Manor - That it had been abandoned, and that the fire was something completely unrelated to her being there. And that would make this huge risk she was taking a waste.
Frankly, she didn't care though. If it turned out Amity was nowhere to be found, Luz would consider that an absolute positive. She hoped for all the world that Amity wasn't at Blight Manor - She would rather this all be a waste of her time, and a pointless, stupid risk.
But even the chance that Amity was there was too much for Luz to take. She had to know.
More than anything, Luz needed Amity to be okay. She had to be okay. She had to be. Luz still needed to tell her that she was sorry for pushing her like she had. She still had to fix everything. She -
She needed Amity to be okay.
'Please be okay, Amity.' She repeated to herself in her head as she ran, doing everything she could to run that bit faster. 'Please be okay.'
Another group of Cherubim began to charge at her, once again from straight ahead. This had to have been the third group that had tried to attack her since she began this charge towards Blight Manor, and each time, Luz had felt herself get more and more furious at them, and their existence. This whole mess, this whole situation - It was all their fault in the first place!
How Willow could see the creatures fondly, Luz doubted she would ever know.
Her grip tightened on her bat, rose it above her head, and she charged.
"Get the hell out of my way!"
Amity hadn't been planning on being stuck in Blight Manor for the duration of Valeween.
It would have been easy to, and it had been sorely tempting - Ever since she had lashed out at Luz, she hadn't felt like lifting a finger to do much of anything. All she could think about was how much she had screwed up, and how much Luz... Didn't deserve the way she had spoken to her. How much she regretted it. How much she hated that she couldn't take it back.
How badly she had screwed up everything.
That consumed her mind. It didn't let her think of anything else. It bugged her in so, so many ways that she had begun to lose track of them all. How many different ways she had screwed up over the course of two minutes. That was how long it took to screw up everything she had built over the last few months. Two minutes.
After that, it was impossible to want to do anything.
A few locked doors, send Beckham out with some money to hire the nastiest looking bodyguards that he could find that held no sense of civic duty - It wouldn't have even been all that difficult to isolate herself entirely from the world today. And then, she could have spent the entirety of the event in her room, moping about how much of a screw-up she was. Trying to find... Some way to fix it.
Miserable as she felt though, she didn't have the intention to do what her parents had done - Just hidden behind other people, and left Bonesborough to fend for itself. She wasn't her parents. She didn't want to be like them - She wasn't going to be like them. She was going to help protect Bonesborough. Help fight off the Cherubim. She was going to be better than her parents were...
...Or at least try to be. Even if she didn't know if she could be.
But she would try. Even though nothing - Nothing at all - could be further from what she wanted to do.
More than anything, she just wanted to cry.
The Cherubim had arrived early though - Earlier than anyone she knew remembered, and began to attack, and swarm everywhere that they could find. She hadn't been ready. No one in Blight Manor had been ready. A full staff was still there, readying itself for the trip into the city, to join the defuses with their friends and loved ones.
And now, they were stuck in the midst of a battle within Blight Manor.
Amity's sword slashed through the centre of another Cherubim, cleaving the creature in two before it burst into dust and went to be reincarnated on its side of the Realm. Ideally, she would have trapped it, and stopped it from involving itself in the invasion again, but right now, she was focused on making sure that no one got infected or hurt by the invaders.
Plus, it felt very, very good to take out her frustrations on the damned things that were responsible for those frustrations in the first place.
"Everyone!" She yelled behind her, "Move! Quickly!"
The staff behind her obeyed her commands, and followed her as she led them through another corridor, and pushed to reach the nearest exit from the Manor. Beckham was covering the rear, while Amity focused on the front. Everyone was armed, and able to use their Magic to engage with the Cherubim when they needed to, but Amity was capable of handing the worst of what the Cherubim would throw their way.
It was her fault they were all in this mess - It should be her at the front.
For a few hours now, the Manor had been a hectic war zone, with no sense of structure, rhyme, or reason. Cherubim had almost immediately shattered the windows as they flew in, somehow knowing that inside they would find prey, and fired at anyone they could see, inciting mass panic and fear within all the staff, and within Amity herself. It had just been a hectic mad storm, as people fled in whatever directions they could to get away. At least half a dozen people had been hit by Cherubim Rays, and had needed to be rendered unconscious for their, and everyone else's, well being.
They were with the group right now, being carried by the other house staff, at the centre of the group, as far away from any Cherubim in any direction. Initially, they had been sealed off into separate rooms after being knocked out, to prevent the Cherubim from being able to feed from them.
Now that the Manor was on fire, they couldn't just be left there. The risk of Adult Cherubim was just a risk they were going to have to take.
Somehow being able to get some control over the situation for a time, Amity and Beckham had managed to wrangle everyone they could find in the Manor together, and between all of them, had managed to set up a defensive perimeter on the second floor. They had all barricaded the windows to prevent any Cherubim from flanking them, and they had done the same to the stairwell to the third floor - Any Cherubim that broke in from the third floor would find themselves completely unable to reach the second floor.
From there, they had backed in a select series of rooms, and been able to hold out there for an extended period of time. A defensive line was formed, and the staff had managed to keep the Cherubim at bay, despite attack after attack. They hadn't even lost anyone to a Cherubim Ray since they fell back to that position, thanks to everyone's efforts and fighting, and a line of Abominations that Amity had created to soak up the blasts for everyone.
While they had boxed themselves in with nowhere to run, they had created something of a kill-zone - Any Cherubim that got too close were practically disintegrated or were trapped, before they could do any damage at all. Hug swarms of Cherubim rushed them in pointless charges, seeking to whittle down their defences, but each time, it ended in failure. Whenever someone got tired, someone else would tag in, and keep up the line. Spells and objects aplenty made sure that they were able to hammer down as many as came their way.
For a while, Amity had managed to let herself think that they would be able to get through the night like this, or would be able to thin out the Cherubim numbers enough that they would be able to make an escape attempt.
Until the Adult Cherubim had arrived.
It was one of the ones that had managed to drink the blue goo from one of the staff, before flying off, and mutating elsewhere. Only about half the height of the corridor, but plenty terrifying either way. It had known where the others were for a while now, but hadn't made its move - Beckham had a theory that it had been seeking to flank them, but because of where they had positioned themselves, and how they had barricaded themselves in, hadn't been able to find a place to do so. So all it had left was a frontal assault.
Charging straight for the group, as it let out it's horrid, gurgling shriek.
The first spell Amity could think of was her fireball spell. Without a thought, she cast the thing - She didn't aim it at the Adult Cherubim though, but one of her Abominations.
As soon as the fireball met the Abomination, it erupted into a brilliant blue flame, and tackled the creature, wrestling and pushing it back down the corridor it had come from, and to the other side of the Manor, where it eventually exploded.
It took out the Adult Cherubim.
But it also set the Manor aflame.
Such a stupid move, Amity berated herself. Now everyone had to take the risk of getting infected and had to abandon a good defensive position, because of her screw-up. But she did what she could, and led the staff as they made the push to the main entrance of the Manor. They would have to take their chances at getting to Bonesborough.
She didn't even know what she had been thinking.
She hadn't been thinking. Not really. A part of it was panic. And another part...
She just wanted these damned things to burn, and didn't give a damn if the entirety of Blight Manor went down with it. In her ideal world, this entire prison she called a home would have been torched to ash years ago.
But not with people still inside!
How was it even possible to screw up as badly as she had?!
The blue fire got more and more common the closer they got to the main entrance, and all around them, it was spreading quickly. The group huddled closer together, trying to get away from the flames, following Amity as she led them back to the lobby, hoping to get them all out of here.
Her parents wouldn't care about the house. They might yell something about the legacy and family history, but at the end of the day, they could afford it being rebuilt exactly as it was. What could they do? Punish her for protecting the staff?
As if leaving them to die would look any better on their precious legacy.
Another Cherubim flew in front of Amity, opened eye, speeding straight towards her, almost screaming with the noises it made. The Witch used her sword to strike through it from right-to-left, letting the blade of her sword slam into the wall, before pulling it out again.
That was what they cared about.
Not that Amity cared either way.
While they all moved, Amity looked back over her shoulder, to make sure everyone was still there. There were some faces that showed far more anxiety and fear over the whole affair than others, but they followed her either way. All it did was fuel Amity's convictions to make sure they got out alright. No one else was paying for her screw ups.
A couple more turns, and another two flocks of Cherubim that were cut down quickly, the group finally reached the balcony of the lobby - The roof of said lobby was practically covered in flames, consuming everything that it spread towards. At least half the building had to be up in flames now, and it was still spreading rapidly.
Yet in spite of it, the Cherubim still wandered and patrolled, like they didn't even notice the burning around them. But when they saw the group of Witches, the cracking of jaws and the firing of beams began once more.
Amity and several of the staff responded by unleashing a hail of spells to quickly be rid of them, though both the noise, and what seemed like their ability to sense the infected the group had with them simply attracted more of the creatures, circling and swooping at them with every chance they got. Close, cramped quarters made it all the trickier to handle the Cherubim - Nowhere to back out, no kill-zone, nowhere to dodge, and all around them, flames.
"Everyone, get out!" Amity yelled, using her Magic to create another Abomination to protect everyone as they made a run for the nearest door.
She didn't though - She wasn't leaving until she made sure everyone got out of the Manor first.
A couple of the staff hung back to assist her in holding off the invaders, but the majority followed her order to the letter, running out and getting into the open air. Behind her, Amity could hear the sounds of people fighting the Cherubim outside, but when she turned to look, she could see them all holding their own, and backing one another up, just as they had been when they had holed up together in the Manor
They relied on one another - Assisted one another, and fought for one another. Amity couldn't help but feel a sense of pride.
Crack!
The noise came from the roof, and by the time Amity could even turn around, it had splintered off into a thousand smaller, but just as deafening sounds. It ended with a sickening thud, crashing just a few feet from her.
One of the support beams that kept the roof up had been burned away by flames, and had collapsed and fallen.
Right atop the only two staff that had remained by her side.
Panic struck her. She froze.
Oh no.
No no no!
As soon as Amity could find it in her to move again, she dashed over, and knelt by the fallen beam, checking the staff and praying to whatever Gods might be out there that they hadn't just died - The two staff had been the butler Beckham, and her schoolmate Bo, still just trying to get whatever money she could to help her fathers illness.
Neither of them had taken the day off. None of the staff had taken the day off that Amity had offered - Full pay included - For reasons that were beyond her.
And judging from their pulses, they were still alive - Thank the Titan - But they were knocked out cold. The beam seemed to have fallen more on their shoulders than anything, and the impact had jolted their heads backwards, combined with a heavy impact with the ground. They were out cold, and without question, needed a Healing Witch as soon as possible.
Fire continued to creep all around the Witch - She only had so much time before the lobby would end up in flames!
Not to mention the Cherubim - How long until they showed up again?
She needed to move - Now!
Amity tried to lift the support beam, but quickly realised she didn't have anything close to the strength needed to lift it alone - It was a large and heavy beam, and just being in decent physical fitness wasn't going to be enough here. She backed off, and cast another Abomination spell, and immediately instructed it to lift the beam.
That was the moment the Cherubim arrived again, charging in through the open door, seeking out the lonely Witch, and the injured prey she was protecting - A very, very tempting target.
Jumping over to the other side of the support beam, Amity drew her sword and slashed two Cherubim down with a singular, swift motion. With a flick of the wrist, she cast another spell, creating an hand-shaped Abomination to emerge from the ground, ball into a fist, and swat whatever Cherubim came within it's reach. Once cast, she swung again, hitting a third Cherubim with the weapon, in as many seconds.
If the Cherubim got to Beckham and Bo, then not only would they be infected by the Rays, not only would they become a beacon for other Cherubim to try to feed from them, and not only would they become near impossible to defend - Once the Adult Cherubim mutated and came back, there was a very real chance that they could be mauled to death.
So Amity fought like hell. Each movement precise, each spell cast with a purpose, and every action she made designed to maximise the amount of time her Abomination had to free Beckham and Bo.
But she was one person.
One person could only do so much.
Swarms of Cherubim attacked her, and while she cut them down one by one, it was only a matter of time until either she made a mistake, or was outnumbered.
Her mistake came when she missed the swing of her sword by barely an inch.
The Cherubim that she had aimed for had been the one to have it's Cherubim Ray charged and ready to fire. While she had gotten to it as quickly as she could, other threats had made her leave it until it was the final target left in the room. It had moved to dodge her swing, like every other Cherubim did, but Amity compensated for that.
Just one inch made the difference - Be it her misjudging the distance, or the speed that the Cherubim moved at, or just pure luck on the part of the invader. It didn't matter though - She missed. Her eyes locked with the Cherubim's as it prepared to fire.
And then, suddenly, it was sent flying across the room.
It slammed against the floor, and bounced back up against a wall, where it combusted into dust. Amity followed it along its path until it burst into nothingness, and then looked back at the source.
Her eyes shot wide open.
"Amity! You alright?!"
Luz.
It was Luz.
The Human looked like she'd just run a marathon - Heavy breathing, red flustered cheeks, and sweat running from her brow - In a word, exhausted. She was armed, with some kind of weapon that to Amity, just looked like a bulky, refined stick, probably some sort of weapon from the Human world.
A huge smile - That huge, amazing smile that Luz always had - Was plastered all over her face. If it wasn't for the situation that they were both in, Amity would have let herself just stare stupidly at it.
Right now though, the fact that she was now near Luz at all - And after everything that had happened?
And that it was Valeween?
Her heart felt like it both skipped a beat and froze at the same time.
"Wh - Luz?!" Amity just staggered and looked at Luz for a few seconds. She barely had any idea how to react to her presence here - A heavy, heavy series of conflicting emotions were colliding against one another in her mind. "What in the - What are you doing here?!"
"I saw the fire from Bonesborough!" Luz answered quickly. "It looked really bad a-and I was worried! I - I know you said that you wanted me to stay away from you tonight but - "
"You saw a fire , and then decided to rush over here?!" Amity was torn between wanting to kiss Luz right then and there for being such an absolutely incredible and caring soul , and wanting to scream at Luz for being so unfathomably insane and disregarding her own basic safety for Amity's sake. What ended up coming out of her mouth was, "Who sees a fire and immediately runs towards it?!"
Hearing it out loud, it sounded more like the latter than the former.
Even if the former was probably more representative.
"We - We can talk about it later, okay?!" Luz looked pained, and Amity regretted even speaking, but before anything else could happen, Luz grabbed Amity's wrist and began to drag her to the door, "We need to get to Bonesborough though, quickly, before any Cherubim get here!"
"Luz, wait!" Amity ripped her arm from Luz's grip. "We can't!"
"What?" Luz just gaped at the Witch. "Amity, this place is literally on fire! What in the world would stop you from - "
"There are still people here!"
"What?"
Turning around and rushing back to the support beam, Amity showed Luz what she was talking about.
When the Human saw Beckham and Bo, she gasped, and covered her mouth. "Oh, God, are they - "
"They're fine!" Amity said quickly. "Well, they're alive at least!" She noted that in spite of it's best efforts, her Abomination hadn't even really been able to move the support beam much at all. She shuddered at the thought of how heavy the beam was.
Or what weight it supported that required such strength and mass.
She cast another spell, to try to boost the strength of said Abomination - The creature grew in height and mass of its own, and when it made an effort to lift again, slight progress got made, in that it was at least able to move the beam a little bit.
But not by a lot. It would take time to get the two Witches out from under it.
"What do I have, what do I have..." Luz muttered to herself, shifting through her stacks of Glyphs quickly, trying to find something that would be able to help. She gritted her teeth, and looked at the fire, still encroaching. "Aaaaaah, If it wasn't for the fire I could use Ice or Plant Magic to - " '
The cracking screeches of the Cherubim filled the air again.
More were on their way.
Both Human and Witch froze, and looked at one another. A thousand thoughts running through their minds. Amity in particular felt a dread she hadn't felt the entire night. This was the absolute worst case scenario.
Amity steeled herself - No. It didn't matter - It couldn't matter. Beckham and Bo needed help.
Whatever else happened, she wasn't going to just let them down. She wasn't running away.
Not this time.
"Luz!" Amity yelled, and gripped her sword tighter. "You have Water Magic now, right?"
"Y - Yeah?"
"Then use it to put the fire out!" If they didn't have the fire to worry about, then that would give them far more manoeuvrability, and they wouldn't have a ticking clock to worry about either.
"What - Amity, this entire place is on fire! It'll just spread out again!"
Not to mention the fact that this was fire mixed with Abomination goo - It didn't work like a normal fire did, it had been merged with Magic. Luz was right. Amity did some quick maths and Magic Theory in her head.
"Put out the fire nearest to us with water then!" She ordered. "Then you're going to have to find the source of the fire - It's on the west side of the building!" She then pointed up the stairs, along the balcony, going to the right-hand side of where Luz was looking. "Then you're going to need to set off another fire right on top of it!"
"I'm going to need to do what?!"
"It's a Magic fire! It doesn't work like a regular fire does! If you get rid of the point of origin and steal the Magical Energy from it, the rest of the fire will rescind back to the source it came from!" The buzzing of the Cherubim began to get louder and louder. "Use Water Magic to put out the fire, then use Fire Magic to start a new one! When the blue fire is out, put out the new fire, and that should fix everything!"
"Put out the fire, then set it back on fire, and then put out the fire again?!"
"Yes!"
Already moving, Luz began to retrieve the few Water Glyphs she had prepared for the night - Just in case - and putting out the nearest flames. "What're you going to do?!"
"Hold off the Cherubim!"
"Are you - "
"I can handle them!" Amity at this point outright yelled at Luz, panic, stress and the weight of the situation finally getting to her. "I've handled them before you got here! It's my fault that we're even in this mess in the first place! I started the fire! I -" She bit her lip. Even now, she couldn't bring herself to say it. " - I can handle them! It's my fault, so I'm going to handle them! Just hurry up and put that fire out!"
More than anything, Luz wanted to protest - But what the hell could she even begin to say? Amity was right in the most pragmatic sense of the word. Someone needed to put out the fire before it literally engulfed all of them, and someone needed to protect the two Witches that were trapped.
There wasn't really any other combination of ways that this could work - Someone would have to face the Cherubim alone.
But that didn't mean Luz had to like it. She remembered the fear and horror in Amity's voice and expression when she first learned Valeween was here. She remembered the story Amity told her about how it had affected her from her younger years.
Now she was going to fight them alone? She was being brave...
...But Luz didn't like it.
And yet there was no other choice. Amity was the stronger Witch of the two of them. Gus had been right.
If anyone could handle the Cherubim alone, it would be her.
Quick as she could, Luz finished putting out the nearest fires around them with her Water Magic, and darted her way up the stairs of Blight Manor as fast as her legs would take her. On the balcony, she took a brief moment to look down at Amity.
She was so glad she had come here - If she hadn't, what would Amity have done? She was so glad Amity was okay. Even if Amity... Didn't seem to be too happy to see her.
But she was okay . And that was what was important.
For a brief moment, Luz considered yelling 'Good luck' to her, or something along those lines -
And that was the moment the Cherubim struck - Swarming the room, and beginning to attack and shoot their rays at everything that moved. Dozens upon dozens of them.
Amity reacted, and struck and sliced, casted spells and cleaved Cherubim in half, and almost looked like she was performing an ar, at least to Luz. No movement was wasted. No act without purpose. And she fought like hell.
Luz couldn't tell if her heart was fluttering in amazement, or stopping ice dead cold in horror.
She ran down the corridor, seeking out the fire's point of origin.
The corridor probably wasn't all that long, but engulfed as it was in flames, it felt like an endless abyss to look though. Luz hadn't once been inside Blight Manor in all the time that she had known Amity - Her parents would never allow it, she had claimed. She didn't have a point of reference to work with, and could only really go by instinct.
The denser the fire, the more likely the point of origin, right?
At least, she hoped that was how Magical fires worked.
Covering her hands in Magical Water, Luz extinguished the fires ahead of her to make it safer for her to walk down the hallway. Charred wood and soggy ashes of what she guessed were once precious family materials were left as she moved, and she couldn't help but worry about what would come after this.
This place was Amity's home. What...
...What was she going to do? Where was she going to live?
If Eda would let her, Luz would offer her a place at the Owl House, at least until her parents found another place for them to live, or... Whatever would come next. If that was what Amity wanted to do. And Luz didn't know if that was what Amity would want to do.
After all, Amity still seemed angry at her.
Not that it was hard for Luz to blame her anymore. She had seen what happened to Boscha. She knew that Amity had seen that as a child. And she had gone against Amity's wishes for tonight, to stay away. Not that Luz regretted it now, but...
...Would saying that she was sorry even fix this?
Or had she crossed a line yesterday?
...Or had she crossed that line today?
Suddenly, for a moment the entire building felt like it began to shake. Luz's balance became worse, and she nearly fell onto the ground. And then it stopped. She glanced back down the path she had walked. Had that been Amity, or had it been something else?
Still, she pressed on.
Pushing deeper and deeper into the corridor, Luz began to wonder exactly how she was going to figure out what the 'source of origin' even was. Amity hadn't specified exactly what had been the cause of the fire to her, so how was she supposed to know?
Was it going to be obvious to her when she saw it, or was she going to have to do some sort of in-depth look into figuring it out? Or was she just supposed to guess?
How the heck was she going to find it if she had to -
Luz jumped back when she realised that she had been about to walk into what had become a giant hole in the corridor. The floor had collapsed, the wooden floor having burned and broken down, and everything had fallen into the ground floor. Just about everything past that point had collapsed too, but Luz hadn't noticed for the flames that came from below.
On the ground floor below though, there was... Something.
A sort of weird, almost gelatinous ball of moving, purple fire, from which the rest of the blue flames would spur from. It was writhing around, almost like it was alive, though it very clearly wasn't. What in the world... It almost looked like the...
...Remains of an Abomination?
What in the heck had Amity done before Luz had shown up?
Either way, somehow Luz had a feeling she'd found the point of origin for the flames. She quickly dipped into her bag, and produced a Water Glyph, and activated it. "Really hope you're right about this, Amity." She muttered, before she threw it down the hole, and took a step back, just to be safe.
The sheer amount of steam that suddenly shot into the air was nearly enough to knock the wind right out of Luz's lungs, and felt like she was standing in the middle of a gale-force storm. Everything went white for a few seconds as it rose, and Luz covered her eyes to protect them. The sounds it made were identical to that of an oven plate having ice water poured onto it, only seven times louder. It took a full thirty seconds for the steam to finally subside.
When Luz peeked over the edge again, the writhing glop of purple goo had stopped moving, and was finally still. It was still surrounded by blue fire though, which would threaten to reignite it. Amity said that she had to use Fire Magic to reignite it. A Fire Glyph found its way into Luz's hand, though she hesitated for a second, still not entirely certain how this made any kind of sense. On Earth, she'd heard that sometimes firefighters and some cultures would set off other, larger fires next to wildfires to help control and snuff them out, so it wasn't like she was completely unfamiliar with the idea. She just wasn't sure if that was how it worked with Magic.
Then again, it wouldn't be the weirdest way Magic had surprised her. And she trusted Amity's judgement.
She activated the Fire Glyph, and tossed it right on the purple goo.
Immediately it caught fire again, but began to act something like - The best way that Luz could describe it just by looking at it was that it looked like a vortex.
Blue flames began to swirl and sway, until they were dragged into the red flames, spiralling on their way like a whirlpool. Flames from the second floor in front of Luz, and from other corners of the house were dragged from their locations, and thrown into the red flames, like they were being pulled there by some sort of unseeable force.
How on Earth Magic interacted in this way, Luz had no idea.
What she did know was that after maybe thirty seconds, it was over.
No new blue flames came it's way, and the fire had become fairly large in and of itself, but manageable by a single Water Glyph, which Luz threw in just a few seconds later. With a hiss, the fire found itself extinguished. And then, all at once, there was no longer any fire in the entirety of Blight Manor.
No heat. No crackling. No burning.
No anything.
Luz let herself let out a long exhale, and leaned against the nearest wall. She took a couple of deep breaths, and really took in the fact that she had just fought a literal fire, and was still okay. Not a regular fire, mind, and she still had no clue how or why any of what she did worked, but it had, thanks to Amity, and -
Amity.
She was still fighting. Luz turned and dashed right back the way she had come.
Another creak echoed throughout the corridor as Luz ran, but she didn't pay it any mind. She needed to get back to Amity, and help however she could!
As she got back to the balcony though, and looked down at the ground floor below, Amity was still holding out just fine. In the few minutes that Luz had been gone, somehow, Amity had been managing to hold back against the hordes of Cherubim. She looked more tired, but she was still fine. She bashed the hilt of her sword against one Cherubim and turned it to dust, before she noticed Luz briefly, before she carried on fighting, blocking a Cherubim Ray with her sword.
Her Abomination had done its job too - The support beam that had been crushing the two staff members had been lifted, and moved aside, but both were still unconscious. Amity hadn't had the time to move them, or do much of anything other than making sure that the Cherubim didn't get anywhere near them.
So Luz made a beeline right for them.
Bat in hand, she swatted whatever Cherubim had decided to try to attack her as opposed to Amity, and ran right past her. For a second, they looked at one another, before Luz knelt down by the unconscious staff members.
This time, she reached into her jacket, and produced a Rejuvenation Glyph, like the one she had used on Willow, and placed it on the older staff members forehead, and activated it. He responded almost immediately, one of his eyes opening up, and starting to look around, groggily, confused.
"What the... Where am I?" He asked, clutching his forehead. "What happened?"
"Beckham!" Amity yelled, casting another Abomination spell to handle the Cherubim for just a brief moment while she knelt by the butler. "Beckham, are you alright?"
"Ms. Blight?" Beckham blinked. He took a brief look around the room, before it seemed like all the pieces finally clicked in his head. "Ms. Blight! What happened? I was - "
"You got knocked out - I'll explain later!" Amity told him, though Luz couldn't help but notice that she had what looked like a smile of relief on her face. "But I need you to pick up Bo so we can all get out of here! Can you do that for me?"
"Ms. Bo?" Beckham blinked again, and Amity nodded her head in Bo's direction. The man's eyes widened, and he inspected the unconscious girl's injuries. It seemed to spark in him a resurgence of energy, as he got onto his feet, and picked her up. "By the Titan - She needs a Healer, right away!"
"I know - I'll keep the Cherubim away from you while you make a run for it!" Amity instructed. "I'll - "
" We ." Luz told her, firmly.
"Luz - "
"We'll argue about it later - I'm not leaving you in here on your own, and that's that! We'll cover this guy and then we'll make sure we both get out of here!"
Amity wanted to argue, but she could already tell that Luz had made up her mind. Arguing would be pointless, and they didn't have the time to waste - Her Abomination was beginning to fall apart. She didn't have the time to argue.
She gritted her teeth. "Okay - We'll hold back the Cherubim - Beckham, you get Bo outside, and run until you reach Bonesborough. Luz and I will be right behind you."
"Ms. Blight, I can't just leave you - "
"That is an order , Beckham, and while you're under the employ of the Blight family, you will follow it!"
Typically, that wasn't something Amity liked to do, but like with Luz, there was no time to argue, and it always managed to get the message across when she needed the staff to do what she asked. And for a moment, Beckham paused. And then nodded. He would obey.
And at that moment, the Abomination began to turn to nothing but slurry, and the Cherubim began to target the people there.
Luz and Amity sprung into action, swinging their weapons at the nearest Cherubim towards them, and turning them into nothing but ash. Amity unleashed a salvo of self-contained fireball spells, careful not to allow any to catch fire to the nearby surroundings, while Luz activated a series of Ice Glyphs that she used to toss ice shards at incoming Cherubim.
Where they could, their attacks were flashy and eye-catching. The goal was to make sure the Cherubim knew they were there long enough for Beckham to make his escape.
It worked - Though this was easily both a good and a bad thing.
As Cherubim flew in and got closer, Amity began to slash and stab with her sword, and Luz swung at incoming attackers with her bat, always aiming for the eye, finding it a nice, big, easy target that was particularly satisfying to bash inwards.
Cherubim swarmed and surrounded the pair of them, attacking from each side and each angle. Both of them stood back-to-back, never too far away from the other, and making sure no Cherubim got close to the other. Spells and swings were switched between one another, as they towed the line between attracting the invading insectoids, and keeping them far enough at bay from one another, as well as keeping any from attacking Beckham and Bo.
Beckham made a mad dash to the side of the lobby as the battle started up again, and then, once attention was fully on the Witch and the Human, made a similar run for the exit. With both his hands occupied with holding Bo, all he could do was rely on the two young girls to ensure that he wouldn't be shot by the Cherubim.
One time, he came close to being hit.
But a fireball from Amity protected him, striking the Cherubim that had been about to blast him just a couple of seconds before it could fire.
And he was able to get out of the Manor, unharmed, and on his way to Bonesborough. With any luck, he would be able to meet up with the rest of the staff that were on their way to the city without getting hit, or just get to the city outright. It would be down to luck and his own ability to look after himself, but for right now, all Cherubim attention was focused on Luz and Amity - It was his best chance, and he was just going to have to take it.
Then, everything happened at once then for Luz.
"Okay!" Amity yelled. "Beckham's out! We need to move! We - "
For the third time though, Luz heard the house began to creak. This time, it was far louder.
Far , far louder.
Before she could even say anything though, to the side of her, she heard a loud -
Thud!
And the sound of shattering. She glanced at it - A chunk of concrete had fallen just a couple of feet from her.
She looked up.
Cracks were spreading all over the ceiling, and bits of plaster and dust were beginning to peel and give way, timber splintering, and chunks of brick and rock falling around them. Luz froze in place for a second - The fire. The support beam.
It had weakened the structure of the Manor. The beam had been holding up the ceiling. And it had taken a while, but the fire had rotted away the other supports.
The ceiling was about to collapse.
"Am - Amity!" Luz yelled, turning to the Witch. "The ceiling! The ceilings gonna - " Her sentence cut off when she saw.
Amity was on the floor.
Unconscious.
Luz just stared for a moment. Then her breathing increased. "Amity? Oh, God, Amity!"
The Cherubim had sensed the collapse, and had backed away, leaving the Human and the Witch alone. Getting onto her knees, Luz prepared to pick up Amity - She had done it before, and she could do it again -
But around her, more and more of the ceiling began to fall.
And then above her, the ceiling finally gave way.
It began to fall towards her.
On pure instinct, Luz did the only thing she could.
She reached into her pockets, and produced a Wind Glyph, and a Plant Glyph.
And she slammed them into the ground and activated them, with barely a second to spare.
The rocks landed atop the pair of them.
"Cherubim are known to possess some kinds of self-preservation instincts in certain situations - For example, they tend to seek preservation from fires, but do not seem too concerned with dodging attacks from Witches. The reason for this is unknown."- Valeween for Witchlings, Chapter 8, page 81
Dun dun duuuun.
Cliffhanger : D
Up next - What this has all been leading towards