The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

"Then why were you so easy to curse!?"

"Alright, kid. Listen to me. I'm going away, and I don't know if I can bounce back this time. Watch over King. Remember to feed Hooty... And Luz, thank you for being in my life."

"Leave, human! Edalyn is finally with her family. Her real family. Go back to your world. This one is ours."

Luz had tried a desperate plan to help Eda. And all it did was get her friends hurt and force Eda to... Just like with Adaghast the puppet demon, Eda came charging in to save Luz even though she knew it was a trap. Except, Lilith was a much bigger threat than the puppet demon and Eda's curse being at its worst meant that she just didn't have the strength to...

Eda used the last bit of her power to save Luz and was captured. And what was worse, after Luz finally made it back to the Owl House after walking all night she found that while he was on that fateful field trip planning a heist, Eda had been knitting her a witch's cloak. Made from witch's wool (which was not, as Luz initially believed, 'magic s'ghetti',) a witch's cloak could be used to protect the witch from a lot of really nasty spells. Eda had been planning to make one for herself as the Emperor's coven had really stepped up on their attempts to capture her, but when she mentioned that every witch worth their salt had one Luz piped up that she'd like one and...

If she'd kept her stupid mouth shut, Eda would have made her own cloak like she'd planned and been better protected against Lilith. Maybe she wouldn't have...

When Luz read the note attached, "To a young witch, from her proud mentor," she broke down completely and it took her far too long to explain what exactly had happened to Eda to Hooty and King. How she'd succumbed to her curse and become the owl beast for good, how Lilith had dragged her into the castle, how Lilith had also grabbed Owlbert... And how terrified Luz was not just for Eda but for Owlbert, being trapped in that palace with a Palisman-eating monster like Belos.

Luz was so depressed that she didn't even bother to change out of her Hexside uniform. But then, they announced on the crystal ball that Eda had been sentenced to death by petrification, meaning that either Lilith had been lying about the Emperor curing Eda or else the Emperor was lying to Lilith. Either way, Eda was being transferred to the Conformatorium and Luz had maybe half a day to rescue her.

Dressed up in the cloak Eda had made for her and feeling anxious but determined, and with a pocket full of glyphs, Luz stepped out into the cruel, unforgiving world.

King scrambled out after her. "Okay, what's the plan?"

"You're not coming," Luz insisted. She wasn't going to put anyone else in danger.

"Luz," King replied sternly. "Eda is my family. If she's in trouble I want to help her."

"King, this is going to be really dangerous," Luz tried to discourage. She didn't say out loud that King was just a kid, but...

"What? We're going up against the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, who has almost the whole Isles eating out of the palm of his hands," King deadpanned, "so you know it's totally gonna be a walk in the park."

"Fair enough," Luz acknowledged. "But..."

"But nothing, without Eda we don't have anything anyway. Her savings are only going to last so long and nobody's gonna pay fair wages to a human kid and a demon who lost his powers," King quipped back. "Even if Eda wasn't important to us we'd still need her. So let's go get her!"

"Right, okay," Luz agreed. She was going to say that it was her responsibility to save Eda since she was the one who got her in trouble but it was readily clear that King would not be convinced otherwise.

Just then, Hooty's head emerged from the ground on his extended neck, and only then did Luz notice how the house demon was stretched out around the house and into an upstairs window.

"I've got good news and bad news," he began. "The bad news is, the calamity box in the basement doesn't work, hoot, so we can't use it to save Eda. The good news is, the basement is clean for when she gets home!"

Luz blinked. "What's a calamity box?"

"We have a basement?" King asked.

"Magitech transdimensional travel box from a frog dimension, hoot hoot!" Hooty replied by way of explanation.

"You've been spending too much time with Tiny Nose," King snarked. "Okay Luz, we need to get inside the conformatorium, but with a high-profile criminal like Eda scheduled to be petrified security is going to be tight so sneaking in isn't going to work, and trying to fight our way through the perimeter will only attract reinforcements... So we need to get arrested. Any ideas?"

Luz smiled. "Eda gave me some advice on my first day at Hexside that I think applies here."

With that, Luz went into town and asserted her dominance by punching the first coven guard she saw square in the face. That did the trick, and shortly afterward both she and King were tossed into the back of a wagon on their way to the conformatorium.

On the way in, through a small window in the wagon, Luz saw a pedestal with Eda's name on it. Her eyes narrowed and swore silently that it would always remain empty.

Once the wagon came to a stop, and Luz could hear guards speaking, Luz drew a glyph and braced herself for the door opening.

"Ahh, the Owl Lady's human apprentice," came the voice of Warden Wrath from the other side of the cart door. "It took ages to clean up after the riot you caused and we're still missing half of the radical rabble-rousers you freed."

Yes, because writing fanfiction about food falling in love was so radical. Honestly, Kataya had sent Luz some of it not too long ago, the stories were adorable.

Luz didn't wait for the warden to open the wagon. She used a plant glyph to conjure powerful, strangling vines which surged forward, tearing the door off the wagon and grappling Warden Wrath.

While that was happening, Luz leaped from the wagon and kicked a coven guard in the stomach, froze another one with an ice glyph, sent a third flying off into a wall with a fire glyph, and finally turned back to the warden.

Wrath had managed to break free of the vines entangling him, so Luz used another ice glyph to surround him with sharp spears of ice.

"Where's Eda?"

"A holding cell in the dungeons," the Warden declared readily. "Please don't kill me, I have a son."

"I know," Luz acknowledged. "He seems like a sweet kid." She then handed the warden her notebook and a pen. "Draw me a map and I won't make him an orphan."

TLOA

Gus Porter was a witch of principle. He didn't know Eda the Owl Lady all that well, just brief interactions while hanging out with Luz and Willow, and later Amity, at the Owl House, but his principles dictated that, whatever crimes the wild witch had committed, petrification was an excessive punishment by far... And based upon what he'd learned recently about coven sigils, he wasn't so certain that wild witchery was such a bad choice to make.

So he had a plan. He couldn't brute force his way into the conformatorium or sneak in and then fight his way to the Owl Lady, that was insane. Not even Luz was crazy enough to try that. But the execution was going to be broadcast on the crystal ball. His father, Perry, was set to report on it, and there would be an... calling it an audience was in poor taste.

It was obvious that the people of Bonesborough weren't exactly happy about the petrification. The Owl Lady might have been a nuisance, but she was one of them and her crimes did not deserve execution. Gus had overheard whispers about good things she'd done for some of the residents.

If the Emperor was as benevolent as he claimed, if he spoke for the Titan and the Titan just wanted people to be safe and happy... Then a little protest might change his mind. And if he was, as Gus got the overwhelming feeling that Luz and the Owl Lady suspected and the sinister true purpose of the coven sigils suggested, then maybe the fear of rebellion would do the trick.

So, in order to kickstart a little protest, Gus felt the need to sneak, not into the conformatorium proper, but into where the observers would be standing. Amity and Willow would be joining him later, but he had a bit of prep work to do. A few time-delayed illusions should get a good protest started. Unfortunately, some guards were patrolling that area who would need to be distracted.

But, Gus was prepared for that: a few days ago Luz had shared with him what she'd described as a 'legend of the human realm' that was quite... Evocative. A hunter of horrific monsters, vanquisher of cults, and the bane of malevolent gods.

Just out of sight of any one guard, Gus conjured an illusion and an elderly human male, grey hair styled in what Luz had described as a "mohawk" and dressed in a colorful floral patterned shirt that Luz called 'Hawaiian,' a pair of sunglasses, a colorful human-realm bird dubbed a 'parrot' taxidermized on his shoulder, with shorts and combat boots with wheels hidden in the heals coving his legs.

With a shout enquiring about the location of his 'wee men' in an accent that Luz had imitated and called 'Scottish,' Gus's recreation of the human legend Old Man Henderson led the guards on a chase through town.

Then, Gus got to work.

TLOA

After rampaging through the conformatorium Luz finally made it to the holding cell where Eda was being held which was... less of a cell and more of a corridor. At the far end, chained to some kind of platform, was Eda's form as the owl beast, snarling and struggling against the chain around her neck.

Luz approached slowly, and King hopped down from her shoulder. "Eda?" Luz called out, hoping for any response.

After a moment, the beast stopped snarling and blinked. Then its black eyes became Eda's gold. "Luz?"

"Eda!" Luz greeted before wrapping her arms around her mentor's neck and shoulders.

"I'm here too!" King declared before jumping up to nuzzle against Eda.

"You can't be here," Eda declared. "Why are you here?"

"To rescue you," Luz replied while releasing the hug. She then kneeled down and attached a fire glyph to where Eda's chain was pinned to the platform. Ignition, but no damage.

"You need to leave before someone finds you," Eda insisted.

"It's fine," Luz insisted before placing a plant glyph on the chain, igniting her shadow aura, and taping it. A little boom of dark light and the chain still wasn't broken. Luz hoped that had hurt whoever enchanted this thing. "I already beat up the warden and most of the guards. And freed some of the prisoners on the way here."

"Luz, I'm serious," Eda continued. "You just being here is putting you in some serious danger. The Emperor is almost certainly going to be here and... You're stronger than I ever could have imagined but he's the only witch who ever came close to me in my prime."

"I have to rescue you!" Luz shouted. "It's my fault you got caught."

"No, it isn't!" Eda insisted. "I'm the one who chose to defy the Emperor's law, and hey, I got away with it for over thirty years. I had a good run but... I knew my curse was getting worse, that I was slowing down with age. I knew I'd get got eventually, and saving someone I love is a better way of going out than what would have happened otherwise."

Tears welled up in Luz's eyes. "Love?"

"Like the daughter I never had."

"That just means I doubly have to save you now," Luz declared. "We're family."

"Yeah!" King added. "We took that portrait with the matching sweaters and everything."

Eda reached up a taloned forelimb and grabbed King, placing him on the ground next to Luz. "Look," she began, "I can't take care of you like this. Sooner or later the Owl Beast is going to take over again if you really want to help me." She then reached into the toft of fur and feathers near her neck. "I was lucid earlier and overheard the Emperor talking. He wants the portal." Eda withdrew the portal key and handed it to Luz. "Take the portal, go home, be safe, and destroy it behind you so that Emperor Bonehead can't get whatever it is he wants out of the human realm. Take King with you, watch over him, and tell your mom that I said she raised a great kid. If you're safe... Then I won't have any regrets."

Luz slammed another fire glyph on the chain. Still no damage.

"Eda..." Luz was starting to lose the ability to articulate. The platform started to rise into the air. Reflexively, Luz grabbed onto it. "I can't let you go," she insisted finally. "I've already... I've already lost... I love you, Eda."

"I know kid," Eda replied. Then she gave Luz a shove, pushing her off the platform.

Luz landed and watched Eda vanish into the open sky. She slammed a shadowy fist into the floor, cracking it, as she let out a cry of anguish.

She almost didn't feel the witch enter the corridor behind her.

"Drat," Lilith declared. "I'm too—"

Lilith didn't get to finish. Body wreathed in shadow, Luz pounced on her and pinned her to the wall by the throat, free hand posed to go through her face.

"Give me a reason," Luz demanded as she worked up her nerves. "Give me a reason."

"Pease, be—"

"It should be you, not her!" Luz declared.

"You're right," Lilith declared, which took all the wind out of Luz's sails. "In a single moment of impulsive weakness, a moment that was all for naught, I ruined my sister's life. Then I spent three decades trying to fix my mistake without ever admitting it. And my one chance turned out to be a lie." "If I could switch with her, I would."

Luz dropped Lilith. "That... That doesn't... It's..."

Luz was distracted by a cute hooting. Looking down, she saw Owlbert. He was okay!

The small owl flew up to her and manifested his staff, attaching to it without issue, so that it landed in Luz's hand.

Luz turned back to Lilith, now noticing the guilt and shame coming from the woman. "Where do we go from here?"

"It's not too late to save Edalyn," Lilith insisted. "I know where we can go to get to her and there's something of a protest going on as we speak."

TLOA

"Let Eda go!" the people of Bonesborough chanted. "Let Eda go! Let Eda Go!"

Gus's preparations worked like a charm. As soon as his father Perry Porter had begun the broadcast, Gus's prepared illusions manifested. His initial plan had just been simple messages, such as the 'let Eda go' that the crowd was now chanting, but when Amity and Willow joined him the abomination witch had her own suggestion and revealed what she'd been up to while he was sneaking in to set up.

Namely, that she'd told her older siblings she'd forgive them for the diary incident if they did her a favor, and had them sneak into the school to pilfer a set of memory tweezers from the photo lab. Adding a few blown-up images of the kindness that Eda had shown Amity when she'd run away contrasted with the still-fresh memory of Headwitch Lilith activating Luz's coven sigil had certainly driven the point home.

After rushing the stage, so to speak, the three witchlings gave their own testimony about the Owl Lady and what they'd learned over the last day regarding the Emperor's coven—especially Amity's, as the Blight family had a reputation, underserved though it may be, for integrity—had been more than enough to convince the crowd.

Gus's father, ever the consummate reporter, had pivoted from covering the imminent petrification ceremony to covering the protest against it, and that had caused more people from town to come in and join in.

The crowd began to work into a frenzy as Eda, in her cursed form but clearly lucid, was lifted up onto a platform and caged, Kikimora, the Emperor's assistant who was handling the ceremony, was visibly intimidated despite how far up and away she was from the protestors.

Soon, however, the Golden Guard made an appearance, flying on his mechanical staff.

"Attention Bonesborogh!" He shouted from on high. "You are all dangerously close to committing treason, so please calm yourselves down right now or else..." It became readily apparent that nobody was paying the least bit of attention to the Golden Guard. "Okay, where are the Coven Guards? ...Don't make me call in a battalion of Scouts now and... Why do I hear music?"

The reason the Golden Guard heard music, as it turned out, was that around the time he arrived a quartet of bards had made their way to the roof of the conformatorium. Dressed in matching uniforms, equipped with a tambourine, a bassoon, a recorder, and a viola respectively, and faces concealed with matching bat masks.

As their song came to a crescendo and bardic magic saturated the air, dark clouds began to form in the sky above the conformatorium. The lead bard played a sharp note on their viola and a bolt of lightning struck the statue by which the petrification spell was channeled, shattering it.

The Golden Guard landed on the roof near them. "Now who in the Titan's name do you think you are!?" he demanded.

"Allow us to introduce ourselves," the lead bard declared. "We, are the Bards Against the Throne! AKA..."

"The BATTs!" the three bards behind them announced before all four of them hissed.

"And we're here, head stooge of the Emperor," the lead bard continued, "to rescue the Owl Lady!"