The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Perry Porter, ever the professional, continued to report on the chaos around him even as he was swept up in it.

"To recap the last ten minutes," he said as he ducked under a coven scout's spell, "the protest against the petrification of Eda Clawthorn was interupted first by the Golden Guard but then again by a group of dashing rebels calling themselves the Bards Against The Throne, or else 'The BATTs.'" In the background, someone hissed. "Currently, the Golden Guard and the leader of the BATTs are dueling, and presumably the petrification is off due to the destruction of the petrification machine."

Perry ducked again. "Shortly afterward, a group of coven guards, backed up by a scout contingent, arrived and declared that they'd dealt with 'the insane human.' As viewers still at home may recall from earlier in the broadcast, I was joined earlier by my son and two of his friends who shared what they had recently learned about the Coven System. Well, they reacted quite poorly to the guard's announcement and so did what I suspect were several other Hexside students and before you knew it a riot had broken out. I believe I saw a few students take out their scrolls, and a few minutes later more Hexolios arrived to join in the fight. Including what I believe to be a contingent from the beast keeping track who seem to have all painted themselves with tiger stripes and, it seems, freed all the animals from the Bonesborough Zoo."

A coven guard ran past Perry screaming and shortly afterward a teenage witch with a fishhook for an earring rode past on an albino pigmy giant tarratula, a young griffin following close behind.

"Oh, it seems there's a bit of an altercation occurring," Perry said while gesturing for the camera-witch to turn, revealing two coven scouts fighting each other while a young, slightly tanned witchling sat on the ground. "Just a moment ago, one of those scouts attacked that young man and the scout next to him responded by punching him across the helmet." One scout seemed to knock out the other and then helped the witchling up. "Mr. Scout," Perry begged as he approached, "what just happened?"

"Steve has been second-guessing a lot of his choices lately," the Scout answered, "and he did not sign up for beating on kids. Especially not his little brother. Steve quits," the scout finished while throwing off his helmet, revealing a strong family resemblance to the young witchling save for a horn on one side of his head. "If any kids at home are thinking of joining the Emperor's Coven, just remember that the training is harsh, you only get one day off a year, you're separated from all your friends and family, and the Emperor collects your palisman for some reason. C'mon Matt, we're getting out of here," the now-former scout declared while leading his presumed brother through the chaos.

"A fair warning from a brave man of principle," Perry concluded. "And it looks like a coven guard is about to attack me so I must conclude this broadcast. This has been Perry Porter, punching a cop in the face," the news anchor finished as he did just that.

TLOA

"So the human realm has united governments, but not Emperors?" Lilith asked incredulously. They'd struck up a conversation about, well, literally anything. She might have been helping now but Luz really needed a distraction to keep her from remembering that this is the woman who threw her off a bridge into a mote of spikes the previous afternoon.

"We used to but most places have moved beyond that," Luz explained. "Most places, there are still some places where the ruler isn't called an Emperor but they act like it. But in most places, if they have royalty, it's just a ceremonial position. Where I live we elect the guy in charge and he serves for four years, then has to run for election again and you can only be elected twice."

"Really? Who gets a vote?" Lilith asked, fascinated.

"Everyone old enough and also a citizen," Luz explained, "but it used to be a lot more restricted for... complicated reasons. The most recent reform was about ten years ago: We used to have something called the Electoral College. Basically, my country is big and made up of a bunch of smaller states and it used to be that each state got a certain number of votes based on population and they voted for who the leader would be, with the citizens in the states voting to decide how the state would vote."

"That seems really complicated," King quipped.

"Well, back when my country was formed it made sense," Luz continued, "It was nearly three hundred years ago and without magic communicating and organizing stuff long distance was pretty hard until we invented technology to fix it so having the states handle it and then compress it down into smaller and more easily handled numbers was more efficient. Anyway, about ten years ago some girl from the middle of nowhere in Oregon made a very convincing argument to get it abolished, and poof, no more electoral college."

Lilith blinked. "A child did that?"

Luz shrugged. "She really wanted to see that unicorn."

"Why?" Lilith asked skeptically. "Unicorns are jerks."

Luz shrugged again. "Anyway, four years later Loki Laufeyson ran for president as a bit but didn't know that the college had been abolished and just barely eeked out a majority vote to be sworn in. He was so salty during his inauguration speech."

"...Human dialects have a lot of colloquialisms and other turns of phrase, don't they?" Lilith asked.

"Bet."

"Bet what?"

"Exactly," Luz deadpanned. Maybe that was a little meanspirited. She didn't even use that one, but... "Are coven sigils supposed to itch?"

"I don't know, I never got one," Lilith replied.

"...What?"

"The Emperor said I didn't need one," Lilith clarified. "He said I was special. He said that the Titan had big plans for me but... He was lying, wasn't he? Just like when he promised to cure Edalyn. He was just telling me what I wanted to hear and I was so desperate for... Oh. I owe Amity a proper apology."

"Ya think?" Luz quipped.

"Just her?" King added.

"Anyway," Lilith handwaved, "we're here. In this room is another lift that should take us to the roof near where Eda is being kept."

The hall was dark. As they stepped in, Luz froze and held an arm to stop the others from getting much further. "Someone's in here."

"Very perceptive, human," came a sinister voice in the distance. A voice with an English-like accent.

The lights all came on at once and revealed Emperor Belos in his robes and golden mask, like a stylized bird skull adorned with deer-like antlers.

The tyrant waved his staff, a mechanical one similar to that wielded by the Golden Guard, and suddenly spindly reddish-pink arms emerged from the ground and grabbed Lilith and King. The arms then rapidly drugged them away, tracing up the wall before dragging them seamlessly through the ceiling.

Luz pulled a fire glyph from her pocket and activated it, tossing a fireball at Belos.

Belos responded with a wave of his staff, deflecting the blast. "Alright. I'll play."

TLOA

Amity was... She didn't know how to feel. Luz was gone. What else could the guards have meant when they said they'd dealt with the insane human? Cleary Luz, without taking time to recover from whatever Lilith had done to her to keep her compliant while the head witch captured Eda, had come here on impulse to try and rescue her mentor, got caught, and couldn't escape even after fleeing. What other explanation could there be?

Part of her was numb. Part of her was angry. And she'd already committed treason once this week so what was a little more? The Bards who were dueling the Golden Guard had destroyed the petrification machine but Eda was still trapped.

...Unfortunately, Amity hadn't exactly recovered from being knocked out by Lilith either. She probably should have stayed home to rest but she couldn't just sit there and do nothing. She had a bottle of pre-made abomination slime at her hip since she wasn't sure she'd be strong enough to conjure any directly but not enough to make a set of stairs or even a ladder.

She looked around. She'd gotten separated from Gus and Willow after the riot started. Right now, Gus was using his illusions to give his dad cover.

Willow, meanwhile, took out three coven scouts by conjuring vines beneath their feet and causing them to restrain them by both trunk and each limp. Amity wondered when Willow had gotten so strong.

A coven guard appeared to her left. Using her power conservatively, a sphere of abomination slime impacted them below the belt, which served well enough in regard to incapacitating them.

She then backed up, to get more space, only to back into someone. Turning around suddenly, she found that she'd bumped, appropriately enough, into Principal Bump. She wasn't aware that the implike demon he wore bonded to his head was a palisman. Or that he had such long black hair. Or that he was missing an eye and had a scar over the other.

"Amity are you alright?" He asked. Good old Principal Bump, always concerned for the wellbeing of his students.

"I'm fine," Amity quickly declared even though she didn't feel fine. "But I need to get to the roof."

"Why?" Her principal asked.

"A lot of reasons, right now mostly vengeance-based," Amity replied.

"As good a reason as any," Principal Bump agreed.

He pointed his staff at a nearby conformatorium wall and drew a speel circle with it, comingling his magic with his palisman's. "Abomination," he declared, "rise."

Amity was good, but Principal Bump's giant abomination was something else. Especially when he gave the second command, "abomination, stairs."

The massive construct of slime deformed itself and leaned forward and a moment later a grand staircase leading right up to where Amity needed to go.

"Thank you," she called out as she bolted up the steps.

"Any time," Principal Bump called back.

Once on the roof, Amity made her way to the cage where Eda was being imprisoned and saw that the Owl Lady wasn't the only prisoner anymore.

"Amity?" Lilith asked. "This is—"

Amity brandished some abomination slime at the dark-haired witch. "I do not want to hear a word from you! This whole situation is your fault!"

Lilith wisely shut her trap.

"Amity," King begged her attention, "Luz is—"

"I know," Amity acknowledged solemnly.

"...How?"

Rather than answer, Amity began to try and pick the lock on the cage with her abomination slime.

Unfortunately, dating the Owl Lady's apprentice did not automatically come with skill in larceny: the only crimes she knew how to commit were money laundering ("Thanks Mom," she thought sarcastically) and moonshining ("Thanks Eda," she thought sincerely.)

The point was that she did not actually know how to pick locks. After groaning in frustration, Amity caught from the corner of her eye the claw-goblin who led the tour of the castle yesterday trying to sneak toward a lift. She formed her slime into a blade and spun around to confront the demon, the Emperor's assistant Kikimora.

"Open the cage," Amity insisted.

"I am the Emperor's right hand!" Kiimora declared indignantly. "I will not be threatened by a mere child!" she continued as if she hadn't been cowering in fear from the riot the entire time. In the background, the leader of the BATTS played a crescendo and suddenly the Golden Guard was sent flying off by the spiral of a whirlwind.

"You're also the size of a grudgby ball," Amity threatened, "and I used to be Hexside's Team Captain."

That seemed to do it. Kikimora scrambled to the cage and unlocked it, then was batted asside as the door swung open and the prisoners escaped.

"Okay," Amity began, "we need to get out of here."

"We can't just leave!" King shouted.

"I think the townsfolk have the guards handled and the Bards just... Cleaned the Golden Guard's clock," Amity continued and hoped she was using that expression right. "I think things are good here which means getting Eda out of here is top—"

Nearby, the roof of the conformatorium began to crack. With a loud crash, it shattered outward and from the hole crawled—

"Luz!" Amity declared with relief and excitement before running to embrace her girlfriend. She wasn't sure how she'd gotten inside when the Guards were pretty clear about what they'd done to her but she'd take it.

"Oh, hey Sweet Potato," Luz greeted as she was hugged. "Now that I don't appreciate it but this is kind of a bad time." Something was new about her voice, like something was cutely whispering to echo every word she said.

"Okay, now we can leave," King finished.

Hug complete, Amity released her girlfriend and then got a better look at her... Amity wasn't sure that Luz could get any cuter but somehow she did. Her eyes were purple with black sclera. Her teeth were noticeably sharper, like a witch's fangs, but her canines were slightly longer than that with the one on the upper left poking out over her lip. Then there was her outfit. It was like the Hexside uniform, with the shawl/hood replaced with a witch's cloak and the tights extended to cover the hands and feet. Each of Luz's fingers looked to be tipped with a small claw, and the whole outfit looked... Organic. Kind of wet-looking... Amity belatedly realized that it wasn't a costume. The whole outfit was witch's wool purple, but alternating pink and blue tiger stripes marked her arms and legs.

"Dang kid," Eda asked from behind Amity. "What happened to you?"

"Explain later, leave now, before Belos gets up!" Luz explained. She then brandished Eda's staff, which Amity hadn't even noticed she was carrying in the excitement of seeing her alive and in this form, and then laid it out and mounted it

Luz had tentacles now. The cape of her cloak split into a couple and gently lifted Amity up and sat her down behind Luz on the staff. A moment later, King was deposited before Luz but between her arms. All Amity could think of was how good Luz was going to be at hugs now.

"Where is the Emperor?" Lilith asked as she mounted her own staff.

"Beat him up! Let's go!"

And with that, the whole party fled the Confomatorium through the sky.

TLOA

If he had to choose where exactly he'd gone wrong that day, Phillip would have to say it was when he took the Owl Lady's palisman from Luzura.

He'd been perfectly content to let her test her mastery of the glyphs against him, exhaust her supply and her anger, before making his ultimatum: The Portal Door for the Owl Lady's life. Especially if it would let him get a good look at whatever bizarre glyph combination allowed her to create magic-disrupting detonations and envelop herself in strength-enhancing shadows.

Then he disarmed her, and Luzura's anger hit a breaking point. The shadows that clung to her body, which Phillip was forced to conclude were not glyph-related, erupted quite violently and then sort of congealed into some horrifying slime as her face took on the horrifying countenance of the foulest fiends.

She shouted, in a voice that echoed with a feral whisper, to "let go of him!" and then horrific tendrils briefly erupted from her body as she shouted to the heavens.

Unsettled, Philip countered with a blast from his staff, only for Luzura's cloak to move on its own to block the spell. With an unholy roar of rage, Luzura reached out and the purple mass coating her arm bubbled and erupted into grasping pseudopods that grabbed Philip by his torso and...

Well, it was a little hard to piece together exactly what happened next but the cracks in the walls, the hole in the ceiling, the fact that he could now hear a riot outside, and the lack of any sign of Luzura or the Owl Lady's palisman made it clear enough.

As he stood from the crater he'd been left in, he mused to himself "It's just my fortune that the only human I meet in centuries turns out to be a witchbreed." Still, it was better to be a witchbreed than a true witch, and based on Hunter's observations and those of spies in Bonesborough the girl was of good character, if severely misguided. Even if his suspicions of her... vices, based on his brief glimpse of her interaction with the lavender-haired witchling, were correct, she still didn't deserve to experience what this place did to humans.

But, that was for another time. He still needed her to find the time pools and help his past self learn the Light Glyph and find The Collector before he could rescue her from this place. And he'd need to come up with a new plan to retrieve his portal door from the Owl Lady, there wasn't enough Titan Blood on the isle to make another one.

Looking up toward the hole in the ceiling that let in the sound from outside, he improvised a plan to save face and run damage control.

At the top of the lift, he was greeted by Kikimora. "Emperor Belos!" She declared. "It was horrible. I tried to stop them but the townspeople are all out of control. They've overwhelmed the Scouts and Guards and a quartet of bards vanquished the Golden Guard, who was probably—"

She was interupted as Hunter Flew up and landed next to her. "Emperor Belos, I take full responsibility for—"

Philip silenced them both with a raised hand and surveilled the area. No sign of those bards Kikimora mentioned, and the way the townspeople were making fools of his military forces told him that he would need to see about bolstering them soon. With a wave of his staff, Philip conjured a massive illusion of himself above the Conformatorium and shouted "SILENCE!"

That seemed to force things to calm down. Unfortunately, he couldn't eliminate the dissenting witches right now, he clearly didn't have the forces for it and it would... raise questions. No matter, they'd all die on the Day of Unity anyway.

"Guards, stand down. People of Bonesborough, return to your homes satisfied that on this day you have done The Titan's work."

This caused quite a bit of muttering.

"Not too long ago," Philip lied with ease, "I was given a vision by the Titan instructing me to spare Eda the Owl Lady. If it were not for your protest, the petrification ceremony would have gone on as normal and I would have been too late to act on that vision. I thank you all for saving me from that dire mistake." More muttering. "The Titan has told me that in her current state, without her magic, she is no threat to anyone. And besides..."

Was this too petty of him? Putting such scrutiny on Luzura? Well, if he was going to tolerate her vice, it should be acceptable to indulge his own.

"...Her apprentice, Luz the Human, has been granted a blessing by The Titan."