The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

After arriving at The Owl House, Amity bore witness to Llith using some sort of exotic magic to literally take half of the curse from Eda, restoring the witch to her true form at the cost of both of their magics. Luz began explaining how she could teach Eda what she knew about the glyphs and then they could learn more together before Eda, turning her now two-toned eyes to Luz's asked again what exactly had happened to Luz while she fought the Emperor.

...Unfortunately for Amity's curiosity, shortly afterward her scroll blew up. Her entire family was DMing her on Penstagram to "Come home" with a "now," added to Mom's message.

After saying her goodbyes, Amity rushed home, taking the long way around town just in case, and was greeted at home by her very concerned older siblings and father and learned about the Emperor pardoning everyone from the protest but also that going to a protest against the Emperor, even if it was to protect someone important to someone important to her, was very wreckless, and finally the claptrap about the Emperor declaring Luz to have been blessed by the Titan...

At this point, Amity was 100% convinced that everything the Emperor said was a lie. She'd seen what the sigils were for, she'd seen what the Emperor's coven was really like, and if he could communicate with the Titan then why couldn't he use the glyphs that were gained from connecting with nature on the Isles?

Her Mom, for her part, seemed to believe the Emperor's lie and commended her on choosing a good partner in a sickly sweet voice... Before chastising her for doing something that almost certainly cost her any chance of joining the Emperor's Coven. Honestly, it hadn't quite occurred to Amity that she was burning that bridge but she found herself not caring... That was when she realized that she never wanted to join the Emperor's Coven, she was just doing what her mother wanted her to do.

Once she was alone that evening, as she stared at her own forearm, she made a decision.

...The next morning, Eda hit her, Gus, and Willow on Pensta and told them that the residents of the Owl House were going to lay low for a few days and to not come over barring an emergency until they gave the all-clear in case the place was being monitored. Shortly afterward, she got a string of stylized hearts and a "C U SOON" message from Luz.

...'Soon' ended up being a little over two weeks. Amity understood the need for discretion but so long without contact with her awesome girlfriend really got to her. Still, Amity managed to spend the time productively. She did a bit of research. She spoke to Principal Bump about her academic future given a recent change in priorities, she finally gave that pamphlet he'd slipped her a good look and, upon seeing that the counselor on staff was a certified mind healer and that they could not talk to her parents without her permission unless they believed she was a danger to herself or others, booked an appointment.

...Also, in the interim, Amity and Willow wondered among themselves why the coven guards had declared that they'd dealt with Luz when she'd been in the conformatorium all along, which prompted Gus to reveal the illusion he'd used to distract them earlier. Amity would have throttled the younger witchling for leaving out such an important detail and letting her and Willow worry, but witch puberty had, if Amity had the human vernacular right, hit him like a truck and the after-effects of his rapid growth spurt were deemed to be punishment enough.

Amity also continued her study of the human realm, and upon learning of the date of Luz's return to school baked her a pie... At first, she was going to bake a fairy pie but then she recalled what Eda had said about Luz not being able to digest most demon food and spent an hour DMing the Owl Lady about human-safe food before the Owl Lady finally just sent her a crow carrying a human cookbook, a bill for ten snails, and list of demon realm ingredients that were human safe and similar to human food that couldn't be easily obtained in the Boiling Isles. Amity happily paid for the book and got to work.

Finally, on the day Luz was set to return to Hexside, Amity set out hoping to greet her girlfriend with a couple of surprises.

She got her chance when she approached the locker bay where Luz was stationed and saw her talking with Willow and Gus. Amity walked up when she saw an opening.

Luz noticed her before she could speak. "Amity!" she greeted and rushed over for a hug, which Amity gratefully gave.

"It's good to see you, Luz," Amity greeted in turn and... Uh oh. Luz was nervous about something... But, after the fiasco at the castle, Luz had to know that she could talk to Amity and/or Willow and Gus about her problems. So, act normal and Luz will tell her when she's ready. That decided, Amity stepped back and held out her arms. "Notice anything different?"

Luz looked her over for a moment and her eyes lit up when she noticed the changes to Amity's sleaves. "You're multi-tracking!"

Amity gave her girlfriend a big smile. "Yep!" Then she quieted down. "My chances of joining the Emperor's coven have gone down the drain and honestly, after learning what the coven sigils are really for I'm not sure I want to join any coven. So chances are I'm going to have to go wild so I might as well get a head start." Amity traced the green band on her right wrist. "I'm still an abomination specialist, but... I already knew a little bit of plant magic so taking a basic plant class just made sense and... The last time Willow and I had classes together weren't exactly good so I figured it'd be a chance to reconnect. I also spoke with your friend, Jerbo, and he's got some really great ideas." From behind Luz, Willow smiled. Amity then traced the yellow band on her left wrist. "There's a little bit of overlap between potion-making and creating abominations or abomination slime from scratch instead of just conjuring it, so a class on potions theory and properties of different ingredients felt like a good choice and, well, I kind of feel like I've been neglecting Boscha lately so a class together lets us spend a bit more time together, you know."

"You're a good friend," Luz complimented.

"Thanks," Amity then dragged a finger up her left forearm which, other than the band, was predominantly red, "and I'm taking a couple of bard classes because, well, we recently got a very good showing on what bard magic was capable of. I'm not really sure how it'll be useful to me specifically, but the first couple of lessons have been fun and if nothing else it's a trick to keep in my back pocket."

"Yeah, I heard about that," Luz agreed, "I think Eda knows them but she won't tell me. Still, sounds like you've been busy."

"Yeah. I also finally managed to talk to a mind healer," Amity shared next, "I officially have a diagnosis of Walpurgis syndrome which, as far as I can tell, is the demon realm name of that spectrum thing you mentioned."

"Oh, okay," Luz responded.

"Yeah, I uh... Can't get any special accommodations without telling my parents and I don't want to do that just yet, but I don't think I need any so... I'm just happy to know for sure." This was met by Luz being the one to initiate a hug. "Oh, I almost forgot," Amity finished when Luz released her. "To celebrate our triumphant return to the hallowed halls of Hexside," Amity said as she fished through her bag, "I baked you an apple pie."

"An apple pie?" Gus asked as Amity presented the confection to the object of her affection.

Amity had been a bit surprised by that, too. Putting apples in pies? Humans were so creative when it came to food. "I was on Pensta with Eda last night, trying to make sure that what I made for Luz was something safe and she eventually sold me a human cookbook."

"You were the special customer!" Luz declared. "Eda sent the book out but wouldn't tell me who ordered it."

"Well, I'm glad she didn't ruin the surprise," Amity said with a smile. "I had to make some substitutions, of course, but I hope it's up to the standards of the human realm."

"If you made it it'll probably be one of the best I've ever had," Luz said with a smile that melted Amity's heart. "You shouldn't have."

Amity smiled back. "I wanted to. So what have you been up to the last few weeks?"

"Oh, this and that," Luz replied. "Even after the whole town went up and arms, nobody's really willing to pay for potions from a magicless witch and that's most of Eda's income so we had to get creative. Did some bounty hunting, I served on a ship for a bit... I think I'm an accessory to piracy now. Fought the Golden Guard, he is a lot less friendly when he's on the clock... The money situation's okay now," Luz finished, "but Eda's looking for a few extra sources of income just in case... Oh, that reminds me, Willow," the human turned to the bespectacled witch, "Eda would like to know if you'd be willing to help her cultivate a human realm plant called agave?"

"I'm ready, willing, and able to try," Willow replied with excitement.

"Other than that, Eda taught me how to pickpocket and I've been teaching her and Lilith what I know about the glyphs."

Amity blinked. "Lilith?"

"Yeah, she's been staying at the Owl House ever since, well... I mean..." Luz shrugged.

"...and you trust her, after everything she did?" Amity asked incredulously.

"I mean, you were there when she took half of Eda's curse and she apologized for throwing me off that bridge."

"She did what!?" Amity shouted.

"Oh, right. You weren't there for that part," Luz said with a sheepish laugh.

Amity could not properly express how big of a deal it was that Luz was apparently comfortable sleeping in the same house as someone who tried to murder her in words, instead it just came out as random syllables.

"Look," Luz tried to explain, "it's really hard to stay mad at someone who looks at you with big, bright eyes and calls you 'miss teacher.' I think Lilith is just like, super desperate for approval or positive feedback from an authority figure or something."

Amity's eye twitched for a moment and she tried very hard not to think of how that meant that Lilith should have known exactly how badly Amity would have taken the betrayal and what Lilith had done to set it up.

"...And um... It''s not like I'm going to be living in the same house as her for very much longer," Luz admitted and her nervousness spiked, companied with just the tiniest bit of guilt.

"Luz... what's wrong?"

"...I'm supposed to be at this camp," Luz admitted. "And the camp ends, well, today. Got a text from my Mom about it... It completely slipped my mind... I need to go back to the human realm and... I don't know how Mom's going to take me being here instead of where I was supposed to be but she's going to want me to move back home and... Eda taught me this trick for how to open the portal from the human side, but..." Luz trailed off but there was clearly more to it.

"Luz?"

"I don't know if she's going to let me come back," Luz finished. "If, If I'd remembered I'd have tried to come back to Hexside earlier or I don't know, spent more time with..."

This prompted three young witchlings to hug the human witch.

"Luz, don't torture yourself with worst-case scenarios," Willow warned. "I've been there, it doesn't help."

"Besides," Gus added, "I'm pretty sure that Eda and King will try and kidnap you if you're gone for more than a week."

"And I believe that I said that I'd come to the human realm with you, and help you talk to her, back at Grom," Amity finished.

Luz was silent for a moment. when she finally spoke, she simply said "I have the best friends," with a sniff. Followed with "and an awesome girlfriend."

After a few more moments of hugging, the morning bell finally rang and they made their way to class. Amity mentally prepared herself, this was going to be a very interesting afternoon.