The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

"¡Hola Mamá!" Luz greeted as she filmed herself. "I thought it might be a good idea to show you where it is I've, you know, been all this time." She turned her phone so that the camera could get a decent panning shot of her room at the Owl House. "This is where I've been sleeping. I know it looks a bit small but it's nice and cozy." Luz then turned the camera back on her but held her phone out from her to get a more full-body shot. "And this little outfit with the tunic and the cowl and the tights is my Hexside School Uniform. Normally the colors correspond to what tracks you're studying but since I'm studying everything I get a balanced multi-color look. I'll be heading out soon enough but first..."

Luz set her phone down and stood back, "it completely slipped my mind last night that I could use the Titan Blood to show you my spells. I could wait until I come home again but..." Luz drew a light glyph and held it between her hands as she activated it so that when she opened her hands the ball of light floated gently out of them. "The light glyph was the very first spell I ever learned. Being able to do actual, real magic was... Amazing. I've learned so much since then, and I'm learning more every day."

She dismissed the spell and took her phone again, leaving the room. "This," she explained as she filmed her trip to the living room, "is The Owl House: Home of Eda Clawthorn, the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles, and..." As Luz entered the living room she found a certain adorable fuzzy little guy snoozing on a pile of stuffed animals, "the mighty King of Demons!"

"Weh?" King asked as his eyes opened slowly. "What's going on?"

"I'm making a video to send to my mom," Luz explained. "Say hi."

"Oh, hi," King mumbled as he snuggled with his bunny Francois, and closed his eyes again only for both eyes to snap open and the cutie-pie lept up. "I mean, Mother of Luz. Take joy in knowing that your child is the greatest and most loyal soldier in my army. When I reclaim my power and throne, know that you shall hold a place of honor in my Kingdom for having given her life."

King then immediately flopped down and fell back asleep, prompting Luz to giggle as she moved on. "Yeah, he's going to be the King of Theatre Kids when he's older."

Lilith entered the living room from the kitchen, holding a mug of tea, before going to the couch to look over her notes. "This is Lilith," Luz introduced, "she's Eda's older sister, even though she doesn't really look like she's older, long story. It's not really my place to say why but she's staying with Eda for a while."

"Um, what are you doing?" Lilith asked.

"Making a video to send to my Mom. Say hi, Lilith."

"Oh, hello," the older witch said awkwardly. "I am... Well, Luz already introduced me. I um... If it wasn't for your daughter, Edalyn and I probably wouldn't be on speaking terms right now so..."

Luckily, Lilith was saved from an awkward trail-off by a sudden interruption: "Can I be in the video!?" Hooty loudly asked, undulating into view.

"Sure," Luz agreed, "this guy is Hooty: The Mystical Guardian of the Owl House... And, I guess also technically the house itself. I don't know how House Demons work."

"That's okay," Hooty said reassuringly, "I don't know how I work either."

Lilith patted Hooty'ss head. "I've seen Hootsifer here in action first hand and I can assure you that despite his unsettling appearance there is no one you'd rather have at your back and no place safer for your daughter than the Owl House."

"Aww, shucks Lulu," Hooty replied and Luz left them to their friendship moment.

"Leaving the house now," she said as she walked past Hooty's extended, wormlike form and the open door, "we see that... Amity's still here."

The witch in question was. She was in front of the Owl House, talking to Eda.

"So um... Amity sometimes stays over when we have study dates or the like," Luz started explaining as she turned her phone's camera back to herself. "She crashed here last night. Don't read too much into that."

"Making something to send to your Mom?" Eda asked.

"Yeah," Luz said as she flipped her phone back around. "Say hi."

Eda greeted first. "Hey Cam... I can call you Cam, right? Message Luz back if I can call you Cam."

"Hola, Señora Noceda," Amity added.

"Amity, you're normally ah... Halfway to Hexside by now when you stay over on a school night," Luz asked.

"Oh, Boots here was asking me if I knew any ways to help a young witch grow stronger, faster," Eda replied dismissively.

"Sweet Potato, are you still worried?" Luz asked.

Amity blushed. "I'm sorry, I can't help it. I know we..."

"It's fine," Luz was quick to insist. "If you want to talk about it we can do it later... Eda, do you know a way to—?"

"One, that I read in a copy of the journal of some guy from the Deadwardian era, talking about something wild witches supposedly did in the early savage ages," Eda lectured. "Supposedly, a group of two or more witches could commune with nature and refine and purify their bile by dancing around a bonfire at midnight on the night of a full moon in a forest clearing... But I'm 99.9% sure the author of the journal was making the whole thing up since the ritual supposedly can only be done by female witches and the only real details of the dance that were specified were about the state of dress it was performed in."

Luz blinked. "I don't get it."

"You'll figure it out eventually," Eda quipped. "See, Boots gets it," she said with a gesture to Amity, who had a noticeable blush. "Anyway, the point is that for most witches the only way to get stronger is to find out what magics you're good at and work hard to get the most out of them. At least not without getting into all kinds of horribly unethical stuff that takes a severe toll on your mind and body," Eda finished. She then summoned Owlbert in staff form. "Now come on, I'll give you two a ride to school and Luz, don't make any plans for this afternoon: We're going furniture shopping."

"Huh? Why?" Luz asked.

"The sleeping bag and foam mat were fine when this was just for the summer," Eda replied, "but if this is gonna be your home, even if it's only a sometimes home, then you need a real bed."

Luz blinked again. "Are you sure you can afford that right now?"

"Eh, I know a guy," Eda dismissed. "Now come on. I know that neither of you want to be late and you can get some scenic shots of the town to send to Cam on the way."

Luz did do that, taking care to properly describe the sights of Bonesborough and the surrounding forest as Eda flew her and Amity above the town.

At school, she and Amity parted ways and Luz took every opportunity before and between classes to seek out her various friends to introduce them to her mom. Gus and Willow ("The best friends a girl could ask for,") her fellow Multitrackers ("That first day was crazy but...") Ed and Em ("They were cool, then it turned out they were jerks, now they're cool again... What's important is they love Amity and they're trying.") Even Boscha ("Truth be told I don't think she likes me very much, but she's the one who encouraged Amity to ask me out and she cares about her a great deal. She's a good friend.")

Then, in the afternoon after classes, she encountered Principal Bump making his rounds. "And this is the best principal that I've ever had."

"You're much too kind," Principal Bump declared as he took notice of Luz. "What's this, some sort of documentary?"

"I'm making a video to send to my Mom," Luz explained not for the first time.

"You know, truth be told I'd just assumed you were an orphan that wandered near Edalyn's house up until the incident at Grom," Principal Bump observed. "I assume you've spoken to your mother? I recall there was some concern about how she'd react to where you've been all this time."

"Yeah," Luz confimred. "We talked, and came to a proper understanding, I introduced her to Amity, and she's cool with me studying here."

"That's great to hear," Principal Bump said with a smile. "I'll admit, I wasn't looking forward to losing one of the best students Hexside's seen in a good long while."

Luz laughed it off. "I'm not that good. My grades were always inconsistent back in the human realm."

"This might be hard to believe coming from an educator, Luz, but grades aren't everything," Principal Bump began. "Ignoring the fact that your grades are in fact quite exceptional considering your course load and the amount of catching up you've had to do, you've shown remarkable improvement since you started here. That alone would be enough to call you a good student," the aged witch continued, "but your work ethic and shear enthusiasm for learning are practically infectious: Your fellow students have been working harder and been more eager to learn since you enrolled in this school, and the new ideas you've introduced are a clear factor. Allowing you to enroll here was one of the best decisions I've made as principal and I can assure you that if you had trouble in your human schools it's because they didn't know how to teach you and their loss is Hexside's gain."

"Oh, um... Thank you," Luz said shakily. "That uh... That means a lot... Um, Mami has a few concerns though... Uh, she knows about the dissection incident."

"I assure you, I was bluffing," the witch declared sternly. "And even if I hadn't been, the second you became a student at my school your safety and well-being became my number one priority."

"Okay and... Um... I also explained Grom to her and, actually I have some questions about that too. Why is fighting Gromethus a student's responsibility?"

"Because the average teenager's fears are more easily faced and overcome than more mature fears," Principal Bump lectured. "You would not believe how many times Grom has revealed that a student's greatest fear is that dream where you show up to class in your underwear. In comparison... Well, let me tell you a story."

"As you're almost certainly aware, Luz," Principal Bump began, "Hexside as you know it was founded when the students of Old Hexside conquered a rival school and built our new campus over the ruins of their school. And that I, a student at the time, lead the charge."

"Yeah, that was awesome," Luz confirmed with a smile. "But... Grom's been sealed under here for centuries..."

"Yes, here, the physical location," Bump explained. "But the seal was damaged by the destruction of the old school. It was years later when Grometheus the Fearbringer made its first escape attempt. I was the abomination track professor at the time, and I went to confront the monster. After all, as the leader of the charge against the previous occupants of the land, it was partly my fault. Can you guess what it turned into?"

Luz wracked her brain for a moment. "An invisible unicorn?"

"Every last one of my students," Bump clarified. "Dead at Grom's claws."

Luz gulped.

"Exactly. This was, of course, before we truly understood what Grom was so I was taken completely off guard," Bump continued to lecture. "The creature would have killed me had it not been for my predecessor, Principal Faust's, timely intervention. Probably the one good thing the demon ever did in his life. We managed to damage it enough that we could trap it in the arena under the gymnasium, but the spells that had been used to seal it originally had been lost to time. The tradition of selecting a student to defeat Grom each year started after the third time it managed to escape the arena when Grom attacked the current Star Grudgby player and all it did was transform into her, but bad at grudgby. A totally unfounded fear born from anxiety, easily overcome when properly confronted. The party was my idea," Bump continued, "Gromethus feeds on fear, the festive atmosphere created by the dance and by turning the fight into a spectacle drastically reduces its power, and, well... I imagine it's a lot easier to overcome your fears when all of your classmates are cheering you on. A lot of former Grom Kings and Queens have admitted to finding the experience cathartic when all was said and done."

"After Faust came down with a sudden and most unfortunate case of 'ignored the Beast Keeping Professor's instructions when a dangerous predator was in the pen,'" Bump continued, "and I succeeded him as Principal I instituted the policy of carefully vetting the students to ensure that Grom Royalty was both capable of handling it and someone who might benefit from facing their fears... and in having powerful witches playing chaperone in case something goes wrong. There were never any casualties during Faust's tenure," Bump quickly answered, "but there were far too many close calls for my taste."

"So when you chose Amity...?" Luz asked.

"I had assumed that her worst fear would have been her mother's expectations," Principal Bump confirmed. "I figured she could use a reminder that Odalia Blight was mortal and fallible, and honestly that she could use the confidence boost after how last semester ended, but, well, I misjudged that one."

"Yeah, that might be my bad," Luz admitted.

"Luz, child, I seriously doubt that anything you said or did gave Amity the impression that you would reject her so cruelly," Bump denied. "No, this was on me, I misjudged the nature and severity of her insecurities. Of course, if she'd come to me and told me she didn't believe she could face her fears I would have allowed her to swap out with a volunteer, and honestly, if she'd told me it was something so personal I may just well have picked someone else myself, but I suppose I didn't make it clear enough to the student body that that was an option," Bump finished.

"No, I mean, before that. the red thing Grom turned into when it grabbed her, uh... Amity asked me about the kinds of powers people have in the human realm," Luz began sheepishly, "And I um... Chose poorly for one of the examples I gave. Amity confessed to me that she'd had a nightmare about Carnage that night, so... Yeah. My B."

"Luz, you can hardly be blamed for that," Principal Bump insisted. "And even if you could be... Well, it all worked out in the end."

"Yeah. Well, thanks for telling me all that," Luz said before turning her phone's camera back to herself. "Okay Mamá, I'm gonna end it here. I'll see you soon, te quiero." Then she stopped recording.

"One last thing, Principal Bump," she continued as she turned back to her Principal. "Um... If that doesn't reassure my Mom, and you ever meet her in person and she reaches into her purse and pulls out a sandal... don't try to defend yourself, don't argue, don't fight back. Just run."

The aged witch looked like he was about to dismiss the warning, but he must have seen the look on Luz's face as he instead cleared his throat. "Duly noted."