The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

"...I mean, I get it," Hunter admitted as he watched Luz the human draw a set of her elemental glyphs. "After what my Uncle said about how people like you have it in the human realm, the sort of chaos of a wild witch is probably appealing but that doesn't make it any less dangerous."

The human paused from where she was placing the sleeping nettles to turn to look at Hunter. "People like me?"

"The Emperor told me that you were probably a second-class citizen in the human realm because the last time he visited people who looked like you were either slaves or savages," Hunter replied earnestly.

The human made an odd expression, before holding her index fingers extended over her face so that they pointed to her nose, through which she sharply inhaled. "Okay. You clearly don't mean anything bad by that, so I'm gonna let it slide but... No, none of that is right and the Emperor is lying to you."

"...What do you mean?"

"So, yes, some of my ancestors were slaves," she began, "and likewise certain ignorant or hateful people would have used the term 'savages' to describe most of my ancestors, but slavery has been illegal for a very long time. How long do witches live?"

"About eighty to a hundred years," Hunter replied.

"Then he's lying to you," the human concluded. "The place where my family lives now outlawed slavery over a hundred and fifty years ago. The place where my family came from, as far back as we can trace, outlawed slavery two hundred years ago. The last country in the entire half of the planet I live on to outlaw slavery did it over one hundred and thirty years ago. If he was in the human realm when this was happening, he'd be dead by now."

"Then why would my uncle say he saw it with his own eyes?" Hunter asked, desperately.

"Because he's a liar," the human insisted. "He probably found a book about what the human world was like a few centuries ago and used it to... Why would he even tell you that?"

"... Because I admitted to feeling bad about what happened and that is wanted to help you?" Hunter admitted. "And he said that he can help you. After the Day of Unity, he can give you all the help you need!"

"No thanks," she said as she put the finishing touches on her glyphs.

"You sure?" Hunter asked. "I can get you and Blight spots in the Emperor's Coven. It's great, you get to sleep in until six in the morning and—"

"I'm not interested in leaving all my friends behind and while I don't have a palisman yet, if I did I'd kill everyone in that castle before I let Belos so much as look at it and I'm sure Amity feels the same way," the human dismissed. "and for future reference? While some jerks would treat me pretty bad for my skin color or where my ancestors came from, I haven't really had to deal with that and boiling someone's motivations down to their ethnic or racial history is really, really offensive in the human realm."

"Oh, shoot I'm sorry," Hunter said as he blanched.

"It's fine," the human finished. "And... Masks up, it's go time!" She declared before covering her mouth with some of the slime that manifested from the Titan's gift. Hunter pulled up his own face covering and the human activated her glyph array, generating a mist infused with the essence of the sleeping nettles placed before it that caused Kikimora and her hand dragon to fall asleep so that the captured palismen could be retrieved from her.

TLOA

It was the early afternoon. Amity had spent the morning getting the hang of flying on her staff and casting spells with power borrowed from Ghost. It was amazing, Ghost felt at once as if she was Amity's long-time best friend but also a part of her.

But, Amity had business to handle. She packed up the leftover palistrom shavings—after getting Ghost's approval for using them to help Luz—and a small, pressurized bottle containing roughly half a liter of Titan Breath that her father had been more than willing to part with when Amity said it might help Luz with something (though she'd been vague on the how and why.)

She wasn't sure when Luz would be ready to... Ingest, the sources of magic so to speak, but having access to them was important, and having access to them as soon as demonly possible would make it easy to schedule out when they were doing this...

Also, Amity wanted Luz to be the first person outside of Lilth and her family whom she introduced to Ghost. Once everything was packed up, she sent Luz a message, "COMING OVER BATATA, XOXO" and a string of hearts.

Hmm. Weird. Luz normally messages back pretty quickly... Maybe she was in the middle of something?

Regardless, after sending the message out Amity mounted her staff and went on her first crosstown flight: Destination, the Owl House. Upon arrival she found Hooty... Seemingly asleep? He was inhaling like he was snoring, but instead of exhaling he was just saying "hoot."

"Um, hello? Hooty?" Amity asked as she approached.

"No! No, I hated that episode!" The house demon shouted as he snapped awake. "Oh, hi Amity," he greeted moments later as if he hadn't been asleep at all.

"Uh, hi, Hooty," Amity began awkwardly. She was trying not to be so judgemental but even ignoring the time he ate her alive, something about the house demon was just... Unsettling. "Is Luz home?"

"Oh yeah, she's sleeping on the couch," Hooty confirmed.

"...It's the afternoon," Amity questioned. Luz was normally up pretty early. "Is something wrong? Is she sick?"

"Oh no, she just had a late-night adventure," Hooty said in his usual loud tone. "She got home just after sunrise and then spent most of the morning working on something so she's pretty out of it."

"Can I come in?" Amity asked. "To check on her?" Amity wanted to be relieved that Hooty said it wasn't anything serious but Hooty was... Hooty.

"Okay!" The Hooty agreed as he slammed open.

Amity stepped into the house and her eyes immediately turned to the couch, where Luz was sleeping peacefully, King curled up on her chest and snoring. The sight was adorable and Amity breathed a sigh of relief in that Luz was okay.

...Then she noticed something in the corner of her eye. A pile of blue-tinted bark and wood chips was on the table before the couch. Obviously palistrom. Had Luz also carved her own palisman?

Looking around for any sign of a wooden figure or staff, Amity saw on the other end of the table, sitting on a layer of old newspaper...

"Is that an egg?" She asked aloud.

Maybe too loud, as King startled awake with a "Weh?" the young demon looked around, saw Aamity, and then mumbled "Luz! Your girlfriend's here." Then he leaped off of Luz and scurried off somewhere, presumably to go back to sleep.

Luz snorted as she slowly sat up and blinked awake. "Hey, swee'tato," she mumbled.

"Hey, Luz. Sorry about waking you."

Luz yawned widely. "It's okay. How are you?"

"I'm fine," Amity replied. "I just came over to drop off the Titan Breath and palistrom and also," with a gesture of her hand, her staff vanished as the cat at the head animated and landed in Amity's hands, "introduce you to Ghost!"

Luz was immediately wide awake, eyes wide as she let out an "Aww!"

Ghost let out a "Merow" that Amity intuitively understood to be Ghost asking "Let me down," so she set her Palisman down, and Ghost immediately leaped up onto the couch and started pressing her head up against Luz's side.

"Oh, you want me to pet you?" Luz asked.

"Mow," Ghost replied.

"She said yes," Amity translated.

Luz started petting the white cat palisman, who purred, and... Amity couldn't help but purr along, so happy that her palisman got along with her girlfriend...

"Of course I do," Amity heard in the rumbling of her cat's breath. "My witch loves Luz, so I love Luz."

A tear came to Amity's eyes and she relayed the message to Luz, which prompted a lot of awing and cooing from both young witches.

After a few moments, Amity was sitting next to Luz with Ghost curled up in her lap.

"So you carved her yourself?" Luz asked.

"Yeah," Amity confirmed. "I stayed home from school yesterday, it took a couple of hours, and... I had so much trouble getting started. I knew what I wanted, but my mind kept wandering and I couldn't make myself start and..."

"Oh, yikes," Luz said sympathetically. "Executive dysfunction sucks."

"So I ended up asking Lilith for help and, she talked me through it and... I'm not regretting being her student again," Amity admitted. "She's a much better teacher when she's being supportive."

"That's good to hear," Luz acknowledged.

"After I got started, she provided guidance and when I was done caring she helped me apply the paint and lacquer. And when it was dry, she presented me with my staff and..." Amity blushed. "I couldn't bond with her at first."

"You?" Luz asked incredulously. "But you're so confident and cool. Even when you're scared out of your mind you can quickly come up with a plan to take care of it."

"At first I said I wanted to be a great witch, but that wasn't specific enough," Amity said. "Then that I wanted to be an author, but that's not so much a goal as it is something I thought might be nice. I said I wanted to be able to protect all the people I love, but..." Amity took a deep breath. She was safe with Luz, she could let herself be vulnerable. "It's not so much that I want to be a protector as much as I'm just... So scared of losing you, or losing Willow, or Boscha, or Ed and Em I..." Luz put an arm around Amity. "It was only when I admitted that I don't know what I want to be when I grow up, that all I wanted was for whatever happens to be because of my choices that Ghost came to life."

Ghost let out a "Mew!" that to Amity's ears sounded like "Together we'll be as free as the wind."

"But... It looks like you've been busy," Amity gestured to the pile of palistrom wood shavings and the egg, light green with an intricate pattern of grooves in the shell. "Care to share?"

"So, palisman adoption day at Hexside went well for... Everyone but me," Luz admitted. "When it was my turn to try and bond with a palisman I... The thing I want most is to be a witch, but... Then I said I wanted to replace the portal key so I could see my Mom in person again but thats just a short-term goal. I went to the back of the line after that so I wouldn't hold up anyone and when everyone else had their palisman I tried again: 'I want to be the best witch I can be.' 'I want to prove that wild magic is safe.' 'I want to grow up and marry Amity...'" Luz seemed to freeze as she realized she'd just admitted that out loud. "Um, forget you heard that."

Amity blushed again. "No, I like the idea. I can't see... You're the only person I've ever... I never felt anything like, before I met... But if it happens it has to be on our terms, no one else's. When we're old enough."

"When we're old enough," Luz agreed. "But, yeah. Long-term goals have never really been my strong suit, it can be so hard to commit to just one thing... I ended up going home empty-handed, but a little rascal stowed away in my bag so when I discovered him last night I took him back to the school and while I was there I figured I might as well try again and then... Well, the habitat the palismen were being kept in got stolen by the Golden Guard while I was in it."

"...Are the palismen okay?" Amity asked as she held Ghost closer. There was only one thing the Emperor's Coven could want with those innocent creatures.

"They're fine," Luz replied. "I fought with and then argued with him for a while, then Kikimora attacked his airship trying to kill him and take the palismen for herself, I saved his life, we teamed up to get the Palismen back from her, then we fought again but he ultimately let me leave with them" Luz finished. "He told me his real name. We might be friends now."

Amity laughed. "Only you could make friends with someone in that kind of situation."

"Yeah," Luz admitted. "The weird thing was, it seemed like he wanted to be friends. He even offered to get us places in the Emperor's Coven."

Amity looked down at her Palisman. "The Emperor can have Ghost when he tears her from my cold dead hands."

"Yeah, I figured. Told him as much, too," Luz continued. "Anyway, when I got home it was morning and I just wanted to crash but then Eda came in. She said that some witches were too... Independant to bond with a palisman that was originally made for someone else, and that she figured that if I was gonna get one it needed to be one made for me," Luz gestured to the items on the table. "So she went out and got me some palistrom."

"...She robbed the Garden Club, didn't she?" Amity asked.

"She and King," Luz admitted. "I think her love language is a crime."

Three months ago, Amity would have had a problem with that, but the Garden Club was sponsored by the Plant Coven and all palistrom in the care of the Plant Coven was the property of the Emperor and frankly, Belos didn't deserve it. If Eda hadn't stolen it this palistrom would have probably been used for some nefarious purpose. Or made into a palisman who only existed to be eaten.

"And... wasn't sure what to carve at first. I ended up calling my Mom and talking to her, explaining how palisman worked and stuff. she told me some stuff from when I was a kid and... Suddenly it just clicked and I knew what to do."

"So you carved an egg?" Amity asked.

"Yeah. My whole life there have been people who had a problem with me being me," Luz lectured. "As far back as I can remember. Never anyone whose opinion mattered but... Even when they had a point, even when they meant well, cause sometimes I did uh, you know, cross a line, the thought was always to try and change me." After checking to see if it was dry, Luz picked up the egg. "But I didn't let them. I am who I chose to be: The Good Witch Luz, child of the human realm, student of the demon realm, warrior of peace, and snuggler of golden-eyed goddesses. If any palisman is gonna be right for me, it has to be one who got to choose who they are the way I chose who I am. I carved my palisman into an egg so that when I manage to bond with it the egg will hatch and they can be anything they want."

"Wow, that was... Profound," Amity admitted. "Ghost," she said while looking down at her own palisman. "Are you happy being a cat?"

Ghost responded by giving her a look. A one-eyed look. The most judgemental, catlike one-eyed look ever looked by a cat. Amity understood immediately. "Seriously? I'm perfect just the way you made me."

Amity responded by petting Ghost's head.

"Eda helped me with the actual carving," Luz continued. "She told me about how her dad helped her carve Owlbert, and how he used to be the best palisman carver on the isles but got quiet when I asked more about him. Now all I've gotta do is... Figure out what I want. That might take away, but it's okay." Luz kissed the egg. "I love them already."

Amity put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll figure out what it is you really want the most before you know it. You're too amazing not to."

"Yeah," Luz agreed quietly. "There is... One thing that might have worked, but... I didn't even know I wanted it until I already had it."

"Oh?"

"It's... Probably silly, but... Like I said, my whole life people have been trying to change me and... Sometimes explaining myself, my feelings could be hard and... We've been over how I didn't have friends, really, until I came to the Isles and..." Luz gulped. "It could be pretty lonely."

"...I get it."

"I figured you would. Anyway, first started when we went back to the human realm," Luz continued. "When my Mom and I were talking. When she admitted that she used to be a lot like me, when she, was supporting me the way I am, I felt... And then at the old graveyard when I was standing up for myself... I realized that the one thing I'd always wanted was what Mom had given me earlier that afternoon." Amity could sense a complex mixture of emotions from Luz. Some bad, a little touch of sorrow, but mostly good feelings. Joy. Love. Pride.

The shell of Luz's palisman egg cracked and purple light began streaming out. Somehow Luz didn't notice even as Amity went wide-eyed.

"The thing I wanted most... Was to be understood."

The egg shattered and the room was bathed in purple light as a black and violet ball of energy took its place.

"What!?" Luz asked. "How? I didn't...?"

"The goal," Amity added. "It's not... The point is to make a connection. I guess... I guess that counted!?"

Luz, clearly not expecting this and, honestly, from what Amity could feel, panicking a little bit stood up holding the energy ball in her hands as she started pacing the room. "Is this normal? Did I do something wrong, I... What's going on!?"

"I don't know, this didn't happen with Ghost!"

Ghost's "Mowmerow" translated as "Of course not, I had a shape already."

Eventually, the light dimmed down and a dark purple staff grew from the orb, which moved so that the staff it rested upon in turn rested in Luz's hands.

King returned from wherever he'd been. "What's going on? I just got back to sleep." A second later he noticed Luz's staff. "Oh... Eda! Get down here!"

There was a commotion from upstairs and a clearly tired and grumpy Eda stumbled into the room. "Okay, what is so dam—Oh," her entire mood changed as soon as she saw the staff in Luz's hand. "Already?"

"I didn't mean to!" Luz shouted.

"No kid, this is a good thing," Eda said radiating obvious pride. "Now, what creature will your new partner be? My money's on a tarantula."

"It's obviously gonna be an otter," Amity replied.

"Fools!" King declared. "There's only creature powerful and fearsome enough to be Luz's palisman: It'll be born in the image of the Titan itself!"

"...You know, for a second there I thought you were going to say it'd come out looking like you," Eda deadpanned.

"Also possible," King agreed.

Eventually, the orb of energy faded and Luz's staff vanished as the palisman settled on a form and animated. In a final flash of light, there appeared a... Snake.

But not just any snake, the creature was rather, stocky, for lack of a better phrasing, by snake standards. A pair of off-white heart-shapes framed by dark purple made up its face, with purple eyes framed by green sheer and ears and a mouth shape that made it somewhat resemble a cat... Or an otter, Amity thought petulantly. The dark purple continued all down its back, with a layer of lighter purple on its signs and a very pale shade of lavender or lilac coloring its belly, a light green ball of some sort sat at the tip of its tail.

Luz was starring at her palisman with wide, sparkling eyes and it warmed Amity's heart to see her girlfriend so unambiguously happy as the snake, which could fly under its own power without wings, swam through the air around her as if to get a good look at her witch. The snake gave a hiss and a rattle and then zoomed off to look at Amity. The suddenness of it startled the witch, but... It only took a moment before how cute the curious little creature was overwhelmed the startle.

Then it transformed from a flying snake to a flying otter, albeit in a form that was still clearly the same creature, before floating off toward Eda to examine her as well. When it was done with that it assumed a spider-like form, then approached King. Once there, it turned into a smaller, cuter version of the young Demon, who immediately hugged it.

"I have only known them for a moment, but I love them and they must be protected at all costs," he declared.

The creature hissed again and Luz translated: "She says she loves you, too."

"What manner of creature is she?" Eda asked.

"She's a snake-shifter!" Luz declared. "I wanted her to be able to choose to be anything, so she chose to be everything."

"Huh," Eda declared, the pride she was radiating reaching its apex. "An unpredictable, one-of-a-kind palisman for an unpredictable, one-of-a-kind witch."

"Her name is Stringbean," Luz said. "And she's perfect."

As Luz said that, Eda's palisman owlbert approached Stringbean, who was currently sitting with Ghost in the form of a smaller, fluffier cat. He hooted something to Stringbean, who hissed something back. Stringbean then assumed the form of an owl, and Owlbert placed a wing over her and... It was a good thing Amity hadn't thought to get up from the couch in all the excitement, because if this got any cuter she'd pass out.

"Where's my phone?" Luz asked all of a sudden. "I need pictures or video or something to send to Mom."

"Yeah, pictures," Eda agreed while summoning her scroll. "Pictures of my apprentice with her staff. And then later, we need to celebrate."

"I'll bake a cake!" King insisted.

Eda smirked. "I was thinking I'd teach Luz how to fake her own death but cake works."

And through it all, radiating happiness like the beacon of a lighthouse, stood Luz. A warm smile lit up her face.

AN: We have Stringbean, peeps! In canon, the delay in caring and the delay in Luz bonding with her were symbolic of Luz's struggle with her mental health, but... She's already had the heart-to-heart with Camila and realized that what she wanted was to be understood so the delay doesn't really make sense here because, well, Luz is just better off mentally. Of course, I kind of figure that Luz, as independent and free-spirited as she is, would need to carve her own palisman regardless.

This probably doesn't have the same emotional impact as Stringbean's birth in canon, due to the differing circumstances, but I did my best to do it justice.