The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

"Thanks for coming over on such short notice, Tiny," Eda said as Luz adjusted to the fact that she was in bed surrounded by people. Eda and Tiny, of course, but also Amity, King, and the three palisman currently in the house.

"This is impowtant," Tiny Nose declared, "and it's not like I had anything else impowtant to do today, just help Tibbles with a book scam and that can wait."

"You work with Tibbles?" Eda asked.

"Book scam?" Luz replied.

"Yeah, he found some human books and movies in a cwate and has been making copies," Tiny Nose explained. "Got some kid fwom Hexside to edit the authow's profile pic on the back so she looks like a witch and been trying to sell them, Hired me for impewsonations but... Not sure why he keeps doing it, only one pewson evew buys them."

"...You know," Luz observed, "he'd probably get more of a market if he admitted they were bootlegs of human world stuff."

"Pwobably," Tiny admitted. "Now, we should probably start with the palistwom."

Luz looked over to where the palismen were resting. "You guys are sure you're okay with this?"

Luz didn't understand Ghost's meowing, but Stringbean's rattle to her ears sounded like "Go on, it's fine. I want my witch to get better."

Her palisman saying 'my witch' tickled Luz's heart. She might be trapped in the Isles, away from her mom and her new sister and in a realm ruled by some pro-conformist jerk, but even so she was living her best life right now.

"Ghost says it's okay," Amity confirmed. "And I made sure she was okay with it before I even brought the stuff from her branch over."

"Alright, let's go."

The palistrom pieces, both what Amity had brought over and what was left over from Stringbean, had been put in a cloth bag with a drawstring for safekeeping. Eda reached into said bag and pulled out a rather large piece of bark.

"Here, this is the biggest piece we have," she explained as she handed it over, "So no matter how bad the effect is you know that the other bits of palistrom won't be as bad."

"Smart," Luz agreed before shifting one arm into symbiote mode and letting the goo covering her hand engulf the piece of bark and slowly pick it apart, breaking it down until it could be absorbed. This process took about a minute, and when it was done...

Luz couldn't help but hiss when the coven sigil acted up, lines tracing up her body as it did its best to seal the magic she'd just taken in, but after a moment it faded.

"Okay, that... Wasn't do bad," Luz admitted.

Tiny drew some spell circles and then started checking Luz over with a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff... Why she needed to use those when she'd also had spells was beyond Luz. She finished by checking Luz's forearm to examine the Coven seal.

"Stwess response nowmal," the small biped declared. "If nothing else happens in a day, you should be able to do two or thwee pieces a day without too much problem but take a bweak if you'we not feeling well. Now we wait fow ten minutes, then do the bweath."

"Um, how did it look?" Luz asked.

"Like the kid at the covention," Eda confirmed. "You need anything? Some water?"

"Um, no," Luz said. The pain from the sigil activation wasn't all that bad and it was fading fast. "I'm fine. Maybe a hug?" In an instant, Luz was glomped by Amity, King, and three palismen. "Yeah, this is nice"

"Yes, hugs are nice," Stringbean rattled as she curled around the back of Luz's neck. "Love to hug. Love to hug my witch. Love my witch. Love the people who love my witch."

Luz translated what her palisman had said and the resulting cooing from both her and Amity made King leave both the hug and the room.

He was back, however, when the ten-minute break was up. Now it was time for the Titan Breath. That was a bit trickier to set up because it was a gas, but eventually, Luz stumbled on the idea of attaching a hollow tendril to the bottle's nozzle and letting it inflate like a balloon and then diffuse into the slime.

Honestly, it was kind of funny letting a little slime ball full of air flop around on a tether connected to the end of her wrist but after a minute it'd deflated as the Titan Breath had been absorbed into her and then the hurting started. Luckily, they'd prepared a small pank of wood for her to bite down on so she didn't scream.

It felt like forever, but once it was over checking the time on her phone revealed to Luz that it had only been a minute. She was tired and sweaty, and everything hurt but she hadn't passed out so that was good.

"Pain potion please," she begged and Eda had shoved a vial in her hands before she'd even finished asking.

"Don't take that yet," Tiny ordered and ran her tests again. "Much mowe significant stwess wesponse," she declared. "But not as bad as with after the Titan Blood last week. You can take the po—" The vial was unstoppered and its contents were down Luz's throat in literal instants. "Okay, so... You'we gonna twy this with all the humows?"

"Yeah," Eda said. "Unless this burned out the Sigil."

Luz checked her arm. It had not. "Can... Can I get some help rebandaging it?" She asked. "I... Don't have the energy right now but it still really, really itches. Like, worse than normal actually. And I still can't get a straight answer out of anyone who... Oh, Darn it!"

"What!?" Amity said radiating a spike of concern.

"I should have asked Hunter last night when I had a chance," Luz finished, a little upset that she'd upset Amity.

"Hunter...?" Amity asked.

"The Golden Guard," Luz replied. "I told you, he told me his name."

Tiny Nose pulled a role of bandages out of her bag but, being tiny, passed them off to Amity who carefully and lovingly applied them over Luz's forearm to both partially alleviate the itch with pressure and remove the temptation for Luz to tear her skin open.

"Is this alright?" Amity asked.

"It's perfect."

"Not too tight?"

"Just right."

At that, Amity, somewhat awkwardly, placed a kiss on the bandages just over Luz's sigil.

"Alwight, Luz, I want you to west fow at least the next houw," Tiny Nose finished, "and then avoid doing anything stwenuous fow the west of the day."

"Nothing strenuous, got it," Luz agreed. Unless something came up she'd have no issues abiding by that. "Thank you."

"No pwoblem," Tiny said and then started packing up.

"So, nothing strenuous..." Luz mused. "Guess I can't go flying with Stringbean until tomorrow."

"It's okay," her palisman hissed. "My witch's health is important."

"Thank you for being so understanding, Stringbean," Luz said appreciatively. "Now... What else to do today...?" She wondered to herself as her newborn Palisman slithered through the air and turned into something fluffy in need of pets... Newborn... New to the world, so much to learn and experience, and... "Hey, Amity?"

"Yes?" her golden-eyed goddess answered.

"Have you... Read anything to Ghost yet?"

Amity clearly realized where Luz was going with this as she picked up her Palisman. "Hey, Ghost? Would you like to hear one of my favorite stories?"

"Oh no," Eda muttered with dread as she started heading for the door even as Ghost meowed in such a way that it was clear that it was answering yes even without translation.

"How about you, Stringbean?" Luz asked.

"Yay, story!" came the happy rattle.

Judging she was strong enough to do so, Luz leaned over and reached under her bed to pull out her copy of the first Good Witch Azura book.

"Oh hey, that's one of the books," Tiny observed just as she was finishing up.

"...That explains a lot," Amity said evenly, "but it's very disappointing."