章 35: Chapter 19: EP 19: Echoes of an Angel Part 2.

[Later]

Lilith stood on the bridge in front of the Emperor's Castle, waiting impatiently as the sun began to go down and the sky darkened. Nerves and anticipation kept her from relaxing, as she knew that any moment, her younger sister would appear to take back her Apprentice. Even with her curse, Edalyn was powerful… she'd always been so powerful… She outshone Lilith in so many ways; the brilliant golden sun to her shining silver moon. It was something that had haunted Lilith for most of her life, as it had led her to make her biggest mistakes in life.

As she turned to look up at the castle battlements above, Lilith couldn't help but wonder if she was making another one…

The Emperor was watching from those battlements, flanked by his Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel, and also accompanied by the nine Coven Heads. The muscular and bearded Construction Head Mason, the tall and sinister looking Potions Head Vitimir, the short and elderly Oracle Head Osran, the large and imposing Healing Head Hettie Cutburn, the suave and arrogant Illusion Head Adrien Graye Vernworth, the cruel and smirking Plant Head Terra Snapdragon, the diminutive and softly growling Beast-keeping Head Eberwolf, the cool-headed and regal Abomination Head Darius Deamonne, and of course, the stand in for the Bard Head; Raine Whispers. Each were waiting to watch the duel that was inevitably about to take place… waiting to watch history happen. But it was the final person on those battlements that really made Lilith doubt herself…

Luz.

The ring-shaped frame that Belos had commissioned to restrain her had been moved to the top of the Battlements, and Luz hung from it, having regained consciousness but looking absolutely petrified with fear whenever Belos so much as looked at her. She'd been gagged with some white cloth to keep her from talking, but her clothes hadn't been restored, so they were still as tattered from...whatever had happened, as they'd been when Lilith saw her last. Couldn't the Emperor have at least given her some new clothing? Or was this part of the penance he was demanding from her?

Lilith did not think on this for long, as she felt a surge of magic. She spun around just in time to see a bright golden flash appear on the other side of the bridge. A large ball of magic energy appeared there, which then transformed into a ring of golden magic with the shadowed form of Edalyn in its centre, sending electricity arcing in every direction.

"Sister! I see you've finally arrived. I take it my apprentice had to fly all the way back from Palm Stings to give you your invitation to this Witch's Duel!" Lilith greeted, a forced smile of confidence on her lips.

Eda's expression was thunderous, and sent shivers up her older sister's spine. But if that was bad, it paled to the expression that appeared there when Eda's eyes drifted up to the battlements and saw the audience watching her. Her eyes fell on Luz, and her pupils shrank into pinpricks. There were no words to truly describe the expression of fury that fell over Eda's face; it was something primal and deadly, like Wrath Incarnate. Lilith instinctively stepped back, but managed to keep her voice from shaking enough to say;

"Edalyn, this has all gone far enough! Your wild ways have even dragged an angel down to your level, and brought her nothing but suffering! The Emperor will return Luz to her proper path. This is your last chance; join the Emperor's Coven and accept redemption! For your sake as well as Luz's! You'll be free of your curse, and Luz won't have to suffer for rejecting the Titan's will any longer!"

Eda didn't reply to her sister, instead keeping her eyes fixed on Luz. The poor girl was crying and shaking her head, trying desperately to scream to her mentor through the gag. "Luz!" Eda yelled up to her; "Don't worry. This will all be over soon. I'll save you, I swear it!"

She then shifted her glance over the various Coven Heads. The Emperor and his lackeys were masked and so their expressions couldn't be seen, but she made careful note of the others. Osran, Vitimir, and Hettie all looked fairly neutral with the situation, while Adrien and Terra were smirking smugly, seemingly amused by the struggles of her chained up apprentice. However Mason, Darius, and Eberwolf looked distinctly uncomfortable and unhappy with the situation, shooting the girl worried and sympathetic looks. Then of course there was Raine, whom Eda could see was desperately biting their tongue and holding themselves back from leaping into action and trying to save Luz themselves. It was a wise move, as they'd only be torn apart by the other Coven Heads and the Emperor AND it would blow their cover, Just seeing their concern was enough to make Eda feel a little better.

Not better enough though, as the ring of magic and lightning surrounding her grew wilder in her fury. Eda reached into her hair and pulled out two bottles of Super Elixir, tearing the corks out with her teeth before downing them both in one gulp, then tossing the bottles to the ground where they shattered. Lilith flinched at the aggression in her sister's every move, but tried to stay strong.

"Look at yourself, Edalyn! Having to chug Elixirs constantly just to save yourself from the curse that-"

"You're wrong." Eda cut her sister off, her voice so cold that everyone who heard it, even Luz, Raine, and the Emperor went still.

"I'm not chugging these things to save myself from the curse… I'm chugging them to save you. Because right now, these things are all that stand between you and death." Eda said, her amber eyes gleaming with magic and rage.

To emphasise her point, Eda pointed her palm at Lilith, and a barrage of golden magic blasts shot from the ring around her, bombarding her sister and the entire area around her. Lilith grimaced and shielded herself with her staff, but even with Corvanc's help, she struggled against the onslaught. Eda was holding very little back! The flashes of magic against her blue barrier prevented Lilith from seeing anything Eda was doing, so it caught her by surprise when Eda suddenly appeared behind her, wild eyed and thirsty for blood. She swung Owlbert at Lilith and caught her in the gut, sending her flying off the bridge with a gasp. Lilith managed to catch herself with Corvanc, then cast a spell to make herself hover before firing a beam of azure magic at Eda.

Eda sneered and swatted the beam aside with a golden barrier around her palm, before reaching out her hand. The air around Lilith suddenly began to twist as Eda's magic manipulated it, making it spiral around Lilith and trap her inside a miniature tornado. Lilith was whipped around inside the spiralling winds, while Eda manipulated it so it dispersed at just the right moment to send Lilith flying towards her. The elder sister tried to slow her flight and correct herself, but Eda coated herself in a golden aura and blasted herself at Lilith, resulting in a fierce blow to the face that had Lilith on the verge of unconsciousness.

Seeing black spots in her vision, Lilith fell to her knees while using her staff in one hand and drawing five spell circles simultaneously with the fingers of her other hand in order to erect layer upon layer of barriers to keep her sister out while she healed herself.

"Ugh… you broke a rib there, sister. Between that and the blow to the head Luz gave me earlier, I'm beginning to think my bones have more cracks than cartilage!" Lilith commented.

Eda smirked; "So Luz gave you a good whack too, huh? Good." her face feel into an outraged glower; "Seeing what Belos did to her because of you… If you weren't my sister, I'd tear your guts out and use them to choke that bonehead!"

She punctuated her words with a bolt of lightning, which managed to shatter through half of Lilith's protections. Lilith grimaced as she felt her magic stretch to hold back the attack as much as it could.

"I didn't want that to happen! But Luz has picked up your stubborn streak!" Lilith cried. Another lightning bolt shattered the last of her barriers, but before the magic could dissipate, Lilith focused on the shards of the barriers and turned them into little arrow heads, which she blasted back at Eda with a burst of white flame.

Eda snarled, slashing her hand through the air, swatting the arrow heads away with magic coating her hand. She then mimicked Lilith's move, only using the glass shards of the broken elixir bottles, which were behind Lilith. The elder Clawthorne saw what Eda was doing a second too late, and ended up getting several glancing cuts to her arms, cheeks, and torso as she spun around to try and defend herself. Lilith gulped; if Eda had been aiming to, she'd have killed her with that trick!

"Don't you dare make excuses, Lilith! Luz loved you like an aunt and you turned her over to the Emperor! She got hurt because that's what the Emperor does to everything he can't control! It's submission or pain! Obedience or death! Look at her Lilith! Look at Luz and tell me that is the Titan's will!" Eda bellowed, shaking the entire bridge as her magic raged.

Lilith bit her lip and averted her eyes, making Eda see red.

In a flash, Eda darted at Lilith and slapped her sharply across the face, then while Lilith was stunned, Eda manipulated the wood of the drawbridge to launch herself into a flip over Lilith's head. Once behind her, Eda smacked the back of her legs to force the woman back onto her knees, then grabbed her hair and forced her to look up at Luz.

"I SAID LOOK!" she roared, a bestial echo added to her voice as she struggled to keep the curse at bay.

Lilith's eyes filled with tears as she was forced to look up at Luz. She looked so small and frightened; her clothes tattered and torn by what the Emperor had done to her, chained up and dangling as she had tears streaming down her face, forced to watch two people she loved like family fight one another while being unable to even call out to them. The sight broke Lilith's heart, and the knowledge she'd had a hand in this shattered it completely. But it was too late to take back what she'd done… her only option was to move forward!

"I can never take back the suffering Luz is feeling now… even if it's her penance; the price she has to pay to be pure again after your influence… I'll never be able to forgive myself for seeing her suffer… but I can at least make sure that suffering wasn't for nothing, by bringing you down and finally ending this rebellion!" Lilith cried, rearing back to smack her head against Eda's face.

The Owl Lady yelped as her nose took the brunt of the blow, and while it thankfully wasn't broken, it stunned her for long enough for Lilith to spin around and sweep Eda's legs out from under her with her staff. With Eda on the ground, Lilith jabbed her in the abdomen with the end of Corvanc, causing a sheet of ice to begin spreading over Eda's body. Eda scowled and threw her staff away right before she was completely coated in ice, leaving her trapped and frozen.

Lilith smirked, confident that she'd just captured her sister, only for the smirk to be wiped off her face when Owlbert suddenly came flying at her while holding one of Eda's hands, which she'd detached while throwing her staff away. Eda's hand drew a spell circle that sent a bolt of magic at Lilith. She casually side-stepped it, but this proved to be a mistake as the spell instead hit the frozen Eda, causing the ice to crack and break, and allow Eda to immediately break free. Lilith tried to freeze her a second time before Eda could get back to her feet, but Owlbert swooped down and raked his talons through the back of Lilith's hair, yanking on it painfully while Eda's removed hand landed on the ground, then skittered up Lilith's staff to Corvanc, which it gripped tightly before twisting and removing the Palisman from Lilith's staff.

Eda got back to her feet and reattached her hand, then drew a spell circle with her other hand and two more with the heels of her feet, creating a trio that sank into the wood coating the bridge, each growing a wooden Hooty Golem with glowing eyes and an ominously deep hoot. With a flick of her finger, Eda sent the Hooty Golems to wrap Lilith up, and once she was restrained, Eda called Owlbert back to her and turned him back into a staff.

"You're an idiot, Lilith. You've always looked down on me because I'm wild, but that just made me work harder than you! Now look at us! Even with my curse sapping my magic, I'm handing you your pasty white butt!" Eda taunted, before pointing her staff threateningly at Lilith and looking up at Belos.

"Hey Bonehead! Release my kid, or you'll be cleaning chunks of your Head Witch off of whatever rubble I leave of your castle!" she threatened.

Belos merely chuckled in response; "I think not. This little duel is not over yet."

Eda narrowed her eyes, the suddenly found herself being grabbed from behind by an abomination. Lilith smirked, having taken a page from Eda's book and drawn a spell circle with her foot, creating an abomination beneath the bridge and having it ooze up between the cracks behind Eda. With Eda trying to escape the Abomination, Corvanc was able to escape her hold and return to Lilith, who turned him into a staff again and used his extra power to release a burst of blue and silver magic from her body, blasting away the Hooty Golems. She then used a trick she'd learned while training Amity, and made her abomination explode, hurting Eda and sending her off the side of the bridge and into the spikes below.

The Owl Lady managed to catch herself with Owlbert and fly back up to the bridge, where she was forced to dodge a swarm of little ravens made from the remnants of the exploded abomination. With a growl, Eda drew a spell circle that produced a cloud of acidic gas to melt the abomination birds and render the goo useless for further manipulation. She then drew a large circle with her staff as she landed on the far side of the bridge, causing a giant Hooty Golem to emerge from the ground and charge at Lilith. It was so big and so fast that Lilith couldn't dodge, and ended up swallowed by the golem before it's face slammed into the castle's front gates. A moment later, the golem began to swell as it was filled with Lilith's magic, eventually turning a chalky white and then blowing away in the wind like dust.

The two Clawthorne sisters now stood on opposite ends of the bridge, both panting from their exertions. Eda felt feathers begin to creep out of the back of her neck, so pulled out another Super Elixir and downed it to pep herself back up, though both she and Lilith knew that if this kept up, Eda would run out of elixirs and succumb to her curse. Unfortunately, Lilith also doubted she'd survive much longer either… Lilith was trying to catch Eda, but Eda was trying to take Lilith out! As Eda had said earlier, if Lilith wasn't her sister, then she'd be dead.

"I'll admit it sister, you're powerful. But while you worked harder, I worked smarter! I rose to the rank of Head Witch in the Emperor's Coven for a reason, but you've never respected my talent!" Lilith cried, twirling Corvanc to make the biggest spell circle she could, then rapidly spinning him within it to charge up magic for an immensely powerful beam of magic. Eda scowled and did the same thing with Owlbert, and both sisters were soon glowing; a silver and blue aura covered Lilith, while a gold and yellow aura covered Eda.

With dual battle cries, the sisters released massive beams of magic at one another. Even before the beams collided, the force of their magic whipped up the wind enough that even the Coven Heads watching from far above were feeling it, but the moment the two blasts did collide, the entirety of the Boiling Isles heard the deafening blast that resulted, and every Coven Scout and guard in the area found themselves suddenly knocked off their feet by a shock wave that emanated from the Clawthornes' battle. Eda and Lilith struggled against one another, forcing out more and more magic through their Palismen so that their beam pushed against their sister's, each gaining or losing ground in turn, but neither side claiming a clear advantage.

In truth, the Clawthorne sisters were about equal in raw magic power and talent; Eda had the advantage in intuition, creativity, and natural talent, while Lilith was superior in experience, knowledge, and technique. Their battle was like an allegory for order against chaos, control against freedom, Covens against Wild Witches… and neither side was winning.

As the two poured more of themselves into their spells, the beams began to deform until they stopped looking like streams of magic, but rather giant spectral beasts. A silver raven and a golden owl clashed and clawed and screeched at one another, each trying to bring the other down to earth and claim victory. But this did not last much longer; the sisters were nearly tapped, and as their supply of magic dwindled, the distinct shapes of their magic, and even the dividing line between their magic, began to blur. The two spectral birds blended together into a gigantic white orb of magic, then suddenly erupted.

The explosion that occurred would have levelled the Emperor's Castle (and a good portion of the surrounding area), but the Emperor, his elites, the Coven Heads, and even the numerous scouts and guards observing the battle acted quickly. They layered their magic over the growing orb of magic, crafting a barrier of thousands of layers tightly woven together. Even all of that together was just barely enough to keep the explosion from consuming them all, and even then it couldn't contain the power completely. The explosion had still managed to destroy the bridge and the spike pit below it, leaving a severely exhausted Lilith and Eda collapsed and nearly unconscious on the ground beneath the bridge. Their Palismen, almost as exhausted, had saved them from the high fall and deposited them in the now spike-less pit.

Lilith groaned and managed to get herself onto all fours; "Ha… ha…" she gasped for breath, "Are you still… alive…? Edalyn…?"

Eda rolled over and coughed hard, bringing up spittle and feathers. The curse was already beginning to transform her, and it was taking all of her willpower to force it back. Owlbert hopped into her hair and pulled out yet another Super Elixir (the fourth she'd needed to drink since arriving) and she gratefully drank it down. A fifth and sixth Elixir soon followed, draining the entire supply that Eda had stowed away in her hair, but it did the trick. Eda cast a simple healing spell to remove the worst of the damage she'd suffered from the explosion and got to her feet, feeling bitter that the Emperor and his lackeys' barrier was likely the only reason she was alive.

"Still alive." she spat. "Still standing. And still the strongest!"

Lilith's eyes widened; "Even after all that… how can you still be standing!? Your elixirs were never that powerful!" she cried. She then gasped; "Wait… the golden colour… they aren't your normal elixirs."

She suddenly remembered the elixirs Eda had drunk while dealing with the Mandragora in the Bat Queen's forest. They'd been golden too… Lilith had wondered at the time if her sister had improved the recipe, and now with the benefit of hindsight, she could guess how.

"Luz… those elixirs contain her magic, or some part of her, don't they!?" Lilith demanded.

Eda nodded; "Her tears."

Lilith gasped; "So that's why you took her in! Ever since the Emperor told me what Luz really was, I've been wondering why you'd take in a child that wasn't your own, but now I know! You were using her for her tears!"

A furious blast of magic from Eda had Lilith desperately rolling out of the way. "Don't you dare accuse me of using Luz! It's true that I didn't have the best intentions when I first met her or took her on as my apprentice, but unlike you, I actually learned from my screw ups! Luz forgave my stupidity, and I worked hard to make it up to her!"

She shot another blast at Lilith, who once again managed to roll away, too wounded and drained for anything fancier. The Head Witch managed to use her staff to push herself up into a standing position, then begin hobbling around the damaged pit, while Eda circled her like a bird of prey.

"You expect me to believe all that, when you're only still standing because you're literally drinking her tears!? If Luz wasn't an angel, would you even have given her the time of day!?" Lilith snapped, firing a bolt of her own magic. The effort drained her, and the spell was pathetically weak, allowing Eda to side step it even as her face twisted into a furious grimace.

"I love that girl more than you will ever realise! I would rather she never shed another tear in her life! But what about you, huh!? She loved you too and you betrayed her! You're so far up the Emperor's backside that you've twice turned on your own family! If he snapped his fingers and said the word, I bet you'd petrify me and Luz yourself!" Eda snarled.

"T-That would never happen! The Emperor wouldn't give an order like that!" Lilith stuttered.

Eda blasted Lilith again, actually hitting her this time, causing her to fall to her knees, barely supporting herself with Corvanc. "You see!? You don't even deny that you'd obey him! You just pretend like he'd never do that! I may be a Wild Witch, but at least that's better than a snivelling toady!"

Lilith growled as her temper began to rise. She was losing badly, in both magic and words, and in front of the Emperor, the Coven, and all the Coven Heads! Worst still, it was in front of Luz, to whom she couldn't bring herself to declare that she'd disobey the Emperor to save her life, even in a hypothetical scenario. Anger, shame, bitterness, and weakness filled her as she found herself glaring hatefully at Edalyn, unsure if the hate she felt was for her sister or herself.

"You've always been like this…" Lilith spat, "Always thinking you were so much smarter, stronger, better than me!"

"I am better than you!" Eda declared, preparing another spell.

The final thread of her self-control snapped, and Lilith screamed at the top of her lungs; "THEN WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE!?"

The instant the words had left her mouth, Lilith regretted them. She gasped and covered her own mouth, but it was far too late; her declaration… no, her confession of her deepest sin echoed through the ears and minds of Eda and everyone watching the sisters' battle. The Coven Scouts and Guards began to mutter to each other, the Heads of the Covens exchanged looks of surprise, while the Emperor stared down with a mix of amusement and intrigue. Raine was shocked to their core, and looked to Luz to see her reaction, seeing the bound and gagged young angel still crying silently, her eyes now wide and full of horror and betrayal. But none of that even compared to the look on Eda's face.

For a moment, Eda went still and silent, her face slack with shock. She shook her head in denial, before her mind suddenly went to the vision she so often saw when the Owl Beast took over. The vision of the shadowy figure who'd cursed her began to grow clearer in her mind's eye, and their image was replaced by that of a young Lilith. Her long and frizzy reddish-orange hair replacing the figure's amorphous silhouette, and the light glaring off her old, large and round lensed glasses replacing the figure's glowing eyes.

Eda's denials fell away, and was replaced by a whole gauntlet of emotions. The satisfaction of finally knowing who cursed her was drowned out by the sorrow, the wrath, the disgust, the horror, and the raw, burning hatred that filled her heart. Her expression became one of such indescribable internal pain that Lilith honestly would have preferred being physically struck over having to see it.

Unfortunately for her, she'd be getting both.

A furious aura of gold magic surrounded Eda as she charged forward in a flash, punching Lilith hard in the face and sending her sprawling to the ground. The elder Clawthorne sister groaned; "I-I deserve that, I admit it. But sister, please; I can remove the curse! The Emperor has-"

She was cut off by a second punch, this time to her stomach that knocked the wind out of her. She gasped and tried to plead with the furious Eda, but the younger sister just brought her staff down like a cudgel aimed at Lilith's skull. Thankfully Lilith was saved by Corvanc, still in staff form, forcing himself up to block the blow, then spinning to force Eda to back off.

Lilith finally got her breath back and pleaded with her sister; "Eda, please! Just let me-"

"Let you what!?" Eda screamed, "Let you make excuses!? Let you try and worm your way out of the hole you dug for yourself!? Well tough luck sister, because I'm not going to let you!"

The word sister sounded almost like a slur with the amount of hatred Eda put into it. Tears began to build in the younger Clawthorne's eyes; "Do you have any idea what I've gone through because of this curse!? You have ruined my life! And not just mine either! My relationship with Mom has never been the same because she's obsessed with curing this curse, to the point she was hurting me to do it! I maimed Dad and ruined his life, making it impossible for him to carve Palismen! The love of my life left me because I was too damn scared of this curse to let them in to my life properly! Every friend I ever had distanced themselves and left me alone! Titan above, Lilith, I almost killed my own kids because of this curse! I ate King, and if not for Luz, he wouldn't have survived!"

Lilith recoiled, the agony in her little sister's eyes tearing at her heart. "Edalyn...I-I'm sorry…!"

Eda wiped her eyes, and the pain in them was replaced with burning hatred once more; "No you're not… but you will be!"

With a roar, Eda charged at Lilith and smashed her with her staff while Owlbert was coated in golden magic, sending Lilith flying all the way up to the castle above them, where she slammed into the walls hard enough to leave a person-shaped hole in the brickwork. Weakly, Lilith opened her mouth to plead with her sister again, but before she could, a red fleshy tendril suddenly shot out of the castle stone behind her. It wrapped around Lilith and yanked her up, depositing her with a loud "oof!" right at the Emperor's feet. She looked up at him fearfully, as he looked down with eyes full of disappointment.

"I think I've seen enough of this charade, Lilith." Belos said, his staff in his hand once again. "It is obvious you have no chance of capturing the Owl Lady, which means your plan to force her to sever ties with young Luz is basically failed before it even began. Not that I'm surprised."

He shook his head ruefully; "I expect so little, but you still disappoint me. Now I will handle this myself."

"B-But my lord! I can still-"

Lilith was cut off by a sharp glare from the Emperor; "I grow tired of your excuses and your failures, Lilith. Your position in my coven is currently tenuous at best, so unless you wish for me to deal with TWO disobedient Clawthornes, I suggest you be a good dog and heel."

The Head Witch flushed with humiliation, and looked between Luz (who was looking at her with heartbroken eyes) and Eda, who was currently flying up from the pit on Owlbert. Unable to face either of them, and unable to stand up to Belos, she just bowed her head meekly and stepped into line with the other Coven Heads, hating herself the whole time.

Belos ignored the elder Clawthorne in favour of looking to her sister, who now flew a few feet away, glaring furiously from the top of her staff.

"Belos." she spat venomously; "If you know what's good for you, you'll hand over Luz and my sister, before I start taking people's heads off!"

The Emperor chuckled. He wouldn't feel threatened by the half exhausted outlaw even if he didn't currently have his two loyal shadows and most of his Coven Heads pointing their magic at the Owl Lady.

"Ah, Edalyn Clawthorne, the infamous Owl Lady. The Wild Witch of Bonesborough… the Mentor, and corrupter, of Luz the Angel. The child has had to suffer quite a bit because of you." Belos said, casually pointing his staff at Luz. The poor girl cringed away from it, terrified of what Belos might do, and the sight of that nearly made Eda attack him on the spot.

"You hurt Luz!" Eda snarled, blackness creeping into her Bile Monitor.

Belos didn't even try to deny it; "Yes, it is an unfortunate state of affairs, but I'm afraid she left me little choice. Angels are servants of the Titan and agents of their will; because of you, Luz has turned her back on the Titan's will and refuses to use His gifts to bring about order like she should. Instead, your corruption has led her down a path of selfishness and sin. I offered her redemption, but because of you and her misplaced loyalty to you, she rejected it. So penance was the only way option left to her."

"RRAAAAGGGGHH!" Eda roared in utter fury, darting through the air to attack Belos.

Terra Snapdragon shot some vines at her to restrain her, while Osran summoned a large Oracle Spirit to hold her back, but Eda released a burst of flame to destroy the vines, while stopping the Oracle Spirit from becoming physical and touching her by coating herself in an aura of yellow electricity. Eda was inches from smashing her staff into Belos' masked face, but the Emperor suddenly shot red lightning from his staff and struck Eda. She cried out and convulsed, then fell from the sky to the pit below the castle. Owlbert managed to save his partner and gently lower her to the ground so she could shake off the painful effects of the lightning.

She panted, then growled as Belos cast a spell that seemed to make his body melt into the castle battlements, then re-emerge from the ground in the pit, right across from Eda. "Yes, that spell is quite an effective one, isn't it? It sends signals of pain through every nerve it touches, allowing me to inflict pain without actually damaging the recipient. Luz became rather familiar with it, in her defiance." Belos taunted.

Eda snarled; "I'm going to rip that mask off and shove it right up your-"

"Do try to keep your language civil, Owl Lady. There are young ears listening." Belos said, snapping his fingers.

Suddenly, Luz and the ring-frame she was chained to was lowered into the pit by a pair of the red fleshy tendrils that had grabbed Lilith earlier. Eda gasped and prepared to rush to her, but Belos pointed his staff at the young angel, causing Eda to freeze.

"Let her go!" Eda demanded.

"I think not. I do not wish to hurt her; I wish to save her! With this girl by my side, we will bring Salvation to the Demon Realm, as is the Titan's will! But so long as you live, the bond between you will drown out the Titan's voice. So I will give you this final chance at redemption, Owl Lady. Hand over your portal to the Human Realm, and surrender. I will sever your bonds and end your life quickly and painlessly. If you should decline, well…" he reached into his robes and pulled out another syringe full of thick black Titan Bile, "I will have Luz sever that bond herself. Whether she likes it or not."

Eda paled as she saw the terrible fear in Luz's eyes as she looked at the syringe. The girl began to thrash in her chains, trying with all her might to get away from it, making Eda wonder just what was in the syringe to make her kid react so frantically.

The Owl Lady hopped on her staff and flew at the Emperor as fast as she could, but a red barrier suddenly appeared in front of her at the last second, making her bounce painfully off of it and hit the ground a few feet away. She just barely collected herself in time to hear a sharp gasp from her apprentice, and looked up to see that Belos had plunged the syringe into her spine, right between her wing joints, and injected its contents.

Eda watched in horror as her apprentice screamed into her gag as her little body was wracked with pain. The Emperor snapped his fingers and the manacles binding Luz's limbs snapped open and the red crystal binding her wings deactivated, causing Luz to fall to the ground and begin writhing as Belos raised himself up on a pillar of earth so that he could watch from above. Eda rushed to Luz's side and pulled the gag from her mouth, wincing as her poor apprentice's unfiltered screams filled the air.

"Luz! Just hold on okay! I'll get you out of here, then I'll find a cure for whatever he poisoned you with!" Eda said, picking Luz up and trying to get her comfortably situated on Owlbert. The Emperor made no moves to stop her from escaping (which made her very suspicious), then Luz suddenly arched her back and her mouth remained open in a long, silent scream. The girl's eyes, previously clenched shut and full of tears, suddenly opened to reveal that her sclera had turned pitch black, and her golden irises had begun to lighten to a venomous yellow.

Eda panicked and tried to take off, but Luz's body began to warp and change. Her teeth grew sharper, with her upper canines growing long enough to poke out from her mouth. Her hair grew longer and shaggier, while darkening to the same dark grey colour as King's fur. Her arms began to elongate and her hands grew larger, before a thick layer of the same dark grey fur covered them completely, and her nails turned into long, bone white claws. Her legs below the knee also changed; her feet were warped into two clawed, almost hoof-like feet with bone white claws and a similar bone white heel, while her legs were covered in a white and black bone-like armour that ended with a solid white kneecap over the top of her original knees. Dark grey fur also began to grow from her back, though it was only visible on the back of her bare midriff, and a long, thick tail covered in dark grey fur that ended in a white tip began to emerge from her tail bone, phasing through her clothes like her wings did. Lastly, a pair of smooth and sharp white horns sprouted from her forehead, looking exactly like King's, while Luz's wings stretched out behind her and began to mutate. The feathers turned purple and flattened against the flesh of her wings, which began to melt until they were draconic and full of strange holes that made it look like someone had torn countless small pieces out of Luz's wings. Eda gasped, recognising the odd shape and hole-filled design as being the wings of the Titan, which were buried deep below the Boiling Isles and had only semi-recently been discovered while mining.

The Owl Lady had no idea what Belos had injected Luz with, but whatever it was, it had turned Luz into some kind of Pseudo-Titan hybrid!

Titan Luz suddenly roared in rage and fury, and her glyph markings (which had glowed brightly through her transformation) suddenly faded away and disappeared.

"Luz! Are you alrig-"

Eda's words were cut off by Titan Luz suddenly swiping her claws at her, forcing Eda to roll to the side and hang off of Owlbert's staff. Titan Luz then snarled and opened her mouth to breath a jet of deep red flames down on the Owl Lady. Panicking as she saw the flames building in Luz's throat, Eda released Owlbert and had him switch back to Palisman form and fly away so he wouldn't get burned. Luckily they were still close enough to the ground that the fall didn't hurt Eda and she was able to quickly run from the fiery stream that followed her to the ground. Eda eventually just dived out of the way to avoid the fire, then watched with fascination as Luz continued the attack all the way to Belos.

The Emperor had expected this; when he'd induced a Titan Bile Overload in Luz earlier, she had mindlessly attacked and destroyed everything around her, driven into a blind rage in which she had no desires but to release all her excess magic through wanton destruction. As such, he'd prepared himself and blocked the fire with a red barrier, then reached out with his empty hand to trigger Luz's Coven Sigil.

Eda watched with horror as Titan Luz squirmed in the air as golden lines spread through her body from her wrist, cancelling her fire breath and forcing her to land and snarl, digging her claws into the ground.

"You monster! You branded her with a sigil!?" Eda roared, summoning Owlbert back to her hand so she could point him at the Emperor.

"I had to ensure her obedience and restraint. She would have been given one once she accepted her destiny and joined my side regardless, so I simply jumped the gun. It's quite a useful tool to prevent her from attacking me as well; she's rather mindless in this state." Belos said, releasing Luz's sigil so she could once again move and cast magic freely.

Titan Luz immediately leapt at the closet living thing to her, namely Eda, and tried to sink her teeth into her. Eda cast a bright light spell to blind the girl, then leapt aside and hopped on her staff again to fly away. She couldn't bring herself to fight back against her apprentice, so she was forced to just run away, but if she played this smart, she could lure Luz away from the castle and to some place Eda could safely restrain her! Hooty and the others would definitely be helpful there, and Gus's illusions might be able to mesmerise her!

Just as Eda hoped, Titan Luz took to the sky again and began to fly after her, breathing jets of flame that Owlbert flew around expertly. When the fire didn't seem to work, Titan Luz stopped in mid air and spread her wings wide, with all four of them gathering ice magic inside the numerous holes that filled them. A long, razor sharp icicle appeared in each hole, then Titan Luz flapped her wings with a snarl and the icicles shot at Eda like a shotgun spray of ice. Eda just barely managed to cast a barrier spell in time to block the attack, but the effort drained her further and her barrier quickly shattered.

"Ugh, I'm almost completely out of magic, and my elixirs are all gone…" Eda groaned as she gripped Owlbert's staff harder. She could feel the beginning of feathers poking out of her wrists and neck; she needed to lure Luz to the Owl House ASAP!

"Fly fast, Owlbert!" she ordered, and the little Palisman gave a hoot of agreement before speeding off even faster. Titan Luz followed close behind, until she began to got to the edge of the formerly spike-filled pit, whereupon Belos reached out his hand and once again used her sigil to restrain her, forcing the girl to land back on the ground as her magic refused to work.

Eda turned back and scowled; clearly Belos wasn't stupid enough to just let his two most wanted people escape so easily. The Owl Lady flew back at Luz, touching the cliff face as she dived back into the pit, so she could cast some plant magic and make thick tree roots grow out from the earthen wall and lunge at Luz to tie her up, so she could carry her bound apprentice away. However the moment the roots came near Titan Luz, the beastly girl hissed like an angry cat and the roots suddenly turned on their creator as Luz's plant magic was stronger than Eda's. The roots whipped up and struck Eda and Owlbert hard, sending them both careening to the ground.

Eda landed hard, and then cried out in surprise and pain as Titan Luz leapt on top of her, managing to bite into Eda's wrist hard.

"Ouch! Dang it! Sorry for this Kid, but you're not giving me much choice!" Eda yelled, kicking Luz off of her. Unfortunately since Luz's fangs were in her wrist, it resulted in Eda's left hand being pulled off as the girl was sent skidding backward.

Eda cringed as she still felt the pain in her detached hand, then looked around for Owlbert, spotting him a few feet away, his staff end stuck in the ground. She reached out for him with her remaining hand, but before he could fly into her grasp, another red flesh tendril shot towards him from the Emperor. It wrapped around the Palisman and dragged him over to Belos, who immediately trapped him in a cage made from red magic.

"I think that's quite enough of that." Belos said smugly; "I gave you a chance to lay down your life peacefully, and you refused. Now you will be ripped apart by the very angel you corrupted, as she is filled with the Titan's fury! Once Luz calms down again, she will discover that she has slain you herself, and her bond with you will finally be severed, allowing her to once again be purified."

Anger once again filled the Owl Lady, and with her magic so low, her Bile Monitor began to darken more and more. She knew in that moment that she wouldn't be leaving this place as herself. She had no Super Elixirs to fight the effects of the curse, and she had no magic to defend herself from the Corrupted Titan Luz, who had discarded Eda's left hand (losing interest after it started playing dead). Eda's options were to either succumb to the Owl Beast and fight back… or lay down and die.

Knowing full well how her kid would feel if she awoke to find she'd murdered her own mentor, Eda made her decision.

"I'm sorry Luz… I don't think we're both getting out of this in one piece. But if I'm going down; I'll save you and take that monster down with me!" Eda declared, reaching into her hair and pulling out a bottle of the Bile Booster she'd made earlier with Luz's feather, then took a sip of it, Immediately, she felt her heart beat faster as her Bile Sac began working overtime, flooding her with more bile and thus more magic. As tapped as she was, the rapid production wasn't enough to push her into an immediate overload, but it wouldn't be long before it did, so before that could happen, Eda drew a spell circle and conjured a trio of Abominations around Titan Luz.

"Abominations, Seize!" she ordered, having the trio grab Luz. One bound her hands together while the other held her legs and the third held her wings, leaving the frenzied girl to thrash and roar. They wouldn't hold her for long, so Eda grabbed her left hand and reattached it, casting a simple healing spell to heal the damage Luz's fangs had done to it. She then turned to face Belos; if she could kill him, there would be no one to restrain Luz via the sigil and they could escape!

"Time to show you why Owls are birds of prey!" Eda declared, coating herself in a golden aura then blasting herself towards Belos and his little rock pillar.

"How pointless." Belos sighed, once again raising his red magic barrier. Eda collided with it, surrounding herself with a golden barrier right before impacting him. Both their barriers cracked from the force of the blow, but Belos simply waved his staff and his barrier regenerated in an instant. In response, Eda dropped her own barrier and kicked off from Belos' one, swooping backward through the air while drawing another spell circle. The spell shot a jet of potent acid at the base of Belos' pillar, where his barrier didn't reach, causing the stone to melt and topple the pillar.

Belos huffed irritably and summoned his wings to keep him aloft, though he hid them with an illusion so his secret was safe from the watching witches and demons. Eda narrowed her eyes, being close enough to feel the breeze kicked up by the invisible flapping wings, but before she could try to attack again, she was suddenly smacked in the back by one of her abominations. Clearing the gunk away with a grimace, Eda turned to see that Luz had released a wave of magic from her body to blast the abominations away, and was now wildly clawing and stomping on one of them, reducing it to a puddle.

"Dang it kid, I really don't want to hurt you!" Eda growled. She summoned her old cittern and began to strum a tune. She played the Lullaby of Lethargy (she'd have preferred a sleeping potion over bardic magic, but she wasn't confident she'd be able to get it into Luz's body), and watched as Luz's eyelids began to droop. The frenzied angel began running at her, but Eda drew a spell circle with her heel, reanimating the abomination gunk that had gotten onto Luz's feet while she was stomping on it earlier. The gunk wrapped around her legs and bound them together, causing the girl to trip and fall to the ground, sliding face first through the dirt with a pained yelp. That made Eda's heart lurch, but she accepted it as necessary to put Luz to sleep and end this.

But then, just as Luz's eyes were beginning to get heavier and heavier, the girl suddenly screamed in pain. Eda jolted in surprise, then felt a stinging pain through out her body. She looked down at herself and saw that parts of her body were beginning to blacken and decay as it was consumed by her cursed magic, and the effect was also spreading to Luz.

"Luz!" Eda cried, stopping her song and tossing aside her cittern before rushing to her apprentice's side. The moment the song ended, the decay effect disappeared and both her's and Luz's bodies returned to normal (excluding the frenzied Titan transformation Luz had gone through). There was no lingering damage besides some sensitivity to their skin, so Eda sighed with relief.

"This is new…! Does the curse effect bardic magic differently? Or is it decaying my magic itself now!" Eda wondered aloud.

She wasn't able to think for long though, as Luz recovered from her pain and slammed a clawed hand against the ground. Suddenly, a massive tree burst out of the ground at a diagonal angle, smacking into Eda and launching her away with so much force that her body actually came apart. Her hands and feet, her arms and legs, and even her head all popped off of her body and landed in a scattered heap on the other side of the pit.

"Ugh! You always did have a way of making me fall to pieces!" Eda quipped as she grimaced in pain and began trying to drag herself back together before Titan Luz could pick her off and kill her.

Luckily Eda had been launched far enough away that now Belos was the one closest to Luz, so he became her next target again. Naturally he responded by triggering her sigil to restrain her, but this still gave Eda the chance to pull herself together and cast a healing spell to fix the ribs that had been broken. She then conjured a massive Hooty Golem, much larger than the ones she'd used on Lilith, and sent it at Belos. If she couldn't get through his barrier, she could instead have her golem swallow him and trap him! Then maybe she could get Luz out of there!

Belos saw the giant golem approaching and flew away so Luz was between him and the golem, allowing him to shoot a blast of magic at Luz to send her flying into the golem. Naturally, the frenzied girl took exception to this and began to rip and tear at the golem, her claws coated in light magic that allowed her to shred through it like wet tissue paper, sending chunks of dirt and stone in all directions. Eda scowled as her plan once again failed, then she grimaced as her chest began to hurt and her eyes started to flicker with golden light as she reached the verge of overloading. She dealt with this by burning a huge amount of magic to create three more giant Hooty Golems, which also kept Titan Luz busy while Eda regrouped.

'Ugh, the Bile Booster is almost too effective! My magic is at its peak now, but I'm physically and mentally exhausted, and if I don't keep expending magic on big spells, I'll overload and lose control entirely! Belos is too dang slippery, and I can't go full power against Luz! How am I supposed to do this!?' Eda thought desperately. This would be easier if she had her staff, but Owlbert was being held captive by the Emperor!

She was brought out of her thoughts by the final destruction of her golems, as Titan Luz roared in victory and turned her attention to the Owl Lady herself. The girl stabbed her claws into the ground and then raked them forward, creating ice blades that rose up from the claw tracks she left and sliced their way towards Eda. A burst of golden flame ended that threat, but the resultant steam left Eda unable to see Luz. The girl used this as cover and took to the sky where Eda couldn't easily reach, then began blasting out attacks with all four elements that the Boiling Isles Titan embodied. Balls of fire, shards of ice, and beams of light burst from her body with every flap of her wings and every roar, while bolts of green magic hit the ground and rapidly grew into roots, vines, and carnivorous plants that attacked anything and everything around them.

It was chaos as both Eda and Belos had to focus on their barriers to keep themselves safe, but their barriers wouldn't protect them from what came next. Showing off just how much magic the frenzied girl had while overloading with Titan Bile, Luz raised both her claws into the air and began to generate a ball of blue magic. The ball rapidly grew until it was nearly the size of the Emperor's Castle, then was condensed to small enough to fit in Luz's palm. Eda braced herself, expecting an ice attack, but what actually came was a jet of super high-pressure water.

The water jet sliced through the ground like a hot knife through butter, and Luz was aiming it at both Eda and Belos. Eda reinforced her barrier, but the water jet was so fast and high pressure that it actually sliced right through it and took Eda's legs off, much to her shock. Belos watched with amusement, but as the water jet was now coming for him and he didn't wish to risk being damaged himself, or having his castle sliced apart, he triggered Luz's sigil. This not only caused her to lose control of her magic and fall to the ground, but it also stopped her from keeping the water orb condensed, resulting it in suddenly expanding rapidly with all the force of an explosion. Luz, who was right next to it, was blasted into the ground of the pit with enough force to leave a crater, while Eda and Belos were both sent flying backward.

Eda managed to throw up a new barrier to protect herself at the last minute, but still ended up swept away in the rush of water. The orb had contained enough water to fill the entire pit, giving Belos' castle a more traditional water moat. A water-logged Eda managed to drag herself to the edge of the moat and back onto dry land, before casting a spell to summon her legs back to her and reattach them. Meanwhile Belos, who'd instead been sent skyward by the water eruption, cast a spell to reconstruct the previously destroyed bridge that connected his castle to the other side of the moat, then landed on it. He watched as Titan Luz swam up to the surface and began looking around for her prey, her venomous yellow eyes starting to get some gold flecks back in them.

'The Titan Bile I injected into her is beginning to run out. She's used too many big spells and attacks! With that level of power, she should have killed the Owl Lady by now, but she's too uncontrollable like this!' he thought angrily. If she didn't kill Eda soon, he would need to inject her again!

Growing impatient, Belos conjured another of his red flesh tendrils and grabbed Luz with it, then tossed her at Eda. The girl landed on top of her mentor and immediately snarled and prepared to breath fire down on the Owl Lady, but before she could, Eda suddenly reared up fast enough to headbutt Luz's chin, knocking the girl off of her. The sudden brutality made Belos pause while the Coven Heads watching from the battlements gasped.

"Has the Owl Lady finally lost her patience?" Darius wondered aloud.

"No… it's the curse! She's losing control!" Raine gasped, leaning forward to try and get a better look.

Sure enough, Eda was slowly transforming into the Owl Beast. Her body had been stunned by the water eruption and she'd been too physically exhausted to force herself to cast any spells, causing her magic bile to build up and finally cause an overload. It was taking every scrap of willpower she had to try and fight the transformation and keep her mind in control so she wouldn't hurt Luz, but it was a battle Eda was rapidly losing.

"Ugh… stupid bird brain! Just stay down!" Eda snarled to the Owl Beast raging inside her. "Luz's eyes are almost back to normal! Just wait a little longer!"

To try and slow the transformation, Eda drew the largest spell circle she could and fired a golden beam of magic at Belos, dwarfing in size even the one she'd used against her sister earlier. Belos just casually flicked his finger, causing a red tendril to grab the stunned Titan Luz and toss her in front of him, using her as a living shield. Eda gasped and tried to hold back or redirect her spell, but it was too late and hit Luz head on. Thankfully the frenzied girl was able to block it by folding her wings in front of her, then crafting a barrier of ice. From behind this barrier, Luz opened her mouth wide and began to gather magic into a ball there; combining fire, ice, and light magic together into a deep purple, almost black mass of magic. As Eda's spell began to wane, Luz roared and fired the gathered magic in the form of a beam, pulling back her wings at the last second so that hers and Eda's spells collided.

At first, Luz's beam easily overpowered Eda's, but as Eda's spell was pushed back to about halfway between her and her apprentice, Luz's magic began to weaken too as the Titan Bile began to run out. Unlike with the clash between Lilith and Eda earlier, there was no magical explosion to end this exchange of spells; both beams of magic simply fizzled out as the two who'd created them fell to their hands and knees, panting hard from exertion. Luz's irises had turned fully gold again, but her sclera were still black, while Eda had fully transformed into the Owl Beast, only with her own gold irises still present as she exerted some small amount of control.

Both bestial ladies gave another roar and charged at one another, their frenzied instincts driving them to clash with their bodies instead of their magic. The Owl Beast was larger and much stronger, but the Frenzied Titaness was faster and more agile. They snapped and snarled at one another, almost wrestling until the Titaness was forced onto her back by the Owl Beast's greater strength. She was not going to be beaten easily though, and opened her mouth and roared out "SHAAAAA!"

A sonic roar, just like King's, burst from her mouth and hit the Owl Beast in the underbelly, sending her skyward. The Owl Beast recovered by taking flight, and the Titaness quickly got back to her feet and then flew into the sky too, beginning an aerial battle.

The two darted through the air, clashing against each other again and again, claw against claw, the Owl Beast's fangs against the Titaness's horns, and with each clash, their fight grew more sluggish as their bodies reached the dregs of their stamina. Belos watched them wage a primal war against one another, while high above the Coven Heads looked on with horror, fascination, and in some instances, cruel anticipation.

"The Owl Lady has completely lost control. She's transformed completely." muttered Osran, watching the battle with a melancholic look on his face.

"No, my sister has not fully transformed. Her eyes are still normal… she's still struggling to keep control." Lilith said, hands clasped together out of worry. Luz was slowing down while the Owl Beast was getting stronger, so the battle would be over soon! Maybe if Eda wasn't killed by Luz, the Emperor could be convinced to spare her? It was a vain hope, but Lilith clung to it with all she had, as there was no other hope to cling to.

Raine just watched in silence, gritting their teeth as they tried to think of a way out of this situation that didn't involve sacrificing either Luz or Eda.

Finally, after her battle with Lilith and the strain of fighting Luz, Eda's control slipped. It slipped for only a fraction of a second, but that was enough for her to be momentarily suppressed by the Owl Beast, who proceeded to treat Eda's child like a threat. The Owl Beast reared up its claws and slashed downward, knocking the Titaness's claws aside with a mighty blow from one claw, then slashing down on her head with the other. There was a heart-rending scream of pain from the Titaness, as one of the Owl Beast's claws slashed through her flesh, as well as the sound of bone breaking as her left horn was snapped off.

The blow stunned the Titaness and sent her careening into the reconstructed bridge below, where she crashed, kicking up a cloud of dust and dirt. The Owl Beast growled, but the sight of the Titaness's blood, Luz's blood, on her claws made Eda's willpower return with a vengeance. She couldn't force the curse back completely, but she completely repressed the Owl Beast's mind with her own, using the fury of an enraged mother who'd seen her child hurt.

Back in control of her cursed form, Eda swooped down to the bridge and rushed over to her fallen apprentice, using a flap of her wings to send the dust cloud away and reveal Luz. The girl had expended the Titan Bile inside her and completely reverted back to her normal angelic state, and while the lost of her horn in Titan form hadn't left a mark on her, the wound on her flesh was still present. Eda's claws had carved a line through Luz's left eyebrow, splitting it in two. It was bleeding heavily, spilling gold blood all over the ground, pooling together with the tears that flowed from Luz's eyes, which were open and glassy.

"Luz!" Eda cried, trying to cradle her with her clumsy and uncoordinated talons, "Luz, talk to me!"

"E-Eda…?" Luz whispered, her voice hoarse. "Eda, I'm so sorry… I hurt you… I couldn't stop myself…"

"Forget me!" Eda said, trying to stay calm, "Luz, you're bleeding. Can you heal yourself?"

The child shook her head; "No magic… Titan Bile consumed it all and burned it up. Oh Eda, look what I've done to you!" Luz whimpered, slowly getting up and lifting a hand to Eda's face. The girl was battered and bruised, but the durability of her Titan form had saved her from the worst injuries. Even the cut on her face was superficial, though it bled a lot.

Eda huffed and pulled Luz into a hug, letting the little angel snuggle against the fluffy feathers that coated her chest now. "Oh Luz… this isn't your fault. It's Lilith's, and the monster Belos! But don't worry." she used her other front talons to reach into her mane and pull out the golden bottle of Ambrosia she'd brewed with Luz's blood, then uncorked it with her teeth and pressed it to Luz's mouth, forcing the girl to drink. "This will give your magic a nice boost. Then you can heal yourself and get out of here."

Luz gulped down the Ambrosia, not really having any other choice with Eda using the Owl Beast's strength to press it to her lips. She felt a large wave of magical power return to her, but instead of trying to heal herself, she summoned her satchel from wherever Belos had left it and fished out a soothing potion that she in turn forced down Eda's throat. It countered the effects of the Bile Booster Eda had drunk earlier and made it a lot easier for Eda to control herself, though it didn't turn her back to normal.

"Luz, would it kill you to be selfish for once!" Eda said with a shake of her head, "Whatever! We can discuss this later! Get on my back and we'll-"

"I think not."

Luz screamed as familiar bolts of red magic shot over her head and hit Eda, making the transformed witch cry out in pain. Red flesh tendrils then emerged from the bridge and bound Eda up tightly, ensuring she couldn't escape.

Belos stepped forward, and Luz immediately tried to shoot a bolt of light magic at him, but he simply activated her sigil and immobilised her and her magic, before shaking his head. "Honestly, is there anything more sinful than a wild witch?"

"Belos! Let Eda go!" Luz ground out through gritted teeth as the golden lines of her sigil spread through her body.

"I'm disappointed in you, Luz. I understand that many children who are led to sin can find it hard to turn away from it, and I know Penance can be painful, but you cannot keep clinging to this creature and her corruption." Belos said, shaking his head as he spoke with faux sympathy. "Look at what your so-called mentor has become. Look at what she's done."

He gently grabbed Luz's chin and forced her to look at the moat that surrounded his castle. When Eda had arrived, it had been a deep ravine full of spikes and fang-like formations of stone, but thanks to her battles with Lilith and Titan Luz, the ravine was now free of spikes and had been flooded with water, becoming a traditional moat. Belos then lifted a finger to the wound on Luz's forehead.

"Look at what she's done to you. She has wounded your body and your soul. Can you not see her evil?" Belos asked.

Luz shook her head and Eda roared; "How can you call me evil after what you did to her!? You injected her with something weird and turned her into a rampaging beast! How is that any different from Lilith cursing me!?"

Belos silenced her by making the tendrils binding her tighten painfully. Eda groaned as her bones creaked, and Luz gasped.

"Please! Stop! I-I'll do whatever you want! I'll serve your coven, I'll help you with the Day of Unity! I'll do anything you ask, just please spare Eda!" Luz cried.

"The time for mercy has passed, child." Belos replied, "If you wish to end this witch's suffering, then you should do so. End her life as painlessly as you wish, then accept purification. Otherwise, I will once again use the Titan's Bile to make you an instrument of His will, and watch as you tear Edalyn Clawthorne apart. That is your only choice here, Luz."

Luz shook her head desperately; "I-I won't!"

Belos stared at her for a moment, then sighed deeply; "How much more suffering must you make me inflict upon you? You are breaking my heart, Luz. But I supposed I have no choice…"

The sigil on Luz's arm suddenly began to spread faster, and Luz gasped as her body was completely paralysed, while Eda called out to her in a panic. "I will have to collect more Titan Bile from my stores, so you have bought your sinful mentor a few more minutes of life, before her much more painful death." Belos declared, shaking his head as Luz whimpered under the effects of the coven sigil, and Eda cried out to her, trying and failing to squirm towards her.

Up on the battlements, Lilith closed her tear-filled eyes, unable to watch the pain of her sister and niece, while Raine clenched their fists. This couldn't be allowed to continue! They couldn't stay silent any longer.

"How can we just stand here and watch this!?" Raine spat, looking at the Coven Heads with disgust and anger. "This isn't justice being brought down on a criminal, this is just plain cruelty! Eda has committed no crimes worthy of this torment, and Luz is a total innocent!"

The other Coven Heads looked back at them with surprise; Lilith looked shocked by their open defiance, Darius and Adrien were raising their eyebrows at them, Mason, Osran, and Eberwolf looked contemplative, Vitimir and Hettie's expressions were largely hidden by their face coverings, and Terra… well she had the look of a predator.

"Careful now, Sprout." Terra Snapdragon said, smiling dangerously, "That sounds almost like treason, and we wouldn't want that now, would we? You're not letting your feelings for the Owl Lady fill your little head with doubts, are you?"

Her tone was friendly, but the words themselves poorly concealed her threatening intent. Raine glared back at her.

"No. I'm not letting Eda or anyone else fill my head with doubts. I can honestly say I don't have a single doubt in my mind!" they declared. "Which is why… you can consider this my resignation!"

Before anyone else could act, Raine channelled some bardic magic to their ears to temporarily deafen themselves, then sent more to their hands, clapping them together to create a powerful sonic boom. Raine had held back enough that the Coven Heads, as well as the Golden Guard and Silver Sentinel, were sent flying from the shock wave and reeling from the loud noise, but were spared permanent damage. They all had bleeding ears, but the resulting deafness would be easily healed later. Raine then hopped over the battlements, summoning and landing on Rena in mid-air, then swooping down on Belos.

The Emperor had heard the sonic boom and turned to see Raine flying at him. "Another sinner throws himself on the pyre!" Belos growled, sending some tendrils at Raine.

Raine whistled sharply, creating some razor sharp sound waves to shred the tendrils, then once they were close enough to the ground, they jumped off Rena's staff, transforming her into their violin in mid-air, then landed between Belos and Luz. With a flourish of their hand, Raine summoned their bow and began playing their violin rapidly, sending blades of magic at Belos, who countered with his barrier.

"Raine!" Luz and Eda cried, overjoyed to see them.

The bard shot a smile to them over their shoulder, not even pausing in their playing, much to Belos' frustration.

"Treacherous creature!" Belos snarled. With him distracted, his grip on Luz's sigil faded and the gold lines retreated back to her wrist. Luz sighed with relief now that she could move freely again, but sadly she still couldn't use her magic; Belos had sealed it again!

Even without magic, she tried to pull at the tendrils binding Eda, but she wasn't even close to being strong enough, and she could see blackness creeping in on the edges of Eda's irises as the curse began to take back control.

"Raine, I can't free Eda! Shoot some of those blades over here!" she yelled to them.

Raine nodded, and played a low note that caused the bridge to shudder for a second, throwing Belos off balance and allowing Raine to safely run up to him and slam his palm into the Emperor's barrier. Sound waves reverberated through it, causing the entire barrier to rapidly vibrate and then shatter, allowing Raine to then blast the tyrant with a point blank sonic boom. Belos cried out in pain and slumped to the ground, giving Raine the opening they needed to grab Owlbert and free him from his restraints, then rush over to Eda and cast a sonic blade at her bindings.

The fleshy tendrils fell away and Eda stood up, now free.

"Thanks for the save, Raine! Now we need to get out of here!" Eda said, struggling to keep the Owl Beast at bay.

"You're not going anywhere!" Belos declared, once again on his feet after healing himself. "Scouts, seize them! I want all three alive!"

The Coven Scouts, previously watching from a distance and refusing to interfere in the Emperor's battle, suddenly swarmed forward. Some aimed spells at them from a distance, while others rushed forward with their spears. Eda leapt at these and sent them flying with her talons, while Raine continued to hold back Belos with their bardic magic. But Belos wasn't backing down and for every scout Eda sent flying, another two would come running to take their place.

"We need to fly away!" Raine cried.

"We'll never make it with all these guys shooting at us!" Eda countered.

Meanwhile Luz was being kept between them, protected and completely unable to help. She glared down at the coven sigil on her right wrist; so long as it bound her, she would never be free and Belos would always be able to find her. In her desperation, Luz decided to do something crazy.

She watched and waited as Raine sent sonic blades at the Emperor, then just as they were about to send another barrage, she sprung forward and threw out her right wrist.

Everyone looked on in horror as Luz put her wrist directly in the line of fire, causing one of Raine's sonic blades to slice straight through her forearm, severing her wrist and the coven sigil. Luz screamed louder than she ever had as an unimaginable pain erupted in the stump of her arm, while Raine and Eda screamed in shock at what she'd done, seeing her lifeless hand thump to the ground along with a copious amount of golden blood.

"LUZ!" they both cried.

With the sigil cut off, Luz could once again cast magic. So as fast as she could manage, Luz powered through the pain on pure adrenaline and successfully cast her Crystal Healing Lotus spell, which began to restore her lost hand. Her pain faded as bone, muscle, nerves, veins, and skin slowly regrew, until she had a brand new, fully functioning hand. It was the first time Luz had successfully regrown a limb, and it had been both agonising and draining, but at least now she was free!

Shooting a powerful light blast at her cut off hand to vaporise it and burn away her spilled blood (she had no intention of leaving any part of herself in Belos' hands), Luz then shot another light blast at Belos, pushing him back.

Seeing her apprentice now free and feeling her control slipping, Eda made a painful decision of her own.

"Raine, take Luz and go! I'll stay behind and hold them off!" Eda ordered.

"What!? No!" Luz cried. "Eda, we can escape together! I'll protect us with a barrier and-"

"Luz, I am seconds away from succumbing to this curse. If not for you, I would have already lost myself completely, and I refuse to hurt you again! Now go!" the Owl Lady yelled, grabbing her apprentice and shoving her into Raine's arms before leaping at the Coven Scouts firing spells, and began knocking them around.

Reluctantly, Raine turned their Palisman back into a staff and took to the air, holding the frantically struggling Luz against their chest.

"EDA! NO! PLEASE, I CAN HELP! I WON'T LEAVE YOU!" Luz cried.

Eda, still fighting, looked up at her apprentice and smiled kindly; "You've already helped me so much. Now it's my turn to help you." she then looked to Owlbert, fluttering sadly beside her and said; "Take this and go with Luz. She'll take care of you."

Eda then handed the Palisman the portal key. Owlbert took the key in his little talons and hooted sadly before lightly pressing his face against Eda's, then obediently flying up and landing on Raine's shoulders.

"STOP! RAINE, GO BACK! EDA! DON'T DO THIS!"

"Sorry Luz, but this is the end of the line. I wasted most of my life, never letting myself truly live because of this curse. You changed that, and you changed me. So if making sure you're safe from Belos and the Owl Beast means giving up my life, then I'll do it gladly!" Eda said, smiling up at Luz even as tears filled her eyes; "Look after your little brother. Everything I own is yours and his now. Take care of Owlbert and Hooty. Raine, you make sure they're protected, okay?"

"I will!" Raine said, beginning to cry themselves. They was swerving and diving around in the air to avoid the spells of the Emperor and his scouts, struggling even with Eda keeping most of them busy.

Eda nodded gratefully, then looked at Luz one last time; "Thank you Luz, for being in my life. I love you; never forget that."

Then with one last bestial roar, Eda's eyes turned a solid black as she fully gave in to the Owl Beast, who continued her wild rampage against the Emperor's Coven, its thick hide resistant to both blades and spells.

"NO! EDA! EDA! RAINE STOP, WE NEED TO GO BACK! EDA!"

Raine flew them away, dodging a few stray spells but ultimately escaping without too much trouble. Luz cried and sobbed, especially as she saw Belos overwhelm Eda and once again bind her in fleshy tendrils. Thankfully by that point Raine had flown far enough away that the scouts couldn't hit them and they'd be too slow to reach their airships to give chase. Raine, Luz, and Owlbert had escaped, but Eda was captured.

Luz continued to scream Eda's name, desperately struggling to escape Raine's hold while begging them to turn around so they could save Eda. But Raine held firm, keeping one arm around the squirming child and the other on Rena's staff as they flew away. As Eda and the Emperor faded from sight, Luz's cries became heartbroken sobs, and even Raine had tears streaming down their face as they were forced to leave the love of their life behind. Eventually the Emperor's Castle was naught but a speck in the distance behind them, and Luz's sobs quietened down.

"Why Raine? Why did you save me and not Eda!?" Luz cried, her struggling growing weaker.

Raine pulled her a little closer, turning their one armed hold into a hug. "I'm sorry, Luz. But Eda cared more about you than she did herself. She'd never have forgiven me if I'd chosen to save her and not you. And anyway, how could I leave you behind to suffer for the Emperor's plans?" they asked rhetorically, before adding; "Besides, so long as you're free, the Emperor won't risk killing Eda. She's the only thing that'll draw you back and stop you from fleeing to the Human Realm with the portal key."

"S-So Belos will use Eda as bait to get me back?" Luz asked, accepting the portal key from Owlbert.

Raine nodded; "I'm sure of it. Until then, be brave. We'll get Eda back somehow."

Luz sniffled, and stopped struggling, instead cuddling closer to Raine. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be. You've done nothing wrong. If anything, I should be apologising for not jumping in sooner… and cutting off your hand." Raine said sadly.

"It wasn't your fault; I did it on purpose. It hurt, but I grew it back really fast, and now I don't have to worry about the sigil any more." Luz replied, "And if you'd tried freeing me sooner, you'd have gotten killed by Belos and the Coven Heads, or worse, shredded by that monster he turned me into."

The girl began to whimper again at the memory of what she'd become, and gingerly touched the edges of the cut through her eyebrow. She should probably heal it, but something inside her was holding her back. Raine just held her comfortingly, and she in turn hugged them back, giving each other some emotional comfort as they flew all the way back to the Owl House.

When they finally got back, they found King, Amity, Willow, Gus, and Rasiel all waiting outside the house, sitting or pacing anxiously, not saying a word. Even Hooty was looking downcast and worried, avoiding his usual antics. Luz was glad to see that Rasiel was looking a lot better; he'd taken the time to properly groom himself and drink some of Eda's potions supply to reverse the effects of 100,000 years of muscle atrophy. His clothes had been swapped out for a plain white button up shirt, some dark red slacks, and black leather boots, which Luz suspected had been left at the Owl House by Raine.

King was the first one to notice them approaching, and immediately cried out happily; "LUZ!"

Everyone else looked up too, and their faces were flooded with relief. They rushed over to where Raine touched down, and barely restrained themselves from leaping at Luz and dog-piling her. King did leap on her, scrambling up her body to her shoulders and hugging her tightly, while Amity pulled her into a tight hug too, and began peppering her face with kisses.

"Oh thank goodness you're okay!" Amity cried, actually looking like she'd start sobbing with relief. She then stepped away from Luz and looked her up and down, searching for signs of injuries. "You are okay, right?"

They all noted her slashed eyebrow, her ragged clothing, and the clear signs that she'd been crying. It also didn't escape their notice that Eda wasn't present.

"Luz, what happened? Why is Raine the one to bring you back?" King asked, beginning to sound scared; "W-Where's Eda?"

Luz closed her eyes to stop the tears from coming again, while Raine put a comforting hand on her back. "Eda isn't coming, King."

"W-What!? But why not!? Where is she!?" King demanded, growing frantic.

"S-She's not… gone. Right?" Willow asked in a small voice.

Raine shook their head; "Eda is alive, but it's a long story. Let's go inside for now; I'll tell you everything."

They all agreed and headed into the Owl House, with Hooty also peeking in through the living room window. Luz's friends bundled her onto the couch, with King on her lap and Amity cradling the tearful angel to her side, while Gus covered them in a blanket, and Willow and Rasiel made some tea. Summer was ending and it was getting colder, and Luz wasn't wearing a lot of clothing, so she was in need of some extra warmth. While they were waiting for the tea, Amity gently placed a healing patch from the Healing Coven over Luz's eyebrow, since it didn't look like Luz would be of a mind to heal it herself for a while. Luz then snapped her fingers and was able to summon her satchel now that the sigil was gone, so she at least had her original clothes back, but she was in no emotional state to go and change. Instead she stayed there, hugging her girlfriend and little brother, and sipping the warming tea while she tried to hold herself together.

Once that was done, Raine sat the group down and told them all everything they'd witnessed; including the battle with Lilith, Luz's forced transformation, Eda succumbing to her curse, and then their escape. Luz managed to work up the energy to tell them what Raine couldn't, including Belos' destruction of Philip's diary, the torture he'd put her through, and the reveal that he was an angel like they'd theorised. The others were horrified to hear all this, especially the pain Belos had put Luz through. The reveal that Lilith had been the one to curse Eda was also met with rage.

"I-I can't believe this! I've known Belos wasn't what I thought he was ever since the Bat Queen's forest, but this is beyond anything I could imagine! And Lilith… if I ever see her again, it'll be too soon!" Amity spat, absolutely fuming.

"I'm going to tear Belos apart piece by piece!" King raged. The only reason he wasn't currently venting his rage through violence was because his teary eyed sister was using him like a support blanket.

Willow and Gus stayed silent, too shocked to say anything. They'd spent their lives believing the Emperor and his coven were the best of the best; basically heroes of the Boiling Isles! While they'd never had any ambitions of joining like Amity once had, they'd still looked up to them. They'd respected Eda's and Luz's dislike and distrust of the coven, but they'd largely seen it as personal to them; Eda was a wild witch and outlaw (even if she wasn't a bad person) so it was natural for her to dislike them, while Luz being an angel meant she'd had every right to be worried. But the incident in which Luz was arrested by the Scout Captain had shaken their faith, Lilith taking Luz away had cracked it, and now this story had totally shattered it. The Emperor had tortured their friend and would still have her in his clutches if not for Raine cutting her sigil hand off. That wasn't something they could ever forgive.

Rasiel was also silent at first, trying to wrap his head around Belos truly being an angel, and a ten-winged Seraphim like him. It was clear there was something wrong with the man; he was definitely corrupt or insane, but that just made the problem worse. "If Belos is truly what he claims to be, then he is going to be a problem to deal with… he'd be a true immortal, like I am."

"Y-You think he might be lying?" Luz asked in a small voice.

"He's capable of it. I suspect he may actually be a normal angel who experimented on himself to try and force an evolution. A true "Grand Seraphim" as he calls them should be virtually immune to most curses and afflictions. It would fit too, as he experimented on you as well by injecting you with Titan Bile. It's just a theory at the moment but… I'll tell you more once I've had some more time to think." Rasiel said.

They all agreed, and silence filled the room until Hooty, speaking uncharacteristically softly, said; "So what do we do now?"

"I-I don't know… Seraphim or not, Belos is so strong, and he's got Eda! I don't know if I can stand up to him!" Luz cried, curling in on herself.

The others felt the same; they were a collection of four school children, a borderline baby Titan, a magicless angel, and a Bard who'd just seen how far the Emperor would go, and what he was capable of. Their confidence was low.

Hooty would not let that stand. "I know what will cheer you up!" he hooted in Luz's face; "Presents!"

His long, noodle-like body then hooted all the way down to Eda's potions lab, then shrank back to the living room and promptly coughed up a large owl pellet onto the coffee table.

"Ew! Hooty, now isn't the time for your weird… Hooty-ness!" Amity yelled.

"Apologies Hooty, but I have to agree with Amity. I doubt an owl pellet would help here." Rasiel added.

Hooty scoffed; "Oh ye of little faith! You have to open presents! Silly Raspberry!"

Luz giggled softly, then sniffled and wiped her eyes; "Never change, Hooty." she said, before creating a short light blade on the tip of her finger to slice the owl pellet open, revealing two white boxes wrapped up with red ribbons. Each was labelled with a name; the bigger one had Luz's name on it and the smaller one had King's name.

The young angel took the two packages (thankfully dry and undamaged, as they hadn't been in Hooty's stomach for more than a few seconds) and handed the one with King's name to her little brother.

Confused, he took it and opened it up, finding that it contained a letter and a beautiful handmade blue neckerchief, sized perfectly for King. King touched it reverently, his eyes growing large and sparkling with emotion.

"This is that Witch's Wool stuff!" King exclaimed, "D-Did Eda make this for me?"

"She was knitting almost all day! Hoot!" Hooty confirmed.

King took off his red collar and slipped off the medallion, which he then threaded onto the neckerchief before asking Luz to put it on him. She quietly did so, then created a little illusion of King wearing it so he could see how it looked. It was cute and suited him, making him look less like a pet with a collar and more like a child with a cool accessory.

"I-I can't believe she'd make this for me…" King whispered, becoming emotional.

"Open yours too, Luz." Willow gently urged, the only one besides Hooty to know what it was already.

Luz hesitated, wondering if she even deserved to receive a gift from Eda when it was arguably her fault that Eda was currently trapped as the Owl Beast and in the custody of the Emperor. Her friends saw her reluctance, causing Willow to lean forward and put her hand on top of Luz's.

"Luz, Eda wanted you to have this. Please open it; it'd make her happy."

With a sniffle and a shaky nod, Luz obediently began to open the present. She gasped quietly and nearly burst into fresh tears as she saw what was inside.

It was a finely crafted hooded cloak, made from the same blue Witch's Wool as King's neckerchief. It felt warm and comforting as Luz ran her fingers through it. She brought it up to her face to rub her cheek against it, enjoying the silky feeling as Eda's words from that morning raced through her head.

"Any Witch worth their salt has a cloak made of it!"

"Eda…" Luz whimpered, losing her battle with her tears.

"You've got a letter too." King said, picking the parchment out of Luz's box and handing it to her as he began to read his own. It read:

"Dear King,

If you're reading this, I've probably just high-tailed it out of the room! Sorry for that, but as much as I've changed because of you and your sister, I still can't quite bring myself to say this stuff out loud like I should. I hope you'll forgive this old weirdo for being so bad at feelings, but I was at least able to write down what I wanted to tell you!

I made you this neckerchief to replace your old collar. I know you're fond of that old thing, but it's honesty been bothering me for a while. I got you that because I thought you were just some pet that I'd taken in, like a stray dog, but that was never what you were. I should have replaced it sooner, when I first realised that you weren't just a pet.

I've been calling you my room mate for years, but honestly, that's not right either. You were family. I think we both knew it, even if neither of us ever actually said it. It wasn't until Luz came and turned our lives upside down that I truly began to think about that. It made me think about who you really were to me, and I don't mean the whole "You're a Titan, King!" thing. I don't care about that; you are who you are and I'll always accept you no matter what.

Even in writing, it's hard to fully get my feelings out there, but I guess the best way to say it is with what Luz said. You're a Clawthorne. Heck, you're a Clawthorne-Noceda (I hear they're very prestigious, Ha!). You're Luz's little brother and my son.

Sorry if that's going too far, or makes you uncomfortable. I'll understand if you don't want that kind of relationship, and I'm not expecting you to start calling me Mom. I don't want to take the place of your Titan parents in your heart either; I just want you to know how important you are to me. You couldn't be more my kid even if you had my blood in your veins.

I've made my mistakes and I'll no doubt make more, but having you in my life will never be one of them. I love you King. Never forget that.

Eda.

P.S Luz will probably get all weepy when she reads her letter, so I'm counting on you to help me put a stop to that! Ha, look how far we've come! Trying to stop her from crying instead of making her cry. Funny how life works out!"

King didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and his heart felt like it was simultaneously swelling and breaking. He was so choked up that he genuinely couldn't do anything but sit there and clutch the letter, tears silently trickling down his skull.

Luz saw this and hugged him a little tighter, but didn't look at his letter. She didn't think it was right to read Eda's words to him without his permission, so she instead read Eda's letter to her, already bracing herself for the feeling of having her heart ripped out.

"Dear Luz,

Assuming my plan worked out how I hoped, you should be reading this letter while sat with King. Sorry for running away like I probably did; I feel awkward enough writing this without also sitting and watching you read it. I'm the fearsome Owl Lady; the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, yet I'm not brave enough to tell you this stuff to your face like you deserve.

I told you this morning that any witch worth their salt should have a Witch's Wool cloak, so naturally, I had to make one for my apprentice. You may not be a witch, but you're the best dang apprentice I could have ever wished for! You've honestly made me so proud to be your mentor, and the prouder I am of you, the more ashamed I feel for the way I treated you when we first met.

I treated you like a thing I could use, and even after that, you forgave me and asked to learn from me. My first day as your mentor, I tried to make you cry and seriously hurt you emotionally, but you still forgave me and tried to help me. I can never truly tell you how much you mean to me and King. You're always working so hard, and while you make mistakes, you always try your best and you always have everyone's best interests at heart.

A part of me used to think "Well of course Luz is like that, she's an angel!" and just left it at that, but the more I found out about angels from Rasiel, plus what we saw of Zachael (not to mention the possibility of that boneheaded emperor being one, Ew!), the more I began to realise that angels are just fancy winged people. Your culture may be based around goodness and order, but that didn't make you all these paragons of purity. No, you are the way you are because… well, you're Luz. Does that make sense? I'm kinda rambling here; I'm still not great at letting my feelings out.

But there is something really important I've got to tell you. For these last couple of months, I've been lying and claiming you were my daughter. I did it to trick Lilith and the Isles, so you would be safe. I know you agreed to it, but even so, I began to feel guilty… not because we were lying, but because I didn't want it to be a lie. King became your little brother, you started calling Lilith your auntie, and I kept thinking to myself; "When is it gonna be my turn?". Then there was the day my sister came over before the whole Grudgby game incident, and I heard you tell her that you would like to call me "Mom" some day and I just… I couldn't get that out of my head.

I've decided that I've had enough running away from my feelings, and refusing to have a normal life because of my curse. I want to embrace King as my son. I want to be together with Raine again. I even want to make up with Lilith, if I can get that stick out of her butt! All of that is because of you; you've changed me Luz. Which is why I can't deny that I truly want to call you my Daughter. King is a Clawthorne-Noceda, so I thought maybe you could be a Noceda-Clawthorne.

I know you have a loving mother back in the Human Realm, and I would never dream of replacing her, but if there is any room in your heart for a woman like me to be like a Mom to you, then I'd like to be that. If you don't want that, I'll understand and nothing between us has to change. Just know that whatever you choose, I'm so grateful to have had you in my life. I hope one day I'll be brave enough to say that to your face. Until that day, know that I love you Luz.

Eda.

P.S I left a flask of water under the couch. Knowing you, you're all weepy now and after a day in the desert, you could get dehydrated, so make sure you drink it up!"

Luz stared at the letter, the feelings inside her spinning around in her chest like a hurricane of emotions. She clutched the letter to her heart, then slowly reached down under the couch and pulled out the flask that Eda had said she'd left there. An ice glyph had been engraved on the side of the metal to keep the water inside cool, and one of Luz's sticky notes had been attached to it with a cartoonish picture of Eda's winking face, with the words "Don't ask how many flasks I ruined trying to get this glyph perfected! Love Eda!" written above it.

Luz couldn't help the giggle that bubbled up from her chest, but that giggle soon became deep, heartfelt sobs. The dam was broken, and King was also swept up in the flood of emotions, bursting into tears too. The two children embraced one another tightly and just cried; shedding tears of sorrow, frustration, and love for the woman that had become so much to them.

None of the others knew what to say or how to comfort them, so Amity just pulled Luz into her lap and held her, while also gently petting King's skull. Willow and Gus came over to join the hug, Willow sitting on one side of Amity while Gus sat on the other, both wrapping their arms around their crying friends.

Raine and Rasiel stood together and watched sadly as the children hugged. Then Rasiel slowly lifted a hand and put it on Raine's back. The Bard looked surprised at the gesture, and Rasiel nodded to them kindly.

"If anyone loves Eda even half as much as those two do, it's you. You're entitled to your sorrow and deserve the comfort of a friend. Go to them." Rasiel said, gently slapping Raine's back to make them stagger forward a step.

Raine looked unsure, but then Luz and King looked to them and opened their arms in a silent invitation. With tears in their eyes, Raine knelt beside the children and joined their embrace, allowing themselves to feel their worry and sadness.

When the crying began to subside, the hug broke apart and King looked up at Luz with imploring eyes.

"Luz, what are we going to do? I-I can't lose Eda! I can't lose my Mom again!" King begged.

Luz closed her eyes and thought back to an event so many years ago… a rainy day… a quiet grove filled with stone slabs… a coffin holding one of only two people she'd ever loved at the time.

She'd lost her father to a wasting illness. The doctors hadn't been able to save him… Mami's magic hadn't been able to save him… Luz hadn't been able to save him. She had been a little, magically-stunted Cherub with naught but prayers and frail hopes… and so she had lost him.

Luz's eyes opened, and everyone was shocked to see the fire in them; the golden amber of her eyes reminding them all of Eda's fiery golden magic.

She wasn't a Cherub any more. She had magic, she had friends, she had allies, she had family!

She had Eda.

And she was not going to lose her.

"Tonight, we're going to rest." Luz said, her voice determined, "And tomorrow… we're going to go to war with the Emperor's Coven. We're going to save Eda!"

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章 35: Chapter 19: EP 19: Echoes of an Angel Part 2.

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