Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Lilith 

The bottle smashes and the world disappears around the four masked figures before they reemerge in a castle hallway… not a forest but it’s evidently The Emperor’s mind, a surface facsimile of the available lies, paintings of his glory. 

She takes them all in, his false triumphs, his lies, the knighting of The latest Golden Guard… She sees herself watching on in the background with her two accomplices and her then young apprentice and looked the guard so small yet hidden completely in her mask, hood and armour in the foreground, as she swore her life away to the monster, as she assumed that duty no child should ever have had to bear. A burden too many children had borne to their deaths. 

Her bile rises at that, both at what has passed, and what was going to come to pass as a result of her actions as. She raises her arm and spins a spell circle at it, a great gout of blue flame blasting a hole in the wall revealing the empty void behind it… the way to the rest of the mind. 

All four of them dart through it without a word, the smallest among them hopping on the largest one’s shoulder as he transfigures his legs into abomination goo to brace for impact whilst the other to take out their bird tipped staves to arrest their falls. 

The other witch with an avian staff pulls out a hessian sack from her great gray mane of hair, and tosses it to her, and tosses two to the other witch and demon.

She peers into her own sack, the potion’s baleful green glow staring right back at her, glass bottles enchanted to be larger on the inside to carry impossible quantities of the flammable substance, charmed and brewed over months by one of the most powerful and competent potionists in history to spread quickly and burn more vigorously than anything else in the history of demonkind, surpassing even dragonfire when those roamed the isles.

There was a series of nods, all had been discussed as they left, all had their own evacuation potions to leave when this foul place began to burn, and all knew what they needed to do , and they got to it. 

She rushed down one forest path, tossing glass bottles behind her as she went, the green sticky substance quickly enveloping the dead trees and floor, getting on every surface, marking the paintings as She ran, she wasn’t here to sight see, or even gather whatever historical insights and truths The Emperor had borne witness to before covering up, in his rise to power, the cruelties he inflicted upon all. Part of Her craved that clarification, that truth, but no, they had no time to enter memories, the inner self would be coming soon , and they had to act before it could stop them, they had to burn everything. 

So she kept running and spreading the accelerant, not even stopping as she came across a path dedicated to the Golden Guards… she threw her potions down it before she could allow herself to or anyone else to be distracted, even as she saw a glimpse of Lucy in one picture even if part of her mind pulled her to look back, demanded that she see it she sent the tool of arson loose anyway. Perhaps it was a cowardly move so she wouldn’t see what almost certainly be the child she cared for being harmed but it was the right call all the same, this wasn’t a mission where She could afford to wallow in her own guilt. Their only purpose was Belos’ destruction and the salvation of all witch and demonkind

They all moved quickly, running as fast as they could, spreading the fuel as much as they could… one memory once extracted and allowed to burn uncontrolled could be potentially lobotomising, starting such a large fire in the mind itself could be enough of a shock to destroy the mind completely, shatter the personhood and the person, cause rapid immediate and fatal brain damage, what they’d brought was enough to burn a mind five times over, and they were going to use all of it and spread it as far and wide as they could, nothing would remain. 

A small form stood in her path, that of a child, a small pale thing in rags and with a wooden mask in horns, Lilith didn’t wait a second before casting a spell, a spike of ice impaling the fake child, some aspect of Belos’ inner self, or perhaps the whole innerself. Lilith cared little about what that might have implied about Belos’ psychology, as she kept running.

The entity seemed surprised at her lack of hesitation, as if that trick would have world on her, as she ran past it and tossed another bottle of accelerant behind her, the bottle shattering and showering the entity, and every picture for a and other surface in ten metres with the thick flammable adhesive. It might have been fate that it was her last bottle of the substance. 

She cast a light spell into the air and waited whilst the impaled entity melted into the floor and reformed into a more familiar form, that of The Emperor, eyes wide in shock and surprise, even when he locked eyes with her palisman and then back to her, defeating the point of her mask. 

“Lilith!” he roared in a barely controlled rage, as a hole remained in his core from where his child form had been impaled, goo struggling to fill it, his body coated in fuel. “Whatever scheme you’ve concocted! This treason! I will survive this , and I swear in the Titan’s name you will be hunted to the ends of these isles, of this entire realm and I will make HER petrify you herself , and you will die knowing that she will never forget your-.”

“No, I don’t think you will, I think you’ve taken His name in vain for the last time Phillip Wittebane.” His eyes widened impossibly far, shock and horror writ large on his face and, surprise apparent, he had no idea how much she knew, how much she’d known for the past few years, no plan on what to do if someone ever got in here with a plan and worked quickly. Years of deception, years of allowing the worst things imaginable to one of the people she cared for most in the world, and it had paid off. Lilith turned behind her and saw three more signals fly into the air.

“You’ve lost, and you’re never going to hurt her again.” Lilith spun her staff in one hand, as she cast a small fire spell with the other, the shield enveloped her, and the fire spell struck the inner Belos, and Lilith could feel the searing heat even through the shield, the construct barely holding together amidst the force and the heat as the entire path and all along it burned in an instant. Inner Belos did not even get a chance to cry out, burned away so quickly as to not feel a thing as the world began to burn around them. Lilith reached into her hair, pulled out the escape potion and shattered. 

The world came back into focus now, the alleyway in the Bonesborough night-market forming around her, as Edalyn, Darius and Eberwolf reappeared one by one, all moderately singed, but alive and well. 

“It’s done, It's finally done.” seven years, that’s how long she’d been waiting for the moment, seven years. 

“I mean… we won’t know till morning, but it all looked pretty on fire, nothing more we can do about it and let’s face it, even if he survived that there’s no way in hell he’s remembering what we did, or much of anything else.” Edalyn took out some strange combination of a scroll and human ‘phune’ and tapped out a hext on it. “Cam and the kids were worried as hell before I left, I told I’d text em as soon as we got out, but they’ll want me back as soon as I can and, well Hunter was already in a mood about this coming up so he’ll need people around since the damn thing it’s actually worked.” 

“It’s fine Edalyn, you have your family to account for. Do give them all my regards.” Lilith never had any desire for a partner e she’d never had a parental bone in her body before r Lucy… (one need only think of how formal and strictly professional was with Amity before the grimwalker came into her life and made her realise that the witchlet was in just as much need of parental care) but Eda’s quiet little life away from it all, safe with the people she loved, despite it seeming so unlike the Edalyn she’d grown up with, she was happy, happy in a way some part of Lilith couldn’t help but be jealous of. The people Edalyn cared about and loved were safe and always there. 

“Yeah well. Don’t get me wrong, burning down that asshole's mind is one of the best things we’ve done together, but now he’s gone.” Edalyn pulled her into a surprise hug. “Look I’ve missed ya sis okay. Hell I’ve missed the isles but I at least had it for most my life before joining you in this little mess, and it’s not like I never snuck back over here when I needed stuff. But … well I missed you when you went off to join the coven, and hell as much as those letters were more than we had during the whole ‘you trying to arrest me’ phase of things, I missed my sister too.”

“I missed you too Edalyn, but, without Belos to worry about, there’s no need to be as cautious, and Titan knows Lucy won’t need any convincing to want to get rid of Kikimora. We’ll be seeing more of each other soon enough.”

“I’m looking forward to it, that being said I do still need to get going before I have to deal with an anxious house demon. If you need to get me in there to finish the job that’s gonna have to wait till morning. I’ll have the CB on waiting for the ‘surprise’ coronation so don’t feel the need to worry about keeping me constantly in the loop. Just look, with him gone I can actually have a sister I get to spend time with again, and hopefully a niece who isn’t obsessed trying to bring me in for an appointment with a petrification machine.” 

“The former I will try, the latter… I hope she takes the truth well but adjusting to it will be hard, and thrones are hardly the place for someone to adjust to things.”

“Well as much as it’s possible for someone to have this, you’ve got this. 

Luz

Luz wakes early as her body aches and the first glimpses of dawn begin to shine through the window, scattering their way across Amity’s quarters. The ache is normal, Luz can scarcely remember a time when either the strain of training or her duties hadn’t left her without one in the past seven years, it’s not a thing that bothers her, just a thing to live with. 

Still Luz doesn’t mind mornings, especially hasn’t for the past few years she’s gotten to share them with Amity. How could she, they’re the one quiet time the two of them can have in a given day to be together, one of the few guaranteed magical and good things she can have. And Amity’s cute little bed head is one of the most magical things in the world as far as Luz is concerned. 

Luz looks at the witch she loves as she discreetly pulls herself out of bed making sure not to disrupt Amity’s sleep before gently kissing the top of her head and readjusting the blankets. It’s early, earlier than even most of The Emperor’s Coven has any business being awake, though not my much. She won’t rob Amity of an additional half an hour of precious sleep, even as much as she craves her company.

She’s a brunette now, having stopped dying her hair shortly before she joined the coven, Luz can’t help but miss when she did even as she understood why, the coven wasn’t a place where one wanted to stand out overmuch on anything other than their achievements. Even Lilith herself dyed her hair a deep black, for similar reasons, being a natural redhead would have been too vibrant. And people already gave Amity grief behind her back for getting where she did due to her mother’s wealth and being one of Lilith’s favourites . The former was blatantly untrue, Lilith hated Odalia even more than Luz herself did, but the latter had merit to it, even if such a thing was blatantly commonplace across the coven

It had been the main reason why they kept their relationship secret, Lilith had been the one to recommend that they do, back before Amity joined the coven, but it had been the right call. 

Even if the both of them naturally chafed amidst the secrecy, there’d just be far too much scrutiny for them, and that would be even worse, and was it the worst thing in the world to have parts of their lives that were theirs alone, their own little secret together. A secret relationship was nowhere near as romantic as some writers imagined but… that didn’t mean there was nothing romantic about it. 

Still it did mean she had to use her staff to teleport back to what was, for all outside perspectives, her room , lest tongues wag about her leaving Amity’s before she got ready for the day. Not that she'd slept in her own quarters more than a handful of times in the past few years. 

Luz took a quick shower before donned her uniform, black cavalry style boots polished to a mirror shine came up just shy of her knee (only maintained by semi constant spell work) and black uniform trousers were followed by a simple undershirt to charmed to regulate temperature, over which went a heavy long gambeson of witches wool over which went a cuirass covering her front and back, with a second articulated plate covering her abdomen, alongside elbow length gauntlets and rerebraces covering her arms and pauldrons were secured over her shoulders. 

The finest armour one could get their hands on, the plate being made by the head of the construction coven himself . Not strictly necessary for a day of what was projected to be administrative meetings alongside Belos but it was the uniform, and with palisman supplies being what they’d been and how Belos had been forced to ration them of late… Luz knew she couldn’t be too careful. She donned her mask and made her way out into the corridors, staff in hand, ready to begin the day. 

Nothing too eventful was on the schedule, individual monthly reports from each coven head would be a lot of standing around listening to them trying to explain themselves. Luz already knew the reports would show the same downward trends as last month’s and the month before, recruitment was down, both early joining and even of those at mandatory coven age. None of this was the coven head’s fault per se… but none of them were about to point out to Belos how their numbers might have been better than for example, Snapdragon’s

Luz couldn’t begrudge those wanting to hold off till they were old enough, though alongside the growing number of truly wild witches that came within the EC’s responsibility to find and bring back into the fold it was a bad sign, especially fewer of those were being captured as more and more came of age covenless, and the rebellion demanded more of the coven’s attention.

Luz knew she had her own biases, she wouldn’t even be here were it not for the Owl Lady, and her attempted regicide separating her from her mother. But the danger it proposed more broadly worried her, even if she tried putting her feelings aside, even if 95% of the adult population were law-abiding coven witches, when 10% of youth coming of age were able to avoid it, and to some degree get away with it… it was a bad sign. The rebels took away attention from finding them, and made a point of distributing literature teaching them how to hide more effectively, tattoos to fake a coven brand were trivial to find if one knew where to look and instructions on a long term illusion spell with the same effect. 

Not all of this new wave of wild witches went on to be rebels themselves but… they were a concerning bloc of potential diehard supporters and collaborators and still made for a fertile recruiting ground for them 

Luz herself knew she’d been… hypocritical in fighting it. She was supposed to be the best of the coven, the shining example to everyone of what a witch could be, so when she found Amity in the records department, making sure several of her friends and her siblings, weren’t placed on a list of wild witches… and did nothing, and worse, helped make sure she’d never be caught, and that nobody would find out. 

Luz, she knew the twins, knew Amity’s friends and though Luz only really knew the twins well, she knew that all the people Amity had hidden were smart witches, and reasonable, intelligent people, kind and ultimately harmless people, not reckless or ignorant.  The twins could be eccentric troublemakers and pranksters when they were younger , but they weren’t dangerous. Any of Amity’s friends could have had a place in The Emperor’s Coven were it not for the fact that they had no interest in the life that came with it. Which Luz could understand but… it still gnawed away at her all the same. 

Brands were there to protect people from themselves, and stop people using their magic dangerously. The Titan commanded them for a reason. Demanded their universality. And she’d ignored Him, because they were Amity’s friends, because she knew them… she thought she knew better than The Titan himself in that moment and… she could live with it, Amity’s friends had denied The Titan and become wild witches, and Luz had broken her oath to uphold his word. 

Luz would never report Amity for what she’d done for one, that was out of the question, but it had been treason. Not even Lilith knew she’d done it, hell Amity had planned on keeping it from Luz herself, and almost certainly would have if Luz hadn’t happened to catch her in the act. Amity had been planning to lie to her as well. 

The fact Luz knew Amity thought she had to lie to her wasn’t something she’d fully made peace with.
Luz loved her, loved her to the point of letting her get away with treason. Amity was a good witch, a good person with foundationally good intentions, when so many around here weren’t. 

As much as it hurt Luz understood why she tried hiding from her, hell why she’d done what she’d done, she got it. They were friends and if the rules would cause them to suffer then damn the rules and when it came down to it, she had done the same for Amity.  Even if Amity questioned so many things in private, things Luz wouldn’t dare ask The Emperor, or speak aloud if she knew it could get back to him. And as dedicated as Luz was to her duties, some part of her couldn’t help but agree with some of what she was saying. 

Luz would never question that wild magic was dangerous, no, she’d seen what it could do, but maybe there were worse things, the twins and Amity’s friends weren’t going to hurt anyone, and they certainly weren’t rebels. 

But they were, by the strict letter of the law, criminals and wild witches, Belos would never tolerate what she’d done if he knew (which was why he could never know) but Luz trusted Amity enough to know she would not have done it if she suspected they’d ever be able to do anything harmful or treasonous beyond living without a coven brand, The Titan might judge them but… well he hadn’t told Belos about what Luz and Amity had done yet so… maybe the only things at risk were the souls of their friends and, that might just be their choice to make. 

But given how wild magic could twist one’s thoughts and priorities… maybe they’d be strong enough to resist it, maybe they’d be careful but… if Amity was wrong, if any of her friends were ever arrested for anything, ever did something wrong and found out… Well, There might not be any evidence of exactly how they got lost in the system, but it wouldn’t be difficult to figure out. 

Everybody should have a brand for the good of themselves and so the world wouldn’t fall into the chaos of the savage ages, that… that she was in agreement with, the consequences of wild magic were too dire, and yet she’d let Amity ensure her friends wouldn’t have any.

Luz knew it made her a hypocrite, hell, she and Amity were accomplices to their crimes in effect… but for now, they were victimless crimes. But Luz couldn’t help but live in fear of what would ever happen if this changed, if one of them hurt someone or worse… she would have blood on her hands. 

Still, a handful of names misfiled on purpose was not the cause of the present brewing crisis, the rebels were, The CATTs of course dominated but… it was the other smaller cells, independents that seemed most troubling to Luz, the CATTs, they at least directed their efforts towards The Emperor’s Coven exclusively. It would have been harmful to their goals to target the civilian population. 

Very occasionally some splinter group, or band of independent radicals would attack in a manner that did not discriminate The mainline CATTs would always try and communicate the fact that they disavowed it but spreading pamphlets illegally could only do so much, when The Oracle Coven made sure their claims and denunciations of these attacks would not be reported on, and Belos agreed with Osran in this, rebels and wild witches were rebels and wild witches, the CATTs shouldn’t get the luxury of distributing their propaganda distancing themselves from other bands of traitors who shared their views, the attacks by the independent cells only proved to everyone how dangerous any rebellion was in Belos’ eyes .

As much as the deaths angered Luz, there was the fact that Kikimora and Intelligence Branch always ended up finding the perpetrators soon after, suspiciously soon after. Even more suspicious was the fact none of these perpetrators were ever captured alive. Luz… needless to say she wasn’t the only one who found this suspicious, Lilith did too but whenever they tried bringing it to Belos, he dismissed her as paranoid, or worse, accused her of lying to further her grudge against Kikimora. When she tried raising the matter to him again later that week in private his reaction… well it made it clear that she was to drop the matter, lest the curse be aggravated again. 

Belos wasn’t wrong about the fact Luz did have a grudge against Kikimora, as did Lilith, but several attempted murders that she could never prove did tend to have that effect. 

Those were simple career mindedness, and at times base cruelty, jealousy and hatred towards her, this was different, as much as Kikimora was obsessed with her own advancement, if what Luz suspected was true, if Kikimora was going behind Belos’ back and carrying out false flag attacks, if it wasn't for those reasons No, Kikimora was always a radical true believer, and she, like so many of the worst people in the coven believed anything against the rebels was justified.  

Several years prior this kind of thinking had gotten over a hundred scouts killed attacking what ended up being a secret rebel field hospital, and for time lead to her department leading obscenely aggressive investigations to follow up on public tip lines with exceedingly mixed results in terms of actually finding rebels whilst offering large bounties for information, and far too many people in the hands of Kikimora’s most loyal subordinates, who believed that anything was worth it to find information on the rebellion. It had been hushed up, and quietly shelved, but Belos kept her on after she somehow convinced her that the worst of it was some overeager officers overstepping the mark, 

Luz was convinced that this kind of thinking helped the rebels more than it harmed them, and hurt The Isles and their people intolerably. But could absolutely see Kikimora, on her own initiative having her own people out these attacks themselves before taking known rebel sympathisers or people with links to known CATTs members, framing them, and then killing them and making it look like the suspects were killed when her people raided the compound. Kikimora always made sure that her people carried out the ‘attempted arrests’ by ensuring the rest of the coven only found out once they’d been executed, ostensibly in the name of operational security, but also to ensure that Kikimora got the credit, and nobody who wasn’t directly loyal to her would be there to witness anything. 

Luz knew in her heart that there was no way Belos would ever support such a thing, no, but Kikimora wouldn’t hesitate to lie to his face if she thought it was working, she’d done it before every time Luz tried accusing her of something Luz knew for a fact she’d done and could not prove, she was a master at it. Luz herself had lied to him in the past, hid things from him that protected nominally innocent people, lied about killing the last basilisk… if she could lie to do good Kikimora could lie to advance her own goals too. 

But there was nothing Luz could do to prove it, Kikimora’s Intelligence Branch had only grown in the past five years of increasing rebel activity, despite her failures early on in the rebellion like the field hospital incident, worse the branch become more insular from the rest of the coven due to its role in rooting out internal traitors, and reported only to Kikimora, who reported directly to The Emperor, and despite Lilith’s best efforts it had been impossible to find anyone willing to snitch on her and give them any kind of confirmation for their suspicions. Either terrified of discovery and repercussions (one of the people Lilith approached was very suddenly reassigned to Palm Stings despite disclosing nothing) or worse, genuinely personally loyal to Kikimora herself.

If it worked in suppressing the rebellion then Kikimora wouldn’t hesitate, and Luz knew for a fact it did harm the public view of the CATTs. Even as they publicly distanced themselves from it and the idea of acting against the system in general became associated with public random violence among many. Luz understood why Osran and Belos didn’t care to educate the public on the distinctions between the CATTs and these independent actors. The independent rebels wouldn’t exist if the CATTs hadn’t started their war and inspired them, even if the attacks weren’t their responsibility, and intentionally clarifying things to make the CATTs look better would only help the CATTs.

And if Kikimora felt the need to morally justify things to herself, that was how she’d do it. It made perfect sense to someone who could justify the murder of innocents, and then take the credit for catching their supposed killers. Luz knew Kikimora was such a person, someone who believed supremely both in herself and in achieving her goals. 

Luz disagreed with the rebels, they were unquestionably wrong , and their ideas were dangerous and going to hurt people. Luz knew that for the greater good of The Isles they had to be beaten, and that wild magic had to be stopped. But nothing justified the murder of innocent people. Hell even to some degree, despite their views on wild magic even the CATTs got that. They had their beliefs, that the system was foundationally unjust and should be torn down , and they were willing to fight for them, even if that meant their own deaths or killing members of The Emperor’s Coven. But even as the CATTs were mostly certainly willing to use violence to achieve their aims, it was a violence focused solely on The Emperor’s Coven, they were true believers in their goal of popular revolution and their own moral righteousness. Murder of noncombatants betrayed both. Hell they broadly respected when scouts surrendered to them, even people let go from who had escaped their captivity reported minimal or no abuse, and an active campaign of internal discipline to prevent it. 

Given how many in the coven did not hold to the same principles either themselves or enforce them for their subordinates, that system of discipline to prevent abuses was one Luz wished the coven had… Lilith had tried her best to implement it , but orders only went so far if subordinate commanders were willing or able to put the effort into enforcing them, and Luz and Lilith, and other like-minded people under her command like Amity and the others could only be in so many places at once.

Still, as much as the troubles plaguing the coven plagued her mind she had to push them out of her mind for now, all she could deal with was the day before her, brace herself for the challenges of the day, Belos was never a man to take bad news well, even in the days when palismen were more plentiful. As much as Luz was still always somewhat disturbed by the creatures being the only means of managing the curse, and constantly mourned and regretted the loss of every one of them… the curse had only grown more terrifying now they were in short supply. 

Luz made her way into the throne room, allowed through by the guards without a word (it was the final minutes of the night shift before they were set to be relieved, she wouldn’t be very talkative either) and made way through the grand empty room, lighting the braziers that lit the room with her staff as she walked to the end of the room The Titan’s heart beating faster than normal as she walked through to the end of the room and off to a door at the side, and ascended the stairway behind it that up to Belos’ personal apartments where she’d usually meet him before starting a day like today’s. She summoned a key from her stave’s hammerspace, (the only one held by someone other than Belos) before unlocking the door, the magic in the mechanism humming and whirring before the door swung open to reveal the library that Belos used for most of his recreation time whenever he wasn’t tinkering on something in his lab, the place he typically met her for day, only he was absent, usually he’d be sat on the couch reading one of the myriad daily reports, usually Kikimora’s. But today? Nothing. 

“Your Majesty?” Luz called out only to be met with silence. 

“Belos!” Again, nothing, only silence. 

This was unprecedented actually, for everything else, even amidst the curse, Belos was a morning person, not one to randomly lie in on a whim. Luz advanced nervously into the room, not a sound coming from the room , and she went to the door and down the corridor, on the left was Belos’ lab, a room she’d been in a couple of times but never unsupervised, just as he was showing her the basics behind how her staff worked, how to repair it and avoid damaging it and the like… but as Luz opened the door she saw it empty, on the other side of the corridor was the dining room, 

where the two of them would have dinner on most weeks, though with how much of a handful the rebels had been of late, and the worsening curse those had grown rarer there was a serving table on which meals were teleported from the kitchen, and Belos’ usual simple breakfast was still there going cold after being made and sent up as per usual, but there was no sign of him. 

This was worrying, and there was only one other place to look and Luz practically raced to the bedroom. 

“Belos!” Luz cried out as she knocked on the door, Again no reply, and as much as Luz had no desire to barge in on the old man, she also had her responsibilities to consider, Belos not being up and about at this time was irregular enough, and Luz was well aware of how bad the curse had been of late, how tired it had made him by the end of the working day if he was more ill than normal, he’d be upset, and maybe the curse would lash out, but maybe Belos just needed help but if it was anything worse… she had to go in there.

“I’m coming in.” 

Luz barged through the door and the sight that met Luz was nothing short of horrifying. Now lying on the bed at the end of the room was a mass of nothing but bones and sludge soaking into Belos’ pyjamas and a mass of tangled bedclothes. Luz ran to the bedside as her heart was seized by terror, she realised what she was looking at and her eyes met the empty eye sockets of a skull capped by a familiar mass of long grey hair and a jaw contorted open wide as mid-scream as Luz barely managed to stifle her own. 

That mass of bones and sludge was Belos, Belos was, no he-he couldn’t be. She needed Lilith, and a healer maybe, maybe just maybe there was something Belos couldn’t be, The Emperor couldn’t be .  

There was a panicked message tapped into her compact, calling to Lilith, begging for her to bring Cutburn, it took the time between her pressing the button and the message sending to admit to herself that sending for a healer was pointless… for anything other than a death certificate and an independent witness 

Belos was dead. 

And Luz had lost yet another person she considered family, was far more alone in the world than she had been this morning.

The Emperor was Dead

And the world had been turned upside down for every witch and demon in The Isles 

Luz knew it couldn’t have been long before Lilith and Cutburn arrived but that time alone standing over what was left of Belos was… it was too long in her own head, thoughts racing before she heard the thundering of footsteps, Lilith barging in ahead of Cutburn in a black and white blur 

“Lucy!” It was a loss of composure entirely unlike Lilith, at least unlike her when they were amidst people like Cutburn as Luz was pulled into a hug, somehow bone crushing despite her armour. Lilith only needed a second to look at the sight on the bed before leaning down to whisper in Luz’s ear, tone now turned deadly serious. 

“Lucy, today is the most dangerous day in our lives, potentially even the history of The Isles. I don’t even want to imagine the consequences of what could come to pass if we are not exceedingly careful child…” Lilith paused for a moment, continuing to hold her close. “I know you must be in pain right now Lucy, but I have an idea about how we can avoid disaster, but we only have one chance, do you trust me on this?” Luz just nodded. Of course she trusted Lilith, trusted her in a way she trusted only three, no, now just two other people on this titan. “Good, I will explain more as soon as I have a chance, right now I just need you to follow my lead.”

Meanwhile, Hettie remained standing over the body looking over the remains of the dead Emperor, looking over him as he would any other patient. Prepared to treat him the same respect, care, and decency she would treat anyone else she was called to care for.

“Well… that’s a corpse, and with all that goo, can’t be anyone else, it’s definitely him.” Cutburn turned to face her, and Luz remembered exactly what kind of bedside manner Hettie was known for. 

“We all knew he was cursed, Golden Guard. Paranoid bastard wouldn’t let me treat him but we all knew, he just had you as his medicine gatherer and nurse so he could hide just how bad he was.” Cutburn turned to address the body. “Now look at the mess we’re in, you smug dead prick, this is why you don’t have an untrained teenager acting as your primary care physician. Maybe, just maybe if you trusted the person you appointed to run the damn healing coven to be your personal healer you wouldn’t be in this damn mess.” Hettie laughed grimly before turning back to Luz.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do. I know you didn’t exactly get a healing track education, but I’d expect his majesty’s little blunt instrument to recognise a corpse when she sees one.” Cutburn was crass, insulting even, as was her normal bedside manner, but even Luz would have thought there’d be something more for the Emperor, or did respect through power alone only last whilst one still breathing. 

No… this was more than that, just as Lilith was thinking quickly so was Cutburn. Coven Heads by nature were ambitious, eager to rise to the top and stay at the top, and now the only ceiling on their ambition had been removed, even if they weren’t willing or able to make a play for the throne themselves as soon as they’d hear the most ambitious and capable people in the isles would want to stake out more power for themselves, and most of them would care  little about whoever got in their way. 

“Silence!” Lilith shouts as she invades the space of the head of the healing coven. “Simply because she sought your help in a state of shock and grief does not mean you get to treat her like this. Have some respect for the late Emperor. Or at very least his heir.” 

“Heir?” Cutburn questioned as Luz remained silent as the weight of everything implied fell within her stomach like a ball of lead.

“The Guard was his ward before she took her sigil and came of age… under the ordinary inheritance laws she has just as much right to be an heir as any adoptive or biological children, and I don’t see any of those lying around.” 

“Ordinary inheritance! This isn’t some house, this is the titan's throne! There’s no way that law could possibly-”

“I AM THE LAW CUTBURN!” Lilith shouted as the eyes of Edgar on her staff glowed a baleful blue that even managed to startle Luz. “At least, I was the one empowered to enforce the law by, the one he placed in command of the coven which enforces the law, which interprets the law every time it does so, and nothing in law implies that power is extinguished upon The Emperor’s death. Belos never made a law to govern the succession of the throne when he made the imperial code at the start of his reign, perhaps the Titan should have commanded him to do so but in his wisdom he did not. Perhaps he thought us wise enough to use the law we already have to decide who our new Emperor will be. What court would even be proper to challenge it in? The sorry institutions that pass for what's left of a judiciary and quibble over contracts and land disputes? They would either refuse to see it as within their remit or side with me , and you know it.”

Luz had said nothing, yet, right now only two people in the world knew The Emperor was dead, one of them wanted her to be to rile the isles in his place, and the other was Cutburn. 

Lilith wasn’t lying about what the law was, Luz knew that much in the moment, it was only a notion ever mentioned in passing by others in Lilith’s office, Darius jokingly calling her ‘princess’ but, just because it was a joke didn’t make it strictly untrue. 

But this came suddenly and unexpectedly to her. She hadn’t ever seriously expected to be in this position. She hadn’t thought the Titan would allow it. Never expected that little fun fact to ever become the single most important constitutional fact in the isles. 

The Emperor was dead , and she had the closest thing there was to a legitimate claim.

Lilith was strictly more qualified to rule? Yes.

Would Luz very much prefer not to be on the throne, not to take on the burden that entailed? Certainly.

But the law still mattered to Lilith, the law still mattered to the people and, deep down it still mattered to her, what else had she really been fighting for, the people she cared about? Absolutely. The good of the isles? Yes, but the law underpinned that, or at least, enabled it and… what would happen if she rejected the idea… try to have Lilith take the throne, or just, declare that the throne was vacant and she was in charge by merit of being Head of The Emperor’s Coven without even a flimsy legal mandate. There’d be nothing but coup attempts from cabals of senior officers and coven heads, Kikimora would be having a go within a week. It would be chaos, and chaos brought corpses.  

The law gave her legitimacy, she was, as much as she was uncomfortable with the fact, well known and reasonably popular with the public at large. She’d never planned on being the coven's poster child, it was simply a consequence of the position. Despite jealousy from some more senior officers at her unearned position over them, she’d done enough to be popular with most of the coven rank and file. Bad policy outcomes got blamed on Lilith, she got to be the one saving scout’s lives from the errors of their superiors and winning battles whilst Lilith got stuck with the bad press of making the hard decisions in a coven at war and with limits on its witchpower. Lilith was vulnerable in ways Luz wasn’t. The isles couldn’t take any further unrest. 

She looked down at the bones that had once been Belos, the curse leaving her with one last wound, someone else she’d lost. She had not agreed with everything he did, and so often the curse made him act rashly, made him quick to anger, even if Luz knew she ultimately deserved the results of his wrath… deep down she knew he wasn’t a perfect man.  He was a man who had been appointed as the emissary of a God on his corpse and tried his best to implement his will. He was also a man who frequently lost control of what he did as a result of his curse but… he never lied to her, everything he ever said, his thoughts on her failures and her successes, they were true.  

He was still one of the two people in the isles who knew her real name, who had seen her without a concealment stone hiding her true human features, the one who’d been there for her and shown her so much and took her in, one of the first people in her life to believe in her, the one who had given her a place here. It was hard not to fall into seeing him as just as much a surrogate parent as Lilith was, in truth she probably remembered more of Belos than she did her real dad. 

It was hard not to feel like she was in Gravesfield hospital all over again. But now she didn’t have the luxury of tears, of pain or weakness of being a child and weeping for a parent no. 

Right now she was his heir, and she couldn’t let what he’d built fall apart, not just for his sake, but for the sake of everyone she loved, for the isles that she loved. If she rejected her responsibility, the instability that would follow would be intolerable, a war almost guaranteed.  

Luz walked around the bed, hanging from the wall on the other side was The Emperor’s staff and finally found it within herself to speak as she took it up. 

“The Emperor is dead, long live The Empress.” Luz tried to fill her voice with more confidence than was really there as she said it, she… oh Titan was she really doing this?

Lilith went to her side, and placed her hand on her shoulder before whispering in Luz’s ear. “The law doesn’t provide for a gendered version of the title so for the avoidance of anyone nitpicking and using it as an excuse to avoid any orders, until such time as you formally change we stick to Emperor.” Luz didn’t find herself minding it, in truck she probably wouldn’t even make that amendment, it felt… fickle, unimportant given everything going on. Who said the title needed to be gendered anyway? Such things were mostly unimportant in the isles anyway.

“And you would do well to heed that warning, right now you are a healer, and despite your protestations you have something you can do.” Lilith spun a circle, and a blank death certificate appeared on Belos bedside table alongside a pen. “The Emperor died from complications of his curse overnight, you will write that and sign it.” 

Cutburn hesitantly did as she was told, somewhat cowed by the two armed witches as Luz remained silent and let Lilith take the lead, watching quietly as she took out her compact and tapped out a message to somebody as Cutburn filled in the form.

It was strange to see something as basic as paperwork happening right now but… no, sticking to normality as much as they could was their only option right now, the rules were all they had. 

Cutburn stepped away from the paper. “ I have no idea what his date of birth or family name was, I left those blank in case you did, all that’s left is the next of kin section.” The implication was apparent and Luz looked towards Lilith who nodded as Luz approached the table. 

The paper was filled out like anyone else's, even had ‘Emperor’ marked out in occupation. All that was left was for Luz to fill out her own name, feeling almost ill as she scribbled ‘Lucy’ onto the page, and then there was occupation…  She almost instinctively put down ‘Golden Guard’, right now it was accurate but… if she was to become or, already was Belos’ successor… there was only one thing she could do, if people wanted to question the legality of anything that occurred in this room, or anything that would follow she had to be clear on what she now was… and so she wrote down one word 

‘Emperor’

She handed the document to Lilith. “I don’t know his last name either, or his date of birth I … I don’t think anyone does anymore.” 

“No I suspect they don’t but… this is enough.” It was at that moment another person entered the room and Luz made ready to fight with Belos’ staff until she realised who it was, and lowered it. 

“Lilith, Cutburn…” Darius looked at her and then the bed, turning his gaze away from it “Little prin-, well Emperor now. Lilith called me here and told me everything.” Darius was trying to remain his normal nonchalant, and Luz could almost have believed it were it not for how he failed to fully meet her gaze, they’d been friendly before, well, as much friends as you can be with someone 30 years your senior and was more of your parent's friend but friends… on as close to equitable terms as it got around here, and now he couldn’t quite meet her eye, as Lilith spoke.

“This has to be announced to The Isles . But I think we can all agree it’d be best if everyone finds out at once and at the same time as the announcement of their new Emperor.  Best not to allow rumours to circulate, or worse, be acted upon.” The Public had to know, but things had to look like they were put together uncertainty meant dear which meant panic, at best, a rush to the market for certain just in case anything were to happen, at worst… angry mobs forming blaming The Emperor’s death on anyone who happened to be disliked and could be pinned as having rebel sympathies. 

Similarly, The CATTS couldn’t be allowed to think there was a break in the chain of command to be taken advantage of, and for the elites, well the idea of an empty throne existing in anyone’s mind for even a moment was intolerable. It only took a moment to imagine one’s ideal candidate sitting in it after all. 

“Darius, how long would it take you to get, I don’t know, every single regimental commanding officer and equivalent Emperor’s Coven official, and all the coven heads in the throne room with an oracle coven broadcast team interrupting all official channels for an Isles wide broadcast?” Lilith was purposeful, thinking on her feet as if she’d been planning today for years as opposed to having everything thrown in her face this morning unexpectedly like everyone else. But seemingly easy and orderly command in the face of chaos had always been Lilith’s speciality . 

“Two hours, so unless you are willing to swear an unbreakable oath Cutburn, there’s no way we’re just going to let you bum around and tell Titan knows who ahead of time.” Hettie scowled. Oaths like that were taboo and rare for a reason always capable of purposeful misinterpretation or outright abuse. The one she and Amity had sworn as children, well it was a miracle they hadn’t misworded it in some horrible way and had only done it because they were both twelve and panicking about Luz’s secret being revealed. 

“Fine, if you feel the need to put me in some room under guard, do so. As long as it isn’t a cell. But I won’t forget this treatment… I shouldn’t be so surprised you were on her speed dial for this little unscheduled coup Darius. ” It’s far more pushback than she’d have ever given Belos, no Belos certainly wouldn’t have tolerated such an implicit threat. But Luz could understand why Cutburn was acting as she was, trying to assert her position and power amidst a quickly shifting environment, and being completely disrespected by being threatened and shoved in a cupboard. 

“You don’t have to forget it Cutburn, this is a crap situation , and we’re just managing it the best way we can. Just keep running your coven as you did under Belos, and there won’t be any problems.” Cutburn was not a nice person by any standard but… there were much worse Coven Heads, certainly better ones but Luz wasn’t going to do more to make an enemy than Lilith and Darius already were and the both of them were actively surprised she’d spoken up. But an implicit promise that she wouldn’t have her position threatened was enough diplomacy for Cutburn to at least make a show of acquiescing. 

“Fine.” with that Darius placed a hand on her shoulder and the two disappeared. As Lilith tapped out another set of messages into her compact before putting it away. 

“That- I was messaging Amity I- Lucy I’m sorry for springing all of this onto you. It was the first thing I could think of I-” There’s a look of stark guilt on Lilith’s face. Facade dropped now that Cutburn was gone. 

“No you-You don’t have to apologise. This… everything about this is awful, whatever this is, it’s the least bad idea we have on hand. You were thinking quickly and…” Luz felt tears running down her face reaching to wipe them away, not even thinking to take off her gauntlet till the leather made contact before pulling off the armoured glove to better take away the tears, even as her eyes were drawn back to the bed, back to Belos,“He’s… he’s dead, he’s not even been dead for a matter of hours , and we’re just.” Luz was almost running to the door, moving away from him, from all that was left of him, as Luz followed, not stopping her, letting her escape as she made her way to the main entrance room with the fireplace. Legs falling away from her once she got to the couch. 

“I’m sorry I have to keep things together I… I can’t fall apart when people need me.”

“Lucy I… I know this is difficult, you were… close to him, closer than anyone else was. I understand that. I wouldn’t wish the loss you’re feeling on anyone. You just have to perform for part of one day then we’ll get a moment to breathe. Just, letting yourself feel now, then trying your best when we have to go back out there. Do you think you can do that?” Luz nodded quietly. 

“He… he wouldn’t want any chaos, it’s the best thing I can do for him. Best thing I can do for the isles, I can hurt later.” Something twisted in Lilith’s face indescribably, the same way it did whenever Belos had a bad curse episode and Luz needed medical attention. 

“It’s not something you can put off, just pretending whether it doesn’t the public can be enough for now. And as for me not having to apologise, somebody has to. None of this is right, none of it should ever be mistaken for a good thing. Maybe we can do some good with it, but this is an objectively bleak situation. Just try and focus on the good you can do, even if you can’t ignore the pain you can still do good things and still want to do good things.”  

It was more optimism than Luz herself could have mustered in the moment, but right now seeing everything happening as being a prelude to an opportunity seemed so difficult. Losing Belos and being thrown into his post was bad enough before she could even think about what kind of Emperor she was going to be, For as long as she could remember she had been the one taking orders, given leeway in how to complete them, often leading others in the process. But much more of a follower than she ever was a leader. She just happened to be getting her orders from Belos directly. 

“For what it is worth Luz, there’s nobody else I trust more in the position. Not even myself.”

“I- Look, this is never something I prepared for Lilith, I… Running an Empire and fighting for an Emperor are two very different things, I don’t know what to do.”

“Perhaps, but there’s so much I know you’d never do, things that should never be done by a ruler. You’re a good person, even when it’s hard. Yes I’m rushing and reaching for the quickest way to keep things stable, but there’s nobody else I can think of who is better suited to the challenge, even if I wish you didn’t have to endure it.” I’ve messaged Amity, she’ll be here soon, and Steve should be able to help with the practical elements of the coronation. 

“Coronation? We, we’re really rushing now.”

“Perhaps but, it’s best to get everything done now concretely, Steve can quickly reshape one of Belos’ old masks into a crown, grab some gems from somewhere to pretty it up a bit. Unless you’d prefer the mask-” 

“No I… he stopped wearing it for a reason, it’d be weird if I went back to wearing it, people would think I had something to hide.” Well, more to hide than she did with her concealment stone, part of her wanted to go for it now, to tell Lilith everything, to finally be able to use her actual titan damn name for once. But no, not now not when everything was moving so fast, after the coronation that’s when she’d do it. She held herself to that. “…and, it’d feel wrong. The crown works.” 

“I gathered that’d be preferable. Your face isn’t something to hide, Lucy. And I always thought the masks were some of the worst things about the coven.” Lilith was being kind in that motherly way she always was. It made sense, it took being one to love a face like hers now.  It’s not like it weighed heavily on her, of course it didn’t. Belos didn’t hide his scarred face from the isles either, and wild magic had inflicted most of hers upon her just as they’d inflicted Belos’ on him. People would talk, yes, but they talked about Belos’ too, and she wasn’t ashamed of how she was and what she looked like or her relative youth that showing her face would demonstrate, hiding would lead to rumours of impostors and the like anyway. Luz didn’t need to look a certain way, she just needed to keep The Isles safe and stable. 

At least Luz knew she was appreciated for her personality above all else, Amity objected to that assessment and Luz didn’t think she was strictly lying when she closed her pretty or handsome, just that she was always good at finding beauty in places nobody else ever could.

Lilith noted her quietness and continued. “We’ll also have to quickly resize one of his cloaks to go over your armour, nothing more complex than that for the ceremony, and you still have to be recognisable. I’ll make up a quick oath. Repeat after me and swear to protect and defend the isles and it’s people, uphold the law, use good judgement. That sort of thing. I’ll have it made up by the time everyone’s here alongside one where all the higher ups we can drag into a room swear one to you. Just a symbolic one for them, not an unbreakable one, not even Belos went for those, far too much chance for messiness.” Luz was quietly relieved by that, with what Darius was threatening before and how nervous Lilith clearly was it seemed like the sort of thing she might recommend. Self interpreting magical contracts were not desirable as a means of defining complex obligations that went beyond one or two simple and non-conflicting instructions. 

“Good, that would be a step too far… I’m just - Lilith I don’t hear The Titan’s voice, how can I expect to do a good job. Your whole legal argument might be enough for me to be technically legitimate but… how can I uphold The Titan’s word if I’m not actually hearing his words.” Lilith frowned, hesitant, as if she were getting ready to say something before holding her tongue.

“Lucy, that will be a bridge we cross when we come to it okay. We just need to get through today, do this coronation, make sure everyone finds out that you are in charge, and that Belos is gone.” To Luz it felt like a bridge too far. But she didn’t push it, she had no choice but to try and cross it. 

Lilith stood up and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder as she did. 

“Amity will be here soon and Steve will be here soon after, I need to make sure everything runs smoothly out there.”

Amity

Amity hadn’t known what was happening with Lilith when she was very suddenly called away from her office nobody on the staff knew. Not many minded, they had work to do , and Lilith being called away quickly usually meant more to deal with for most of them, depending on what Belos’ demands were on that occasion. 

For Amity it didn’t matter much, though on paper she was Lilith’s assistant and personal aide, most of her time was spent assisting in one matter and one matter alone, clemency requests. Criminal justice was, for most people, almost entirely in the hands of the arresting officer, specific charges, one's guilt or innocence and sentence determined as one was being arrested. The only appeal was writing a letter to the Head of The Emperor’s coven, pleading that there had been some error, and that she pardon them. 

Few remembered that the mechanism existed, but enough did such that the letters piled up, and Lilith didn’t trust many people to be able to handle them without making their own mistakes, or rushing through the investigations each letter entailed so they could claim to have resolved the issue, without due care as to whether or not the person was or wasn’t innocent or guilty. Amity put the effort in and got to the truth, Lilith appreciated that, as did those languishing in prison for crimes they did not commit.

Having seen the damage it could do first hand, and the corruption it enabled, it felt like less of a justice system, and more of a punishment system, even that felt too kind, punishment implied the perpetrators did something deserving of punishment. And between the laws themselves being vague and, those enforcing them being cruel… even when someone was technically guilty of something, it was frequently only in the vaguest sense. Enough that Amity would write in her report that they were innocent, and Lilith would sign the pardon without so much as reading it… if people could be arrested arbitrarily, they might as well be set free arbitrarily. 

Amity presumed her day would be filled with more investigating and following up on those old case files when a message appeared on her issued com-pact. 

THE EMPEROR IS DEAD
NATURAL CAUSES

COMMUNICATE FOLLOWING ORDERS TO STAFF

PLACE CASTLE ON HIGH ALERT

TOTAL COMMUNICATIONS BLACKOUT
SECURE THE THRONE ROOM AND THE RECEPTION HALL

HEAD WITCH CUTBURN HAS BEEN SENT TO THE WEST RECEPTION HALL BY DARIUS UNDER GUARD, RELIEVE HIM, PLACE CUTBURN UNDER GUARD DO NOT ALLOW OUTSIDE COMMUNICATION

ONCE RELIEVED DARIUS TO COLLECT HIGH LEVEL DIGNITARIES (COVEN HEADS, REGIMENTAL COMMANDERS, OTHER SENIOR OFFICIALS) AND PRESS AND SEND THEM TO RECEPTION HALL TO BE KEPT UNDER CLOSE SUPERVISION AND HEAVY GUARD THERE UNTIL LARGE MEETING IN THRONE ROOM FOR FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT IN COMING HOURS 

DEFER TO DARIUS OR EBERWOLF IF NEEDED

YOUR EYES ONLY 

REPORT TO IMPERIAL RESIDENCE VIA THRONE ROOM ONCE YOU HAVE ENSURED OTHER ORDERS CARRIED OUT

LUCY NEEDS YOU

Amity didn’t know what to think as the wave of relief and then terror struck her, before her heart was instantly filled with concern for one person and one person only. 

Luz, 

Despite the way her own thoughts on The Emperor had changed since joining the coven, Amity knew she had to be devastated, even as Amity herself was quietly relieved, even as she suppressed that kernel of traitorous joy that his curse had finally claimed him. That neither it nor he could ever hurt Luz again, even as her own terror about the future began to rise. 

She couldn’t linger on it, linger on her own feelings of contempt that had built for the man slowly over the three years since she had joined the coven. She had to be present for Luz right now. Relief could wait, Luz’s grief came first.  

Lilith’s other subordinates rushed to fulfil the orders as she relayed them, confused, knowing something significant had occurred and the rumours already began to fly between them, and land narrowly close. Those wouldn’t matter though, Amity knew they’d stick to the blackout and if she was right about why the most senior people in The Empire were being gathered together it wouldn’t be long before the truth got out anyway. 

She handled all that at the utmost speed, happy to leave the handling of the most eminent figures in the empire to others whilst she rushed to the only person Amity cared about most in this moment, ran towards Luz, leaving behind the people she was bringing to secure the throne room and rushing through the door to the side that lead to the residence, stairs nobody other than Luz and Belos himself had ever ascended in living memory only for Lilith to interrupt her as she reached the top, speaking hurriedly in a hushed tone. 

“Amity good, you’re here. You did as I instructed?” Lilith was short, not quite sharp but clearly rushed, the edge in her tone apparent. Amity nodded, “I- I will.” 

“Good, if the next hours don’t go smoothly then well… it would be unspeakable for the entire Iisles. I’m sending Steve up soon to help with practical matters for the ceremony. I’ll be back as soon as I can and will explain what’s set to happen next.” Ceremony?  Amity knew better than to open her mouth, of course announcing the Emperor’s death would be ceremonialised. Pomp and circumstance create at very least the illusion of power, and stability, the illusion that someone has a plan and that weren’t going to collapse. 

“Good, I will take over out there to make everything run smoothly. Just stay with her, she was the one who found the body…” That only worsened Amity’s concerns, not something she’d wish on anyone.  

“Just be with her, today might be one of the hardest days of her life and… it’s not going to get any easier anytime soon, she’s going to need a lot from all of us. So please, whatever happens, just stay with her okay?” Desperation and fear now seeped in. “Whatever happens, whatever comes out in the next few days, whatever happens just… promise me you’ll stay with her.” Amity didn’t want to think about what Lilith meant 

“I promise.” 

“Thank you.”  Lilith gave her an affectionate touch on the shoulder as they looked eye to eye, no longer having to lean down as they once had then they first met as mentor and student all those years ago as Lilith took her leave.

Amity opened the door and entered into a large open room, roaring fire over on one wall and walls covered with bookshelves, in one corner lay a large writing desk, with a small window open to the early morning landscape of the isles.

There was an uncomfortable seeming fancy couch (not dissimilar to Odalia’s taste in furniture) by the fireplace sat on a red rug, and sitting upon it, leaned forwards, head bowed and elbows rested on her knees, was Luz, her white cloak pulled around her over her golden armour as she seemed to be almost hiding in it like a child from a nightmare as she fiddled with the knife in her hands in the way she always did when she was scared or nervous. 

“Luz.” Amity called out before she was even close, Luz could be jumpy at the best of times (her habit of using a knife that extended into a spear at the press of a button as a stim toy wasn’t ideal in this light), Amity didn’t want to spook her, especially today. 

Luz turned to look at her, tear tracks running down her scarred face, bloodshot eyes filling with a quiet relief, a sad smile coming over her face. 

“Amity.”

The usual warmth was there (Amity was convinced that Luz wasn’t capable of saying her name without a strong sense of warmth, this was actually something of a problem when one was meant to be having a ‘secret’ relationship, they’d tried Luz referring to her by rank instead of name, when around those not in the know, but that only partially worked, -and whenever Luz tried using her last name it just sounded flirty which didn’t help matters- were it not for the constant mutual wearing of masks in public their relationship most certainly be common knowledge by now) but weighed down by exhaustion.

Amity was by her side in an instant, Luz’s hand falling into hers as she pulled off her uniform’s gauntlet so it wouldn’t serve as an impediment to comfort, Amity holding Luz’s larger hand in two of her own, running her fingers across it, letting herself feel the scars as she always did

“He… He’s dead.” Luz’s voice broke as she said it, seeming so lost even as she leaned into her.

“I know, Lilith told me. I-I’m sorry-”

“Don't!” Luz’s voice was clearly sharper than she meant it to be. “You… you don’t have to pretend you liked him okay just… I know you didn’t. I just, he was just, he was the only person other than you who knew my real name, the only person other than you that knew the real me. And now he’s gone.” 

“Luz, I'm not saying I’m sorry that he’s dead… I’m saying I’m sorry that you have to grieve. That you have to lose someone else.” Luz may never have called the man father, she never would, she’d lost one of those already but… Amity knew well someone did have to be blood related to be family in that sense… and she’d come to know well over the past few years that even that kind of parent could be just as harmful as her own biological mother had been. But that didn’t mean she’d never cared for her own Mother as Luz cared for Belos, or even that she didn’t still care for her, even after the past two years free of her. 

“I know I-I know what you thought of him, and I can’t bring myself to care right now 

Just, I’m scared Amity. Of what’s coming, what I have to do today, what I have to do tomorrow, for the rest of my life. There's so much even today.” Amity pulled her closer,

“That’s okay… -things are gonna be scary and that’s okay.” Putting it mildly, The Emperor was dead and Amity had no idea what was coming next. The turmoil and scrambling to keep Lilith in charge and ensure nobody else got a shoe in. making sure Kikimora couldn’t plan anything. “What’s that you say your mom used to say, things only work when you make them work, so… we just, do things step by step, we do today, we do the ceremony Lilith’s doing to announce he’s dead and-”

“It’s not just to announce he’s dead, Amity.”

“What?” 

“It’s my coronation.” 

Oh…

OH! 

Amity was shocked into silence. Luz was… Luz. Nope this was not how Amity was expecting her day to go, nope, not one bit 

“I’m the new Emperor now, I guess. You know how people in the office used to joke, that I’d get Belos’ stuff if he died… that’s not just his stuff, or just a joke, at least not to Lilith. I’m his heir according to her and the law apparently, It… I just found him, he’s… he’s still in the next room , so I panicked and called Lilith and Cutburn, and then Cutburn’s acting like Cutburn somehow despite, well everything and then all of a sudden Lilith’s just jumping into Long Live the Emperor. Darius appears and disappears Cutburn somewhere and-He’s… he’s gone, and now I’m responsible for everything. EVERYTHING! Amity it’s, it’s my job to fix things and I can't even speak to the Titan!” Luz was spiralling, barely holding things together, and Amity moved to help her.

“Luz breathe okay, in for four out for four, just breathe.” Amity wasn’t far off of panicking herself she… she was used to Luz being highly positioned, that much had been true for her almost as long as they’d known eachother  but… whatever the hell Lilith was playing at here was a massive escalation to say the least going from being The Emperor’s right hand man to The Emperor, was about as drastic as it got. 

“I’m going to be The Emperor ! I can fix things, I can make things better, I can make things work, I can make sure Kikimora never hurts anyone ever again but beyond that it’s… it’s terrifying Amity. Because I can do it, I have to do it Amity, I’m now responsible for everyone, for everything in the isles, I can’t mess it up.” 

“You’re not alone though. I’m here Lilith’s here, and fuck this isn’t fair or good or right but… if I had to pick anyone to end up with that power… I can think of much worse people Luz okay, you’re not going to mess this up, you’ve got good smart people who care about you here supporting you” 

“That, that’s what Lilith said but, I… I don’t have the Titan in my head telling me things. Belos said that the Titan foretold my coming, that I’m the one who is supposed to end wild magic, did he mean it like this? Me taking the throne? Belos said he was working on fulfilling The Titan’s plan, was not telling me the plan part of the plan, was dropping the throne aa surprise part of the plan.” Amity held her tongue, she had her own deep doubts about Belos and his claims to be The Titan’s humble servant, once she’d never voice, not even to Luz, especially not to Luz, with how she’d so completely internalised her idea of having a place in the Titan’s plans, and that what place was. 

“Even if this isn’t part of The Titan’s plans even if this wasn’t supposed to happen” Luz continued. “If I refuse to take the throne there'll be chaos. Even in the best case scenario there’ll be fighting and in the worst case scenario, someone like Kikimora, or Snapdragon wins that fight... Lilith, she’s probably better suited for all of this, but if she tried to take the throne it’d be seen as a transparent power grab and everyone else would be trying their own… if I do it, at least there’s the veneer of legitimacy, enough to make things stable in the immediate term.” Amity hated how that made sense, that she didn’t have an answer to it, that Luz could think of herself there didn’t seem to be any escape here. 

Then her mind turned to the possibilities of Luz on the throne, all the good that could come of it and all the good Luz could do as Emperor, and then her stomach churned at it in guilt. Her girlfriend , the woman she loved more than anything, was in terrible pain, and here she was seeing an opportunity. It was wrong in every sense, it felt like the exact sort of thing her mother would have done.

“Luz… as much as I hate this entire idea, and even if Lilith might have been panicking and just trying to think of a way to make sure everything doesn’t just fall apart, but she wouldn’t have rushed to you doing it if she didn’t plan on being there to help, or if she didn’t believe in you, okay, you can do this, and you can do it well.” 

“I know it’s just, I didn’t plan to be this, I, I don’t know what I thought my future was, I know I’m supposed to find The Owl Lady, I was supposed to help Belos bring about The Day of Unity by getting him the portal, and I was supposed to see my Mom again. And I failed at all of those. How do I know I’m not going to mess up this too?”

“Luz that is all the same thing, something Lilith spent most of her life trying to do. Is she a failure?” Luz shook her head. “No she’s run this damn coven as well as she could, and kept things together, and you managed to do everything else Belos asked you to do too. You’re not a failure, I believe in you even if you don’t, and I’m going to be with you and helping you no matter what.” Luz then couldn’t quite meet her gaze. 

“There’s how this affects you too Amity, there’s a difference between a secret relationship with The Golden Guard and a secret relationship with The Emperor. You didn’t sign up for this.” The title in relation to herself still felt foreign, the sentence conjuring to mind that Belos was somehow sneaking around seeing someone like a lovesick teenager. 

“I don’t care about what I signed up for, I'll deal with it and…we don’t need to necessarily be secret or anything anymore.”

“You’ll just get accused of getting even more special treatment, people will be awful and your mom will try and-”

“Odalia can go pound sand for all I care.” Part of Amity hated that she’d managed to get herself into a position her mother would be so proud of. “I love you , and I’m going to be here for you, my career, for what it matters is already one where I’ve benefited so much from special treatment from Lilith and everyone knows it, Belos was a large reason we had to hide things, and he doesn’t get a say anymore. I don’t care if everyone knows I’m your girlfriend. Your life just got thrown upside down, and I want to be there for you and for The Isles in the best way I can, and if that means things change I can live with it. My career only matters so much as I can use it to help people, and helping you deal everything that’s going to be thrown at you will help more people than trying to live some double life to try and have some normal career in this coven that I was never going to have and would make me miserable anyway.” Luz was jarred, enough to throw her out of the funk she was in as Amity continued. 

“Do I care what people think of me, yes I know what people will say, what they’ll think but trying to hide things will just make us both vulnerable here, none of this is ideal , and I appreciate you thinking about me, I knew I wouldn’t have a normal career or life as a member of this coven when I joined , and I accepted we wouldn’t get to have a normal relationship, I knew what I was getting into, we’ve made it work and we can keep making it work. Neither of us asked for this to happen, we just have to work differently okay. If that means I can’t keep doing that same job for Lilith that’s something I’ll have to live with.” 

“I’m just not used to things being so… uncertain. I had a destiny, and I always knew what I was supposed to be doing, and now I still have that destiny, that duty, but I have no idea how to live up to it. I have theoretically limitless political power, and I’m terrified of misusing it.” That prophesy again, falling back on it as if it was the only thing that made her special, couldn't help but break Amity’s heart.

“We’re going to figure that out together then okay, you’ll always have me, even if this thing consumes your life you’ll have me there with you okay. You’re the only person in The Isles I would trust completely not to misuse this okay, and I’m always going to stand by you, and I won’t try to hide that. If my mom tries leveraging that for some kind of advantage… seize the company.” 

“I can do that now?” Luz’s tone turned from tired bemusement to horror “I can do that now.”

“If it were almost anyone else's livelihood that’d be a bad thing. But it’s Odalia and my Dad, they’ll be okay with a smaller pile of money. Plus I doubt the treasury would be too upset if we stopped buying abomatons.” Amity turned to angle she didn’t like but… one that seemed the best thing for helping Luz, for making everything seem less bleak, 

“I trust you to do the right thing, think about it, how many broken things have you wanted to fix over the years that Belos never wanted to, never realised needed fixing, never cared to fix, where he never believed you or anyone else about them being an issue. You can stop Kikmora or her cronies from ever hurting anyone else again! You’ve wanted to do that for years, and Belos never listened. How many times did he just ignore you on it, call it just some grudge.” Luz turned away for a moment, and Amity wondered if she’d pressed too far, criticising Belos on the one day she shouldn’t have been before Luz sighed. 

“I can do things differently… he could talk to the Titan, but…” 

“That didn’t make him perfect, a perfect ruler or a perfect person…” 

“I-I know.” Amity hadn’t been expecting Luz to be able to admit it aloud, at least not today of all days. 

“You don’t have to be perfect Luz, he sure as hell wasn’t, but you can be different, you can be better. You can do things differently than him, you’re more flexible and more principled than he ever was, he had fifty-five years to get stuck in his way of doing things and… that way of doing things hasn’t worked for a while now.”

“I get what you’re saying and…  I get why you feel the way you do, and you’re not wrong about a lot of it. I know you hate him for what he- For what happened when his curse got bad and… I know you’re not sorry he’s dead , but I am. I’m the only person alive who ever really knew him as anything other than The Emperor. Who actually knew Belos as Belos, the old man who wanted to know more about the human realm, who saw the way he’d get proud when I discovered a new glyph or glyph combo, who enjoyed helping me find more. The old man who missed his nephew, missed the rest of his family… Sometimes, when he was in pain or exhausted after an episode, or any other time the curse got bad he’d mistake me for them, at least till he got himself fully back together.” Amity pulled Luz close, the shorter human now only came to about her shoulder since Amity’s last growth spurt, the new unwilling monarch seeming so small amidst this grief despite her more muscular and athletic build and the layers of plate and witch’s wool armour insulating her from the world. 

“And for that… I get mourning him, Odalia she… it’s not like I don’t have any good memories of her either.” Luz winced at the comparison, even as she clearly understood Amity’s meaning. 

“He… he wasn’t that bad.” Luz’s tone was twinged inseparably with uncertainty and denial in that moment. “He, he wasn’t perfect but… he wasn’t her.” Amity decided to pull back from it. 

“I’m not saying he was.” 

“I know it… it just hurts.” Luz just stared into the fire as she held Amity’s hand close. “My… Mom, do you think she’d-” Luz cuts herself off. “I don’t think she would be proud of me, she wouldn’t have wanted me to be a coven scout, and I have no idea if she’d even see the coven system as a good thing. I hope she would but… she didn’t grow up in a world with magic, she wouldn’t have wanted me to be a soldier, she wouldn't have supported anyone having the sort of power Belos did and, I know she wouldn’t support me having it.” Deep down Amity hoped that Luz’s mom would massively disagree with Belos’ treatment of Luz even without the cultural differences of the human realm.  

“You, everything you’ve ever said about her makes her sound like a kind, reasonable person. Someone who loves you no matter what right… I think she’d be proud that you’ve always tried to do the right thing, even when it’s been so hard and, I know you’re going to keep trying to do the right thing and… when we meet her again I know she’ll be proud of that too.” Amity, well she hadn’t truly known unconditional love until she met Luz, Lilith would have thought highly of her no matter than what but, the first to show it as love was Luz, and aside from where Lilith had been for her, she had no idea what it would be like to get it from her own mother, even the twins didn’t show it until their teens, she didn’t blame them for it (they hadn’t been shown it either) but Camila Noceda and mothers like her couldn’t help but feel like mythical figures to Amity. 

It was in that instance the door was barrelled open, and Luz jumped, and just as Amity was ready to spin a circle, till she saw who it was and the young man almost leapt to give Luz a hug, and Amity didn’t even feel bad about having to dodge out of the way. 

“Lucy!” 

“Steve!” Steve’s arms were around Luz, her first ‘friend’ and peer (despite him being eight years older than her), the closest thing she had to an older brother, on paper her subordinate and assistant, but friend was the truest description, even as seeing them to close as they were, and his easy tenderness to her made her miss Edric more than she could ever put into words. 

Luz

Luz can’t help but feel relief when Steve barrels in, him Lilith and Amity are just about the most important people in her life, she can’t deny that after losing Belos… She can’t help but have some irrational fear of losing someone else. 

“Lilith she, she told me everything I-”

“I- don’t want to talk about it Steve it’s… I've been doing nothing but talk about it for the past hour.” Steve for his part, backs of. 

It’s something he’s always been good at, even when she was a child he’d always respected her boundaries, always held back when she’d needed him too, Lilith and Amity, as brilliant as they were, as much as they might always love and be there for her even without her, they’d always push further. Steve, he always knew when to hang back, when he knew enough and what to do. Things didn’t need to be said with him, it’s not that he didn’t care to ask, it’s that he knew when knowing the answer would do no good, showing his care more through his action than his words. He shares a look with Amity and then turns back to her. 

“That’s okay. We don’t have to talk about anything other than, well costuming for this messed up lil stage show I guess.” Steve spun a spell circle, and a bag overflowing with purple gems spilled out of it. “Darius threw these at me, said they were his dead grandma’s and not to expect a birthday present this year, or something along those lines. I checked them, no curses on any of them or oracle gems mixed in there, and purple is kinda your favourite colour sooo.” The fact Steve felt the need to check, even when the person giving it was Darius spoke to the tensions in the air. “Guess I just need his mask to make a crown out of and stick some of these on to, and one of his cloaks with that weird collar shoulder thingy to resize to your measurements.” 

“They’re in his wardrobe, it’s a pretty large walk-in inside his bedroom. I’d show you but…” Luz didn’t say anything further,

“I get it, I get it.” Steve hugged her one last time before he headed off, and Amity found herself fidgeting with one of the gems in Darius’ hand, though Luz couldn’t help but wonder why exactly Darius’ grandma just had a bunch of loose amethysts lying around, he hadn’t mentioned his family being jewellers , if she was remembering right his parents had been tailors, albeit very successful ones as Luz understood it.

Despite technically being a monarch now and being sort of a princess (though Darius had been the only person to call her one, and only then as a joke come term of endearment) for the past seven years and living in an honest to Titan castle, she didn’t fully get rich people. Even Amity sometimes had quirks that confused her at times, though it was cute when Amity did it, with anyone else it was profoundly confusing. 

Luz was half expecting a scream as Steve went into the other room, only to be met by silence, it was a quietness Luz didn’t fully appreciate, it let her thoughts run. And let Amity’s thoughts on Belos run with them. Amity’s view on Belos wasn’t one she could readily ignore, as much as she wished she could.  Luz knew what Odalia was, and what she’d done to Amity, how that had hurt her. So Amity comparing the two so directly was… uncomfortable to say the least. 

Of course there were undeniable differences, Odalia was always in full control of her own thoughts and actions, Belos wasn’t. 

Odalia was, alongside Alador responsible for her family, and the business which gave that family wealth and prestige, harming her family in the name of the company, and in the name of giving herself more wealth and prestige, that was monstrous. 

Belos was responsible for The Empire and… despite his role in her life, despite how Luz looked up to him as family, and despite everything happening now, he’d never signed up to be a parent, Belos was not her father, The Owl Lady had killed the last of Belos’ family… His first and only duty was to The Isles and The Empire, they might have been close and cared for each other like family but they both had their duty to the Empire, and that duty meant him giving orders and her following them. 

That care and their duty intersected, her helping him with the curse, her getting him his palismen and helping when the curse debilitated him… that came from a place of care, and he cared for her in his own way, wanted her to do the right thing and to be a good person, wanted her to excel in her training, to see her success on a personal level, was excited as she advanced glyph magic more and more because he cared, he enjoyed her company, hell Luz was pretty sure that she might have been his only real friend. They might have felt like family, Luz may have wished they were family, sometimes Belos even called her family… 

But the Empire and the Titan came first. Belos made that abundantly clear. And when she failed the isles, failed in her missions, well failure at something so important couldn’t be tolerated, disrupting operations over a ‘personal grudge’ with Kikimora when she tried to get him to let her investigate her suspicions was unacceptable and couldn’t be tolerated. In those moments he was The Emperor, and she was The Golden Guard. That came first. 

None of what Belos did made him like Odalia, she was acting selfishly and was fully in control at all times, Belos was always thinking of the good of The Isles, anything bad that arose well, it was either Luz failing the isles or the curse flaring up and him losing control. Frequently the former could cause the latter. Belos would always regret those outbursts though, and Luz knew they caused him far more pain than they caused her 

It was either her failures or wild magic that were to blame whenever Luz was hurt. 

Whenever Amity was hurt, physically or emotionally it was all Odalia.  

Amity’s arrival in The Isles hadn’t been foretold by The Titan, she didn’t have such a duty to live up to in the same way Luz did, no destiny to end wild magic.  Luz had to meet certain expectations but those were demands Luz had chosen to live up to, she’d accepted the invitation to join the coven and taken her oath and sigil willingly. She’d accepted the position of Golden Guard willingly, and she chose to help Belos with his curse willingly because she cared about him. Just as she was taking the throne because she cared about The Isles, regardless of how much it hurt

It had come with danger yes, but she’d chosen to take it on, she’d been young, sure. But she’d been old enough to make her choice, and old enough to do what was needed, and understand the consequences of choosing otherwise. If she hadn’t made the choices she had she’d have disappointed the Titan, Belos might have died years ago, and wild magic would be running even more rampant. 

Amity had been a normal child, and other than the fact that the family was especially rich, Odalia was a normal parent, and owed her children so much more than the treatment they got, nothing could justify what Odalia did in the name of prestige, wealth and power. 

Luz knew she was right, but she didn’t like to linger on it, the topic felt sacreligious to even consider, even when Belos was alive, like The Titan could somehow know she was comparing his favoured servant to an abuser like Odalia. And now, it felt like thinking ill of the dead. 

Luz just stared into the fireplace as Amity held her hand and raced for the first thought that would come to her. 

“Kikimora, she… I can finally stop her hurting people now, can’t I.” she was racing for a positive, and Amity leaned into her as she agreed. 

“More than just Kikimora, Snapdragon, Greye too, if you think he deserves it, I mean firing him at least I… I don’t know if he deserves prison or worse like the others.” 

“Just prison, just the conformatorium. First thing I ’m going to do is order the petrification machine destroyed I… I can’t ever.” Luz never wanted to do it, she, Luz looked at Amity and in that moment, a moment of weakness imagination realised that was a lie, she absolutely could see herself using it if Amity, or anyone else she loved were hurt, and then when her mind turned back to Kikimora, everything she’d done… Luz felt ill at how tempting the idea became. She hated how tempting it was now, but… there’s still something in her, something that still makes up most of who she is that won’t stoop down to her level in that regard, that runs back to her initial horror, that runs back to… Luz shuts down the thought 

“No I, I don’t want to imagine myself ever using it, because deep down I know I could. And that just makes getting rid of the damn thing even more important.” Amity just pulled her closer as Luz’s own mind attacked her 

A good ruler wouldn’t be tempted at all… But Belos used it all the same, why is it wrong for you and right for him? 

Luz banished the question as she heard the sound of Amity’s voice

“I don’t blame you, I know what she’s done. But any reason to get rid of it is a good reason.” 

With that Steve returned, cloak over his arm dragging on the floor and mask in hand.
“Right, uh, the cloak is probably gonna be the easier part of this whole getup I think just putting it on and resizing it so it isn’t ridiculous I guess.” 

“Probably the quickest way.” Luz removed her old cloak, the one marked with the sigil of The Golden Guard, and walked over to Steve who draped Belos’ old cloak over her shoulders, half of it trailing on the floor, like she was a little kid wearing one of mom or dad’s jackets even as Steve adjusted the leather upper piece to fit her shoulders, 

“Want it just shy of touching the floor like Belos’ did right?” Steve asked 

“I guess, the whole point is to try to look like he did. At least for now.” Trying to switch back to the bare cosmetics of proceedings over the high order thoughts of what made a good ruler was jarring, but probably necessary to avoid spiralling. 

“Good good and we’re done.” Amity cast a spell showing Luz’s reflection, Steve had acted as instructed, it was longer than anything Luz would have ordinarily opted for, but in line with how Belos’ fit him. “Just need to do the crown.” Steve cast a spell and a ring of light appeared around her head before moving to Steve’s hand… here he then cast another spell on the mask, reshaping it completely, into a ring of gold, with a small raised crest (presumably where some jewels would go) between two horns which looked to imitate those on The Titan’s skull . “No need for you to do anything more for this. I just need to stick some gems on this, and hope it doesn’t look like crap.” 

“You’ll do good with it Steve, I trust you.” Luz’s reassurance didn’t seem to ease the barely masked nervousness in his eyes. She looked in Amity’s mirror spell, and the reflection looked back, cloaked in an Emperor’s garb, an Emperor’s power. Even without it ate at her that she was powerless to help anyone in this moment as she was just stuck waiting-

Wait! 

There was one thing she could do. 

Luz walked over to a nondescript door, one that could easily be ignored if you didn’t know it, as Amity seemed confused. “Luz what are you-” 

Luz opened it, and what met her was the usual sight, almost a dozen terrified shaking palismen. Coming to this closet, bringing Belos his palismen, as necessary as it had been, it had always been something she hated, their fear was something she hated. 

Half of them had reverted to their wooden state out of resignation to their fates, but among those that remained in their animal form, there were a few flying creatures, a large moth, a winged reptile that resembled a pterodactyl, and a bat all cowering in the corner.

“It, it’s okay I, I'm not here to take you away okay I… he’s gone, and… you’re safe now.” There’s ash in her mouth as she sees a flash of animal relief cross their eyes, palisman were always smarter than mere animals, much closer to people… and she'd been handing them over for years. Luz was stricken by grief , and they’re relieved and celebrating in their minds, and she can’t even blame them for it. 

She takes her staff, and uses it to bring her old cloak over to her. She only barely hesitates at the permanent loss of it, this thing she’d worn every day for years before she reshapes it into a net bag and gently places the dormant palismen inside it as she beckons the live ones to follow, and walks to a window, gently opening it, before she kneels down, and beckons to the few active palismen without wings (a mouse and a ferret) to get inside as she spoke to the winged wooden creatures. 

“You guys, you can take your friends and find somewhere safe now, okay? Anywhere you want to go you… you can go now.” Some idle part of her had wanted to do this for years, knew it would have been what her Mami would have wanted her to do, even as the rest of her knew it meant dooming Belos to his death. 

The winged palismen took up the bag of the others, no gratitude in their expressions, no she doesn’t expect that, just relief as they fly away, making a desperate pace to escape the castle, the place where, if Belos had lived they’d have died. Where Luz would have taken them to their deaths. 

They’re safe now, and she’s done one good thing as Emperor. It doesn’t bring the relief she thought it would, but she doesn’t care, at least they’re safe and free now. Her feelings didn’t matter, only what she could do for the isles. This was how it had always been for her, this was how it needed to be, for what was one life compared to the lives of everyone in the isles. What was her life compared to the lives of all those palismen. 

“Lucy, I’m done. I know it’s kinda rushed , but it should be good enough for the CB right?” ” Steve called from where he was sitting, raising the crown for Luz to look at with some anxiety in his voice. It was remarkable given the haste of the work and the fact that Steve wasn’t a jeweller by education or experience, merely a dab hand with construction magic. The amethysts cut into tiny pieces ran in rows around the top and bottom of the gold band, whilst larger ones made a centrepiece around a single larger gem in the middle. The horns remained unadorned, but were polished to an impossible sheen so as to not seem dull. It was beautiful work, and in nicer times she’d have appreciated it more had it been given as a gift.  

“It’s good Steve, it’s good.” 

Despite being decked out in golden armour as her everyday workwear for years now, she wasn’t one for much jewellery, beyond her concealment stone and a small crescent moon necklace Amity had given her for her birthday she wore beneath her uniform, hell if she stretched the definition the grom tiara under her bed probably counted, (in hindsight it might actually have been an expedient solution to the crown issue) The crown Steve had made was very much the sort of thing Luz knew Amity would look nice in for sure. 

It was as Luz was imagining that sight the door swung open and Lilith came in. 

“Oh excellent, you’re all here, excellent work on the crown and cloak Steve. Lucy, Darius is still bringing in everyone else in one of the reception halls , but he’s got most of them in now. Now I suppose I should bring you down and run you through everything that’s going to be happening. You two as well, oh and do hand me that crown will you.” Lilith was all business, though much calmer than she’d been earlier. 

Luz just nodded, following Lilith down the steps as Amity held her hand and she tried not to trip on The Emperor’s cloak making her way back into the throne room as The Titan’s heart beat over the empty chair and Luz scanned the empty room, imagined herself on the throne… and then looked to the doors, and then to what was next to them.... who was next to them. 

Miranda, there where she knelt, petrified in stone as she had been for the past 5 years since her role in The Basilisk escape and Conformatorium massacre, since she’d fallen to wild magic. At the time, Luz had hated her old friend for her betrayal, till she’d learned the truth, of how the creatures had been brought back by wild witches, how Belos had trusted Kikimora to keep them under the conformatorium for their safekeeping, and then about how Kikimora’s troops had mistreated them, experimented on them… tortured them.

It was never something she could voice to Belos, no, he wouldn’t have tolerated her trying to justify Miranda ’s treason but… despite what resulted, despite how much of the security force had been killed in the escape, even those who were unaware of the horrors happening beneath their feet , and as much as Luz might have wished they’d lived, Luz got why they did it, why the basilisks had been so violent, those guards were still standing between the basilisks and freedom at the end of the day , had been, even if unknowingly, complicit in their continuing abuse… that didn’t mean she did not wish that they had lived, but their actions were very much explicable and rational, not those of cruel beasts, but those of people who had been abused, tortured and were not going to put up with it anymore 

The fact she still bore scars from that day herself did nothing to change the fact that Miranda’s actions, no matter how much chaos had resulted, were not evil, and they make the basilisk who inflicted those wounds upon her evil. 

The beast who attacked the school… There was a case to be made for them being evil but… if they had never been given the chance to be good, living its whole life in captivity, either by wild witches or by Kikimora, it never had the chance to be better.

After learning all of what the basilisks had suffered… Luz got why Miranda did it, and would have done it despite knowing what resulted, why she stood by her actions even as she was turned to stone, and even as Luz hated how many people died, she could not bring herself to hate Miranda , to think of her in the same way she thought of Kikimora.

Luz had a long time to think of it all, spending days on end compelled to stare at the petrified remains of a one time friend had that effect. Once… it had driven her hatred of wild magic, of treason, that she could lose anyone she knew to it, that anyone she knew could be capable of horrible things. But now?

Miranda had hurt people but she didn’t deserve to die, and she most definitely didn’t deserve to die like that. Her aunts, the Reigels, hadn’t deserved to not even have a body to bury or even get the truth about what happened until Miranda's younger cousin (and Amity’s one time school friend) Boscha kidnapped her. The Basilisks hadn’t deserved that torment, they hadn’t deserved-

“Lucy, are you listening I was just describing-” Lilith’s words shook her out of her thoughts, and she realised she’d missed half of the explanation of the ceremony. “Oh.” Lilith clocked instantly what was bothering her. 

“ She-she shouldn’t still be there, I don’t think she should ever have been there and, can you have someone take her away, before the ceremony I… I don’t think I’ll be able to hold it together, she… she should be taken to her family. And… nobody else, no more petrifications, after today no more, forever I… I just can’t.” Lilith moved to pull her into a gentle hug before she turned more stern. 

“I can’t do that to anyone else, anyone, no matter how bad they are I just can’t, I refuse to allow it anymore.” Belos… Belos might have had the titan in his ear, his words and judgement may have had divine sanction, even if in own private thoughts she may have questioned it, but did Luz… no, she didn’t. It was beyond Luz to decide who lived and died, She might have killed before, facing criminals, wild witches, rebels and various demons to battle where they had died and she had lived… but those instances were unavoidable, even as her mind kept bombarding her with all the improbably ways she might have handled things differently so that they could have lived. 

So the execution of someone at her mercy… Luz simply couldn't, even as Belos had done it in this very room, and done it from the very throne which was now to be her fate, and Luz had stood there and watched… When she was making the decision herself, despite the letter of the law saying it was her power alone, she couldn’t find anything in her heart that distinguished it from murder. 

Lilith was quiet for a moment, still hugging her as she thought something through before pulling away as she spoke. 

“That’s a principled stand Lucy and… I suspect the wisest course of action.” Lilith turned back to Miranda. “I’ll see to it that she is out of the throne room by the ceremony, and with her aunts before sunset.” Lilith tapped something into her compact, presumably ordering someone to fulfil that promise “Now, I know this is hard Lucy but, do you think we can get back to it? Back to planning the ceremony” Luz looked up at her, and heard the Titan’s heart beating, and was oddly comforted by it. It was almost, but not quite enough to believe that he somehow approved of her judgement,

But it was enough for her to try and push through today and its troubles and… enough to tell Lilith a truth about her, she should have told her a long time ago. 

“I-I’ll try.”

“That’s all I ask Lucy, that’s all I ask.” 

Lilith 

Lilith can see the pain thrown onto Lucy, she’d spent most of the past seven years seeing that girl learn how to hide all forms of pain and… it would almost have worked if Lilith were anyone else. If she hadn’t been there for all of it.

No, as awful as Belos had been, as much as he had hurt her, his manipulations, all the ways he played on her selflessness, her need to help, her inclination towards care. He’d spun it into strings through which she could be controlled, others he controlled through overawing them with the grandeur of the throne, the terror of consequences, the temptations of power or the reverence for The Titan’s supposed words. He’d controlled her with false promises of a cure for Edalyn, then took advantage of how she’d come to care for Lucy to maintain his leverage over her. 

But Lucy herself? He controlled her in a far more insidious way, connection and then, dependence. Making himself dependent on her, being vulnerable with her, playing on empathy and care, whilst taking full advantage of his curse. Many loved the idea of the Emperor but only the other grimwalkers had been drawn into that odd twisted quasi familial dynamic. She never called him her uncle but Lilith could tell from that barely concealed tremble as she held his former staff, how she averted her gaze from the bad and could not meet anyone's eyes that as much as she was being gripped by shock and uncertainty, she was mourning the monster in a way nobody else ever would. Even Hunter had the insulation of time, distance and having had enough of a normal life to detach from him. A real family with Edalyn and her human wife and that little demon of theirs. 

Belos, was alongside Lilith, one of the closest things that girl had to a parent, (she had the fragments of the false memories Belos had given her, but rarely mentioned whatever gaps her mind had filled in) as terrible as he was she would still mourn him. Lilith couldn’t help but feel she deserved as much scorn as she felt for Belos for the ‘parent’ she had been to her. Of course Lilith loved Lucy. Loved her as her very own, as family, even acknowledged her as such. But love wasn’t always enough. Love didn’t change the fact that Lilith shared the blame for every time she suffered at Belos hand, that she hadn’t saved her that she’d , prioritised the “greater good” prioritised today, and let a child she loved have any semblance off a childhood be stripped way and let her suffer at the hands of a monster. 

And even now that he was gone, Lilith was to blame for the pain Lucy felt at his loss. But even seeing this anguish couldn’t make her regret killing him. Only regret she hadn’t managed to do it even a day sooner. 

Yet this was a pain Lucy hid well most of the time 

That rigid dutiful focused facade, the mask behind the mask, she’d known Lucy to have wavered, allowing the escape of the last basilisk, all those years ago. But the past years of her time in that dreadful post were devastating. She’d clung to her ethics as best she could but the role drained her. 

Caring for and attending to Belos whilst fighting the first sparks of what was on the brink of becoming a civil war, and being on the brunt of Belos’ rages when the rebellion continued to exist, and as Edalyn and her portal continued to elude them. 

Lucy might have been the only person in the whole isles who cared about The Emperor as a person, and she did care, despite everything Lucy was someone who cared about others to a fault, still cared about Belos despite his rages and how he’d hurt her, was probably the only person (bar Hunter), despite the public outpourings of grief performative grief sure to follow, who would grieve them as a person and as family. 

That caring nature. If Belos could have influenced when he was growing her from whatever hidden bone of Caleb he had he would have. Such influence was impossible though, not even the oret’s personality had any impact on a grimwalker’s nature from what she’d read of all the varied natures of all the prior guards. 

That kind instinct was all Lucy, despite the harshness of her life, that capacity to care was a thing he ruthlessly exploited. It was why she was so dedicated, once convinced that the coven was helping and protecting people, to her failing in her duties, or even rest was tantamount to negligent murder. On a more personal level, it was undeniable that Belos leaned on her when the curse troubled him, on some level Lilith suspected he didn’t need as much support as he seemed to require even as the palisman stocks ran low, that he used it as a means of manipulation. 

Lilith knew how much her own curse troubled Lucy, her attentiveness and observation as to when she was tired or in pain, her worries over her health. Lucy wasn’t someone who could bear to see others in pain, Belos would have no compunctions with taking advantage of that, of her need to help however she could, her inability to avoid suffering… and the way she blamed herself for it, blamed herself when a curse episode triggered by some bad news or another left her with a new wound, “the outbursts are even more painful for him” she’d say, and believe it or, at very least, believe his pain to be more important and hers to be irrelevant in a way that broke her heart. 

It was not because Belos was The Emperor even that Luz thought his pain more important. No, she’d have done the same for anyone else she cared about in a heartbeat, her included, and Lilith couldn’t help but be terrified by this. 

This kindness was not a weakness, even as the war it caused her to devalue herself, pained her, even as she rarely showed herself the same grace.  Belos had been manipulating it for years , but it was still one of her greatest strengths, one of the things that made Lucy Lucy. 

The sort of person who, at age 13 would stick their staff in the face of a scout twice her size and age when she found them berating the family of a captured rebel, she’d been thirteen at the time. Her odd position of terrible ‘privilege’ within the coven (and Lilith’s own patronage) was the only thing that allowed it. Lilith knew that it was the sort of casual cruelty that she regularly ignored herself for most of her career, she wouldn’t have been able to become head witch if she hadn’t but Lucy’s objections to it, her prevention of it, remained strong. It was the cause of the visceral nearly alarming hatred she had for Kikimora, the cruelty of how she worked, how she was convinced she was running false flag attacks without Belos knowledge. 

Lilith knew she was half right, correct that she was doing them, incorrect about them being without Belos knowledge. Lucy believed in the mission of The Emperor’s Coven, and would carry out that mission, but did so without stooping to cruelty. To Lucy the rebels were wrong and needed to be stopped, and when scouts were killed or injured she was angry. But she didn’t hate the rebels, just what they believed in. But her view on the organisation was clearly softened by their lack of atrocities, how their violence was targeted exclusively at The Coven, and not at the people. 

Lucy’s feelings on wild magic however lacked any such nuance and were almost universally negative, associated with nothing but curses and pain in her mind, the cause of the death of her non-existent parents, the cause of both her own and The Emperor’s curses. Wild magic was a supreme danger to everyone, and the people who practised it had to be stopped. 

But to Lucy this didn’t mean stopping them at all costs as many in the coven felt, she still had ethical lines, but to her the coven system’s existence and the mandatory use of brands fell within them. Not that she couldn’t empathise with those who disagreed; she just thought they were wrong. 

Lucy wasn’t so fixated on capturing Edalyn as she had been initially as the war dragged on so long and the search became hopeless. Nevertheless, wild magic remained at the core of her mind, and the Owl Lady’s wanted poster remained on the back of her chamber door, tattered by all the knives thrown at it over the years. Lilith couldn’t blame her for hating the woman she had been taught to think killed her parents, killed her predecessor and tricked her into sharing the curse. How Lucy fixated on the ideas Belos fed her that finding the portal would somehow usher in a safer world, allow them to build a paradise where no one would ever suffer, instead of enabling their end. 

Lilith could only lament never letting her know the truth about her, regret knowing deep down how similar the two were, knowing the truth about what wild magic truly meant, that this whole system was a lie that existed for a single purpose, that everything she’d ever done and suffered through in its name was ultimately in service of the annihilation of the world she cared for. Lament the fact she’d let the young woman she saw as her very own daughter suffer and lose any semblance of a childhood at Belos’ hands in the name of the greater good of stopping it. 

And now, Belos was gone, he was dead and couldn’t hurt anyone ever again… and Lilith was going to have to tell her the truth about everything. That the man she grieved as a lying monster, and that so was she. 

Still, as Lucy watched the petrified remains of her once friend be carried away, there was a contemplativeness in her eyes, one that gave Lilith some relief amidst all the barely hidden pain. The same relief that Lucy’s sudden declaration that there would be no more petrifications had given her, despite it all, she was still that kind little girl Belos foisted on her all those years ago. And that kindness, that foundational care and decency, was far more an asset to her than anything Lilith could have taught her. 

Somewhere deep down, Lucy wasn’t the soldier that Belos had donned into a weapon with Lilith’s help, but the brave little girl Lilith had met all those years ago, the one who looked up to her with awe and admiration so readily and even the simplest of magics, who hung on her every word, the one who trusted her implicitly. 

Lilith couldn’t help but hate how misplaced that trust was as Lucy rehearsed a speech announcing Belos’ death and giving the isles meaningless platitudes, that Lilith pretended to have written an hour ago but had in truth written years ago. She had it memorised quickly, as with the oath of office sworn to the titan before Lilith presented her the crown she removed the mask and put it on before sitting upon the throne, and Lilith mimed administering an oath of loyalty from the gathered guests. 

It only had to be rehearsed a few times, Steve and Amity standing next to the throne the whole time, Luz asked them if they wanted to take their masks off, Steve did but Amity… Well Lilith couldn’t help but empathise with her desire not to give her parents any perceived social victories, at least not as long as they could be avoided. They would probably recognise her, but whether or not anyone else believed that their daughter was the one standing next to the throne… Well that was Amity’s prerogative to deny them. 

“Lilith, is this good enough?” Lucy asked, anxiety in her tone. 

“Oh it’s good enough for broadcast, that I’m sure of, if anything goes wrong well, it won’t be our fault but the audience’s.” Being proclaimed as the absolute ruler of several million people is no easy task but… Lilith knows that Lucy will manage it. No, more selfishly it’s what comes after that terrifies her. 

Camila 

Camila hadn’t expected Hunter to be as exuberantly happy as Eda was, there was a sense of relief but… as awful as Belos had been to him, he had still raised him, still ‘made’ him, compared to what Camila had taken the time to read on normal reactions people had to the deaths of their abusers Hunter was keeping things under control… that didn’t necessarily mean he was okay, but he was managing, it had been seven years since he’d escaped and Eda had faked his death, the boy who’d escaped then and the young man sitting the living room that Camila had come to call her son were different people. She hadn’t gotten with Eda until several months after the escape, but she still remembered the hypervigilance and hesitancy around her, suspicion which didn’t completely pass for months, even persisting for a time after she’d found the truth about witches, demons, and . Eda ’s curse… it had mostly passed by the time she and eda had started dating, and evaporated by the time she’d moved in with them all… but he could still slip into that anxious vigilance with others, and Camila couldn’t see that ever going away.

Eda was trying her best to be sensitive to Hunter’s present state, she’d learned how she could be good with him slowly over time, knowing principally when to give him the space he needed and when to be an uncritical ear, but Eda knew best that she wasn’t perfect, and in truth, despite how lonely she’d been for most of her life, and how much she’d missed those she’d once cared for greatly, she’d never grieved a loss in quite the same way. 

Her natural instinct in this circumstance was exuberance, but for Hunter’s sake she was avoiding her initial instinct for ‘party whilst watching the death be announced on the morning news’ and managed to perfectly resist her initial instinct to open up a bottle of the good stuff in celebration 

Even when Willow and Gus had some over she hadn’t tried to make it a party… even after she got snacks out for the kids (which Camila would continue to think of them as, even when Willow had just turned twenty and Gus was 18 in a week) which they were all munching on nervously as they waited for the relevant news report to come on the crystal ball.  There was little Eda felt she could do beyond that, not right now at least.

There’s little Camila could do for him either… she couldn’t even help a child grieving a good parent, Camila knew she was ill-equipped to help a child grieving a one who had been so cruel with all the added complexity that came with it… and as much as Hunter tried hiding behind his relief for his fellow grimwalker and for the isles, there was still pain there. Hunter was a young man now, and she had to respect it if he wanted space and time, 

Still, his stranger sister, the young grimwalker he’d never met… she was safe now and her coronation was coming on broadcast via the crystal ball, they were watching it more for peace of mind than anything else. Camila had her own reservations about any plan that involved making a 19-year-old an autocrat after leaving her under Belos’ control, influence and abuse for seven years, and then hoping she’d react calmly to almost every adult in her life lying to her in different and conflicting ways. 

This had not been anyone’s first choice, but knowing what they did, that Lilith and Eda hadn’t ended Belos’ ability to make grimwalkers, and that trying to get Lucy out would likely lead to another being made to fill the role, well saving one child and almost certainly, throwing away Lilith’s cover in the coven in the process knowing another would have taken Lucy’s place… it harmed their ability to interfere with Belos’ plans, and lead to another child being harmed anyway. This way, only one child would be harmed, and Belos death would be met with a swift transition of power to someone who would at bare minimum be willing to hear them out, that person was a child soldier raised to accept Belos’ ideology, but not a bad person in any sense, and one who, according to Lilith, would listen to them if they showed her evidence of Belos’ plans and the truth behind his lies. But she was still a child at the end of the day, one who could have been saved from an abusive situation but wasn’t, it was all for the greater good, but it damn well didn’t feel like it to any of them.  

To some degree Camila felt she bore some complicity in it all, if only by association, and she didn’t know how to feel about that. She’d only come into the plan after it had been established, after Lilith and Eda had made their choices, but this child was in some sense still Hunter’s sister, and far away as she was, despite never meeting her, Camila still felt some sense of responsibility for it all. Hunter however, felt even worse about it than they did, he knew first hand what he could be like, and even if in principle it was more ethical than the alternative, he still felt for this child, had even, in disguise, met her on several occasions.

O’Bailey, Camila’s palisman, was in the young man’s lap trying his best to comfort Hunter through all his complicated feelings alongside Flapjack and Owlbert, but Camila could tell it wasn’t working as her son didn’t take his eyes off the crystal ball. 

A palisman wasn’t ever something she’d seen coming in her life but, once Hunter started taking lessons from Dell, and got ready to carve his first creature, it was around the time Eda and her were planning on doing their first go at a wedding and well, some things were a Clawthorne tradition and O’Bailey had been the best wedding present anyone could ask for. 

He was a larger palisman, an accurately sized young wolf, about two feet long, before one counted his tail. It was standard practice for the first palisman a new carver did to be on the larger end, (Dell’s first carving had been Hawksley for Gwendolyn) the fine details took skill and experience, but O’Bailey was such a beautiful angel all the same, plenty of practice on other hardwoods being undertaken before Hunter made his first attempt with him, and he was perfect in every sense, imperfections and all. 

If the neighbours asked, he was a husky with a pituitary gland condition causing stunted growth that Camila had adopted due to his need for special care despite how he loved to run free outside and had something of a prey drive… 

However, for whatever reason (Camila expected her influence through the bond) there wasn’t much drive for what to do after he caught the prey, in that sense he was more like a cat dropping confused, but very much alive and unharmed woodland critters at the doorstep. Camila could only quietly lament that The Owlbeast could not be similarly enriched as it was steadily depopulating the local forests or all manner of birds, rodents and large mammals.

“Are you sure you have to watch this?” Eda groaned, hiding her concern for Hunter behind faux irritation, it probably wasn’t healthy but Hunter insisted on keeping the feed on

“Call me paranoid , but I’d like to know if it goes wrong live thanks.” Nobody could blame him for wanting to see it all go off without a hitch, even if what passed for Boiling Isles morning TV was just as much regime propaganda as it was infomercial. Exaggerated but brief accounts of victories over the rebellion and arrests of wild witches being followed by the newest products from the various coven aligned companies (granted Camila was a bit less harsh on their miraculous claims given they weren’t strictly speaking impossible) as well as minor status quo supporting fluff pieces. So about par for the course for morning TV, needless to say Camila couldn’t blame Eda for not being a fan. 

Still Camila was just glad that Willow and Gus were here with him, King was also in the room but, well he was 13, bored, and worried about his brother. He wasn’t saying much, filling his face with snacks just as much to keep distracted as anything else he was trying his best for him. Willow and Gus, were (as usual) being the best friends anyone could ask for, the sorts of friends Camila didn’t have in her youth, didn’t have at all other than Manny and then Eda. The two of them were both here often enough Gus might as well have owned a guest room… and Hunter’s room could be considered hers as well though he was just as often over at her parents. Part of Camila wanted her to move in full-time , just to have them both over more.

Then again, considering how much of their time they’d been spending since High School finding isolated bits of the isles and beyond to plant palistrom wood trees, they’d both be out of the house and in the isles just as often anyway. It would have been nice anyway, but despite never having met Willow’s dad’s she knew for a fact they wanted the same thing the usual back and forth would have to be it 

Still, what Eda relayed from her if texts from Lilith were to be believed there were already cameras at the castle amidst all the other high ranking guests and the hosts seemed to be somewhat on edge, with papers being passed on and off constantly with messages from the producers now. 

“Now, for some breaking news, there appears to be something unprecedented happening at the castle we cut to our reporter on the scene Perry Porter. Perry just what exactly is going on here.?” Gus’ father appeared on screen, with his son being the one most visibly relieved to see his father on the spherical screen as the others relaxed, if only for a moment, to know things were going ahead.

“We don’t know what exactly , only That The Emperor’s Coven has gathered a large number of senior officials for some kind of formal address, there’s coven heads, senior EC officers and other notables from the bureaucracy, it all appears to have been organised in a hurry. Head Witch Deamonne has been grabbing people from their offices and homes, including myself and my crew, we’re all being kept in a large reception hall, but the scouts keep chattering about when they’re going to be moving us into the throne room, so we can only assume this is some kind of announcement from The Emperor himself which should be happening in the coming minutes Todd, nobody here seems to know exactly what is or isn’t going on but clearly this is something of the utmost importance and-” A coven scout came up to him, whispering something in the reporter’s ear, expression unreadable behind the odd beaked mask, but he seemed to even be walking sombrely . “I’m being told that camera crews are to move in first to set up for this… well for whatever it is, you’ll be seeing it live on HHXN news.” The feed cut back to the studio. 

“Now, to fill airtime and speculate on what’s happening we have our panel of three producers of this show and a guy we grabbed from the lobby.” Nobody. Not even Hunter, could be convinced to pay attention to that note (inside baseball being talked about by people who were very much not on the inside in the slightest) but there was a tension in those ten minutes, a tension that made Camila wish Eda had been a bit less mature and had popped open that bottle they’d been saving for a special occasion. 

O’Bailey looked to her, but she willed him to remain with Hunter through her bond with the palisman… she’d be okay, Hunter needed his help more than she did. 

Camila’s attention was drawn from her own thoughts back to the crystal ball at the producers' announcement that they had been allowed to start broadcasting from the castle again and then to a large crowded room, lit by flames on the walls, an empty throne under a massive beating heart flanked by two coven scouts. On one side a taller woman in a mask and her cloaks hood up young seeming from what Camila could see of her face, from how Willow , 

Hunter and Gus seemed to react, that must be Amity, their old friend, Lilith’s apprentice. 

They’d barely spoken to her since she’d joined, but she had been the one to alter imperial records to make it appear as if they were all members of a coven, they knew that much, she’d saved them from having to go on the run at great risk to herself, though (as far as they knew) only Lilith knew she’d done it,

They’d barely heard a thing from Amity since she’d told them all what she’d done, with self-destroying letters that burned after she’d read them, Hunter, Willow and Gus were still friends with her siblings, and she had contacted them little more, but had grown distant since joining (they’d already been pressed by their parents into taking illusion brands before Amity could join the coven) but she likely didn’t want there to anything suspicious or traceable between them. They knew from Lilith that she’d been busy on The Head Witch’s staff since then, mostly assisting Lilith directly. She was close with Lucy, somehow managing a secret relationship under the damnable witch hunter’s own roof. Given what Phillip Wittebane had done all those centuries ago to her oret, and what Lilith assumed to be the impetus of the deaths of several grimwalkers before now, Belos’ ignorance of that fact was likely keeping Lucy and Amity alive. 

On the other side of the throne was a young man in the same uniform but no mask, tan skin, blue eyes and small horn sticking out of his temple .   Lucy’s assistant, if Camila remembered right, Gus was friends with his younger brother, and their father was head of the construction coven, best to be extra visible with that to curry favour there, both with the coven head, and the membership itself. 

In front of the throne stood Lilith, older than in any of Eda’s pictures but with not a sign of greying hair, palisman staff in hand, and next to her was a figure in a hooded white cloak and familiar golden armour and mask, Lucy, The Golden Guard… for a second Camila thought she could just about see the red of her eyes slightly glowing behind the mask, fightlight dancing in the reflection of her armour and a red light glowing from her artificial staff. 

Lilith looked out into the crowd and cleared her voice. 

“Children of the isles, I come to you all with terrible news. Emperor Belos, beloved by all, passed away of a long term curse induced illness last night.” There were gasps all around, audible from the crowd being picked up by the microphones, uncertainty filled the room, that much was evident from the background noise as the camera zoomed in on Lilith’s face. 

“Whilst there will be a seven-day period of public mourning, we must recognise that he would not with the isles to linger without leadership, or allow the instability and weakness that would be invited by an empty throne, The Titan would not allow such a thing. I, as chief law enforcement officer in the isles will not allow such a thing, and, in fulfilment of the oath I swore to dutifully enact all laws passed down by the coven… I hereby declare that, in absence of any other legal provision, and according as close as can be done to the wishes of The Titan and The Late Emperor, that succession to the throne, and determining who is to be Belos’ heir is to be governed by the Inheritance Act, enacted by Belos in the Second Year of his reign and in accordance with the Titan’s wishes and foresight.” Lilith paused for effect, murmurs audible from the confused crowd. 

“Per the seventh section of that enactment, a decedent's primary heir is, in absence of any biological or adoptive children or other next of kin, the eldest of any wards who came of age under their personal care. As you all know, seven years ago Lucy, our brave and noble Golden Guard, was orphaned and taken in by our beloved Emperor, brought into this castle as his ward, and cared for as his own flesh and blood until she legally came of age by taking a sigil and joining The Emperor’s coven. This privilege of early admission owing to her prodigious talent, and The Titan’s singular faith in her to carry out her duties and fulfil an important role in His plans.” Camila ’s stomach churned at the regurgitation of imperial propaganda coming from the crystal ball, as she looked around everyone in the living room was deeply uncomfortable with it. It was a necessary evil, given that it was still the official version of events, and the version that gave Lucy her legitimacy, even as it gave Belos his. 

“Fulfilling my duty in carrying out The Titan’s laws, I hereby proclaim Lucy as Belos’ heir and successor according to law, recognise her as our new Emperor.” Lilith turned to Lucy now, looking away from the crowd as she kneeled before the young adult and presented a book of laws, with the guard placing a gauntleted hand on the page and both of them looking up towards the heart as Lilith spoke. 

“Lucy, Golden Guard of The Empire of The Boiling Isles, sworn servant of The Late Emperor for the past seven years, right hand to the throne for the past six, honoured hero and knight of the isles, lawful heir to the throne, do you swear to The Titan, our holy lord, to carry out his will as Emperor?” 

“I do.”   This was the first time hearing Lucy’s voice, and something familiar about it bit at her, gnawing at her as a pit formed in Camila’s stomach, pulled at something deep inside her.

“To protect and defend the people of the Isles from any threats, known or unknown?” 

“I do.” No! She… Camila must be hearing things, imagining things, projecting her own guilt at the role this child was being pushed into. It must be a coincidence. Had to be a coincidence! She-

“To govern wisely, fairly and selflessly, to uphold law and justice, to be merciful whilst providing for peace, order, and good government whilst exercising the powers and responsibilities of the throne?” 

“I do.” 

No! She was reading too much into it! Luz died years ago! This ‘Lucy’ may have appeared to be about the same age Luz would have been had she lived and sounded vaguely similar, a voice Luz might have had if she’d been able to grow up like she deserved but that was it. Luz was gone and never coming back. 

“Cam, you okay?” Eda whispered as she reached out with her hand onto her knee, which Camila took eagerly and squeezed. The kids were all focused on the screen and hadn’t seen the state she was in, and Eda knew how much she hated bothering the kids with it. 

“Just… Memories, happening at a bad time is all.”

It happened often , maybe a kid on the street would remind her of Luz, or hearing a siren in town would make wonder what she and Manny were doing later for a second before she remembered. It was just grief, she’d had far too much experience of it cropping up in her life and she could manage it, she always did. 

Events on the crystal ball continued to transpire as Lilith finished administering the oath. Lilith rose from her kneeling position, and spun a circle as a crown appeared in her hand. A golden ring adorned with amethysts, from which sprung two golden horns which reminded Camila of King’s 

Lucy then knelt down, looked up at Lilith , and removed her hood- 

-and then the mask. 

And all the blood in Camila’s body seemed to drain in that instant as her heart seemed to freeze over, as the rest of the world fell away, words growing numb and meaningless as a crown was placed on the girl's head, and she rose and turned to face the camera and spoke. 

It was… no she had pointed ears, and red eyes like Hunter, like a grimwalker, and a myriad of scars on her face and neck that Luz didn’t have, and she was alive so no she couldn’t be she couldn’t be!

But there she was, she had the red eyes and pointed ears of a grimwalker , but it was Luz, giving a speech in another dimension after being crowned its Emperor. 

The possibility of the girl on the crystal ball being a grimwalker crossed Camila’s mind and fell away in an instant as she spoke, her tone, her intonation, her every word no… she’d seen enough of concealment stones in the past seven years to know how the eyes and ears could be faked. It… this might be Luz , Luz might be-

It was in that instant, as the brief bright optimism of her Luz being alive, met reality. The reality she knew of how ‘Lucy’ had been treated and what she had been made to do, of every old wound of Hunter’s she’d seen. 

The reality of the past seven years written in every scar on her little girl’s face fell into her in an instant. 

And so did the reality of exactly how she was complicit in it. 

The only words she could focus on and make out were the shouts of "Long Live The Emperor!" coming through the crystal ball.

Lilith. 

Lilith couldn’t describe the burden lifted from her as the guests filed out, the ceremony went well, the oath said, the crown placed on Lucy’s head as that damnable mask could be gone for good, 

Lucy gave a quick speech Lilith had ‘quickly’ written (in truth she’d written it years ago) , nothing too long or groundbreaking, very much a ‘we are all in mourning but everything is going to be fine , and we will persevere to honour Belos’ memory’ sort of thing, any hints at major changes left subtle as to not give the game away. 

As people were filling out it was clear all were bewildered and overwhelmed by the weight of what they’d been told but certain that Lucy was in charge and had Lilith’s support… her burner scroll was buzzing away in her hammerspace, and though only one person knew the number she couldn’t answer it or attend to whatever Edalyn’s celebratory mood was. Or critiques about how ‘creepy’ she probably found the oath to be. By Edalyn’s standards everything about the coven was creepy on principle, and deep down Lilith knew she was right to. 

Kikimora had been Lilith’s main worry throughout proceedings, luckily she was too stunned to think about disrupting proceedings as Lucy was formally recognised as the new emperor, even as she gave her oath through gritted teeth. 

Well, it was probably a mix of surprise, the full squadron scouts Lilith knew were loyal to her over Kikimora (whom she had been slowly placing in all key positions of the castle garrison for years now) and a dozen heavily armed mk4 abomatons standing on the sides of the throne room to ensure there would be no disruption or trouble making from any especially power hungry or otherwise foolhardy officials .  

Lilith might have hated the damn things and had a particular disdain for the CEO of Blight Industries, but as implicit death threats they were effective 

Kikimora was right to be scared, she would not be in her position, or free, for very long, were it up to Lilith she would not be long for this world but… well she’d just made sure such things were not up to her. 

Lucy had made it clear that petrifications would not be happening, even modified the oath Lilith had made up on the spot to include the bit about mercy. It probably spoke to something wrong with Lilith that she hadn’t thought to add such a provision, she’d been this coven far too long. 

“Leave us.” Spoke a calm, almost gentle, yet commanding tone from Lucy on the throne to the scouts still remaining in the throne room, voice enhanced by magic from her staff. “You’re all relieved, take the rest of the day to yourselves.” Her tone then had turned less commanding but sounded much more like herself, and an order for time off was one scouts were loath to ever turn down, something Belos most certainly wouldn’t have given them. They just about retained some sense of decorum as they filed out, and the door slammed shut and Lucy looked like she’d let out a breath she’d been holding in for hours as she slumped forwards in the throne. 

“That… we, we didn’t mess that up. There’s times I’ve nearly died that weren’t so scary.”

“None of those times were being broadcast live for an audience though.” Amity retorted, her mask already discarded on the throne room floor like she owned the place… which given she was dating the girl on the throne wasn’t strictly incorrect. 

“No, no they weren’t.” Lucy acknowledged as she rose from the throne and staggered down the steps. “Titan that throne is just as uncomfortable as it looks, I have no idea how Belos actually managed sitting on it all day. But, it’s done, at least, today is done. Right Lilith?” 

“Nothing else in public, I… well you were responsible for organising Belos’ schedule of meetings. Steve, I’m assuming you would be happy to take over that particular function.” 

“I was doing it most weeks anyway.” Steve answered, 

“I’ve been busy, there’s you know, with the ongoing rebellion and everything.” Lucy spoke in a tone of mock defensiveness,

“I know kid I know, that’s not your problem to deal with anymore.” Steve said in a relieved tone. “Directly at least.” 

Lilith could feel her burner scroll buzzing away in her hammerspace, it was a new addition, such a thing would have been far too risky and potentially traceable in the past, but with Belos now dead, well communication beyond encrypted dead drops was a lot more viable now. However, only one person knew the number, and Lilith couldn’t answer it, no matter celebratory how Edalyn’s mood was. Or whatever critiques about how ‘creepy’ she probably found the oath to be. By Edalyn’s standards everything about the coven was creepy on principle, and deep down Lilith knew she was right to. She couldn’t afford to think of it now though. 

“It was just some coven heads giving their monthly reports.” Luz opined in an exasperated tone. “Honestly most of those meetings would be better off as letters.” 

“Perhaps, but giving them a regular one on one chance to both grovel and complain has its uses. People with power need to feel like they have access to those above them, feel that their views aren't being ignored, they can make an awful mess of things if they do.  Besides, every now and again they have a reasonable and worthwhile complaint or suggestion.” Lilith explained. 

“I know, I know. You’re right , and you’ve said it before and so has Belos, and even he was sick of them.” 

“It’s part of the job, my lord.” Lucy cringed at Lilith’s use of the honorific, looking deeply uncomfortable with it. It ha

“No, no don’t call me that, you will not be calling me that. New rule, nobody in this room is allowed to call me that or any other title like that if there aren’t other people around to keep up ‘decorum and standards’ or whatever for. We’re just, Lilith, Steve, Amity and- and Lucy okay. You're all my closest friends ok I just… also just happen to be The Emperor as well now.” There was an odd hesitation as Lucy said her own name, and then gave Amity an odd knowing look before leaning into her.

“Of course Lucy. I’ll be honest my brain was still in the ceremony.” 

“About that uh, ‘Lucy’, there’s something I’ve got to tell you two, a, uh a secret really Amity knows it, Belos knew it but… nobody else does and well I meant what I said, you’re the people that I’m closest to, and you deserve to know. I wanted to tell you both a long time ago, Belos ordered me not to tell anyone… Amity only found out by accident when we were kids, and then she swore an unbreakable oath not to talk right after.” Did, did Lucy somehow know she was a grimwalker? Had Belos told her? But then why was she being weird about her own name? Lilith’s heart and mind were racing. 

“Of course, you know you can tell us anything.” Lilith reassured the teen, and Steve supported her. 

“Look, there’s nothing you can say that is gonna change anything okay kid, you said it yourself, I don’t think I have any closer friends okay. Whatever it is, it’s safe with us.” 

“Belos said that if you knew about it, that if you knew the truth about me, that you’d be in danger, but he’s not The Emperor anymore I am, and well It’s my decision now. Belos told you all, when, when I first arrived in the castle that I was a powerless witch, that The Owl Lady had killed my parents but, that’s not true.” Lucy sat down on the throne’s steps, and Amity took a seat next to her as she removed her crown and then unfastened the heavy imperial cloak, letting it fall off around her shoulders so she could get at a hand under the collar of her chest plate and gambeson, pulling out the chain of a necklace, and it was then Lilith recognised the familiar blue glow of a concealment stone, just like the ones she wore every day to hide the signs of her own curse, even as Lilith ’s mind raced to think about what she was hiding before Lucy slipped the necklace over her head and there was a blue shimmer , and she turned to look at them. 

Her eyes weren’t red anymore, but a soft amber brown, that was the most obvious change to Lilith, she looked intently to see what was being hidden but Lucy seemed overall the same at least until Lilith’s gaze turned to Lucy’s ears which were round and Lilith’s heart began to hammer at what Belos had been having Lucy hide…
At what Phillip Wittebane had been having her hide…
She hadn’t been a grimwalker at all, or even a witch, 

She was human. 

“Surprise!” The newly crowned Emperor said in a tone of pained and forced celebration. “I'm a human, we’re real and… well I am one, I’ve always been one I, I’m not originally from here, from the boiling isles, and well my real name isn’t Lucy, my name is Luz Noceda…” There was silence for a moment, 

“You have a last name!?” Steve cried out in surprise.

“That's, that’s the thing you're focusing on? Not the fact I’m from another dimension?”

“Sorry, sorry Luc-Luz. It’s, yeah, sorry. Please continue.” ‘Luz’ didn’t give his questioning a second thought, they’d been friends for so long his surprise was, well, unsurprising. But Lilith’s mind lingered on something, even as everything else was racing, and she awaited on tenterhooks how exactly Belos had a human child, how much she might know about Belos’ true plans. And the name Noceda… Lilith knew she’d heard it before but where was eluding her.

“As I was saying, my name is Luz Noceda, well Luz Maria Noceda if you’re my mom , and I’ve messed up badly enough, and I am a human being from the far away and, well frankly very dull and boring land of Connecticut in the human realm. Gravesfield if you wanna be specific but, well you’ve never heard of either of those places. And Gravesfield, is well… nobody in the human realm would have ever heard of it either, small boring little place but that’s where I’m from” Gravesfield, isn’t that where the Wittebane’s were from? Were Edalyn’s Portal lead to?  Luz continued as Lilith’s mind raced. 

“I… well you remember what Belos said, about there being an explosion, that The Owl Lady had somehow tried using her portal as a weapon to try and kill him from the human realm, how that backfired… and killed my parents , and he found me… well the part about me being an orphan is, it’s not true, my dad died a while ago… but, my mom is… she’s still alive, at least she was when I came here. Belos wasn't lying about The Owl Lady using the Titan’s blood in her portal as a weapon, but it didn’t hurt anyone in the isles, your sister's portal leads to Gravesfield, she’d probably been visiting and finding human junk to sell there for years, and I just she has to be hiding out around there.”

“It was late and the worst storm I can remember outside, my mom and I were having a dumb argument about, It doesn’t matter anymore, I was a dumb kid and ran out into the storm and… well that’s not as dangerous as it is here, the rain is freezing cold, but it was still stupid and, last thing I remember, is falling into a creek and waking up in a burning forest in the isles, seeing the castle burning from afar.” 

Noceda

Now Lilith remembered, 

Oh… 

Oh no, 

Edalyn’s, wife…her name was Camila Noceda, 

Eda had not been able to include every last detail about life in the human realm in their deadropped letters back and forth, it was always more but Lilith knew some details about the sister-in-law she’d never met, or even seen a picture of.

Edalyn had once mentioned that Camila had lost a husband a few years prior to meeting her, and that on the night they first met the human had been desperately searching for her child, a child who had gone missing on a stormy night and a child who everyone believed had fallen into a creek, and been washed away by the currents. 

And here she had a child from Gravesfield named Noceda, one she’d known by another name for seven years. One she’d come to love as a daughter, one she’d failed to protect her whole life. A child who had fallen into a creek in the middle of a dangerous human realm storm. 

Luz continued her explanation, oblivious to the blood draining from Lilith’s face as she continued her talk, Amity’s arms around her shoulder supportively, The Titan’s heart seeming to hammer above her head as the desperate buzzing of her burner scroll made gained a terrifying character now and Lilith found her own heart being with a sense of terrible dread as the coursed beast that shared her mind began to scream and claw at her in guilt .