Chapter Text
Things were fairly uneventful for Luz over the next few days. She did her daily chores for Eda, was visited almost daily by Willow and Gus, and she learned a bit more about magic and the Demon Realm in general. That was what Eda was helping her with now. Learning about a game played by witches.
A barefoot Luz (I am getting a lot more comfortable and can even be fully okay barefoot around my friends while at the Owl House. Being free from the clammy, suffocating, and times scratchy internal seams of the discomfort of my loafers was nice. And it was amazing to feel the magical hum in the warm wooden floorboards and the heavy slightly but not uncomfortably scratchy fabric of the couch when lied down on it. But I have a ways to go before I can be fully comfortable outside of the house. I tried to go out a few days that way, and did make some progress but then I ended up partly embarrassing myself by running into a rightfully annoyed Amity. She also had the prettiest feet that had matching nail polish.) was sitting on the couch in the Owl House living room, where Eda and Owlbert were playing a witch card game with Luz and King watching. Eda shuffles her hand, and the eyes on the cards (So Demon Realm cards are alive? Good to know!) look up at her. Owlbert, is wearing a green visor, as he narrows his eyes and hoots.
“Watch closely, Luz. Hexes Hold'em is the most tricky game on the Boiling Isles. Any proper witch knows how to play. And I can give you all the trade secrets!” Eda proudly proclaimed. (Aw! She trusts me! Now to earn it!)
“Oh boy, cards! The paper rectangles that many old people and collectors think are fun! I remember watching the many Yugioh animes quite a few times. They had surprisingly good stories with amazing characters… and cute and cool Duelists to boot! (Yep. The series made up many hot girls and guys I can remember crushing on. Don’t mention that aloud.) I even played it a few times,” Luz said cheerfully.
“Oh! Did you win? Maybe we can have a betting ring and get more money that way!” King said chipperly.
“Eh…not really. I put together a Deck made up of many different random cards I liked. The few people actually willing to play against me beat me easy and called me a disgrace to the game,” Luz admitted very sadly. (I could have actually made a friend or two if I just played correctly…)
“Well, this game is much better than that Yugioh trash you played. Trust me!” Eda puts a card down on the table. Lightning comes from the cards, sending Owlbert flying for cover behind the side of the table. The cards all stand and roar. Owlbert's surge forward and attack Eda's, making Owlbert smirk. It looked like Owlbert could win. “Now when it looks like the deck is stacked against you, that's when you break out the wildcard.” Eda held up a card with a tower on it. Said card glows green, and Owlbert's cards disappear in a flash of fire. Fiery letters spelling out "WINNER: EDA" appear and disappear over the table, celebrating Eda’s well deserved victory. (Don’t quite get this game. So the cards are alive and fight each other, but what determines winning cards? Attack and Defense? Magic of the user? I’d suck even worse than I did at Yugioh if that were the case.)
Owlbert hops back on and hoots at Eda, his wings extended. (Aw! He wants to say good game… I think. He could just be angry. Probably angry.) “Woo, I win! In your adorable owl face. Ah, I love the feeling of victory; it feels... fluffy?” To the horror of the group, feathers were growing from her arms.
Luz admitted that Eda’s fun mom energy wasn’t always a good thing like right now. Apparently, between taking care of her and being distracted playing Hexes Hold’em, Eda forgot to stock up on her elixir that kept her a witch and not the owl beast. Heck, she was so obsessed that Luz and Owlbert needed to trick Eda into leaving by taking her Hexes Hold’em deck.
Thankfully, Eda did get the hint and went with them to the potion seller. Now Eda was at the market with them, with Eda banging on a metal grate to get the seller to respond. King left Eda's side to sit next to Luz, wearing her shoes again, on a bench. (Too bad I can’t feel the magical hum in the smooth, rounded edges of the ancient stone ground once more.)
“Is there anything better than people watching in the Demon Realm? It’s like watching a fantasy world, but in real life!” Luz squeed as she did as she said and watched. Three witches stood at a bus stop as a giant egg rolled up to it. The egg cracked open, revealing a featherless bird that screeched. Said bird proceeded to fly away. To Luz’s mild confusion, (It’s a bit difficult to be fully confused by the Demon Realm at this point.) witches entered the egg, one of the witches closes it, and it rolls off as Tiny Nose ran up to the bus (egg?) stop. “The curse of tiny legs.”
“I know the pain,” King agreed.
To Luz’s curiosity, there are loud footsteps nearby. Tiny Nose screams and runs, both to catch up to the egg (May not be easy at this point.) and due to some unexpected witches. A witch waves his hand, and a cart with a large demon on it follows him. (He looks like a cool guy. But also ominous and dangerous. But I maybe shouldn’t judge every book by its cover.) Luz walks up to Eda to point out the witch. “Whoa, that is one ominous parade.”
“That's no parade. Those are demon hunters,” Eda reveals. The demon that was restrained growls and bucks, trying to escape. The two demon hunters pushing the cart pull its ropes to pin it back down. It tries to bite at the first demon hunter. (I really hope this doesn’t make them animal abusers. I really hate those types of people back home…) “They happen to be dangerous nomads who capture and sell the most powerful beasts. You’re better off avoiding them, Luz. They aren’t afraid to leave bodies if confronted.” The first demon hunter traces a spell circle, creating green lightning in his hand. He grunts as he shocks the demon unconscious. He turns and looks at Luz. She gasps (Yeah…I’m frightened and mad at the same time. Fran? Nah. Sounds dumb. I hope to never see them again.) “...Which I'm about to do if you don't open up, Morton!” Eda keeps knocking on the grate. Eventually, Morton does end up appearing to Eda. (He seems nicer than the hunters at least.)
The demon hunters, thankfully continue on. After they leave, Luz happens to get a pleasant surprise as to who is close by.
Today was not a good day for Willow or her friend Gus. Willow was almost late for class due to being too caught up in her morning exercises. She barely had time to change into her Hexside uniform and didn’t have time to get her shoes on (Like I told Luz, I am fine being barefoot if I want to feel the magical hum of the grass beneath my feet, often when exercising.) She was fortunate to do well in class, as was Gus. However, those weren’t where the problems they faced lied.
They ended up walking away from school looking dejected, even though they were fortunate to not have homework to do. (Can Amity and her posse spend one day not bragging and treating us like trash?)
As the pair were walking to their homes in order to miserably wonder what if they were invited to the conjuring, they were given a somewhat unexpected surprise. “Willow and Gus!” Luz was in the market when they were there. Normally, this would cheer them up, but Willow was still upset by the exclusion of her and Gus. Luz gleefully ran up to the pair. “Heya, friends! Wait, what's wrong? Who hurt my babies?” (Luz is smart to notice our displeasure. Though we were kinda obvious.)
Willow was about to explain when she saw the last thing she wanted to see. “Them,” Willow points to a food stand. Right across the way at the stand, there is a group of four witch girls. Skara and Cat, a dark skinned healing track girl wearing glasses, are laughing while the former is throwing chips in the latter's mouth. The unofficial leader of the group, Amity, is staring at a potion with a frown and Boscha, a triclops in the potions track with pink hair, is watching them. “See, Amity’s having a moonlight conjuring and she invited everyone but me.”
“And she keeps posting about it on her Penstagram account,” Gus revealed to Luz as he summons his scroll, opening it up to Amity's Penstagram post of her and her friends posing.
“"It's conjuring night! No dorks allowed"? What a jerk!” Luz scowled for a second. (Yeah, I get it. Popular people often end up being jerks. Surprising to see Luz be mad, though. Guess it was bound to happen sometime.) “What's a moonlight conjuring? Is it where you end up summoning a ghost through the moonlight?” (Sometimes I forget that Luz isn’t from here.)
“No, Luz. It’s way more exciting than that! Wanna tell her, Willow? It’s not too different from a human tradition,” Gus suggested. (Normally, Gus would love to flex on Human Realm knowledge. He must be in a sad mood to be willing to share… or very nice.)
“See…it’s like this. You spend the night at someone's house, telling stories, playing games, eating a bunch of salty and sugary snacks…,” Willow began.
“Like a slumber party! We have those!” Luz explained. (Wow. We actually have more similarities between realms than I thought. Still, I guess the other part isn’t in Luz’s traditions.)
“Almost. See, we also…,” Willow pulls out a book. “…bring something to life with moon magic!”
Luz pauses. (She has been concerned or freaked out by our realm’s differences before, I wonder if this will be too much or…) “Like a weird slumber party!” Luz said as elated as before. (No, she is fine.)
“Gus and I have never been to one. I mean, we tried to do the conjuring minus the conjuring and we had some fun, but we never had the full experience. You need at least three people and—,” Willow sadly admitted.
“I'm three people—I mean, we're three people, and we're way better than them! And…to be honest, I’ve never been invited to one, a slumber party I mean. But I’ve heard of them and saw them in shows and movies. I always wanted to have friends who were willing to invite me…,” Luz said with vulnerability. (Oh yeah…I also sometimes forget Luz had no friends before us. She must feel even more sad than we are right now. Maybe we should…)
Before Willow could think about things more or respond to Luz, Amity’s friends laugh as they all approach the trio, while walking by. “Sorry you couldn't get an invite to the conjuring, Willow,” Boscha (The biggest bully in Hexside. Even Amity is nicer. Why those….) looks at Amity, likely to hear what her barb will be. “Only real witches allowed.”
Amity does indeed give her barb. “Leave her alone. It's not her fault she was born without talent.”
The four mean girls all leave. Willow growls, beyond mad with being insulted directly. In fact, Willow is so mad, her magic goes a bit wild as several vines grow from the ground. (Some of them wrapped around my toes. I normally would like it as it gives what a plant must feel being connected to the ground, but right now…it’s just a reminder of my own inadequacies… Oh, I’d love to show them!)
Luz seemed to notice how mad Willow was as she responded with, “Whoa,” She proceeds to slap the tallest vine and then hugs Willow. (Luz really is the sweetest. She is the most kindhearted friend a witch could have. I don’t know what she sees in witches like me, but I love having her in my life and know she will always stay.) “Don't waste your time getting thorny over them. 'Cause we're gonna have our own moonlight conjuring.”
“Are you serious? This was on my bucket list,” Gus cheerfully says as he pulls out said list and checks it off. “After owning a real human bucket!”
“That's a really weird thing to want, but I appreciate your enthusiasm. I’m not one to talk anyway! We’re going to have the best magic sleepover ever!” Luz said excitedly and with heroic determination. (I kinda envy and admire how Luz can look on the bright side. Maybe we can have fun together. We get to have a conjuring. Luz gets a sleepover to make up for not having friends. Everyone will win!) “I'll go tell Eda.” At this point, Luz runs to get Eda like she said, with Willow and Gus believing this would be the beginning of an amazing night.
Tonight was going to be an exciting night for Luz. She was about to have her very first sleepover with her best friends and help them get back at the bullies led by gorgeous mint-haired goddess Amity. (Why did she have to continue to be mean?) Tonight would be the funnest most amazing night ever! All she needed was to get Eda to say yes.
Luz approached the older witch, who had just managed to finish with talking to the elixir witch guy. (Where were the potions? Did she need to get them delivered or something?) “Eda, Gus and Willow and I are gonna do a moonlight conjuring and stick it to Amity. So can we—“
Luz got a negative wake-up call when Eda held up her hand. “Not tonight, I'm going out. Apparently, I have to go to the Night Market in order to get my elixir.” She grabs her staff and starts walking away. I need you to watch King and the house, I have many precious objects in there.”
“Hold on! Eda, you know that you have no magic right now! You could be killed or caught by your past boyfriend Wrath and his Emperor’s Coven buddies. You need a second pair of eyes! Besides, I’ve heard how cool the Night Market is to boot! I’m going!” King demanded. (Should I be happy the sweet little precious cutie wants to help or concerned he wants to go to the possible death place?)
“King! What in the Isles makes you think that I could take you with me to the Night Market?! Also, Wrath wasn’t my boyfriend! You stay home with Luz, got it?” Eda demanded.
“Hmm…I guess you’re right. Going to the death place alone is a great idea. Maybe while you’re gone I can read your diary to Luz. I bet we could have fun all night reading everything you’ve gotten written down,” King teased to try and force Eda to change her mind. (Oooh…he’s being all schemey. Don’t know how to feel.)
Picks King up by his collar. “Grrr! Fine! You win! You're coming with me. I may need an extra pair of eyes looking out for pickpockets anyway. Also, an extra pair of hands in case I want to pickpocket,” Eda decided.
“Pickpocket!” Both chaos gremlins cheerfully said.
“Then, maybe while you two do that, Willow and Gus can come to the house and—,” Luz tried to compromise.
“Once again, no! I’d rather not have them around without me to keep you from destroying everything. I am fine with them being over with me around for a majority of it, but this trip will take all night! My answer is no!” Eda put her foot down.
“But-,” Luz tried to feebly argue.
Seeing the look on Luz’s face, Eda appear to soften to an extent. “ I get you have them as friends. Heck, if it were any other night, I’d say go ahead! But I don’t need things going wrong when I can’t stop it. Also, keep in mind that you don’t have the magic to make it work and waiting even one more night to get my elixir would result in another owl beast encounter if I were to try and help. You can spend all the time you want with them tomorrow night, but not tonight! Besides, conjurings are dumb; sitting in a circle holding hands. Pft. It's like magic for babies. You and your pals are way better than that, anyway.” And with that, Eda decided to walk away.
“But—,” Luz tried to argue once more. She failed. She failed to convince Eda to let her be able to help her friends. They were going to be sad. She failed them as she always did with being barefooter screw-up Luz. But…she didn’t want to go against Eda. She did agree to house and teach her. It would be a massive, evil, irredeemable betrayal to go against her word. So, she would have to let her friends down. It wasn’t like they’d hate her over it, right?
Willow and Gus ran up to Luz at this point in order to see how things went.
“Luz! What did Eda say? Can we have our conjuring/sleepover?” Willow questioned excitedly. (I hate to be the girl who hurts them, but I have to say no.)
“So... guys…,” Luz began. (Man, why do I have to be such a coward?)
“Oh, look!” Gus pointed upwards into the sky, which was becoming darker. “The moon is rising into place. And the celestial powers only align once a year.” (O-once a year, huh?)
“Oh, I can't believe I finally have enough friends for a moonlight conjuring! Thank you, Luz! Did Eda say it was okay?” Willow asked expectantly.
Luz was broken at this point. She knew Eda would want to say no. She disapproved of her having friends over without her being there. She said no to the conjuring. But…she couldn’t be that selfish and awful friend to Willow and Gus. She couldn’t break their sweet and innocent hearts. But…maybe she could make it work?
“Uhm... yes. She said yes. We can do it at the Owl House. She said we can do it while she’s out getting her elixir for her curse tonight. As long as we don't make a mess or touch anything and never bring up that we did it!” Luz nervously laughed, not wanting to betray her nervousness and the fact she was lying.
Fortunately for her, her friends decided to believe her. (WOW. I didn’t suck at lying for once.) “Yes!”
“Oh, you're the best! And don’t worry! We’ll also make tonight about giving you the best first sleepover ever! See you later, Luz!” Willow reassured before the duo left gleefully, their prior dejection completely forgotten about.
Willow and Gus then skipped away, while saying all sing-songy. “We're gonna do a conjuring! We're gonna do a conjuring! Conjuring! Conjuring!”
Luz was simultaneously relieved and even more nervous than before. She was happy to know she was able to help out her friends and cheered them up. On the other hand…Luz looked at the moon nervously. She just needed to do this as carefully as possible. After all, it’s not like she could just break her friends’ hearts when they needed her. She would be an awful, uncaring bitch if she did so. She just needed to be careful. It’s not like this night would end in disaster, right?
Amity had finished up getting all the snacks she was required to have for her moonlight conjuring. She honestly never really enjoyed doing these conjurings with her “friends.” She never had fun talking about the stuff they had to say; the cruel words made towards every witch and demon not in the room, the constant talk of political and status based topics, not even being very nice to her or the others. (It’s not like the dumb conjurings ever work out for us, anyway. We just fail all night and then go on Penstagram eventually.)
To be honest, part of her did wonder if things would be any better if Willow or her other friends were able to be there. Willow at least would not tear down someone else like her posse did. She may even have some interesting things to say about plants. Amity was curious about plant magic, after all.
But…it’s not like she could just invite her. Willow was low enough on the totem pole that she would lose her reputation forever and be seen as a worthless loser for the rest of time. It was vain and horrible and selfish, but that was the truth. (Besides, Willow likely hates my guts by now, anyway. Not that she was wrong to do so.)
Earlier that day, Amity’s “friends” were laughing and looking down on Willow. Amity did try to stick up for her in a way that wouldn’t ruin everything. However, she did say it in a way that was an obvious insult. She saw Willow’s magic form many thorny vines out of the corner of her eye. (Side note. Willow had some vines wrap around her bare feet. I hope she is doing okay after that.)
She just had to manage one night with her “friends” and then she could go back to studying alone for the next few weeks. Nothing could go wrong. She would-
“Hey, Mittens!” Two slightly older voices chirped out. Amity felt her entire face burn red (My family can have our entire face go red when blushing. Is it just an us thing or…).
“Ed, Em? What on the Isles do you want? I thought you wanted to go see a movie with some dates of yours!” Amity groaned. The last thing she needed was for her older siblings to make her look bad and embarrass her. She got enough of that from beautiful Luz, whether that was her intent or not. (Is she trying to do this or is it a coincidence? I don’t even know at this point.)
“Well, our dates got grounded earlier today,” Edric admitted with that annoying grin he would have.
“And we heard that you are having a moonlight conjuring later tonight. So we decided we’d stop by during it and chat with your pals,” Emira teased.
Amity got more heated at the idea of them trying to give embarrassing facts to her “friends.” “You will do no such thing, you hear me?! Stay away from them! I don’t need the extra embarrassment today!”
“Aw, Mittens! Embarrassing sisters is what siblings do best,” Edric teased, looking undeterred.
“Besides, you’ve once said you didn’t care for these conjurings. Why not let us spice things up some?” Emira questioned (I hate to admit it, but they are right about the conjuring being a drag. I only do it because it’s expected of me.)
“Well, we’ll leave you to handle your “oh so very fun conjuring” for now,” Ed noted with his annoying grin.
“But when you need us to liven things up, please give us a call,” Em waved goodbye as her older twins thankfully decided to leave for the time being.
Her siblings were honestly some of the most annoying witches to deal with. They managed to hide their trouble from mom enough that they rarely ever got in trouble. Outside of places like the library, they were seen as perfect. She was the only one to know they were massively annoying troublemakers that existed to make her life a nightmare. She had to often hex doors in order to avoid some of their more annoying pranks even from within her own room.
And them being around during her conjuring tonight? That couldn’t be good. She just hoped she could make the conjuring go by without issue and not be embarrassed. It’s not like she’d have to deal with Luz after all.
Luz managed to use the portal door in order to go back to Gravesfield to buy a bunch of human snacks. Eda had fortunately allowed it under the impression that Luz just wanted to have something to eat for the future boring night ahead and for a possible later play date with Willow and Gus. Luz wasn’t entirely comfortable being back home after so long. She was seen in such a negative light that she would likely be stared at and whispered about negatively just for being there. (I especially hope mamí didn’t see me. I don’t need her hating me or herself learning I lied to her the past few weeks.) She did make it work. She was just lucky she had a bunch of Human Realm money left over in case of emergency.
Now she just had to wait a few short hours and then the hard part would be over. She passed the time by reading Azura 5 gains and by playing a little of Pokemon Scarlet and Star Fox 64 (Apparently the later games are kinda mixed and the last two aren’t good.) on her Switch 2. Still, she couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable, and it wasn’t due to being barefoot for a long while on the thick comfortably scratch couch. She was comfortable and elated doing so with no shame again to an extent.
She knew she was going to be breaking Eda’s trust by holding the conjuring. But what else could she do? If she didn’t do it, her friends would be miserable. They may even rightfully hate her for going back on her promise. Besides, it would just be for a few hours. What could go wrong?
Later that night at the Owl House, crickets were chirping (Does the Demon Realm have demon crickets? What scary thing would they do?) as Eda was finally ready to head out. Luz is sitting on the couch watching Eda in preparation for the Owl Lady finally leaving.
“Luz, you're in charge while I'm out,” Eda said as she put her cloak on. “Make sure Hooty doesn't get into any trouble and enjoy your snacks…I guess.”
Hooty gave a muffled. “Hoot hoot!” Before he opened the door to talk. I don't need a babysitter. I'm a big boy house!” (I just hope Hooty doesn’t snitch on us. Maybe I can be kind and offer him a candy bar to make him happy…and not snitch.)
“You can count on me; I'd never betray your hard-earned trust,” Luz said as she stood up with optimism and confidence she didn’t feel, but gave herself away with a small nervous laugh.
“You're acting suspicious. You're doing that thing where you hide in your hoodie. Plus, you are looking at your bare feet uncomfortably,” Eda noted. (Dang it she knows my lying tells.)
In fact, Luz did have her hood up and closed. “Meow I'm not. Uh…” Luz looked for a distraction as she pushed her hood down. “Oh, where's King?”
“He's right here,” Eda opened her cloak to reveal King, snoring, strapped in a pink baby carrier. “His little body just conks out when he's weightless. Look at this.” She joked almost sweetly (Don’t claim that to Eda.) as she moves side to side, King stays asleep as he moves like a ragdoll.
“Aww, he's so dangly,” Luz cooed as she plays with his feet. (He really is just the sweetest bean.)
Eda begins to walk outside. “Anyway, really going now. And Luz…” Luz grew nervous as she looked ready to sweat. Eda continued in a menacing tone. “...if you mess up the house, I will never trust you again.” Luz felt like she was about to faint in absolute terror as she sweated and gave a nervous thumbs up. Eda then finished in a lighter tone. “No pressure! Byeeeeee!” Owlbert hooted as Eda flies away. Luz follows them outside and waves after them for a few seconds.
“Ay. Should I really be doing this? No, no, Willow is counting on you,” Luz reminded her of how she needed to make this work for her friends. Luz then whispers, “Okay, she's gone.”
“Release!” Willow cried out as two bushes glowed and exploded, revealing Willow and Gus in their casual clothes. “I'm a sneaky sneakster!”
“I've got leaves in my pants...and I like it,” Gus said casually. Luz then decided it was time to lead them inside. (The hard part is over. Time to give Willow and Gus the greatest conjuring ever!)
“Company! Hooray! Finally someone to listen to my stories! Okay, one time, a sparrow flew into my mouth, and then I—“ Sadly for Hooty, the door shuts behind the trio, the house demon being forgotten. “Hey…” He coughed out a sparrow, which flies away chirping.