Chapter Text
Amity Blight opened her eyes, lifting her head up from her hands. She rubbed her forehead gently, messaging the soreness away. Her head had been leaning up against the concrete steps of Hexide. “Oh no, did I fall asleep again!” She found herself talking aloud when she’d only meant to think it. Amity hadn’t been sleeping well recently. All she could think about was exactly what happened between her and Luz.
It was so confusing. Did Luz feel the same way? Would she ever be able to tell her how she felt, or even gather the confidence to try to talk to Luz about it? Amity was done letting this keep her up at night. It had gone so far that she was falling asleep on the stairs of her school! Amity stood up and brushed the orange and pink leaves that had fallen from the trees onto her off as she did. She was gonna do it.
Amity was done avoiding Luz. She’d let all of this go to far. She’d even been missing school on days she knew Luz would be there. I have to go talk to Luz, no more pushing it off. Amity thought to herself, avoiding saying it out loud this time. “Amity?” A voice came from behind her. “Oh, hey, Willow… Hi.” Clearly surprised, Amity turned around quickly. She grabbed hold of her bags strap and pulled it up from the stairs with her.
She saw Gus standing next to Willow on the main platform leading into Hexide. “What are you doing?” He asked. Amity looked at the ground, avoiding eye contact. “Uh, nothing” she responded quickly. Trying, once again, to rub away the red mark on her forehead from where it had been pressing against the stone railing. “Have… have either of you seen Luz?” She asked, trying not to sound to hesitant or nervous. “No, she hasn’t been here for the last two days.” Willow answered. “Why?” Gus asked in curiosity.
“No, no reason.” Amity answered “I have a lot of homework, I’m gonna go.” She added, walking away. Her muscles tensed as she walked off uncomfortably. Ok, so Gus and Willow hadn’t seen Luz in at least two days. Surely Amity would find her at the Owl house, right? “She didn’t walk off in the direction of her house.” Gus stated as they stood on the steps watching Amity walk away. Willow shrugged as Amity continued walking tensely into the afternoon sun. By the time she’d reached the Owl House the sun had began setting.
“Hey Luz, remember that kiss, yeah, we can just pretend that didn’t happen. Things don’t have to change between us, it can totally just stay the same. Right? Uhhh, no. Pull yourself together Amity!” She carefully practiced what she’d say to Luz. The closer she got to her destination, the more nervous she became, and the more confidence she lost. There it was. The Owl House, sitting right there in front of her.
Amity cautiously walked forward. She wanted to avoid conversation with Hooty, but unfortunately conversation with Hooty was inevitable. “Hi, Luz’s weird bird-worm friend. Is Luz around?” She asked awkwardly trying not to be awkward or make eye contact. “NoOoO” he answered. “I haven’t seen Eda or King in a day either.” the sound of Hootys voice was so annoying, Amity could barely stand hearing it.
The fact that Eda, King, and Luz hadn’t been around the owl house for a few days either, alarmed her. “Did they say where they were going?” Amity questioned hoping for an actual answer. “UmMmM, they left pretty quickly. Something about visiting Lulu, and I cant come.” Hooty complained. “Wait…” Amity pondered this for few seconds. “Do you mean Lilith?” It took her a minute to land on that conclusion. “YeSsSs” he answered.
“Ok, umm, thanks” Amity started to walk away, then noticed something. Something that definitely didn’t belong where it was left. Amity walked over to the edge of the forest near the Owl House and knelt down next to the object. It was a small pin bearing the empowers sigil. Suddenly Amity had an alarming suspicion of exactly what was going on. She dashed off as fast as her legs would carry her. The sun was slowly setting, replacing the warm light with chilly darkness.
Amity wasn’t quite sure exactly what her plan was. She’d reached the center of town, forcing herself to a halt. What was she doing? Amity didn’t have a plan. She didn’t know what to do. She could find Eda. But where would Eda even be? Hooty said they’d left about a day ago. Amity would have to think of something else. This all had something to do with Emperor Belos. So there could only be a few places to look.
She ran through her options in her mind. One: the Conformitorium, Two: The base in Latissa, and Three: the Emperor’s castle. This was going to take a while to figure out. An Emperors guard passed by in front of her. That was when suddenly an idea hit her. A glorious and horrifying, yet crazy and wonderful idea. “Excuse me,” Amity approached the guard. The guard turned to face her. “Yes?” They answered strictly.
Amity had to seem confident and curious but not to much that she came across as noisy and arrogant. “I’m a student at Hexide, and I’m very curious about what it’s like to be in the Emperor’s Coven. I’d like to be a member myself someday. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?” She tried to be convincing. “Umm, ok” they answered almost hesitantly. “So what’s the difference between the different meeting places and bases?”
She did partially know the difference between the three, but needed as much information as possible. If this meant finding Luz, then she’d be a sponge soaking up all of this new information as if it were water. “Well, the Conformitorium is specifically for holding prisoners that break the law, Latissa is mainly just a meeting space, and then the Emperors castle is for whatever Emperor Belos wants it to be for.” Amity desperately wanted to know whatever this guard would tell her.
“Where would they take the people that Belos specifically wanted to see? Not necessarily the bad criminals, like the owl lady, but just people in general?” Amity didn’t think of Eda as a criminal, she hadn’t done anything really wrong. She had to throw that in though, for it to seem believable. For them to think she was on their side. “That just depends, usually they’d go to the Conformitorium and then be transported to the castle.”
Amity was satisfied with that answer. She didn’t get as much information as she hoped, but it would suffice. At lest she had a slim idea of where Luz could be. “Thank you” she said walking away, trying her best to stay composed as she walked out of sight. It was getting darker out by the minute. That didn’t matter to Amity right now. She was to busy diving into more stupid things for Luz. “Being around you, it makes me do stupid things and I wish I didn’t” ”It’s ok, I do stupid things around you to, Amity”
Their conversation echoed through her head. Amity could barely take it. She was about to pursue another stupid adventure for Luz, yet she couldn’t turn back. I have to do this, she thought over and over again. I have to. It occurred to Amity now what she’d said earlier. That line about how she wanted to be in the Emperors Coven someday. The more Amity thought about it the more she didn’t.
The Emperors Coven sounded more and more like villains every time she encountered them. Especially those in the highest positions. Amity did not have any reason to think that the coven heads were part of this, but didn’t doubt the possibility. At this point, anything felt possible. Amity pulled out her scroll phone. There were a few new notifications waiting for her to find them. She clicked onto her messages.
The first one was from Willow. “Hey Amity, what was going on with you today? You seemed a little off, I thought you might want to talk about it.” Amity read. She could almost hear Willow’s voice when reading it. The second message was from Boscha. “Did you leave class early today? Probably had to do with that dumb human, right? I don’t even know why you hang out with her.”
Amity could hear Boscha’s voice as she read it to herself to. The text even seemed to have that sassy bully tone that Boscha was known for all around school. Amity honestly didn’t know why she hadn’t blocked Boscha yet, she’d have to soon, but now wasn’t the time. Then the third message. The one she specifically waited to read last. It was from Emira. “Hey, where are you? You didn’t come home from school today, and you know if you don’t show up soon Mom is gonna loose her mind and you’ll be in big trouble, just sayin.”
Amity didn’t necessarily want to, but she slightly giggled at that. She knew her sister was being serious, and that their mom would be really mad. Amity didn’t intend on texting Emira back. Although she trusted that her sister wouldn’t show it to their mother, Amity wasn’t leaving anything to chance. If she responded and their mom happened to see, then Emira would be in big trouble to. As much as Amity was annoyed but her siblings, she didn’t want to get them in trouble for something they had nothing to do with.
She put her scroll phone back in her pocket. Amity kept walking, as the evening started to fade into night. She didn’t want to be out this late, but the farther she went the harder it was to turn back. This was for Luz. Amity may be the only person who knew where Luz could be, aside from Eda and King, but who knows where they were. She reached a fork in the road. One way would take her closer to the Conformitorium and the other would lead her toward the castle.
Based on everything the guard had told her, Luz would’ve been taken to the Conformitorium first. But if it had been at least a day maybe more, then would she already be at the castle? Amity had to make a quick decision, the less people that saw her the better. It was getting dark and she wasn’t even supposed to be out this late. Amity sprinted forward down the road to the Conformitorium, before she could hesitate or change her mind.
Soon enough she’d arrived. There it was, right in front of her. The Conformitorium was certainly more intimidating to her up close. There were two guards standing in front of a gate inside. There were two ways Amity could do this. She could have an abomination lift her to the first window, or there was the other way. She was afraid that her first option would be to noticeable, so option two it was. Amity silently slid back behind a stone arch on the pathway in. She carefully drew a small magenta spell circle.
A large abomination rose from the ground over the rock entry path. It’s multiple shades purple goop running together as it took form from the ground, sloshing loudly. Amity listened to the action going on without peaking around the side of her hiding place. The abomination grew larger, alerting the guards. They lurched forward at it. The abomination collapsed around them, sticking both guards to the ground. This was her chance. Amity ran across the path, the sticky abomination goo parted as she ran through.
It closed back up behind her as she walked, and only left a small amount of the path clear. Just enough space for her footsteps. “Hey! Stop!” The guards yelled as she ran through. Amity drew another spell circle without stoping. The abomination regained it’s shape and rose from the ground once more. This time with the guards in it’s hands.
Amity turned her head back as she reached the entry way. The abomination threw the guards out of sight aggressively, deep into the night sky. Amity then hid just into the doorway, knowing more guards would be lurking inside. She drew yet another magenta spell circle, it was much larger this time. The bigger it was, the more force she could use with it. The gigantic abomination shrunk down to sticky goop once more, and slid through the now open gate.
It made its way through the halls and twists and turns of the Conformitorium, sticking nearly every one roaming the building to the ground. It went right by each cell, but filled every walkway expanding largely as it did. Amity continued to walk. She silently passed every guard stuck in her trap. She glanced in every cell as she walked with out stopping. Amity was getting desperate. Had she made the wrong decision? Was Luz even here?
The sloshing sound only seemed to grow louder as the abomination goop made her a path through. Amity continued to ignore it. She was to lost in her own thoughts. What would she even say to Luz if she found her? She kept walking, until she reached the bottom. There she was. Before Amity could even notice Luz, a voice rang out. “Amity!” Amity immediately swirled around. “LUZ!” She yelled back running towards the bars to the cell Luz was trapped in.
“Oh my gosh Amity! I’ve been waiting for so long for someone to find me. I tried to use glyphs but they took my paper and pens, and its really hard to do glyphs when you cant write anything. Even if I tried to do it on the dusty floor it doesn’t work!” Amity could tell Luz was dying to talk to someone. She wasn’t extremely focused on the conversation however. Amity slid her lavender hair out from over her face as she drew another magenta spell circle over the lock. The goo slid up fitting the exact shape of the lock causing it to pop off.
Amity pulled the bared door opened. “Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!” Luz exclaimed hopping up. Amity extended out her arm to help her up. Luz grabbed her hand, pulling herself up next to her. Amity felt her face get hot. Luz saw her blushing and also did. Amity turned away. “Come on! We gotta get out of here, more guards have probably been sent by the emperor.” Luz followed closely next to Amity, without letting go of her hand.
They had almost made their way entirely up to the exit when Luz broke the silence. “Did you do all this?” She asked in amazement. “Yeah, I guess so.” Amity answered, just now realizing how remarkable her spells truly were. They continued to walk out, bursting into a run as the night air hit them through the exit. “I think were out of sight now.” Amity said as they were hidden in the forest. “I don’t think the Owl House is very far from here.” Luz responded. There was a moment of awkward silence between the two.
“So… Amity” Luz stopped to contemplate her next words. “If this is about the kiss, I, I’m not ready to talk about it.” M
Amity responded. “Yeah, ok. Are we cool though?” Luz asked. Amity smiled and nodded. Luz then blushed at that, causing Amity to feel the same heat sensation come to her cheeks. The two spent the rest of the way back waiting in awkward silence. They both wished they could end it, but that seemed impossible right now. They arrived at the Owl House pretty quickly.
Luz noticed immediately that King and Eda weren’t there. “Is there a way you could let Eda know I’m here, and I’m ok?” “Yeah, definitely. I can probably find her on Penstagram” Amity responded. Luz sat down on the couch letting out a deep breath. “Luz, why exactly did they have you there? Do you know what they wanted?” Amity couldn’t go without an answer on this. What if they tried to take Luz again.
“I don’t know fo sure. There were guards whispering about it, but I couldn’t hear much. They constantly mentioned the name Andrias and that he had some sort of deal with Belos about me.” Luz answered. There were so many things that felt unresolved about this. Questions flowed through Amity’s mind. Who was this Andrias guy? Where did Belos fit into all this? What was there deal? And what did any for this have to do with Luz? There were to many questions that were left swimming in her mind that night. To many loose ends. All she could think about was what all of this meant for her and Luz?