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Soul Day.
A day when the magic concerning souls is at its thinnest, and people across the Isles are granted a glimpse of the souls connected to theirs and what each bond means for the people involved.
Soulmates, essentially.
Luz had heard the term before, obviously, but the Human version she knew best was a little different to the definition they had in the Demon Realm.
Firstly, there were different kinds of soulmates, and everyone had more than one. And almost all of them were the ones you created yourself. Family, friends, people you had a strong connection too. On Soul Day, the bonds you’d created were visible.
Her friends had described it as a coloured tether that joined two people, one that flickered in and out of view and was impossible to hold. Despite not being tangible, however, people had described a tugging sensation on this day, that would pull them towards each other in times of joined emotion. Her Oracle teacher had described it as ‘the souls resonating with one another and longing to be closer’.
The tethers were only visible to those joined, and no one could see a bond they weren’t a part of.
In addition, each tether was a different colour, determined by whatever bond the soulmates had.
There were the three most common, and the simplest to explain. Purple meant familial, blood or not. Yellow meant friendship. And pink, meant romance.
Then there were other colours, that were a bit more specific.
Orange, a colour generally seen between guides and their charges. It can be between a parent and a child, or a mentor and a student. If you view someone as a role model, or someone to look to in your life, and they in turn view you as someone worth cherishing, with a desire to help nurture you through growth, then orange is the colour your bond will have.
Green is for the kinds of bonds that don’t have a specific name. They can be found in all kinds of people, but it was a somewhat rare colour to have. People had described it as being, ‘unconditional love’, or ‘love in its purest form’. It’s found in the kinds of people who have formed a lifelong bond, the kind that can’t be broken easily, and the kind that meant those joined would always be together through everything.
Blue was for the kinds of bonds that were based on trust, support, and loyalty. People with a blue bond might not always be close, but their love shines through when it matters the most. If you have a blue bond, it means you trust each other, and will always have each other’s backs, even if you argue or don’t get along all the time. It’s common in families, siblings especially, and can also be found in close friends.
And then there were some neutrals.
Brown meant that you cared about each other. You might not love, or even like each other, but if you have a brown bond, you have a connection, and you don’t want to see each other hurt. It’s seen by distant family members or old friends you still care for.
Grey is for particularly weak bonds, it can be seen by either, people who have a strained or fading relationship, or people whose bond is just beginning and thus, undefined.
People often had more than one coloured tether between the same soulmates, but it was possible for some tethers to change or fluctuate between colours if the bond wasn’t 100% sure what it should be.
Willow had said that her and Amity had had a bond that fluctuated between brown and grey for years, and both were worried to see what colour they would have this year.
All this talk of tethers between people had reminded Luz of the ‘red string of fate’ story from her own realm, something she’d explained to her Oracle class when the topic had come up. Her teacher had told her that the story must have come from the Demon Realm, because they did have a red tether that could be seen on Soul Day, but the red one was completely different from all the others.
Unlike the other colours, which form based on the connections people built themselves, a red tether is the only one that can be seen without a connection, even before the people meet. It was thicker, and brighter, and it never changed. It was also the most rare and could be seen at a much further distance than all the others appeared at.
A lot of people described this tether as, ‘A True Soul Bond’.
It was said these bonds were found in people who had been bonded since before they existed. People who were destined to meet and had the capability of forming a bond unlike any other. Their souls were opposites, mirrors of one another, the true definition of a soulmate.
These people could be anything, family, friends, lovers. Even enemies. It didn’t matter what kind of bond formed, only that if you were one of the rare few who shared a red bond, then that person was the other half of your soul.
Luz was enamoured with the entire ordeal, but deep down was a fear that she wouldn’t have her own tethers. She didn’t know if ‘Soul Day’ would work on humans, and she desperately did not want to be left out of something so magical.
The night before Soul Day, she struggled to fall asleep, fear keeping her awake.
By the time it was morning, Eda had to wake her up, as she’d slept through her alarms.
“Luz. Wake up.” Her mentor’s voice was soft and quite clearly holding back a lot of emotion.
Luz groaned as she slowly woke up, “Eda?” Her voice was rough with sleep as she blinked up at the witch. Eda had a wide smile and glassy eyes as she looked at the human. Luz slowly registered the unshed tears, but before she could ask what was wrong, Eda spoke again in that same tone of voice.
“Can you see the tethers?”
There was a moment of silence as Luz remembered what day it was, then she sat up with a gasp, wide awake and casting her eyes about.
Erupting form her chest were tendrils of colours that seemed to wave about in the air, popping in and out of focus before her eyes. She followed the tethers that connected her to Eda and her own eyes glassed over as she recognised what the colours meant.
Purple, yellow, orange, green and blue.
She launched herself at Eda, and for once, Eda squeezed back just as tight. Laughter and tears filled the first moments of morning and was the first thing King saw when he entered the human’s room.
“Luz?” He asked cautiously, and when Luz pulled back and saw the tethers joining her and the little demon, she opened her arms for him to join.
Purple, yellow, green, and blue.
From then, Luz continued about her day full of excitement. She got a thrill whenever she saw the colours connecting her to all the people in her life.
Hooty and Owlbert had purple, yellow and blue
Willow, Gus, and Amity were yellow, green, and blue
There were yellow bonds between her and several students she considered friends and was beyond overjoyed that they felt the same. There were also orange bonds between her and all her favourite teachers.
Willow and Amity were overjoyed at the return of their yellow tether, and Gus had noted a barely there string of pink connecting him and Mattholomule halfway through that the three girls had been teasing him about since he shyly mentioned it.
There were even thin grey tethers between her and Boscha, and her group of friends!
The day had been amazing, and Luz was hesitant to go back to her room after dinner because she didn’t want to see the tethers fade from the distance to the rest of the Owl House residents. But Eda had convinced her to get some sleep after one more group hug.
Deciding to document the occasion, Luz pulled out her phone and made another video for her mother, describing Soul Day and the connections she’d been able to visibly see. As always, it hadn’t gone through.
Luz decided to stay up a little longer, sitting on the roof outside her window and looking at the stars.
It was about half an hour later when it happened.
A light appeared on her chest. Having gotten used to the sudden lights throughout the day, Luz didn’t pay attention at first, and just thought one of the others had gotten close enough to activate the tethers.
But then she noticed the red glow.
Luz gasped as she looked down. Sprouting from her chest, a red tendril of light grew, thicker and brighter than all the others. It moved outward, arcing across the sky and into the woods surrounding the Owl House. Luz felt breathless as she watched the beautiful colour, waving through the air in a hypnotising motion. When she realised what the colour meant, she bolted to her feet.
Jumping inside her window just long enough to grab her cloak and a handful of glyphs, Luz took a running leap off the roof, using a plant glyph to catch her fall and deposit her on the ground.
She began running, faster than she ever had, determined to find whoever was on the other side of the tether. Luz knew that red tethers could reach distances much further than all the others, but she didn’t know exactly how far they could go. So, she ran, like her life depended on it. Everything her Oracle teacher had said about red tethers running on a loop in her brain.
She wondered what kind of bond they’d have, if they’d get along as well as her Oracle teacher had said. The way she described it made it sound like something out of a fairy-tale, or almost every Soulmate AU she’d ever read. Luz grinned at the possibilities and couldn’t help a euphoric giggle. Whoever was on the other end of this tether was the other half of her soul. Even on the Boiling Isles, finding something like this was incredibly rare.
Realising it was late at night, and she still wasn’t any closer to her ‘True Soul Bond’, Luz picked up the pace. She could not miss this opportunity!
She raced through trees, under branches and over roots. She passed startled animals and the occasional demon. She moved faster than she could ever remember moving and she did not stop.
Just as she was starting to think she should have risked grabbing Owlbert for the journey, another colour lit up her chest. This one was a lot dimmer in comparison to the red one, and the colour and position of it came as a shock to Luz. A grey tether, wrapping itself around the red one, as a symbol that it was a connection for the same person.
Luz had learned everything she could about tethers since the moment she learned about Soul Day, and she knew that you couldn’t have any colour but red for someone you hadn’t met yet. Therefore, this meant, that she had already met the person she was searching for, and they already had an undefined bond.
This also meant, that they must be close by.
With her heart racing, Luz slowed her steps and came to rest against a tree. Through trying to catch her breath, she heard someone else doing the same as their footsteps slowed. Her heart now beating for another reason, she saw the red tether reach through the tree she was leaning against, and a feeling like she was being gently tugged in that direction, and knew it was directly leading to the person on the other side.
The person who had run here same as she had. The person who seemed just as breathless as her. The person who was leaning against the exact same tree she was.
Swallowing down her nerves, Luz let out a single breathless word.
“Hi.”
…
“Hi.” The answering voice was just as breathless as her own. It was deeper than hers, masculine, giddy and familiar.
Reminded of the grey tether, proof that they’d already met, Luz swallowed again, trying to wet her parched throat, and stood tall. Self-consciously patting her hair in place, Luz took slow steps around the tree. A crack of twigs across from her told her that he was doing the same, and anticipation rose in her throat.
Clearing the last few steps, Luz saw magenta-coloured eyes, pale skin with a pink scar on one cheek, and windblown ash blonde hair.
Blinking in pure shock, Luz’s mouth fell open.
“Hunter?”
They both stared at each other, too shocked to move and still a little out of breath. After several long moments, Luz’s eyes fell to the coloured strings of light that connected their chests. Bright pulsing red, and thin grey wrapped around it.
Two people whose souls were bound long before they met. Two people who formed a basic connection when they did meet, one that was still undefined. Two halves of the same soul. Two strangers who barely knew each other.
It might not have been what she was expecting, but Luz was… satisfied. It felt right that it was Hunter.
She sagged against the tree and met his eyes again. “You know, I’m not surprised.”
Hunter stared at her, seeming wary, “You’re… not?”
Luz shook her head, a smile on her face. “No. I thought we were similar in Latissa. And I definitely got the impression we could become friends if we got to know each other.”
This made Hunter relax as well. Both of them now had shoulders pressed against the tree trunk as they looked at each other.
Hunter gave her a small smirk. “Friends, huh?”
Luz blushed in response, her smile widening as she ducked her head, “Or whatever.” He was her type after all. “I would like to get to know you though. Maybe we could turn this grey tether into something else before the end of the night.” She raised an eyebrow at him as she waved her fingers over and through the light, waiting for his response.
Soulmates or not, he was still a part of the Emperor’s Coven. And he hadn’t been interested in sharing personal information the last time they met.
After a moment, he slid down the trunk and sat at the base of the tree, patting the spot next to him. “What would you like to know?”
Luz grinned, plonking down next to him far less gracefully than he had. “What’s your favourite colour?” She asked excitedly.
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Seriously?”
Luz shrugged. “What? I figured we’d start small, and I do want to know.”
He sighed, sitting back as he thought. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe purple? or green? I do like red.” He waved a hand. “One of those, I guess. It changes.” He looked at her curiously, “You?”
“Purple.” She answered instantly. “Sometimes pink, but purple’s my number one.” She looked at him. “You get next question.”
Hunter floundered for a moment, clearly unsure, but she waited him out. “Favourite book?” He asked.
Luz grinned. He may regret asking her that question, especially so early on, but if he wanted to know anything about her, he had to know of her love for Good Witch Azura.
They carried on like that for hours, even after their tethers faded, signalling the end of Soul Day. But their conversation continued, promising the beginning of something new.
Especially since, before the tethers faded, their grey one had lightened to yellow.