Chapter Text
Hunter panted, struggling to regain his breath. His nose stung from the recent blow to his face; but thankfully, he could tell it wasn’t broken. Honestly, he’d be surprised if it even bruised. With his position as the Golden Guard and how hard he worked to fill that role, Hunter was familiar enough with both by now to know what they felt like.
The fight had come to a standstill. Amity held a shiny purple spike of solidified Abomination goo against Hunter’s neck, while Hunter held his—the palisman against her wrist, pinning the key in her outstretched hand in place. It was right there-exactly what he needed to get back into the Emperor's good graces. He couldn't let it slip away.
Judging by the fact that the injury to his face was superficial, when it easily could have been much worse, she didn’t want to hurt him any more than he wanted to hurt her. And despite the fact that he had attacked first, he really didn’t want to hurt her. But he needed that key. His mind whirled for a second, debating the possibilities, before settling on a strategy. Flattery never hurt, if his interactions with his uncle and the coven heads were anything to go by, and, if his interactions with other scouts were anything to go by, neither did just enough of a threat to make her take him seriously. He’d learned a few things about Amity in the past couple of hours, things he could use.
“Listen,” he grunted. “You’re strong, and I’m tired. If this continues, you’ll probably escape.”
Not a lie, even if he wished it was. Maybe he was holding back from hurting her, but he’d never used a real staff before, and he was rather sleep deprived from staying up worrying about how to regain his uncle’s favor. And Amity was very good at magic.
“But here’s the thing,” Hunter continued, closing the trap. “We know where to find you. And your human.”
It was an empty threat—even if he actually wanted to make good on it, he doubted he’d get the chance to go after them again, not if he returned to Belos empty handed. He wasn’t the sort to take revenge: he hadn’t even mentioned to the human that he knew she’d lied about killing the Selkidomus. Belos had been… less than pleased, about the lack of scales to collect from the cave. Apparently they were valuable, for one of his many projects. Hunter hadn't asked which one.
Regardless, as he’d expected, Amity gasped as soon as the words left his mouth.
“So just… hand over that key.”
Amity stared up at him in alarm for a second, then looked away, her eyes scrunched up in defeat. “Fine,” she spat. “Just… stay away from Luz.”
Hunter held out a hand, waiting. It was only a second, but it seemed to drag on for eons. He could feel the stains from the abomination goo on his face, sticky and strange in a way that made his skin crawl.
She dropped the key, and he snatched it.
Suddenly immensely relieved, he pulled back his staff and walked away. “Appreciate it.” He paused, remembering how she’d tried to help him, when he’d been at the end of his rope. Someone she didn't even know. And… while she hadn’t wanted to give him the key in the end, she still had. She couldn’t know how much that meant to him. He glanced back. “I, uh… mean that, too.”
She only glared, but Hunter was already gone, flying out of the cave on the palisman. It was a lot different than using the artificial magic of his staff: more real, somehow. Freer. Less like Belos and his expectations were breathing down his neck. And with the key in hand, the pressure upon him suddenly felt much lighter.
…
Hunter stood in the fading sunlight, watching the light filter through the broken yellow glass of the portal key he held aloft. A smear of bluish blood stained the inside, and as he watched, another precious drop escaped through the cracks, falling to disappear in the snow that perpetually covered the Knee.
He’d gotten his prize, but not before it had been broken. Nearly all of the Titan’s blood was gone.
Still… some Titan’s blood was better than no Titan’s blood, right? That was exactly what the Emperor would have if Hunter hadn’t disobeyed him to go to the Knee. Eclipse Lake had been completely empty. In the best case scenario, Kikimora would have dug those tunnels until they collapsed on top of her. Or maybe until just one big, conveniently placed boulder collapsed. Some of the scouts were nice to Hunter, even when they didn’t have to be. Like Steve, who he’d bonded with when they were left on that mountain during their training, with their staffs taken away and temporary sigils blocking all of their magic.
In any case, even with the portal key broken, surely this would be enough to forgive Hunter for his last failed mission? And for disobeying his orders today?
A weight settled on his hand, drawing Hunter’s attention. The cardinal perched there chirped at him.
Hunter found a small, fond smile making its way to his features. “You stuck with me the whole time, huh, bird?”
Even when it should have become clear how much Hunter didn’t deserve to have a palisman choose him, and even when the bird clearly didn’t agree with what he was doing, they had stayed. Hunter didn’t have much experience with unconditional kindness like that. It was… strange. But nice.
“Flapjack!”
Hunter’s eyebrows went up in surprise. He still heard a chirp, but somehow, he knew what it meant.
“Wait—I think I understood that! Is that your name? Can you say it again?”
His palisman landed on his shoulder. “Flapjack!” he repeated.
Hunter found himself giggling, a bit giddy. “Weird. Can you say… other things?”
The bird began ecstatically chirping and trilling at him as Hunter made his way down the hill. “Of course, of course! I’m so excited! My name is Flapjack! I want to be your palisman!”
Flapjack continued on like that, saying all the things he’d wanted to tell him in the weeks they’d known each other and hadn’t had the chance to say. It was a welcome distraction as Hunter made his way towards the castle, and towards Belos, who he hoped would be feeling forgiving.
…
Luz hadn’t seen the Golden Guard for a while.
Sure, a few days wasn’t much, but Belos was the type to make a lot of frilly, nonsense speeches to the masses that were broadcast to every crystal ball in the empire; and the Golden Guard was usually there, standing to the side of the podium. There had been a couple of these speeches since she had last heard of him—they were growing more frequent as the Day of Unity approached—and Luz hadn’t seen him in his usual spot. She hadn’t seen him anywhere else outside, either, patrolling the streets with the other scouts. Granted, the Boiling Isles were a big place—probably the size of one of the smaller states on the east coast of the US, back in the Human Realm—so it was entirely possible that he was just stationed somewhere outside Bonesborough. But no one else she’d mentioned him to had seen him either.
Amity had told her that Hunter had gotten the portal key, as well as at least some of the Titan’s blood that had been inside of it. The loss made a part of Luz wish she had never sent her awesome girlfriend to Eclipse Lake at all—they had already had the Titan's blood; they just hadn’t known it.
On the bright side, though, at least they knew about it now, and Amity had managed to soak her glove in the blood before the Golden Guard made off with what was left in the key.
Still, the fact that they hadn’t seen the Golden Guard in the past few days made her uneasy, especially given what had happened at Eclipse Lake. Who knew where he was, but the odds were good that his disappearance was because he was off working on some nefarious scheme with Belos, trying to get to the Human Realm with whatever Titan's blood remained in their newly acquired portal key.
Something which didn’t bode well for everyone Luz loved who was in the Human Realm, like her mom.
…
A week after Eclipse Lake, Amity and Luz were sitting at the coffee table in the living room of the Owl House, playing Hexes Hold ‘Em. Static spun on the crystal ball perched nearby: yet another one of Belos’s many grand, boring speeches was about to start. Luz was sure he’d say nothing of substance, yet again. Just some garbage words to make the people love him and hate wild magic even more. Still, she felt the need to at least half pay attention, just in case anything happened that hinted at what he and the rest of the Emperor’s Coven were planning.
It was also a welcome distraction from their plans for the next day: they were going to try to activate the new portal to the Human Realm that they were working on, using the Titan’s blood that Amity had saved. Hooty, King, and Eda were outside working on the final touches to the portal, now. It was mostly Luz’s project, but Luz had been sent back inside after being a little over-eager to help and nearly knocking the entire portal over. Eda had shooed her and Amity off, but assured Luz that the portal should be ready to go sometime the next day.
Belos had Titan’s blood now, too; but if he was going to get to the Human Realm, he’d have to beat her to it.
Luz had just gotten about half of her deck devoured by a few of Amity’s particularly bloodthirsty (paperthirsty?) cards when the light flared bright on the crystal ball, and the broadcast of Belos’s dumb speech began.
Luz glanced up from collecting the smoldering remains of her cards to see the Emperor standing behind a podium, his mask in place and his uniform impeccable. He spread his arms, and the view zoomed out to show the rest of the coven heads arrayed behind him, looking varying degrees of bored, smug, or aloof. And off to Belos’s right, there he was: the Golden Guard, standing tall in his familiar shining gold and stark white uniform, artificial staff in hand.
“Hunter!” Luz said, sitting up straight.
Amity cast the crystal ball a bored glance. “Hm.” She shuffled her cards, getting ready to deal the next hand. “You know, I bet he just took a week off to recover from our fight.” She smirked. “Maybe he got the key, but I did punch him in the face. He was covered in abomination goo at the end. That dumb lock of hair that hangs in his face looked like a paintbrush. I bet it took him a few days just to get it all off.”
Luz snorted, partially amused and partially relieved.
And maybe just a little bit worried, since the return of the Golden Guard might mean that he and Belos were getting closer to finishing the project they needed the portal key for. Or worse, that it was already done. Luz didn’t want to think about why they’d even want to go to the Human Realm.
…
That night, Luz and Eda were at the Night Market, looking for some odds and ends and a few final items they needed to finish up the portal—including, for some reason, a weird baby doll with a fork for a hand that Lilith had insisted her calculations deemed absolutely necessary—when Luz spotted a familiar figure.
“Eda, I’ll be back in just one second!”
Eda didn’t look up from the table she was bent over, inspecting some strange-looking objects that looked like eyes with metal spider legs. “Fine, just don’t let anyone steal your teeth.”
“Okay!” she agreed, only half listening, before charging up to the Golden Guard, who stood looking aggressively official to the side of a building.
Luz slowed her sprint into something slightly more casual as she neared. “Hey, Golden Guard! Whatcha up to? Stealing more Titan’s blood?”
The Golden Guard tilted his head, giving Luz as quizzical a look as one can in a blank golden mask.
Luz drew up short, pouting at him. “Hey, did you hear me? Hi, it’s me, Luz the human.”
The Golden Guard just ignored her, standing straight again. After several seconds passed and Luz hadn’t left, he snapped, “I’m a Coven official. I don’t steal.”
Luz frowned at him, confused. Was he trying to pretend Eclipse Lake hadn’t happened? Did he think Amity wouldn’t have told her?
“Where’s your buddy?” she asked instead, guessing Hunter didn’t want to discuss the Emperor’s evil plans.
“…Buddy?”
“You know, your little…” she lowered her voice, remembering suddenly very vividly what Belos did with palismen. “Your little cardinal friend, the little rascal? Amity said you had him.”
He stared at her.
“He’s a red bird?” she tried. “One eye, super cute?” She was starting to really get concerned, now. How hard had Amity punched him, exactly?
The Golden Guard scoffed. “I don’t need a palisman, let alone one with one eye. They’re barely more than wild magic. My staff is far superior.”
“Uh.” Luz took an uncertain step back. “What?” Amity had said Hunter was kind of dismissive of the palisman at first, but she’d also said that he was clearly fond of it, and that the palisman even more clearly loved him. It didn’t sound right, that he’d be insulting it now. She looked around. “Are you afraid of someone overhearing?” she whispered. “Because I promise, no one’s paying attention to us.” No more attention than needed to make sure the Golden Guard didn’t explicitly see whatever illegal activity they were doing, anyway.
“Why would I care about that?” The Golden Guard shook his head. “What am I doing? I shouldn’t even be talking to you—I don’t even know you. Now get out of my way, human; I need to patrol. Quit distracting me and go annoy someone else.”
He shouldered past her, and Luz just let him go, bewildered.