The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Amity was fine. The healer running the crisis tent next to the Healing Coven's covention stand hadn't detected any permanent damage. Just some mild bruising on her bile sack and magic depletion, nothing a healer's patch and a day or two of rest couldn't handle.

The nosebleed, the healer said, was unrelated as far as they could tell. However, sometimes witchlings around Amity's age would get spontaneous nosebleeds shortly before developing certain types of 'abnormal oracle talents' and suggested that she make note of it if it happened again or if she manifests any unusual abilities. Amity decided to keep any such abilities she may or may not manifest a secret, lest her mother decide for her that she should switch to the Oracle track. She liked abominations, she was good at abominations, but if her mother saw any chance at all of making Amity more like her she'd take away one of the few things Amity ever got to pick for herself again.

Amity was in enough trouble with her mother as it was. Shortly after she was seen by the healer, Amity was tracked down and tried to explain her actions but Amity found her justifications lacking and, still hurt from her now former mentor's betrayal, Amity insisted on severing that relationship then and there. Amity's mother had been most displeased about that upon finding out, lecturing Amity about how alienating the head of the Emporer's Coven would endanger her chances of joining in the future and she didn't seem to care about how Lilith had essentially used Amity to try and humiliate the Owl Lady. Then came the lecture about losing a witch's duel against a wild witch's apprentice, followed by the lecture about not keeping her composure better after losing the duel, apparently the rumor mill had exaggerated her retreat after the realization of Lilith's betrayal into her having fled in messy tears, which was just great.

Her mother had finished the tirade by grounding Amity, but Amity had to open her stupid little mouth and point out that that would mean that she couldn't hold the moonlight conjuring that her mother insisted she invite her 'friends' to. The 'friends' she only associated with because her parents wanted to network with their parents. Amity would have been fine with getting to skip out on having a bunch of people she could barely tolerate in her room overnight but she had to come out and say it and thus her mother backpedeled, saying that the lectures were punishment enough.

Amity considered inviting Luz, just to have one person she could actually stand present and if her mother questioned her she could spin a tale about good sportsmanship and cultivating powerful allies but... Amity didn't know where the Owl Shack was and the only time she saw the human was when she and her 'friends' were gathering last-minute supplies for the conjuring and when Amity noticed her she was talking to Willow and... Willow's friend in the Illusions Track. Amity couldn't well approach her new friend when she was talking to Willow, it would be... awkward and... Totally not painful... They were probably going to have their own conjuring anyway.

TLOA

So the conjuring was a bust. They couldn't even animate a stuffed doll. Meanwhile, Luz and Willow and... What'shisname's conjuring, which brought the Owl Shack itself to life, had blown up Penstagram. Amity took a bit of vicarious glee in that someone had had a good night but...

Whatever, today was better. Today Amity was at her job working at the library and had just finished her absolute favorite part of the job: Reading to the small children who came in for storytime. She'd always loved reading and getting to introduce some of her childhood favorites to a new generation was one of the few pleasures in her life. She had just said goodbye to Braxas, a sweet and adorable little boy when she suddenly noticed a sensation. Warm and sweet and welcoming, like a big mug of hot choco-smilk and a good book on a rainy night. It was weird but the last time she'd felt that was at the covention when she was talking to...

Amity turned her head, to see Luz crouched awkwardly behind one of the bookcases.

"Luz? Are you... Spying on me?" She asked.

"No!" Luz shouted as she jumped up awkwardly, which earned a shush from elsewhere in the library, "I just, um.. You see uh..." Amity got the impression that Luz was panicking but then the human girl seemingly forced herself to stop. She then took a deep breath and continued. "I was exploring the library, uh, first time here and I overheard you and came to get a closer look but I didn't want to interrupt and... I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Amity insisted as she turned to start cleaning up.

"Need any help?" Luz asked helpfully.

"I appreciate the offer," Amity replied, "but this is literally part of my job."

"Oooh," Luz began again, "maybe I could get a job here. We could alternate lines while reading to the kids and do different voices for each of the characters."

"I don't think the position works like that," Amity countered, 'but if you're serious about getting a job here I could put in a good word for you with Malph—"

"Hey, Mittens!" called out a familiar voice, and Amity froze.

"Oh no," she whispered as her older twin siblings approached.

"Mittens, there you are," her sister said as she held out a pink, bunny-eared lunch sack. "Mom says to stop forgetting your lunch."

Amity quickly snatched the sack. She hadn't forgotten it, she stopped bringing that sack on purpose three weeks ago when a co-worker questioned why a girl her age still carried a bunny-themed lunch sack but no one at home seemed to have gotten the memo.

"Okay, thanks, bye," she said with her teeth clenched and a wave. Years of living with her older siblings meant that she could practically feel the mischief emanating from them and by the Titan it felt especially strong today.

"Wow, rude Mittens," her older brother said, "aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"

"Luz," Amity began dryly, "these are my older brother Edric and my older sister Emira," she said while gesturing to each respective sibling, "Ed, Em, this is Luz."

"Oh, right, the human we've heard so much about," Edric acknowledged.

"Yes, now I really need to get back to work," Amity insisted.

"Fine," the twins said in unison and began walking off.

When Amity noticed that Luz too was leaving, she stopped her. "Actually," she began, "I'm off the clock in about an hour and a half so if you'd like to hang out you could meet me—" she checked that her siblings were out of earshot, "in the romance section," she whispered, "then. And uh... Try not to get caught up in whatever trouble Ed and Em are getting into."

"Got it," Luz said with a smile and a hand gesture that was like a fist but with her thumb extended straight up. Amity assumed that was a good thing.

Luz left and Amity returned to her work. As she cleaned up after the children she'd been reading to, part of her wondered why something as mundane as asking her new friend if she wanted to hang out had made her feel so nervous.

TLOB

"I'm showing you a great deal of trust by showing you this," Amity explained to Luz as she made sure that no one else was in eye or earshot of a certain shelf in the romance section.

"Are you sure you want to show this to me?" Luz asked. "I mean, we haven't exactly known each other very long."

"Like I said at the covention, it's weird but I can't help but feel I can trust you," Amity countered. "I am choosing to trust that feeling." That warm, welcoming feeling that just radiated off of the human girl.

Amity then reached for a certain book whose name was an... uncomfortable coincidence and pulled it, thus flipping the secret switch that caused the bookcase to pull back and reveal the hidden study room that master librarian Malphas had let her use as her own private space. Amity then ushered Luz in and closed the entrance from the inside.

"Wow," Luz said as she looked around. "Your secret hideout is everything I could ever dream of in a secret hideout."

"Thank you," Amity replied with a smile. "But, you know... Secret hideout. Please don't tell anyone about this or try to come here without my permission."

"Scout's honor," Luz declared while doing... Something with her fingers at her brow.

"You were a scout?" Amity asked, images of Luz in armor marching through the wilderness in search of fugitives running through her head.

"For two months," Luz confirmed. "I got kicked out because I got a little overzealous during the cardboard regatta."

Amity blinked and decided she'd try to figure out what that meant later.

"So," she asked, "what do you think of the Bonesborough Library?"

"It's amazing," Luz declared. "it's like f you took everything good about a human library and then replaced all the boring parts with a delicious blend of horror and whimsey. Also, I think your siblings were hitting on me."

Huh. That was a new emotion. It was sort of like the kind of anger that Amity felt when someone went into her room or touched her stuff without her permission, mixed with a sour-sick feeling in her stomach, and a sensation not unlike what she imagined it would be like if her bile was starting to boil. Weird, Amity would have to try and process that later. "Yeah, they do that," she replied.

"Anyway," Luz started, "I've been meaning to ask... Are you alright?" Luz made a circular motion over her heart.

"Yeah, everything's healed up fine," Amity confirmed and then cast a simple light spell to show that her magic had recovered.

Immediately it seemed as if a great weight had dissolved from Luz's shoulders. "That's great. I was so worried that I'd hurt you badly and—"

"Luz, it's fine," Amity insisted even as a bit of heat came to her face at the thought of the human being concerned for her. "You didn't know it would do that and... I was actually trying to hurt you so if anyone should be apologizing—"

"Hey, none of that," Luz insisted. "We're cool now. So, what was that book you were reading the kids?"

The heat intensified in Amity's face. "Oh, nothing special, just Otabin. It's a pretty popular children's story, about a lonely bookmaker trying to make friends."

Luz gave Amity a knowing look before smiling. "You seemed so happy reading it to them."

"Y-yeah," Amity admitted. "I... The kids don't care about my social status or my grades. To them, I'm just the nice lady who reads them stories and I get to just be me for a little bit, and... Otabin is my favorite—was my favorite!" Amity quickly corrected.

"Amity," Luz said with a gentle laugh, "I am the last person who is going to judge you for still liking something that was important to you when you were little."

"...It's not just that," Amity began. "I... I guess I relate to Otabin, a bit. I don't really have friends so much as associates. Everyone I hang out with is someone whose parents are in my parents' social circle. The only one I have anything in common with is Boscha and she takes Grudgby a lot more seriously than I ever did."

"What's that, like a witch sport?" Luz asked.

"The best witch sport," Amity confirmed. "The only real friend I ever had was..."

"Willow?" Luz asked. When Amity didn't respond Luz continued. "She told me that you two used to be friends... Amity, you're not a bad person, why are you so mean to her?"

Amity began tugging on the hem of her tunic and flashed back to the ultimatum her parents gave her when she invited Willow to her eighth birthday party behind their backs. "I... I... Something happened and we couldn't be friends anymore. It's better, it's better if she hates me than if..."

"If she misses you as much as you miss her?" Luz guessed. Amity was about to ask how Luz could have known that until she recalled what the human had said about sensing emotions at the covention.

"...Yeah."

Luz came up next to Amity and put an arm around her, prompting the witch to reflexively lean into the comforting presence. "So I'm new to this whole having friends thing myself," the human began, "but if anime, cartoons, and fantasy novels have taught me anything it's that if you care about Willow then even if you can't be friends anymore she deserves to know the truth."

Amity wiped her eyes. "You're right. Could you... Help me talk to her... Not now, but when I'm ready? I wasn't brave enough to tell her the truth then and I'm not brave enough now."

"Of course," Luz agreed. Amity met Luz's eyes in that moment. Her pretty eyes and...

Oh. Well, that'd make an interesting diary entry.

"Now," Luz began in ignorance of Amity's realization, "if your magic is back we can let you out of that Everlasting Oath, and after that, I noticed that you only have Azura 1-4," she gestured back to Amity's 'favorite books' shelf, "and I never leave home without..."

TLOA

Odalia Blight stepped into a chamber she'd used for privacy when attempting to divine the future and locked the door behind her. Mittens had come home late this evening and while she'd been cagey about her location, Odalia had been able to extract the truth from the twins before they left for whatever it was they did when they 'snuck out' at night... Something about a book? It's not like Odalia cared.

Per her eldest children, Mittens had been hanging out with her new friend. Odalia hadn't permitted Mittens to make any new friends, but that was a discussion for later. What was important now was that, when she pressed the twins for details they confirmed that Mittens's new friend was the human. The only human on the boiling Isles, the sorcerer who the Owl Lady had taken as an apprentice, the human who had humiliated her youngest in the Witch's duel at the covention and provoked her heir's sudden bout of rebellion.

Odalia had been prepared to confront Mittens over it when the thought tickled something in the back of her memory. One of the first things you learn on the Oracle Track is that the future is far from set in stone. Baring rare incidents with Time Pools, the world just wasn't deterministic. Still, that hadn't stopped Odalia from scrying possible futures when each of her children had been born, in order to have a better idea of how to guide them properly to the outcomes she wanted for them.

One of Mitten's possible futures, albeit an unlikely one, had mentioned a fight.

Privacy secured, Odalia drew her focus from her neck and summoned her oracle spirit, a rather horrifying specter.

"Spirit, when my youngest was born I demanded prophecies of her future. I dismissed one for being unlikely—"

"I know the one of which you speak... It seems far more certain now."

Odalia had thought as much. "Would you care to repeat it to me, I fear I may need to change my plans and hedge my bets."

"Of course, mistress."

The red string draws us to a fight

Where famished friend shall meet the unyielding light

United they shall be at the ball

Before a Titan's rise and a Tyrant's fall

Good fortune your child shall never lack

As the consort of The Queen in Black