The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

It took a bit to figure out how to position everyone so that Luz could get clear footage of the casting session, but after half an hour she had some pretty good footage of multiple castings of the fire-conjuring spell, and Luz couldn't help but beam at the happy, self-satisfied expression Amity made after she got it right. Also, Amity's fire was a very pretty purplish-pink color.

Afterward, as the two witches sat and rested Luz herself pulled out a large thermos and began to pour herself a drink.

"What is that?" Amity asked as Luz filled the cup/lid with a dark, viscous liquid.

"Coffee," Luz replied. "Black as night, with lots of sugar." Luz then downed it in one go and grimaced at the strong, bitter taste even as undissolved sugar crystals crunched against her teeth.

Amity looked at Eda, "It's what humans call bitter bean blood." Eda paused for a moment. "Of course. I have no idea what she does to get it that strong. You could stain a coffin with that stuff and even with the disgusting amount of sugar in it it smells bitter."

"It's not that bad," Luz defended.

"King tried some and spent ten minutes twitching on the floor," Eda deadpanned.

"Seriously?" Amity questioned with a wary glance at Luz's thermos.

"Seriously," Eda confirmed. "She makes it some human device she salvaged out of my reserve of unsold human artifacts and while it's brewing she recites a prayer begging 'Loki, God of Magic and Mischief' to lay a blessing upon the 'bitter black blood of the Earth.'"

"...You're religious?" Amity asked.

"Not really but when the Old Gods walk the Earth and fight and/or commit crime regularly you don't have to be," Luz replied. "Also, Loki served a term as President of the United States," she added helpfully.

Both witches stared at her in silence as if trying to process if she was serious and/or what that meant.

Regardless, Luz could feel the caffeine clawing its way into her bloodstream as she had many times before such as during finals and midterms, and so she turned to her recently made video and began going through each casting of the fire-conjuring spell frame by frame.

After doing so, she deflated and let out a quiet, disgruntled moan.

"Nothing?" Eda asked.

"Nothing," Luz confirmed. "No glyphs. Not even a sign that a glyph might be there."

"That's odd. We know there's a glyph in the light spell and..." Eda acknowledged. "Okay, I'm gonna try and figure this out. While I'm doing that, why don't you two go out and explore."

"Explore?"

"Explore!" Eda confirmed. "Walk around and take in the sights of the woods. Taste the air. Play in the snow. That's why we're out here, to make a connection with nature!"

Luz looked to Amity. "You want to?"

The green-haired witch blushed for some reason, swallowed, then agreed. "Yes."

The two girls got up and casually walked off into the wilderness.

"Now," Luz began, "How do we connect with nature?" She stuck her tongue out and wiggled it a bit. "I'm tasting the air and all I'm tasting is air."

"And we've been taking in the sights of the woods since we got here," Amity agreed.

"Eda's the best teacher I've ever had but sometimes I just don't get her lessons," Luz admitted. "And... At first, I'll admit that I was a little skeptical that she was teaching me anything but now I know that she cares and she's trying. I'm just not that good a student."

"Luz," Amity began, "you rediscovered an ancient form of witchcraft. You have to be pretty good at this stuff. You're going to be a great witch."

"You don't have to say that," Luz said with a glance away. "We undid the Everlasting Oath for a reason, you don't have to say that humans can be witches."

"I mean it," Amity insisted. "I... I still don't like the idea of sorcerers, people just... Asking powerful spirits for magic or performing sacrifices for power, but... You're not like that. You're trying to learn our magic and you're doing it the right way."

"I mean, it's not like..." Luz continued as they walked. "I found the light glyph under some pretty... stressful circumstances. King and I were trapped by the boiling rain with... A demon," Luz very carefully didn't mention Eda's curse. The older witch had to have had a good reason not to have told her and King about it before. "We needed a bright flash of light to stun it since it was a kind with sensitive eyes, and that's when I noticed the light glyph in the recording."

"I don't really see what that has to do with anything," Amity began, "so what if it was just a heat of the moment thing? What was it the Owl Lady said, if you learned you learned?"

"She also said that she thinks that the glyphs are ancient magic that witches learned from the Isles themselves by observing nature," Luz finished. "What is... What if it was just the Isles taking pity on some dumb human and a kid who were in danger? And if the Isles just gave me magic, then... I'm a sorcerer, not a witch."

Luz stopped walking when she noticed that Amity had stopped. The witch had picked up a stick at some point and was absent-mindedly dragging it through a snow bank.

"I'm not religious," Amity began, "and I don't know what the gods of the human realm are like, but what we're taught is that the Titan is a benevolent and loving god who gave of his flesh so that the witches and demons could have life and a home to live on and that his spirit persists and manipulates events to ensure the maximum safety and happiness of all of his children. He gets angry sometimes, because we unknowingly put ourselves in danger, and sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, as he tells us through The Emperor. Still, ultimately all The Titan wants is for us to be as happy and safe as possible in this cruel and dangerous world. I don't know if that's true," she continued, "but if it is, and the Titan did let you find that glyph then it wouldn't have been out of pity, it would have been for a good reason. Because he thought you deserved it. And being gifted magic is different from bartering for it, or stealing it."

"Just don't go spreading this theory around," Amity finished. "I doubt the Emperor's Coven would care for it."

"Thanks, Amity," Luz replied with a smile. Then she noticed something about the witch. "Amity your nose is bleeding again!"

Once more Amity raised a finger to her face but stopped as she realized that she was wearing gloves.

Luz reached into her bag and pulled out an emergency handkerchief which she handed to Amity who proceeded to use it to try and stounch the flow.

"This is my fault," Luz insisted quickly, "I must have done permanent damage and then you overstressed yourself with training today and now you're messed up for life and I'm so very sorry and—"

"Luz!" Amity shouted. "It's fine. I got checked over by a healer, remember? No permanent damage from your spells." Amity moved over to a nearby rock and sat down. "And the nose bleeds are unrelated."

"Huh?" was Luz's response.

"It's really rare, but some witches, like maybe one or two out of every couple thousand, will develop what are called 'abnormal talents' which are odd little bits of magic that are not magic... Um, it's hard to explain," Amity began to lecture. "they broadly line up with the Nine main magic types or else the basic spells that anyone can cast, but people with abnormal talents don't need to use spell circles and while they can exhaust themselves it doesn't seem to use their bile. They don't get sealed by Coven Sigils, either, but most people who have them really only hone their talents if it already aligns with the magic they want to study so it doesn't really matter."

"Huh," Luz acknowledged again. "And you've got one of these talents and it has something to do with nose bleeds?"

"I might," Amity corrected. "They usually come in at around my age and people with abnormal oracle talents can get spontaneous nose bleeds while they're coming in."

"Abnormal oracle talents?" Luz asked again.

"Yeah, you know, oracle magic is things like predicting the future, communicating with spirits, reading minds, long-distance communication, scrying, and so on so abnormal oracle talents tend to be things like... Oh, shoot."

"What!?"

"I got the first nosebleed like, right after I started getting that feeling that I could trust you," Amity explained. "And ever since the covention I've gotten a little better at feeling out how people are really feeling. I thought I was just getting better and infering from body language but it would explain what I sense when I'm..." Amity blushed again, for some reason, then stammered out a conclusion. "But um, my mom can never find out. I don't want to change tracks."

"We've got a word for that in the human realm," Luz began. "Empath. It means people who can sense emotions and intentions."

"That is a lot easier to say than 'abnormal oracle of emotions,'" Amity said. "Empath," she sounded out. "I like it."

"It's a subset of what we call psychic powers or psionics," Luz continued. "Which is basically everything you listed but also psychokinesis, which is manipulating stuff with your mind."

"Literally every main branch of magic has spells like that," Amity pointed out.

"Yeah," Luz admitted. Gears were turning in her head, this was starting to sound familiar. People getting strange powers in their mid-teens, including psychic ones that come with nose bleeds... "So Eda told me that there's this theory that witches are descendants of humans who ended up in the Demon realm thousands of years ago who adapted to the environment and sometimes made babies with biped demons."

"Oh, that old thing? Nobody seriously believes that theory anymore," Amity replied.

"Eda does," Luz insisted, "she made a good argument for it and I think we have some more evidence because these abnormal talents sound an awful lot like something we have back in the human realm."

"Really?" Amity asked, "What do you call it over there?"

"Well, if you're polite, you call them mutants," Luz began.

"...Like, they got into a bad potion and it changed them?"

"No," Luz corrected, "like they were born with genetic mutations. Something about their DNA is different and—"

"What's DNA?" Amity asked.

"Oh boy," Luz began, "that is... Not something I ever thought I'd have to explain to someone. Uh, so you know how when two people make a baby the kid..." Luz trailed off when she realized that Amity was giggling. "You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"Yeah. We know about genes and stuff here," Amity confirmed. "But if abnormal talents are genetic, nobody's done any testing to prove it. Most people don't care enough."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged. She looked closer at Amity to see how she was coping with the nosebleed. "You wanna head back?"

"No," Amity insisted. "I'm fine, the bleeding stopped."

"You sure?"

"Yes, Now, the Owl Lady suggested playing in the snow but... I don't know how to do that," Amity admitted.

"You don't?"

"It's not cold enough to snow on most places across the Boiling Isles," Amity continued and Luz felt stupid. It was called the Boiling Isles for a reason. "You either have to come up here to see snow or use magic to make it artificially and I've just never... I mean, my siblings have, and some of my... 'friends' but I've never really had a chance."

"Well, where I'm from we get a good crop of snow every winter, so I can show you," Luz explained. "First, we need to find a more or less open area with lots of snow."

After ten minutes of searching, the girls found a place where the trees thinned and the snow was nice and deep.

Wading out into it, Luz began with "So one of the most basic things you can do to play in the snow is called a snow angel. What you do is you fall back in the snow like this," Luz demonstrated, "and then wave your arms and legs around like this," more demonstration, "and it makes a shape like an angel."

A few moments later, Amity hit the ground next to Luz and made one of her own... Then asked, "What's an angel?"

"Are you asking for real?" Luz asked to clarify.

"Yes."

"It's a religious thing," Luz began. "When I first explained my little joke about having Loki bless my coffee I mentioned old gods? That's because not many people really worship them anymore. Most people in Europe and the Americas, the Middle East, and places strongly influenced by those regions belong to a family of religions that worship only one God and angels are like, His servants and messengers. In art, they tend to be drawn as beautiful humans with feathered wings dressed in pristine robes and a snow angel makes that same general shape."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged.

"But in the actual texts, they're like, wheels made of eyes and other stuff like that but most human artists don't care for that I guess."

"Really? But that sounds so much more... The human world must be boring," Amity concluded.

"It's not all bad, there's some cool stuff, but... Most humans aren't very accepting of things that are strange or different and... Let's just say that if it weren't for my Mom, I'd probably stay in the demon realm forever." Suddenly she sat up. "But enough of that. There's so much more I can show you."

Luz jumped to her feet and helped Amity up but before she could begin her lecture on snowmen she heard a loud crack followed by a series of other, less loud but still pretty loud cracks.

"...This snow bank is on an ice shelf, isn't it?" she asked aloud.

"Probably," Amity agreed.

"We should probably move before—"

Luz was cut off by the ground giving way under her and Amity. Reflexively she manifested her shadow aura and grabbed the witch as they fell ten feet into a rather shear tunnel of solid ice. Rapidly sliding down and occasionally twisting in the dark, heart pounding a mile a minute, Luz refused to let go of her friend until she was forced to as they crashed through a wall of ice and snow and landed in a snowy, tree-filled valley.

Luz flipped to her feet and looked around for any sign of Amity, finding the witch lying in a snow bank.

"Amity!" she shouted as she rushed over. "Are you okay?"

Amity grunted and tried to sit up. "I think I hurt my leg," she said. Luz checked and her right foot was pointing at a weird angle.

Panicked, Luz looked around and saw some fallen branches. "Okay, just sit here, I think I can make you a splint."

Luz rushed over, grabbed the branches, broke one so it was the right length, and snapped off sticks and bark to get it as smooth as possible before bringing it back to Amity.

She didn't have anything to find it with, however, so she had to cannibalize the bandages she'd had wrapped around her wrist and forearm ever since that brawl with Lilith and her scouts the day of the body swap incident.

"This is gonna hurt a little," Luz said as she repositioned Amity's foot so it was on straight before setting and binding it in the makeshift splint. She winced when Amity grunted.

"Okay, uhm, how many fingers am I holding up," she said while holding up her pointer and middle on her right hand.

"Two," Amity said without hesitation. Luz was about to see if she could remember how you were supposed to check if someone was concussed when Amity laser-focused on her now exposed wrist. "Luz, is that a coven sigil?"