You guys thought I would make it easy... unfortunately no... Luz can't catch a break and I apologize for this chapter.
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4:30pm
Luz is pacing back and forth in her room. She goes over the plan in her head "ok find a Blight parent. Convince him or her to invite me to dinner. Then... Convince my father, to let me skip... dinner... Yeah, this isn't going to work. I know! I'll find Lilith and see if she can help me. Wow. I'm going to die at the end of the day, aren't I? NO! You are heir to the throne. You are the most badass human on the Boiling Isles. You can do it, Luz!"
Luz immediately stops her pacing. At this very moment, she remembered her last name. Noceda.
She's never even thought of it before, but ever since Amity and Eda invaded her brain an hour ago, she's remembered bits and pieces. She only really remembers that one memory, unfortunately.
Luz doesn't know how to react to all this new information. She understands why Belos took away that memory. He wanted to protect her from the guilt it carried. But why would he want to lock away her inner self?
Luz is conflicted now because she feels every emotion at once. Before all her emotions were suppressed. They weren't gone but they were very minimal. "He didn't want me to be weak. He was only doing what was best for me. He loves me. AH NO! Love is a weakness. But... Amity loves me. She told my inner self. Is that weak? YES LUZ SNAP OUT OF IT. You are the daughter of the emperor. You can't feel these things or you will fail!"
Luz quickly snaps out of her thoughts and decides to look for Lilith. She starts to walk down the halls, still in her all-black outfit from last night's heist. Luz goes into a room after room looking for the coven leader, growing more aggravated by the minute.
Luz enters one room and there was Steve and Kikimora talking. Instead of interrupting them, Luz decides to hide and listen in on their conversation.
Steve whispers to Kiki "You can't ask me to do that."
Kiki snaps back "You don't have a choice in the matter. You are in this coven to serve the emperor directly. If you deny the request, we will have no use for you. And need I remind you what happens to covenless witches."
Steve stares at Kiki in fear and steps back "Please! Anyone else. I can't do that again. Not to her." Steve is now pleading, holding his hands together.
"Mind yourself. You have grown too attached to her. If you do not comply with the emperors request, then you will be replaced. Have it done by the end of this week. Do not fail." Kiki walks past Luz without noticing her and exits the room.
Steve, thinking he's all alone, sighs and throws his staff across the room in frustration. He then holds his head and starts to talk out loud to himself "What am I gonna do. I can't do it again to her. If she ever found out what I'm required to do every year to her, she'll never forgive me." Steve then calms down and goes to grab his staff. As he goes to pick it up he notices his human hiding behind one of her plant glyphs. "LUZ!!! HOW MUCH OF THAT DID YOU HEAR!?!?"
"Steve? What do you have to do? And to who?" Luz has so much fear in her voice. Steve walks towards her but she steps back, afraid of her protector. "Steve. Answer me."
Steve sees and hears the fare radiating from Luz "Kiddo. I can't tell you an answer to either of those. You're just going to have to trust me ok? You trust me. Right?"
Luz is on the verge of crying "Steve! As heir to the throne of the Boiling Isles, I command you to tell me what and who, you and Kikimora were talking about. Right! Now!"
Steve takes off his mask and looks down. He can't bare to see the look on Luz's face when he tells her what he's about to tell her "Luz I- I." He sighs and looks back up at the human, feeling guilty.
Luz yells "I- I can't trust you, the. I order you to call me my liege. I won't grant you any privileges to use my name. NOW, I COMMAND YOU TO ANSWER ME NOW STEVE!"
Steve now has tears in his eyes holding back. He bows down in respect "My liege." At this moment, Steve is heartbroken that he's betrayed the trust on the one he values most "I have had strict orders from your-... the Emperor, to cast a spell on you every year to contain you inner self, so you wouldn't feel as much as the rest of us. That is why you can never understand the true feeling of love, compassion, empathy, etc. I am the one to make sure certain memories are locked away for your own good."
Luz is now furious. She's never felt this angry before. It must be the effects of releasing her inner self. "THAT WAS YOU WHO CAPTURED MY INNER SELF. YOU, WHO BLOCKED OFF MY MEMORY OF MY BIOLOGICAL PARENTS!!!! YOU WERE THE ONE TO TELL ME EMOTIONS WERE NOT A WEAKNESS! Yo- you lied to me. Y- you were supposed to be my best friend. I looked to you like you were my brother." Luz's anger turns into hurt. She can't even look at Steve. "Funny. The only one to tell me the truth is a wanted criminal. She was the one to actually help me."
Luz then starts to walk away.
Out of nowhere, Belos appears out of thin air and casts a sleep spell on Luz. She falls to the floor. Belos looks at his fallen orphan and then to her bodyguard. Steve then immediately puts on his mask and salutes "My liege! She listened in on my conversation with Kikimora and used her rank to order me to tell her everything."
Belos walks up to Steve menacingly "Oh Steve, I saw the whole thing. The Titan told me to spy on my daughter today and did as I was told. I understand your dilemma, so you will not have to those things to my daughter. I will do them personally. As for you." Belos turns from Steve to Luz and casts a spell to levitate her beside him "You will be demoted to patrol of Bonesburrow. I will not have someone as weak as you to look after the future of the Boiling Isles anymore. You will be transferred first thing tomorrow morning."
Belos vanished with Luz, leaving Steve all alone. Steve walks out of the room speechless and devastated.
As he's walking he bumps into a fellow witch "Oh Steve. My bad. How are- Are you ok?" Lilith is now looking straight into Steve's eyes, sensing something bad has happened.
Steve and Lilith went into her office to talk about what just happened. Lilith was speechless. She had no idea what Belos had him doing every year with Luz. "Wait. You said Luz said something about a wanted criminal freeing her inner self? Did a name happen to pop up?"
Steve looked at Lilith with confusion "out of all the information I just told you. That's the one question you have?"
"Steve, there's only one witch with that kind of power. I need to know, did a name come up."
Lilith had both hands on Steve's shoulders, with a very serious tone.
Steve looks away to think "No name came up. But I followed Luz to a house last night to make sure she wasn't attacked or anything. She went to a house with a weird tube coming out of the door. If I'm correct, my buddy was just on a task force to try and capture a witch in that area. Her name was-" Steve was cut off by Lilith.
"Edalyn!" Lilith says and gets up immediately and leaves her office.
Steve then just had the realization that Eda is Lilith's sister she always talks about and follows her out of the castle.
*KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*KNOCK*KNOCK*
"Easy! The door is alive. You knock any harder, you'll kill him..." the door opens to reveal Lilith and Steve. "Lilith," Eda says in an intimidating way.
"Hello, sister. We need to talk." Lilith lets herself in, followed by Steve.
Before the two can get comfortable Eda starts to yell at the two "You two have got some nerve. I know everything. Both of you are cowards letting that tyrant treat that poor human like that."
Lilith puts her hands up to calm down her sister "Edalyn. Calm down. I know. We all turned a blind eye when it came to the human. We had no other choice. But, when I heard what Belos was ordering Steve to do, I couldn't believe it. That's why we are here. We can't take on Belos. He's far too powerful, even with the three of us combined. And if we kidnap Luz, that will just aggravate him more."
Eda then turns to Steve "So you're the one who did that to poor Luz. I know what she thinks of you. I know she trusts you more than anyone, and that's how you repay her? You disgust me." Eda turns away from Steve and back to Lilith "The plan is we rescue Luz from that tyrant's playground. He's never even left the castle, so we'd just be dealing with his goons. Hooty alone can beat those bozos up."
Lilith is about to speak when Steve steps up "That won't work. Belos might deny it but Luz means a lot to him and he means a lot to her. He raised her, and she grew up worshiping him. No matter what, that doesn't go away after one slip up. She'll forgive him and run back. I betrayed her trust and I might never earn it back, but she is my world, and I'd rather see the world burn than see her get hurt. Once I realized I was hurting her instead of helping, I refused to do it any longer, and I ruined my reputation and rank. And I would do it again in a heartbeat."
Eda still has furrowed eyebrows but has an ounce of respect for the coven guard "I still don't like you. Ok so what now? She won't leave willingly and she will go back if we kidnap her? Any other ideas?"
All three witches think for a moment "I have a student that's sort of in the same situation. Obviously not as dire as this one but similar in a way. Her parents control her every move. They have her whole future planned out and have never seemed to ask what she wants. Maybe she could give us insight." Lilith speaks up and grabs Eda and Steve's attention.
Eda and Steve exchange glances "Does your student happen to have green hair?" Eda speaks up.
Steve then continues Eda's question "And have the last name Blight?"
Lilith looks at the two surprised "Yes actually... how did you two know?"
"Oh, I have a feeling she's the key to all of this," Eda says as she grabs her staff and heads out the door.
Steve and Lilith both follow and head straight for the Blight Manor. The whole journey was dead silent. The tension could have been cut by a butter knife.
In fact, all three witches were very conflicted with all the emotions they were feeling. Worry radiated off of Steve, determination radiated off of Lilith. And Eda, well Eda had many emotions coursing through her veins. Hatred, determination, worry, and most of all love. She couldn't explain it, but as soon as she met the human, she felt an instant connection to her. Like they were like a mother-daughter complex in another life.
The three powerful witches approach the manor. Lilith steps up and knocks on the door. The twins answered and greeted Lilith.
"Hey, Lilith! I didn't know Mittens had a lesson scheduled today?" Emira smiles and steps to the side to allow Eda, Steve, and Lilith in.
Edric continues his sister's train of thought "Yeah. Our parents didn't say anything about it."
Lilith then faces the two and uses a serious tone "No lesson today. In fact, I need Amity right now. It's of the utmost importance. Where is she."
The twins' exchange worried looks at each other and turn back to Lilith. As if planned they both said at the same time "Her room."
~~
Darkness. Luz was back in a room consumed by darkness. She was here a couple of hours ago and let's just say she was not happy to return so quickly. "AGAIN! Who are you and what do you want with me!" She screaming into the abyss, knowing the creature was the one who brought her here.
Laughter filled the room. "Hahaha. You're feisty human. I like that. I see now I chose the wrong human."
Luz was confused but aggravated. First Steve betrays her, now this!?!? "ENOUGH WITH YOUR GAMES!!! WHAT DO YOU WANT!!"
"Woah. Easy there. I mean you no harm. Just last time I didn't take enough precaution. But you. You are the human I originally wanted." The creature now in front of Luz, but the room still pitch black.
Luz still confused digs her nails into the palm of her hands "What are you talking about! What other human. Can't you see I'm the only one on the stupid Island!!!"
"Hey! Be respectful. This isn't just an island. Hmmm been a crazy day huh? Let's sit and talk like adults, shall we?" The creature snapped, and the room changed and became the library. The creature also warped into a familiar face.
"Amity? Wh- what gives you the right to shift into my father and friend?" Luz is now over this creature's games and just wants to get back to her life.
The creature, now in the form of Amity, begins "Now, human, I chose this witch because she means something to you, more than just a friend. I would have chosen your other friend Steve, but I have a feeling that wouldn't sit well today."
Luz cuts it off "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DO THIS! PLEASE JUST LET ME GO!"
The creature raises its hand to silence Luz "Easy. I'm only here to help you. 50 years ago a human journeyed to the Boiling Isles. His name was Roman. I visited him like I'm visiting you, with a proposition to bring order to the Isles. With this offer came immense power. Now I can take it away, but to take it away I have to give it to someone else. That someone else, is you Luz."
Luz is now calmed "Why me? What happened to Roman? How can you grant immense power, and why not just use it for yourself?"
"Mmmm. You have valid questions and I shall answer them. But before I do, allow me to teach you something. Your 'father' Belos, has... taught you that emotions are a weakness. And in doing so he's gone a little far in trying to suppress them. Correct?" Luz nods her head "Mm. You see, I've visited your father before, and helped him achieve order, but he got... let's just say carried away. After a while, he stopped talking to me and has ignored my orders ever since he's gained power. Now he's training you to be the same, however, you are much more powerful than you realize. You see, by imprisoning your inner self, you shouldn't have had any emotion at all, but yet here you are. You felt every emotion but just didn't know what they were. Emotions make you more powerful than Belos ever was."
"Wait." Luz then waves her hands in confusion "Wait wait wait wait.... you know my father? How do you know all of this? Please just who are you."
The creature then turns to its original form. "My dear child... I am the Titan."
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Thehehehe
Twist. Ahhh. >:)