Luz walks into the dining room, very slowly. All confidence from before, all ounce of happiness from this special day, vanished in an instant. Luz has made Belos mad before, but never like this. Belos always waits for Luz to attend dinner, but this is the first time he's had to send for her to join him. He's sitting very quietly and is so still, anyone could have mistaken him for a statue.
"Father. Before you lecture me, I would like to state that I wasn't just goofing off with new friends. I was catching up on what I've missed due to the fact that I started school after everyone." Luz started to shake, feeling chills throughout her body. All she can hear is the fast paste of the heart beating in the throne room, which is about two rooms away. "I didn't realize when you gave me the freedom to come home without escort, you meant straight after school. That was my mistake. Please forgive me." Luz is now on her knees, crying.
Belos stands up and walks to the point where he's hovering over his human "Get up. You are my daughter, my burden, you do not show weakness to anyone, especially me!" Luz stands up, wipes her tears away, and keeps her head down, avoiding eye contact at all costs. However, Belos grabs Luz's face and forces her to look at him in the eyes, "Look me in the eyes when I am talking to you!" He lets go of Luz and sits down in his chair motioning for her to sit.
Luz sits, terrified, but trying her absolute best not to show it "I'm sorry for my insolence. Now if I may ask, why am I in trouble."
"Do we, or do we not have dinner every night together at a certain time?" Belos asks not moving his gaze from Luz.
"Yes, father we do. I just lo-" Luz is cut off by Belos raising his hand for silence.
Belos lowers his hand and continues "Correct. Not only have I so graciously given you a home, but I have fed you three meals a day, every day. I only ask for one meal to be with me. We have had the same time for dinner, every day for 12 years. Not only do I provide for you, but I also allow you to attend the school of your choice. This kind of behavior I expect from a normal puny witchling, NOT my daughter. Now since I am so generous, I will let you off with a warning, but for your punishment, you may not eat tonight."
"THIS ISNT FAIR." Luz stands up banging her hands on the table. "You said you trusted me to come home! Normal witches don't have dinner with their family every night. They stay out late with friends eating junk food and having fun!" Luz is once again cut off by Belos, but instead of it being his hand, he pulls out his staff and he raises it up in the air. Luz is now unable to move regretting her behavior.
"Watch your tongue! You are not a normal witchling. YOU are not even a witch. You are a weak human that is lost, and would be dinner for any creature if it weren't for me." Belos is now enraged with Luz's attitude. He now stands from his seat once again, and grips his staff even tighter "Those witches are insignificant compared to you and insignificant to me! If this is how you behave after one day of school then things will change very quickly." Belos finally lets Luz out of his spell and tucks his staff away.
Luz falls on her knees now, frozen in pure horror. "I'm sorry sir. It won't ever happen again." Luz's voice is now shaking, holding back all of her tears. "I am grateful for your generosity. If I am not allowed to eat dinner, may I go to my room and do my homework for the school day tomorrow?"
Belos answered immediately "No. you have to sit here with me while I eat. After I have finished my meal, then you have to clean up, not the guards. Luz, I'm only doing this to teach you a valuable lesson. Family comes before all else. Now sit in silence while I enjoy dinner"
Luz now gets up and sits once again not moving a muscle "Family comes before all else. He just cares about me or he wouldn't have done that. Just teaching me a valuable lesson in his own way." Trying to validate Belos' actions in her thoughts, Luz has just one more question before she calls it a miserable night "Father? I mean no disrespect or harm. I just want to ask a question." Belos gives Luz permission with a nod "So today I've made friends at school. Say one night I would like to spend the night? If I first come home to dinner would that be ok if I would go to their home after?"
Belos ponders Luz's question for a moment "See what happens when we talk like adults. You may have these wishes granted, but you have to ask for my permission every time you wish to do this. Understood."
Luz, still haunted by before, shows no emotion "Yes. Thank you."
Belos continued eating while Luz just sat there, stomach growling. Luz can tell Belos took his time eating today. Soon after he finished, Belos left the dining area and Luz got work.
While she was cleaning up Kikimora comes up from behind Luz "You foolish child. You should be more afraid of him. If anyone else reacted the way you did, they would have been petrified." Kiki scolds Luz and walks away.
Luz knows her father would never do that to her. She's family, she's above all else, right? Luz just wanted to go back to school after this.... family dinner. She continued cleaning for a while, then heads back to her room.
It's late, so the only guards awake are the ones on the night shift. They're less friendly in Luz's opinion, but they still have to treat her with respect. As Luz almost reaches her room she sees Lilith, in some sort of a distressed state.
"Hey, Lilith." Luz says with no enthusiasm, no emotion "you ok?"
Lilith senses Luz's distress as well but is really upset to seem to care "not really. And by the looks of it, you're not ok as well. Belos has given me strict orders to capture my own sister, who happens to be a wild witch. I want her to join the coven so he can remove her curse but she's so stubborn!"
Luz then taps into her father's side, which Steve hates "Well, wild witches are to be made an example of by petrifaction. Your sister is no exception. If she's a wild witch, why should she be rewarded by being accepted into the emperor's coven. That sends the wrong message. My father would never agree to that." Not one ounce of emotion was found on Luz's face at this moment. Normally she would be this happy human, but after tonight, she just wanted to go to bed.
Lilith stood there furrowing her eyebrows "What do you know, you're just a child. How dare you even say that about my sister. You know what, forget it." Lilith walks away fuming. But deep down, she knew Luz was right. So Lilith thought "why did Belos agree to heal Edalyn and allow her to join the coven?"
Luz finally reached her room, tired, just wanting to curl up in her bed and start a new day. She opens the door to Steve, holding vanilla scream cream, and tissues. His face tells Luz he knows exactly what happened and that he's there for her. They've always had that kind of connection. Luz at this moment breaks down sobbing, once again falling to her knees. Steve then wraps her in blankets, picks her up, and brings her to her bed. He lays her down and he sits next to her, rubbing her back, not saying anything, just showing her that he's there if she needed to talk.
Steve and Luz stay like this for about 2 hours. It's now 10:00 pm and Luz finally sits up. Her nose and eyes are red. Her normally perfect posture is hunched. She musters up all of her strength to look at Steve "I'm sorry for being so weak. I guess that's something I need to work on."
Steve sits up and brings Luz in for a hug "Luz, what have I told you. Never apologize to me. Showing emotion doesn't make you weak. In fact, showing emotion to others shows how strong you are. People who don't show emotion are afraid of being vulnerable, and that in my opinion, is weakness."
Luz departs from the hug and looks at Steve with tear-stained cheeks "That's one way to look at it. It's just hard to please him. I have a huge disadvantage than everyone else. I just want to be normal, and make him proud."
"Eh, being normal is overrated. And if it makes you feel better, I'm beyond proud. You've literally done the impossible Luz. You are a human that can do magic. It may be a little different, but that just gives you the advantage. While witches are doubting you and your abilities, you'll just come out on top of the world. Now let's have some late night, well... now melted scream cream and talk about your new friends." Steve, now back in his uniform but no mask, is now holding two spoons with a smile.
Luz grabs a spoon and lets a smile creep upon her face "You should have brought straws instead. Now we're basically having soup."
They both let out a weak laugh. Steve casts a spell to transform the spoons into metal straws "That was my plan all along kid. Now we got scream cream shakes!"
Luz finally smiles and grabs the straw. She starts explaining how her day went and how her first encounters with Willow, Gus, and Amity went. Steve noticed Luz's eyes light up a little when she started talking about the Blight girl but left that subject alone for another time.
The two conversed about their day for a while, when a question reappeared into Luz's mind. "Hey, Steve. Why are palismans so rare? I read in a history book one day, and every witch had one. Now Principle Bump says that they're incredibly rare. What happened?"
Steve froze for a moment, not knowing what to say. As Luz's personal guard, he had to protect her and follow a set of rules enforced directly from Emperor Belos. One of his rules is to keep certain things from her, and that includes Belos' consumption of palismans. In fact, everyone was instructed to keep this particular fact from Luz. No one knew why, but no one ever questions the emperor.
"I don't know. I was given my staff when I joined the emperor's coven, and it doesn't have a palisman. Maybe the wild witches destroyed all the magic wood they're created out of, so they could stop Belos from enforcing order." Steve is now avoiding all eye contact from Luz's gaze.
"Oh ok. I don't know. It... it just seems strange how an Island that literally radiates magic, runs out of magic wood. I guess it kind of makes sense that wild witches would do that to gain the upper hand. So they would be the only ones with that kind of power." Luz ponders not noticing the obvious change in Steve's attitude.
Steve felt guilty. Yes, he cares for his human, but the only reason that she is his human is because of his job. If he told her the truth, he'd be banished from the coven. And everyone knows what happens to covenless witches.
"Ok Luz, as much as I love our late-night hangouts, you've got to go to bed. You have school tomorrow, and I don't want you complaining when you have to wake up." Steve casts a spell to get rid of the carton and straws. He gets up and walks to the door and turns around "put away those light glyphs and GO. TO. BED."
"Ok. Thanks, Steve. You always know how to cheer me up." Luz smiles and lays under her covers to fall asleep. Titan knows she can use the rest after today.
Steve returns the smile and closes the door. He puts his mask back on to walk the halls of the castle. As soon as he walks away, his smile fades, still feeling guilty from keeping the truth from Luz "I had to lie. I would be punished if I didn't. It's also for her own good. She'll never find out anyway." He repeats in his head, trying to feel better about it. He walks alone to his room, needing rest to take Luz to school tomorrow.