Chapter Text
“You don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” Eda whispered into Luz’s curly, dark brown hair. “I won’t blame you. School is for nerds, anyways.”
Luz nervously chuckled and pulled away from her guardian’s hug, shifting to sit by her side on the thick tree branch She smoothed out the dark Heather-grey, hip-length uniform cloak that fell from her shoulders and shielded her from the chill of the black pines, and smiled to see the short spectrum of colorfully dyed fabric sewed onto the hem of the cloak. A reminder of The Owl House. A reminder of home (now). Fidgeting with the edge, she looked up at Eda, meeting her large, owl-yellow eyes.
“No; I… I want to go,” Luz smiled. “And I’ll still come home at night.”
She knew it was foolish to say that with such certainty, given the ferocious nature of The Hallowoods, but it gave her courage. If she could survive the Owl House and her journey there, she could survive Downing Hill.
Eda seemed to share these thoughts. She sighed with a thin-lipped smile, bristling the cardinal-red feathers the crept up her neck. She reached down and curled a ghoulishly white-skinned hand around Luz’s. She gave her protege’s hand a small, comforting squeeze, only to be betrayed by the ghostly Hallowoods breeze swaying the branch the two sat upon. Luz’s stomach lurched with the branch as the distance to the ground below suddenly seemed infinite and dizzying.
“I’ll fly you to the door,” Eda offered. Luz smiled and crawled onto the harpy’s back, curling her body up between the large, red wings. She wrapped her arms around Eda’s neck and pressed her eyes closed, shutting out the dizzying height. She gripped her own forearms tightly, her hands slippery with nervous sweat. Today would be her first day at the Downing Hill Public Library, the mysterious, sprawling building containing too many rooms for its exterior appearance. Downing Hill, the same mysterious mansion that held a school for witches, witches like Luz had just discovered she was.
Luz hardly remembered discovering her powers, just that the new moon offered no light, the glyphs that crept into her dreams and memory, detached from their context, and the spire of ice chasing off what had to have been a large wolf. And finally, of course, waking up on the couch of the Owl House without her mother or sister. A month later, and a week before her arrival at the library, a murder of crows swarmed the house—to the dismay of their security demon—to demand her attendance.
Eda’s talons landed on the cobblestone walkway with a series of taps. Luz glanced around her through a cracked open eye, peering around her surroundings. At the nearby end of the walkway, the grand wooden doors stood taller than even Eda, and a porch extended forward lined with ornate marble columns. On each side of the walkway, the endlessly tall black pines pressed in. Luz gulped, reminded suddenly of just how small and fragile she was.
Just as the two set foot on the porch, a wooden plank creaking eerily beneath Luz’s foot, the grand doors swung open. The hair on the back of Luz’s neck stood on end and a sensation like radio static filled her ears. The air buzzed and spasmed around the cloaked figure of a smiling man, his hair hidden beneath what appeared to be a fleshy, horned hood. His blue eyes stood out too sharply from his face, and his teeth looked too sharp. Luz scolded herself for being surprised by what scares the Hallowoods had the offers.
At his side stood a girl around Luz’s age, with blue goat’s eyes and a spiraling, curved horn in the center of her forehead. White-blonde curls flowed down her shoulders, and she dressed in a silvery nightgown that fell just above what seemed to be delicate, white-furred deer hooves.
“Luz Noceda,” the eerie man spoke without moving his lips, “we’ve been awaiting your arrival. Please, come inside.”
Cold chills ran down Luz’s spine like water. She wanted this, she reminded herself. They could teach her about her powers; and she could find other witches her age. She forced a smile and squeezed Eda’s hand.
“I’m ready, Eda,” she whispered to her mentor. Across from her, the tall man chuckled without moving a muscle.
“Oh, Edalyn Clawthorne,” he laughed, “I remember your time here. How… interesting to see you taking on a student.”
Eda scoffed. “Not like either of us had much of a choice.”
The man gave a disturbingly understanding hum in response. Then, he turned to face Luz once more. “I’m principal Bump—I currently run Downing Hill. If you need me, the hallways know how to find me. You’ll find me,” after giving his bone-chilling introduction, he turned his pale face to the other small girl. “Irene here will show you all the places you’ll need to know.”
Not showing Luz around the school, just where she needed to go. Luz forced herself to take a step forward and approach Irene, who beckoned her through the doors with a small, bony hand.
Luz turned back and waved towards Eda, a small part of her hoping she’d still see her guardian at the end of the day. “Goodbye Eda!” She cried.
Eda waved back with a smile and a watery shine in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say goodbye, only for the heavy, wooden door to slam shut.
*.*.*
“I understand you’re staying outside the library?” Irene tilted her head. Though she looked to be Luz’s age, her voice had a childish, nasally quality to it. And she hardly seemed to smile, or even emote.
“Yep!” Luz rocked on her heels, excitement taking over her nerves. She’d be going to witch school! How could she have ever been afraid of this? “Eda’s been taking care of me since…” her voice choked. “Since last month.”
If Irene noticed, she didn’t care. She simply turned and knocked on a dorm room door, seemingly identical to ever other door (save for the room number) in the long, shadowy hallway, lit only by flickering candles in glass sconces. “This’ll be your dorm room, if you ever need to stay the night,” her eerie, pale gaze met Luz’s and her voice softened. “You know how the Hallowoods can be after the sun sets. I encourage you to stay inside as often as possible.”
“Cool,” Luz awkwardly chirped. “Dooooo I get to see my room?”
Irene finally gave a small smile, full of milky, tiny teeth. “Of course. And seeing how it’s a weekend, there’s a chance you may get to meet—“
“—What do you want?” A third girl interrupted, door swinging open. Luz’s eyebrows flew up in surprise—the other girl had sharp, yet pretty features, with skin paler and smoother than teeth, summery green hair, and glaring honey-golden eyes. She wore a cloak similar to Luz’s, a black dress, dark red stockings, and graceful black boots.
Irene’s smile fell as soon as it appeared. “Amity Blight, your roommate.”
Amity turned to glare at Luz, sizing up the slightly taller girl. Luz fidgeted with the colorful edge of her cloak, intimidated simply by Amity’s presence, heavy and sharp in the air and smelling faintly of something sweet yet threatening, like nightshade. “You said she wouldn’t be staying here.”
“I said she wouldn’t be staying here most of the time,” Irene deadpanned. “You live here. You know how the woods can be.”
Amity flushed angrily. “You are dismissed, Irene.”
Irene’s hands tightened into fists and a parlor came over her face, but seemingly as if her feet forced her to, she walked into the room, towards the mirror, and disappeared through the silvery glass as if it were water.
Luz gasped and ran to the mirror, pressing a hand against it to find it as reflective and solid as it should’ve been. She angrily turned to Amity, who simply flipped her hair over her shoulder and quietly closed the door. “She was showing me around!”
Amity curtly laughed, appearing behind Luz in the mirror. “And? Downing Hill directs you wherever you want to go. It’s not that hard,” she paused, “and I don’t think I particularly care, anyway.”
Amity casually slipped off her cloak and hung the garment on one of the hooks next to the door. She then walked across the white carpet and sat on one of the two large, comfortable-looking beds, bedded with pink, luxurious fabrics while the other appeared hospital-clean, white, and precise. Between the two beds sat a pair of nightstands, one busy and the other barren, and on the other end of the spacious room, two desks sat in opposite corners, a large window spanning between them. Behind Luz stood three doors, two leading to closets and the third to a bathroom.
Luz felt her face grow hot with embarrassment and rage. She clenched her fists, words sputtering with upset. “Why are you so mean?”
Amity laughed primly. “I’m not mean, I’m only honest. Honest—“ she snapped her fingers and, from a violet glass jar on her nightstand, a small, humanoid shape materialized from iridescent, blackberry-colored slime “—and powerful.”
Luz scoffed. “You’re like, what, fourteen? You’re not that powerful.”
Amity huffed, face pink. “You are too!”
“Fourteen and a half,” she spitefully smiled. “Beat that.”
Amity bristled as she grabbed a bag from the floor next to her bed, retrieving from it a textbook thicker than her skull. “You’re so immature—I have a test to study for, I don’t have time for this.”
Luz shrugged victoriously. “Maybe you should’ve just been born earlier.”
Amity’s face turned red to her ears. “Shut up!”
Luz trotted over to her bed and flopped down on her back, sighing delightfully as she sank into the seemingly perfect mattress. If push came to shove, she’d definitely prefer this than sneaking around in the hazardous dead of night with Eda.
She glanced at Amity’s mauve bedsheets. “How do I get fancy sheets like yours?”
Amity shot her an icy glare. “We’re not friends.”
Luz felt genuine hurt at that, the words twisting in her chest. She wasn’t finding this very fun anymore.
*.*.*
Amity wasn’t wrong—within five minutes of assuming she’d be lost within the expansive, gloomy hallways, Luz suddenly found herself standing outside of room 289. Despite exiting her wing of the dorms somewhere near the very early 200s.
The Botany classroom door seemed to grow from the hinges itself, rough black wood sealing the doorway and fragrant with tiny pink blossoms on lacy vines. Spongy lichen ringed the cast-iron doorknob. Luz grabbed the doorknob and turned, the material making her skin itch. She furrowed her brows, concerned. She’d definitely have to wash them later.
The door opened to reveal two students. One, a short, bony black boy sitting on a desk and gesturing emphatically with his hands as he spoke, a shimmer of iridescent blue eyeshadow on his eyelids. Before him, seemingly only half-listening, a larger, east-Asian girl tended to a spiraling rose bush, pale hands pricked with pink and red scratches from the plant’s thorns. She had a beautifully contagious smile that Luz couldn’t help but return.
The girl spotted Luz, smile faltering for a moment as she tilted her head. “Can we help you with anything?”
“This is the Botany classroom… right?” Luz suddenly felt as though she might’ve been wrong after all.
Luckiky, the other girl nodded. “You must be new here! I’m Willow Park, floral and botanical witch,” She approached Luz and extended a hand. “We don’t have a ton of witches in Botany; Gus is only here to study plant anatomy.”
“—and to not get bullied in my third hour class,” Gus threw a thumbs-up. Luz gladly shook Willow’s hand and smiled even wider. She had a good feeling about these two.
“I’m Luz Noceda!” she introduced herself, “and I can do this!” She waltzed over to the chalk board at one end of the room, staring down the rough, green-black wall. She took a deep breath in, eyes fluttering shut as she exhaled. She’d only done this once in the month following her whole life being thrown into chaos—she still expected it to stop working every time she tried. Especially now, with other witches watching her.
Picking up a pink stick of chalk, she guided her hand through the familiar spell circle and neat lines. Drawing each line felt magical, like soda fizzing in her veins, like sparklers spitting light and flame from her fingertips. By the time she finished the glyph, it stood roughly the size of her hand outstretched. She tapped the drawing and felt a sort of release from the magical tension in her fingers.
A gentle, warm ball of sunlight bobbed in the air, lighting up the previously dim room and chasing away the seemingly perpetual fog in the air. Willow gasped delightedly and clapped, and Gus ‘oooooh’d with his chin in his palm.
“I do that!” Luz cheered. “I can do more, which is why I’m in Botany. But I write down these funny little glyphs that I get in my dreams—“ she gestured to the bobbing orb of light “—and boom!”
“Fun!” Willow then returned to tending to her rose plant, and it was then that Luz noticed the eyeballs situated in the center of each rich red blossom. “Take a seat anywhere, Mrs. Qiuyue doesn’t exactly care.”
Luz took a seat at the desk Gus sat atop. He turned back to her and grinned. “So, who’s your roommate?”
“Amity Blight,” Luz said, her words dropping like a bombshell. Gus squawked out a shocked laugh and Willow gasped as she dropped her pruning shears.
“You’re kidding?” Gus laughed, “you’ve gotta be kidding!”
“Hehe, nope,” Luz nervously laughed. “I’m not staying here most evenings, so it’s not like I’m—it’s not like I’m like her, y’know! I try not to be as mean as her.”
Willow snorted. “Mean is an understatement for her.”
Gus leaned down and Whispered, “When Willow and Amity were kids—“
“Gus!” She cut him off. “Not right now,” she hissed. The boy simply shrugged and leaned back.
“Just thought it might explain some things.”
“It’s none of her business,” Willow grumbled.
Luz glanced between the two and thought back to her part-time roommate. Sure, Amity seemed cold, and uptight, and rude, and unwelcoming, but…!
…hmm.
Luz couldn’t really think of a but. BUT, there had to be something to her, Luz thought. Not everybody had to be mean to their cores!
A spark of excitement made Luz drum her hands on the table. A mystery to be solved, just in the first day at magic school! The Mystery… of what the deal was with Amity Blight.
Just then, a tall, slender woman entered the room, maybe the tallest woman Luz had seen in a long time. Her inky black eyes sparkled kindly, and a pair of pink, feathery antennae extended up from her long, pin-straight black hair. From her back swept two grand, ghostly green moth wings, two long hindwing tails curling out from underneath slim forewings.
“You must be our new student!” The woman, assumedly Mrs. Qiuyue, said as she shut the door. “Welcome to Botany—“ she swept over to greet Luz “—we’re so excited to have you in our class.”
All of Luz’s attention suddenly switched to the nice teacher in the green wool cloak. Mysteries could wait!
*.*.*
That night, Eda’s claw-like fingers carded through Luz’s thick curls, gently braiding the black hair.
“So, how was the first day?” She asked, “make any new friends, hex any mean kids? Anybody I need to attack?”
Luz chuckled. “I don’t think you should go around beating up teenagers, Eda.”
“You never know,” she humorously clucked. “Some of them deserve it. They’re kinda miserable, sometimes.”
“Watch it, I’m a teenager too.”
“Yeah,” her mentor leaned down to kiss her forehead, “one of the good ones.”
Luz cuddled further into the couch as Eda took a seat at her side, extending an arm over the younger witch’s shoulders (Luz still couldn’t get over how she was a witch now!). She’d been visiting Eda for years, after her mother had dated her when Luz was a child, but eventually broken things off. They’d remained friends, and so Eda had halfway raised Luz, as if she were her aunt. So although living at the Owl House wasn’t the largest change… it felt different. Instead of a novelty or a treat, it felt like a dream she wasn’t sure if she should wake up from.
“I’m serious, though,” Eda gave her a stern look. “Downing Hill can be dangerous. Like, torture for not returning books on time, dangerous. It’s been a while since I’ve been there, and students get a little more wiggle room, but… still.”
“I’m sure I’ll be fine, Eda,” Luz nudged Eda humorously. “I even have a room there in case it gets too dangerous in the evening to go home!”
Eda gave a tight-lipped smile. “Well, I guess it’s better than nothing. Im just scared of you getting hurt there.”
“I’ll be…” Luz trailed off as an odd noise echoed through the woods outside the cozy owl house, bouncing off the dense pine trees.
“Be quiet,” King, a young canine-like demon with Grey fur and a skull-like cap on his head, grumbled from the arm of the couch. “Im napping here.”
A woman with sweeping, cool-black hair and patchwork clothes stumbled into the room from the hall. Lilith Clawthorne, Eda’s little sister’s, green eyes blew wide in their sockets. “What was that?”
Eda’s feathers bristled and Luz, sensing the tension in the room, glanced towards the windows. She saw nothing but the dark nighttime Hallowoods, but she heard it. She heard the low, sawing notes of a violin slowly slinking their way.
Luz heard. And with a sickening slither in her gut, she remembered.
She remembered hearing those same ominous Violin notes approaching over a month ago. She remembered hiding, confused, in the tight, pitch-black closet with her careful mother and elfish little sister, as orchestra music buried their house in its tornado-like crescendo. She remembered her mother’s panicked Spanish prayers.
Eda suddenly flew into action as Luz came to the sinking realization that they weren’t telling her something. Something seemingly very, very important. Eda slammed the curtains shut and locked the door, even shoving her potions desk over to block it. She then pressed a single finger over her lips, motioning for Luz, King, and Lilith to be quiet. Hooty’s haunting form snaked into the room, feathers roused anxiously as he obviously refused to face whatever musical storm passed over their home.
Lilith snuffed out each light and shoved a carpet aside with her foot, revealing a trap door. Luz’s stomach sunk—how many times had she walked over that carpet not knowing?
Eda scooped up King’s sleeping body and Luz’s hand, pulling her along towards the trap door as it swung open, revealing a staircase sinking beneath the floor. Luz hesitated a moment, fright and memories gluing her to the spot. This hadn’t worked the first time—what if this thing took Eda, too, and she hardly remembered? What if she forgot her family all over again?
“What’s going on?” Luz whispered as she began to hyperventilate, chest rising and falling rapidly. A sudden bassoon note rattled the front door with its immense volume, as loud as if it played directly in her ear.
“I’ll explain in a moment,” Eda pleaded, “just please, follow me.”
Luz let Eda pull her into the basement, the door slamming behind them. With a scratching of owl claws on the wall, a light glyph suddenly lit their way down the stairs, courtesy of Eda. Luz still wasn’t sure how Eda was able to conjure *her* type of magic, but… she didn’t mind. It made her feel less alone in her oddball talent.
Soon enough, Lilith, Eda, sat on pillows and blankets in the room, the vivacious orchestra booming from above them.
“What is that?” Luz asked again. She had to know what attacked Camilla and Vee.
Eda shuddered, wings rattling. “That would be The Imperial Orchestra.”