#algea | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rosemaidenvixen · 16 days

Text

Algea

Chapter 1

Algea: personified spirits of pain and suffering–body and mind–, grief, sorrow and distress. The bringers of weeping and tears.

Stranded in a world not her own, Luz works to make a way home while the Boiling Isles struggle under the rule of Emperor Belos. It won't be easy, but with the support of her friends and found family she feels there's nothing she can't do.

Then random chance and careless spite collide into an act of unimaginable cruelty, leaving multiple lives shattered.

Luz is devastated but there’s no time to pick up the pieces. The Emperor's tightening his grip, and Luz and her friends have to push their own pain aside and pull themselves together if they want to prevent the ultimate tragedy.

The day of Unity is fast approaching and they have a plan to stop it, but their allies are few and their enemies are many, and they have plenty of tricks of their own. Hardship haunts them at every turn, their group suffering loss after loss as they struggle forward. Each time they manage to pull through, but their hope is steadily eroding. And their own survival may not be the benchmark they can use to measure victory.

For there are many fates that are far worse than death.

Ao3

Next>

Luz headed down the trail leading away from the overlook, Amity walking right beside her, their fingers entwined. Everytime Luz actually thought about that her heart gave a little flutter.

She hadn’t been able to do her tradition today, go to her dad’s grave with her mom. Spend the day together, talking about all the happy memories they had of him.

Amity’s fingers tightened ever so slightly against her own, giddy butterflies bursting to life in her chest.

But today had worked in its own way.

Reluctantly, Luz slowed to a stop as they came to where the path split “So…you probably need to be getting home now,”

“Actually…” Amity turned towards her “Do you think I could stay over at the owl house tonight? Today was a lot, and I’m not sure I’m ready to go back home to dad…and mom,”

“I’ll have to check with Eda but I think that should be fine! You can sleep on the couch, you might have to deal with one of Hooty’s midnight musical numbers but other than that there shouldn’t be a problem,”

Amity let out a laugh “Midnight musicals, good one,”

Luz just blinked back at her.

“Wait was that…not a joke?”

A short while later the two of them walked through the door into the owl house.

“Eda!” Luz shouted with a hand cupped around her mouth “Can Amity stay the night tonight?”

“Yeah that’s fine,” Eda shouted back from the kitchen “We’ll have to shuffle the sleeping arrangements though, we have another guest,”

Luz turned towards Amity, the two sharing a curious look “Another guest?”

They hurried back to the kitchen, spotting Eda talking with–

“Oh hey aunt Lilith,”

“Wait Lilith!?” Amity whipped back and forth between Luz and the bespeckled puffy haired witch sitting at the table “Aunt!?”

“Oh hello, yes it’s me,” Lilith gave them a little wave.

Amity looked her up and down “I…I didn’t recognize you,”

“I suppose I have changed quite a bit. Ever since leaving the Emperor’s Coven I’ve been working hard to shake off the shackles of conformity and step up as a Bad Girl Historian and Cool Aunt to Eda’s wards,”

“Yeah! Just last week we went back in time to meet the journal author,”

“What!?” Amity whirled back on her, eyes blown wide “You met Philip Wittebane!?”

“Yeah, he turned out to be a jerk though,”

“I punched him in the face,” Lilith said primly.

Amity whipped her head back and forth between Lilith and Luz, mouth working open and shut.

“Alright I’m turning in and leaving you nerds to it,” Eda pushed away from the table and stood “Lily you ok with bunking in the nest with me so Boots can take the couch?”

“Yes that should be fine,”

“Alright, goodnight nerds, have fun with your nerd talk,” she turned and started heading towards the stairs, leaving the three of them in the kitchen.

“Hang on just a second…” Amity shakily took a seat across from Lilith “You guys actually went back in time,”

“Yup,” Luz sat down next to her “We used the time pools,”

“I thought those were an urban legend, next you’ll be telling me possums are real,”

“While possums might be a myth I can assure you that time pools are very real,” Lilith stood and pulled down a large chart from the top of the wall, on it was a drawing of a large pool of water, to the left of the pool was an illustration of a dripping blue liquid, to the right a mossy green mass. Both them them helpfully captioned ‘Titan’s blood’ and ‘Boiling Algae’. Arrows from either picture pointed towards the center of the chart, swirling together into the picture of the time pool.

Amity blinked “Wait, did you already have that set up…or do you just carry it with you…?”

“Yeah she’s been doing that a lot lately,” Luz leaned over and whispered to her “Apparently a good Bad Girl Historian is always prepared for a lecture,”

“You see time pools are formed by congealed titan’s blood mixing with prehistoric algae,” Lilith pointed towards the pool in the middle of the chart “The resulting composition is unstable, both chronologically and geographically, unlike other deposits of congealed titan’s blood, so not only can it provide windows through time, the physical location of these pools is constantly changing as well,”

“Hang on, other congealed titan’s blood!?” Luz shot up out of her seat “What other titan’s blood is out there?”

Lilith adjusted her glasses “Well not titan’s blood per say…”

She reached up and pulled down another chart, this one showing the titan’s skeleton lying in the boiling sea, but it was a cross section with various subterranean spaces visible, including the mine on the knee.

“When the titan fell in the boiling sea, sea water along with prehistoric forms of algae leaked into the titan’s body, forming the first non boiling lakes and rivers,” Lilith pointed to a large swath of purple on top of the titan’s pelvis “At the same time, large amounts of titan’s blood pooled and congealed in the lower areas of the titan’s body,” she traced her finger down, the purple of the pelvic lake turning into a deep turquoise as she traced the map of the water below sea level “Over time the algae consumed the pockets of the congealed titan’s blood, assimilating it into its physiology and permanently altering its biochemistry. Resulting in a host of different algae-blood amalgamations within the titan,”

“Wait…” Luz leaned forward, practically hanging over the table “Does that mean lakes and rivers could be portals through time to?”

“No,” Lilith’s finger lifted, tapping the tangled rib structure above the teal underground lake “Not only is congealed titan’s blood exceedingly dense, the algae it amalgamated with are a primarily subterranean species. As such all known amalgamations, time pools excepted, have settled deep underground. This combined with being filtered by the titan’s skeletal and vascular systems prevents algae-blood amalgamations from affecting the accessible levels of lakes and rivers,”

“Yeah,” Amity cut in “Like Lake Lacuna, it runs super deep in the middle, but aside from the razor eels the shallower areas are pretty safe, a lot of people go there for picnics and swimming,”

“Quite right, now this is also why titan’s blood has been historically mined at the knee,” Lilith tapped the picture of the knee “The elevation isolated it and prevented amalgamation with algae. Creating veins of pure titan’s blood. Now time pools are unique in that their shifting locations have brought them up to the surface and allowed some scant observations, but for the deeper deposits only trace samples have ever been recovered,” she turned back to them “Quite frankly there’s no telling what sort of properties these subterranean algae-blood amalgamations have,”

Luz sucked in a gasp “We should have a beach day tomorrow!”

Amity blinked in surprise for a moment, before a stray giggle escaped her “That was your main take away from that lecture?”

“I’ve been through the time pools before, but we’ve never had a beach day! And you said people go swimming at the shallow parts of Lake Lacuna, so let’s do it!”

“Well I for one am proud that I was able to deliver such a thorough lesson on short notice,” Lilith said with a satisfied nod, rolling up her charts with a snap “But it’s getting late and I must retire, so I’ll leave you to plan you delinquent outing,”

With that Lilith strode out of the room, Luz still buzzing with excitement beside Amity.

“We can have not-dogs, and invite Gus and Willow–”

Amity felt a bubbly warmth filling her chest, Luz’s sunny enthusiasm contagious, as she pulled out her scroll “I’ll shoot them a message on Penstagram,”

Only seconds after she sent it her scroll chimed with a reply.

Luz leaned in over her shoulder, the two of them reading the response “Willow says they can come after Flyer derby practice, and they want to know if the rest of the team can come,”

“Sure! The more the merrier!”

Amity laughed again, already composing the response.

---

Alador yawned and pushed back from his workbench, wincing as his spine popped. It had taken longer than he expected but he finally finished working out the prototype for the Abomatron. Normally he’d make a beeline to bed right now, so tomorrow he could start work on his next project bright and early, but tonight something made him drag his feet.

The situation with Amity and the brawl kept going through his head, one of the reasons it took him so long to finish the prototype plans.

Amity didn’t want to join the emperor’s coven, she didn’t want to join a coven at all. When did that happen?

He stood up, knees popping as well, discarding thoroughly stained apron and work gloves on the bench. The action so practiced he barely had to think about it, leaving his mind to dwell on other things.

As long as he’d known it had been Amity’s dream to succeed and rise high. To be the best of the best and do the Blight family proud.

Then again…how long had it been since he’d actually sat down and talked about her dreams with her?

There was the first day of her baby class, an abomination just a little bit taller than she was tottering after her as she ran down the path, proudly proclaiming that she wanted to create the biggest abomination ever, as big as the titan! But that was nearly ten years ago, surely they’d spoken more recently…

Alador searched his mind for any memory of such a thing, and to his dismay came up empty.

Guts lurching uncomfortably, he shut off the lights and headed upstairs. He hadn’t been meant to ignore Amity or the twins, he’d been busy with his work, and Odalia was always better at that sort of thing. He’d never been good at planning and networking, or anything that involved talking to people. Better to let Odalia handle those things; she was charming, intelligent, an absolute force of willpower. With her guidance their children were guaranteed a good future.

But maybe he’d taken things too far, delegated too much, and somewhere along the line he’d become so distant from his children that Alador barely knew them.

That thought made him unbearably sad.

Reaching the top of the stairs he paused with his foot in midair. Down the hall to the right was the small guest room he slept in when he couldn’t be bothered to shower after a long stretch of work. Odalia never banned him from their bedroom but she put her foot down when it came to abomination stains on the sheets. That’s where he should go, get some rest so he could be ready to start work on the Abomaton 3.0 tomorrow. But despite knowing that he found his attention pulled to the left….

After hesitating a few more moments, Alador turned and started heading down the hall to his left.

Maybe he wasn’t good at this, maybe Odalia was better at planning their childrens’ futures than he’d ever be, but that was no excuse not to at least try. And Alador wanted to know his children again.

Soon enough the door loomed in front of him, one Alador didn’t remember walking through in years. He raised a hand then hesitated, intestines twisting into knots.

Swallowing back the sensation, he forced back his nerves and rapped his knuckles against the wood.

After a few moments of unbearable silence Emira’s voice echoed out.

“Uh…come in?”

Alador cracked open the door and peeked inside. When the twins were born they’d shared a nursery, as they got older they’d moved into separate bedrooms, connected to either side of the original nursery. And the nursery had become a playroom, a way to isolate the destructive chaos of twin toddlers from the rest of the manor, and the twins’ favorite place to hang out.

To his relief that much hadn’t changed, while the decorations were more mature than he remembered. Each side of the room was decorated with what looked to be Edric and Emira’s tastes respectively, although there were strands of fairy lights and a small desk near the window that didn’t appear to match either style.

Edric and Emira were lounging on plush chairs on one side of the room, each of them looking up from their scrolls to stare at him quizzically.

“Hey…” Edric said slowly “Amity’s spending the night at the owl lady’s house, she’ll be back tomorrow.

Alador blinked “She is?”

How checked out was he? His youngest daughter wasn’t home and he didn't even notice. Was he really that little of a presence in his childrens’ life?

He gave a quick shake of his head to dispel the spiraling thoughts. For better and worse Amity had made it clear where he stood with her. Now it was time to clear the air with Emira and Edric.

“I didn’t come here to talk to Amity, I wanted to talk to you,”

Both twins glanced at each other “About what…” Emira said slowly.

“Oh just…” Alador stepped fully into the room and gently shut the door behind him “How are your studies going? Are you two still in the illusion track?”

The twins shared another look, silence stretching out longer and longer until Emira cleared her throat “Actually…I’ve been working on healing magic to,”

“Oh that’s…good,” he turned towards Edric “How about you,”

“I’ve been…checking out beastkeeping, and potions,”

Aladror started a bit “Wait, were you the one responsible for what happened to Warden Wrath at the brawl?”

Edric jerked in his seat, face flushing deep red “That wasn’t– I…uh…”

“Because that’s impressive,”

Now both twins jolted in surprise.

“Really…..?” Emira said hesitantly.

Alador felt his face grow hot. Was it really so unusual for him to take an interest in his children? Well if it was that was changing now.

Maybe he wasn’t good at this, but titan dammit no matter how bad he was Alador was going to be there for his kids.

“Tell me more about your beast potions,” he gingerly took a seat at an empty desk chair “And your healing illusions…”

---

Darius had to fight back a yawn as he made his way back to his quarters. With the day of unity fast approaching the workload was never ending, luckily he knew a shortcut through the back corridors to save him some time.

Spotting an ivory cloak and glint of gold as he rounded the corner, he felt his sour mood recede a bit, the beginnings of a smile curving on his lips. It looked like he wasn’t the only one using these back hallways tonight.

The Golden Guard, right hand to Emperor Belos himself, was hunched over in a corner partially hidden behind a column, unmasked and staring down at his scroll, the personal one Darius himself had given him, like it was a particularly challenging puzzle. Which to him it probably was.

He slowed to a stop, his presence still unnoticed “Having trouble little prince?”

Hunter jolted upright, whipping around to face him “I wasn’t– I was just–”

“Because it looks like you were using Penstagram to chat with your little Flyer Derby friends,”

His face flushed red all the way to the tips of his ears, shoving the scroll into his pocket with far more force than was needed “I was just…gathering intel. It’s not a distraction from my duties,”

Darius planted a hand on his hip and fought the urge to roll his eyes “You know the coven won’t come to a halt if you take an hour for yourself,”

“Wh…whether or not the coven can function without me is irrelevant, I have a responsibility to uphold and I can’t neglect my duties,”

A heavy sigh built in the back of Darius’ throat, but he bit it back before it could escape. Thanks to that whole debacle with the Flyer Derby players he knew there was an actual teenager inside that uptight shell, but he had to be coaxed out gently.

“Little Prince you work twice as hard as people more than double your age. Quite frankly you deserve a break,”

Hunter flinched a little bit at the word ‘deserve’ so slight Darius nearly missed it, but he continued without missing a beat “I don’t know what they taught you in scout training, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using your spare time to do something that makes you happy, even if it doesn’t contribute to the continuous progress of the empire,”

Gloved knuckles tightened around his staff as Hunter cautiously peeked up at him “You…think so?”

“I’m the head of one of the most profitable covens in the Boiling Isles,” Darius gave a good natured grin and reached out to ruffle his hair “I know so,”

Hunter blinked in surprise before reaching up to smooth his tousled hair “I guess if you’re sure, just…don’t tell uncle,”

“Of course,” Darius patted him on the shoulder “Now you better hurry, I know Kikimora uses these back halls to,”

“Understood,” Hunter turned and strode away, pivoting back to flash a quick wave as he went “Thank you Headwitch Darius,”

Darius gave a slow wave and a smile in return as he watched Hunter hurry down the corridor “Anytime,” he kept waving until Hunter vanished around the corner, pausing for a moment before lowering his hand and continuing on his way.

Maybe it made him a bad rebel to be giving pep talks to the Emperor’s right hand man, but Darius had never given a damn what other witches thought.

And besides it wasn’t as if he could recruit him for the rebellion. Hunter was a child, to say nothing of the conflict of interest…

That particular thought made the smile drop off his face.

Belos may be a tyrant but he was also Hunter’s uncle, and it was unreasonably cruel to ask a child to forsake his only family member for the good of the isles. For titan’s sake the only thing Hunter should be worried about was more outings with those little Flyer Derby friends of his. And if everything went according to plan, soon he would. Darius and the other rebels just had to keep their heads down and avoid raising suspicion until they took out Belos and stopped the day of unity. Honestly between the two of them they had so many worries that the Emperor finding out about his nephew’s hobbies was barely worth a second thought.

Sure Belos might not be happy about his nephew running off to play with other witches his age when he could be training or studying coven law. But he’d thrown tradition to the wind and raised his powerless teenage nephew to the role of Golden Guard. Belos clearly favored the boy, how angry could he actually be.

#the owl house #rmvwrites #algea #luz noceda #amity blight #lilith clawthorne #alador blight #darius deamonne #hunter #watching and dreaming

7 notes · View notes