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#remember how lilith had a coven mask she worse like once and never again
jess-the-vampire · 3 years
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“The Crimson Crusader never shows his face and never says his true name, he is a mysterious force and the leader of the Empress’s coven, though he is reported to regularly visit the woods for unknown reasons...
where he came from is unknown, but it’s best not to ask him too many questions”.
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“The Harshest Future We Could Have Imagined” - Lumity Future AU Fanfic Part 4
Luz catches up on training.
Part 1    Part 2    Part 3
---
Luz yelped and dodged three massive stone spires that sprung from the ground.
“Spikes?!” 
Eda cackled, doubling over and almost dropping her  paper and pencil. Scrambling to her feet, Luz huffed and glared at her teacher. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Amity sit on a stump and hide a laugh behind her hand. 
“You know, when I imagined your training, I thought it was going to be more smelling moss and eating snow,” Luz panted. 
“Oh please, I did enough of that trying to teach the new troublemaker over there.” She pointed to Amity, who rolled her eyes. “She’s the one who found that glyph.”
Luz frowned. Amity shrugged. 
“Eda had me licking rocks in a cave and I angered a rock demon. It broke a stalagmite and I found the glyph inside. It was growing like tree rings.” 
“And now Eda can attack me with spikes.”
“Hey, you wanted to show Willow that you know how to fight. You don’t have the same range of magic as Belos’ soldiers and you’re not ready for a staff yet, so you need to learn as many glyphs as you can and use them to fight inherent magic. You have to train outmatched because you’re going to be outmatched on the battlefield.” 
“Give me a staff! Then I won’t be outmatched and I won’t have to worry about running out of paper or getting skewered!”
“You’re not ready, Luz. If you’d been here…” Eda’s voice trailed off. Luz bit her lip and glared at her feet, avoiding looking at Amity. The reminder sent a pang through her heart. Eda sighed. “Maybe it would be different. You’d complete your education and have your staff, but right now, you have to catch up. This war changed things. It changed everything.” 
A hush fell over the yard. Luz nodded slowly and sighed.
“I know,” she murmured. “So let’s learn some new glyphs. How do I do the spikes?”
“What, you think you’re going to skip learning from the island? Geez, kid, how much did you forget? No, you’re going to learn the same way you used to. From little Miss Perfect, this time.”
Amity choked, face going red. “What?”
“I’m too old to be traipsing all over the Boiling Isles finding new glyphs with you. This is how it’s going to be: I’ll teach you to fight, Lily will teach you history and the inner workings of the Emperor’s coven, and Amity will train you in magic the same way I trained her.”
“Amity doesn’t use glyphs.”
“But we do.” She tapped beneath her one gray eye. “She learned glyphs with us after you left. That was one condition of learning from the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles.”
Luz looked to Amity. Amity shrugged one shoulder.
Eda clapped her hands together. “Speaking of which, that training starts today. Now. Amity, it’s up to you where you want to take her, but you’re going to be doing this every day that you have the time. Willow already agreed to start handling more of the rebellion.”
“You asked Willow for permission to let me train Luz?” Amity asked. 
“No, I told her to be aware that she would be taking on more leadership responsibilities. I don’t ask permission from anyone. You know that.” Eda crossed her arms. “Luz, she does want you to fight with them. She just wants you to be ready first.”
“We all do,” Amity chimed in. She stood next to Luz, staff in one hand and the other resting on Luz’s shoulder. “You’ll get there.” 
“You will. Now, you two get going. I am going to go take a nap.” 
Amity passed Luz her staff as Eda disappeared into the house. “I’ve never shown you Raja, have I?”
“Not yet.” 
“Take her.”
Luz took the staff and inspected the palisman sitting on top. It wasn’t simply a snarling tiger; two goat horns sprang from its head, and a pair of feathery wings was folded against its back. Luz rubbed a thumb over the tiger’s paw and turned to Amity.
“A winged tiger?” 
“She found me when I was looking for a tree. I started carving her, thinking I was going to do a falcon, and then my mind went blank and she turned up.” She smirked and patted the wooden animal’s head. “I already had the codename Tiger, so it was only fitting.”
“Where did you get that name, anyway? I understand Willow and Gus being Thorn and Clone, but how did you get Tiger before you found your palisman?”
Amity chuckled wistfully, flashing her fangs. “I was wearing face paint for camouflage on a stealth mission that sort of looked like stripes. One soldier was about to find me so I tackled him and let him go but scared him half to death. He started running around saying the rebellion had a tiger demon after that. It’s on my wanted posters. I’m the ‘Tiger Demon.’”
Luz guffawed, studying the palisman once again. “That’s awesome.” 
“Emira thought it was funny.” Amity’s smile disappeared. “Edric would have, I think. Before.” 
Luz touched Amity’s hand. “Hey, you don’t have to think about that right now.”
“I’m always thinking about it, Luz.”
“Well, now’s your chance to not think.” She swung around the staff and stopped inches from Amity’s face, oblivious to how the shorter girl blushed. “Take me to the cave where you found the spikes!”
Amity giggled and hopped on the staff, holding out a hand. “Come on.” 
Luz grinned from ear to ear. She sat behind Amity and wrapped her arms around her waist. The wooden wings on the palisman extended, just like Owlbert, and they launched into the air. Luz let out a loud, whooping laugh as they rose to the clouds, clinging to her old friend as the staff carried them over the Isles. 
She rested her chin on Amity’s shoulder. “I forgot how much I missed this!” 
“Not everything on the Isles is bad now,” Amity laughed. She covered Luz’s hands on her stomach with one of her own. “All the magic is still here, figurative and literal.” 
Luz leaned back. She took in the rising bones of the ancient fallen giant, the wispy yellow clouds and purple sky, the oddly colored trees. Between the great fossilized islands below her and the beautiful witch wrapped in her arms, a double edged blade of elation and longing struck her heart. She held Amity tighter. 
Amity stiffened and tried to ignore Luz’s head resting between her shoulder blades. 
“I missed this place, Amity,” she sighed. “The human world is my home, but… I think I always belonged here. With you.”
Amity gripped her staff tighter. “With me,” she mumbled under her breath.
“What?”
“I-I said probably!” 
Luz lifted her head. “You think so?”
Amity sighed. “Yeah, I do. Even though life’s gone to shit, I… I mean, we, we really, well… needed you. Here. W-We needed you here.”
Luz smiled and gave Amity a quick squeeze. “I wish I was. Do you really think Willow will let me fight once I get back into magic?”
“She will. Willow’s just worried right now. Worried about you, worried about the rebellion. I’m a commander but she’s the real leader. She’s always been.” 
“Because she tried to assassinate Belos?” 
“She almost succeeded. I’m just glad she got out of there before he hurt her worse than the scar on her face. But, we did learn one thing from it.” 
“What?”
“He bleeds.” 
Luz shuddered, then startled. “Oh! I forgot!” She reached under her shirt and retrieved a small triangular pendant, strung on a fraying cord. She handed the souvenir to Amity. “I’ve kept this since we rescued Eda. I want to give it to Willow now. Show her I’m ready and I’ve been ready.”
“What is it?”
“A piece of Belos’ mask. I hit him in the face with an ice spike.”
Amity chuckled. “Of course, you did.”
“Do you think Willow will reconsider when I show her this?”
“It depends, Luz. That was a long time ago and you are out of practice. It’s a new world.”
“I know. That’s all you guys keep telling me.”
Amity sighed but didn’t press further. Luz huffed, closing her eyes and leaning on Amity until they began their descent. 
They landed outside the mouth of a large cave. Thin stone spines hung from the ceiling and sprouted from the floor, gashed with deep claw marks. Luz shuddered at the thought of what could have made those. Amity nodded into the cave and sparked a jet of pink fire in her palm, leading the way into the depths. Luz followed, listening to their echoing footsteps and the click of Amity’s staff against the stone floor. 
They weaved between the rocks by the light of Amity’s fireball. After about a half hour of walking, Amity glanced over at Luz. A tiny smile graced her lips.
“Y’know,” she said, “when Eda first brought me down here and started training me with her methods, I thought she was insane. Well, more so than normal. Compared to Lilith’s teaching, it was a little, well…”
“Unorthodox?” Luz suggested. 
“That’s it. I didn’t think I would ever learn about magic by licking rocks and eating snow.”
“Yeah, learning from Eda was always a little odd. It teaches you a lot, though.”
“It taught you how to steal my wand and anger a Slitherbeast.”
Luz laughed in surprise. “You remember that?”
“Of course, I remember that. That’s when we made the Azura book club. I’d never forget that.”
Luz smiled fondly, thinking of Amity’s blushing face and the twins teasing her… 
Her heart sank. The twins. Edric. 
Titan, Edric. 
“Luz, are you listening?”
“Hm? Oh, sorry. Spaced out. What did you say?”
“I asked if you were ready to get the glyph.”
“Yeah! Okay, what do you want me to do? Fire magic? Karate kick the stalagmite in half to get it?”
She struck a pose as Amity tilted her head. “I have no idea what a karate is. No, Eda told me to train you exactly how she trained me. Which means that we are going to be using that to get the glyph.”
Amity drew another spell circle and sent a large light orb into the air. A ways down the tunnel, the light reflected off shiny brown scales. Luz sucked in a sharp breath, and Amity put a finger to her lips. A six legged creature faintly resembling a large dog lay sleeping between the spikes. Armored scales puffed and flattened as it breathed, and one large eye was situated in the center of its long face. Haphazard fangs poked out of its mouth. It kicked one leg in its sleep, which Luz found reminiscent of King and by extension very cute. 
Nudging her with her elbow, Amity smiled at Luz and slowly drew another circle as she spoke. “When I did this,” she whispered, “I accidentally stepped on it. I’m not doing that again, so we’re going to improvise.”
“Improvise how?”
She completed the circle. A firework blasted from her hand, whistling down the tunnel, and exploded on a far wall. Luz covered her ears as the explosion echoed. The rock demon jolted awake. Its single eye fixed on them.
“Uh, Amity? What now?”
The creature roared. 
“Run!” 
They took off back towards the mouth of the tunnel with the monster crashing after them. Luz screamed as Amity laughed, the creature snarling and snapping at their heels. Barely managing to outpace the rock demon, they hurdled over spikes and ducked low hanging ceilings by the light of Amity’s fire spell. Luz stared at her old friend in terrified shock.
“This is how you learned the spell?!” she squawked. 
“More or less!” Amity replied.
“How did you not die!” 
“I almost did a few times! Training with Eda, remember?”
“What do we do now?”
“Try to get it to hit a spike!”
Luz glanced behind her at the demon. It glowered at her savagely. She pushed Amity’s shoulder.
“Go left!”
Whistling to the demon, Luz grabbed its attention as Amity split off. She weaved between spikes and watched the demon do the same. A towering stone loomed ahead of her.
“Luz, look out!”
She leapt to the top of the spine at the very last second. 
The demon jumped too late. 
It slammed head first into the rock with a thundering crack. Luz jumped aside as half of it came crashing to the floor, shattering into pieces. Amity grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back while the rock demon staggered to its feet. It shook its head, whimpering, and slunk back into the midnight depths of the cave. Luz let out a tired, relieved laugh as Amity dropped her arm. The witch stepped over to the broken spike and gestured to the now flat surface revealed. 
“Come get your glyph,” she said, smiling. 
Luz grinned and stepped up beside her. Amity was right; the glyph sat inside the stone like a ring in a tree. Fumbling for her paper, Luz hastily copied it down and slapped her new glyph on the ground. Amity yanked her back as the paper glowed. 
A thin, sharp spike shot up and smashed into the ceiling. Luz burst out cheering while Amity crossed her arms and smiled. 
“Spikes! I can do spikes now!” She jumped into Amity’s arms. Amity stiffened in shock, face going red. Luz pulled back, still holding Amity as she grinned down at her, Amity’s hands resting against her chest. “Thank you so much!” 
“As long as you keep them away from me,” Amity chuckled. 
Luz smiled sheepishly, remembering their early rivalry days. “Hey, you tried to squish me with an abomination.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me.”
They smiled, reminiscing, holding each other in gentle silence. Luz dragged a hand down Amity’s arm as they gazed into each other’s eyes. Her fingers bounced over a long, raised scar running down her bicep. She frowned and looked down at the strip of pale tissue. Amity looked away.
“What’s this from?”
“An old fight. It was just a flesh wound, it wasn’t anything serious.”
“It looks serious.”
“It wasn’t, really. I’m okay now, anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”
Luz bowed her head with a sigh. She pulled Amity closer and rested her chin on her shoulder. Amity disentangled her arms, wrapping them around Luz’s neck as tears pricked her eyes. Luz rubbed Amity’s back as she closed her eyes. 
“You have no idea how much I missed you,” the human mumbled. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you guys. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise to you.”
“What promise?”
“I’m your fearless champion, remember?”
“Luz, that was for Grom.”
“I meant it for more than Grom.”
Amity held her tighter. “You had to go back. You know you did.” 
“There’s nothing for me in the human world besides my mom. I should’ve stayed here.” 
“Well, you’re back now. That’s all I care about.”
Luz sighed and buried her face against Amity’s neck. Amity, hardly able to think with Luz’s warm breath on her skin, carded her shaking fingers through the human’s hair. She couldn’t remember how many times she had imagined this, imagined Luz in her arms, holding her tight amidst the disaster their world had become. She shuddered and let herself relax into Luz’s embrace. 
“I can hardly believe you’re here,” she admitted without thinking. “I missed you for fucking years, Luz. I didn’t know if you were ever coming back, or if you were safe in the human world, I didn’t know anything.”
“I’m sorry. I should’ve been here with you, Amity.” 
“Don’t apologize.”
A huge roar split the quiet. The two jumped apart in time to see the rock demon barreling at them again. 
“Ah okay heartwarming discussions can wait until later!”
----
The next few weeks continued like that. Luz would follow Amity all over the Isles, retracing the years of training she missed from Eda. With each new glyph she added to her repertoire, she added new memories to make up for all the years she missed, most of them to do with a certain golden eyed witch. 
Amity, laughing beneath a forcefield that Luz summoned in the boiling rain.
Amity, covered in abomination goo after another failed attempt to find a glyph in it. 
Amity sitting in the sunlight. 
Amity grinning at her. 
It was amazing until Amity was called away to lead the rebellion. She would disappear for a day or two, sometimes longer, only to come back without an explanation and a myriad of new scars. She didn’t talk to Luz after; she didn’t talk to anyone, save a quick hushed briefing with Eda and Lilith before disappearing into her room. 
Luz left her alone when she got like that, after a few warning looks from Eda and a fumbling, patchy, halfhearted explanation from Lilith. But in the end, Luz got the message herself. Amity’s haunted, shadowed eyes were explanation enough. 
The outbursts were worse. Out of nowhere, any little inconvenience would have Amity shouting and cursing at the top of her lungs, eyes alight with pain and rage. Only Eda and King could calm her down when she got like that. Luz watched sadly as Amity curled up on her sleeping bag, hiding her face in trembling hands, with King draped over her back with sad eyes. 
Sighing and shutting the door quietly, Luz left them alone and went to sit between Eda and Lilith on the couch. Eda nudged her with her elbow and passed her a mug. Luz took a swig and almost spat it out. 
“Oh gross, what is that?” she coughed. 
“Apple blood.”
“How do you drink that?”
“It’s an acquired taste.”
“Everything you consume is an acquired taste,” Lilith chimed in, sipping a cup of tea. 
“Hey, remember when you cursed me?”
“Oh for the love of the Titan!” 
Luz managed a tired giggle as the sisters squabbled over her head. Her grin disappeared as soon as it arrived, and she slumped into the cushions. Eda noticed and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Kid, what’s wrong?”
“Does this always happen now?” Luz asked. 
Eda sighed and leaned back, sipping her apple blood. Lilith cleared her throat. 
“Amity has seen too much for someone your age,” she began. “They all have. It has taken a toll on them, and, for Amity, at least, this is how it manifests. Just let her work through and she’ll be fine.”
“How long has she been doing this?”
“Since her first few battles. The big ones, anyway,” Eda answered. “They’ve all got their own way of coping. This is Amity’s.” 
Luz sighed and looked over her shoulder in the direction of their shared room. “I don’t get it. She seems so happy when we’re training and then out of nowhere, this.” 
“Huh, wonder,” Eda snorted. Lilith shot her a look, and the younger Clawthorne turned aside. Luz frowned at her feet. 
Lilith tapped Luz’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go talk to her?”
“Weren’t you two just saying to leave her alone?”
“We said that this is how she copes. She’s never been all that open to us, but she might say more to you.” 
“I’m going to talk to her.” 
“Luz,” Eda called, “don’t push.” 
“Okay.” 
She knocked lightly on the door to their room and stepped inside. Amity was curled into a ball on her bed with King laying on her. King jumped up to meet her, hopping into her arms and climbing onto her shoulder.
“She hasn’t said anything since she got home,” he whispered. “It keeps getting worse.”
Luz gently pushed him off. “Hey, Amity,” she said gently. 
“What?” Amity mumbled into her hands. 
“Do you want to talk?” 
“About what?”
“Anything.” Luz sat down on her own bed beside Amity. The witch uncovered her eyes, and Luz offered a smile. Amity sat up.
“Did Eda and Lilith send you up here?”
“Not necessarily. I wanted to check up on you.”
“I’m fine, Luz.”
“Really? You don’t seem fine.” 
“I am.” 
Luz sighed. “Okay.”
Amity pulled her knees to her chest and sighed. Luz sat back, idly drumming her fingers on her legs. Amity hid her face. 
“Three people,” she mumbled.
“What?”
“There were three casualties today. Not dead, but too hurt to fight. One has a broken leg, another was cut to shreds, and the third…” Amity shook her head as her voice trailed off. “There was so much blood, Luz. There’s always so much blood. I can’t stand to be in that fucking healer’s building just because it stinks so fucking badly. I can’t stop smelling blood…” 
Luz touched Amity’s arm. When she didn’t pull away, she wrapped her arms around her and flopped down onto the bed. Amity stiffened, ready to thrash her way out of Luz’s grip, but the gentle hand that found hers calmed her within a moment. She screwed her eyes shut and tried not to cry as Luz pressed her face against the back of her neck. 
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. She pressed her front against Amity’s back. “I wish I was there to help.”
Amity shook her head. “I never want you to see shit like this.”
“I’m sorry you have to.” She pressed closer. “Are you hurt?”
“No.”
“Good. Promise me you’ll be safe if I can’t be out there with you.”
“I don’t need you to protect me, Luz.” 
Amity’s scroll buzzed. She sat up out of Luz’s arms to look at the message and frowned. 
“What is it?” Luz asked. 
She stood. “Willow wants to see us.”
“Us?”
“Yes, both of us. Let’s go.”
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flipomatic · 3 years
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Internship Chapter 4: Day 1 - Amity
Author Note: The first Amity chapter is here. As a note this fic will have lumity in it, but lumity is not the primary focus of Amity’s story.
First Chapter Previous Chapter
___________________________________________________________
Amity was enjoying the sunny Monday afternoon as she walked home from school. Hexside had been quite quiet with the absence of the two oldest grades, but that just meant it was easier to walk through the crowded halls. Her siblings’ absence also meant far less pranks being committed. Amity had recently gotten cast removed from her ankle, so she could go to school full time again.
The biggest topic at school was the new internship program that had pulled the upperclassmen away. Amity had discussed it with Luz that morning, how Em was going to the Illusion Coven while Ed was going to the Emperor’s Coven. They both wondered what was happening in the Emperor’s Coven now that Lilith was no longer the coven leader, and what kind of impact that would have on the coven moving forward.
Hopefully Ed would still have a good internship with them, though he was not excited about it. In fact, he had complained loudly all weekend about having to go, and had left the house very slowly that morning. Em hadn’t expressed much excitement either, but she didn’t seem to dread the upcoming experience like Ed did.
Amity tried to put those worries out of her mind as she arrived home and entered the Blight manor. She wondered if either of her siblings were home yet. They could be pretty loud, or silent depending what they were doing, but she didn’t hear anything upon entering the house.
When she walked through the house, towards the stairs, she could hear her mother and father talking in the study. They talked in sharp tones as usual, though their words were too muffled by the walls to hear. Amity moved past without stopping to speak with them.
When she reached the stairs, Amity glanced briefly out the window. She turned to walk up the steps, but had to stop and look back again at the view outside. She had spotted an unusual flash of green out in the grass, a lighter shade than the surrounding area. On longer inspection, it appeared to be Em laying in the sun.
Amity smiled, happy to see Em already home for the day. Em had been more optimistic than Ed about the internship, though her current posture implied that it hadn’t gone well. Amity changed course, turning to head towards the back door.
When she made it outside, Amity walked over to where Em laid in the grass. She was lying face up, eyes closed with arms and legs spread to catch more sun. When Amity was close her shadow covered Em’s face, prompting her to open her eyes.
“Oh hey, how was school?” Em asked without moving, only her eyes following Amity.
Amity sat down in the grass next to her. “Pretty uneventful.” She answered, stretching her legs out in the grass in front of her. The sun did feel nice on them, even over her leggings.
Em turned her head towards her. “The school didn’t implode without us?”
“Not yet.” Amity chuckled, remembering how calm things had been. “Any day now though.”
Em laughed as she sat up, pausing to brush grass off her back and arms. “How’s your ankle holding up with walking to school?” That had been a concern when she got the cast off, that the distance to Hexside was too far to be walking on it.
“It hasn’t been hurting.” Amity reported, glancing down at the leg in question. She was lucky that it healed as cleanly as it did.
“Great.” Em smiled, though she still looked tired.
Amity changed the subject away from herself. “How was your first day at the coven?” She was curious; she didn’t know much about the illusion coven.
Em’s expression immediately fell, a frown taking over her face. “It started ok, but then it was absolutely terrible.” She scoffed. “They’re not taking me seriously at all.”
“What do you mean?” Amity scrunched her brow as she asked.
“I just followed the coven leader around all day and watched him work. It was super boring, even worse than school.” Em waved her arms for emphasis, complaining loudly. “If I wanted to watch half baked illusion magic, I’d go to a show, not work at the coven.” She ended with a huff.
It must’ve been really bad if she thought it was worse than school. “That’s surprising.” Amity replied with a frown. “Hopefully they’ll give you some real work.”
“I hope so too.” Em sighed, crossing her arms. “Or it’ll be a very long month.”
The two sisters talked for a while longer, about the coven leader and the exact degree of boredom Em reached that day. So far, it sounded like her internship was going poorly. If all she could do was watch, she wouldn’t have a chance to hone her magic. Ironically, if it were Ed in that situation he would’ve been thrilled.
After a few more minutes, Amity stood to go inside. “I’ve got homework to do.” Amity said as she brushed the grass from her pants.
“I’ll just lay here; it’s working well for me.” Emira collapsed back onto the ground, returning to the position Amity found her in. She closed her eyes before Amity turned away to return to the house.
When Amity reached the door, she double checked that there were no bits of grass or dirt stuck to her clothes. She would be scolded if she tracked dirt into the house, and it just wasn’t worth the hassle. She didn’t find any, so she re-entered her home.
Then Amity went back on her path from before, moving to climb the stairs. She passed by Ed’s room, but the door was open and it looked like he wasn’t home yet. She wanted to hear how his day went too, but for a totally different reason than with Em.
When Amity reached her room she went inside and closed the door, ready to work on her homework. She had a couple assignments to work on, which would take a couple hours. She sat down at her desk and took out the first assignment, putting thoughts of internships aside for the time being.
For the next half hour, Amity focused on her work. She was writing about the different compositions of abominations and how changing the ingredients could give them different abilities. It was an interesting topic, but one she hadn’t dabbled much in.
Amity had just finished her third paragraph when she heard a loud thud, the sound echoing through the house. It sounded like it came from upstairs, not too far from her room. Was Ed home?
Putting down her pen, Amity stood to go check. When she reached the hallway, she saw that she was correct. Ed’s door, which had been open before, was now closed. He had likely slammed it shut when he arrived, which wasn’t a great sign.
Amity should’ve just gone back to her homework, since she still had a lot to finish, but she was too curious about how his day went. She hoped to join the Emperor’s Coven someday, and Ed was spending four whole weeks there.
There was also the question of who was running the coven now, since Lilith was gone. Amity was dying to know that too.
Unable to resist, Amity walked down the hall to his door. She knocked on it twice, and waited for a response.
About thirty seconds later, Ed pulled the door open. He was dressed in the black and grey uniform of the Emperor’s Coven, but wasn’t wearing the cloak or mask. His light green hair was more disheveled than usual, probably from wearing the hood all day. Other than that, he looked unharmed but tired.
“Hey, what’s up?” He asked, leaning against the door frame.
“How was it? Did you catch any criminals?” Amity asked the two questions rapidly, her excitement getting away from her. She mentally pulled herself back, reminded herself to be cool.
Ed’s expression immediately soured. “It was the worst, and no, I didn’t.” He stepped back from the door, waving for her to come into the room.
Amity entered, closing the door behind her. Their parents had good ears. “What did they have you doing?” She asked, still more eager sounding than she intended.
“Just following a patrol in this awful uniform for literally hours. My feet will never forgive me.” Ed scowled, pointing down at his feet dramatically. Amity quite liked the Emperor’s Coven uniform, but now wasn’t the time to mention that. “How were things at school?”
It was funny, since Em had asked a similar question. “Quiet without you.” Amity replied.
“I would rather be there tomorrow than back on patrol.” Ed grumbled, walking over to his desk. The coven mask was placed there, along with the cloak. “I don’t know how they run around in these masks all the time, honestly.”
Oh, Amity knew something about that. “I heard they use a spell to make it easier to see.” She had seen that in a pamphlet for the coven once.
This drew Ed’s eyes back to her, finally with a spark of interest. “What spell do they use?”
Amity shook her head. “I don’t know, you should ask them tomorrow.”
“Guess I’ll have to.” Ed chuckled lowly, a forced sound. “Or I’ll trip over my own feet on the chase. It would be funny though, if it happened.”
Amity smiled at the mental image that provided. “Did you meet the new coven leader?” She asked, bringing the topic to something else she very much wanted to know.
Unfortunately, Ed shook his head no. “I met Kikimora and a few patrol witches, but didn’t see a coven leader.”
“I guess they wouldn’t visit the jail branch regularly.” Amity mused, bringing one hand up to her chin. “Or they haven’t promoted someone yet.”
“I think it’s the second one.” Ed chimed in. He turned back towards the desk, and then reached forward and batted the mask off the side of the table, causing it to fall to the floor with a light thunk. As expected, it was undamaged. “After the internship, I’m burying this in the yard.”
That drew a laugh from Amity. “Only if you don’t get caught.” Their mother would be so angry if she saw him doing that. Both because of what he was burying and where he was trying to bury it.
“With Em’s help, we can do it.” Ed said as he turned back to her with a straight face, deadly serious. Amity believed him; the two of them were extremely skilled in illusion magic. Their parents often couldn’t see through their tricks, which had been quite frustrating for Amity in the past.
“Good luck with that.” Amity chuckled. “I should get back to my room, lots of homework to do still.” She opened the door, getting ready to leave.
“That’s one perk I guess. I don’t miss homework, not one bit.” Ed said, picking his mask up off the floor. “Later then.”
Amity waved once, then left the room. She shut the door behind her and walked back down the hallway to her room. When she went inside, her abomination assignment was waiting right where she left it.
Unfortunately, it was hard to get refocused on it. She couldn’t stop thinking about the covens her siblings were interning at, the experiences they had on their first day.
Amity had always been excited about someday joining the Emperor’s Coven, but with Em not making the internship that meant Amity might not make it too. She knew there was always a chance of that, but honestly thought she would make it in if she worked hard. Em didn’t work hard, but she was one of the most skilled witches Amity knew. She had better focus than Ed and could make some amazing layered spells. Not that Amity had told her that; she had trouble expressing those kinds of things.
Ed wasn’t bad at magic of course, the opposite was true. He was quite skilled, but lacked the patience and persistence to truly shine.
If Em didn’t make it, what were her odds? Yes, Amity worked very hard to improve her magic, but she wasn’t nearly as naturally skilled as her siblings. This was just an internship for now, but it could turn into coven membership offers later. It was a big deal and was freaking Amity out.
She hadn’t even written another sentence on her assignment, instead she was just sitting there thinking.
Another train of thought was that both of her siblings hated their first day on the job. Amity had read all of the pamphlets about the Emperor’s Coven, but she didn’t know much about the workings of the rest. Even the abomination coven, which was run by her mother and was also her track in school, she knew minimum details. At the covention, she didn’t spend time looking at other covens. She was always so focused on the grand prize, she never dug into her second option.
It was certainly something to think about over the next few weeks.
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