It was another weekend selling human junk at Eda's Human Collectables Stand. King was jumping on the table, trying to grab a flag that was hanging above him. "Weh!" He fell off of the table. "Stupid flag!"

Luz wasn't really paying attention, drawing a light glyph on her notepad. She paused for a moment and looked up "it's been a little slow around here." She commented and after a moment went back to her drawing.

She tapped the glyph and it crumpled into a winking face of Eda. "Heh. Look King." King scrambled back onto the table, but before he could comment on it Boscha came up to the stand. "Ew, what's that supposed to be? A trash slug?"

Luz rolled her eyes "obviously it's the Owl Lady's face. Do you need a forth eye to see clearly? I thought three would've been enough." Luz commented as Boscha fumed and her friends covered their mouths to hide their snickers.

"No. I'm just here to take an ironic Penstagram next to your weird flashing trash sign. Round ears." Boscha replied, summoning her scroll and taking a few pictures. Luz pulled a face in the background. "That wasn't even a good insult. Kinda lame."

"What are you going to do? Spit your human venom on me?" Boscha teased. "You have venom? Quick, Luz, start melting faces!" King commanded, pointing in Boscha's direction. Luz snickered "I don't have any venom, but..." she paused for a moment, turning to Boscha "I will kick your butt so hard your vertebrae will pop out of your mouth one by one like a pez dispenser." She replied with an easygoing smile.

It was silent for a moment as they processed the threat. "What's a pez dispenser?" Boscha finally asked. Luz shrugged, deciding not to reply. Eda suddenly leaped out from the tent, startling the three teens. "Hey, kid! Can I offer you the latest fashions from..." she paused, drawing a spell circle and dressing herself in horribly clashing clothes. "The Human Realm?" Luz face palmed at the sight.

Boscha scoffed "yeah, no." The three stalked off as Eda returned to her normal outfit. "Well. I hate her." Eda crossed her arms, Luz hummed in agreement. "Anyways, look what I did!" Luz did jazz hands in the direction of the illuminated, winking Eda face.

Eda smiled "good work kid. You've been practicing those, huh?" She said, ruffling Luz's hair. Luz's nose wrinkled and she shooed Eda's hand away, fixing her ruffled hair. She still wasn't used to physical affection.

"Yeah, practicing when I could." Luz replied, waving the light away and watching it fade out. King climbed up onto her shoulder "weh!" He jumped up from her shoulder to the flags above them. He grabbed the flag, dangling from it. Eda snorted as Luz looked up at him "what are you doing?" Luz asked. "Revenge!" He shouted as the flag ripped and he fell with another "weh!" Luckily Luz caught him before he hit the table and she set him down.

King slammed the flag down onto the table and pointed at it "not so high and mighty now, ha!" He then proceeded to stomp on it multiple times. Eda laughed, wiping a tear from her eye then sighed. She looked around for a moment "kinda slow today, hmm?" Eda said looking back to Luz, who nodded. "It's been slow all morning."

Not much else happened over the next couple hours. Luz was practicing her light glyph while Eda sat in a chair petting King who was sleeping on her lap. "Edalyn." A voice said, coolly. Luz looked up to see Lilith, staff at her side ready to use if needed. At this point Eda was already standing, King on her shoulder complaining about his nap being interrupted. Luz backed away from the table and moved closer to Eda, ready for attack.

"Lilith." Eda replied with a glare. Lilith cleared her throat and summoned a long piece of paper. "You are hereby under arrest for operating a stand without a permit, having a hocus without a pocus-" Eda blew a raspberry as she twirled her finger, causing the paper to roll up and smack Lilith in the face before disappearing. Luz chuckled at Lilith's annoyed expression "really, these charges are serious. There's no more running away, Edalyn."

Eda rolled her eyes, "look sis, I'm not going to the coven with you without a fight. Actually, how'd you even know my stand would be here today?" Lilith hesitated for a moment before replying, "I've gotten a few tips that you were here usually on the weekends." Luz's hand twitched wanting to grab her potion bottle. Yup that was definitely her doing.

Lilith sighed, "Join the Emperor's Coven, like we dreamed about when we were girls." Luz's mouth was agape. Eda wanted to be in the Emperor's Coven? What changed? Did it have something to do with the curse? Luz closed her mouth and shook her head, she could think on that later.

"Don't be afraid, sister. Soon, you won't be a danger to those around you." Lilith said as Eda scoffed "a danger? Pff. Yeah right." Eda waved her away, Lilith scowled. "Take your prissy little self back to the castle and tell the Emperor to shove off."

"I'm just trying to help you. Why won't you listen!" Lilith scowled, using her staff to cast a spell. King yelped and leaped off of Eda, Luz catching him in her arms as Eda blocked the blast using her own staff.

Witches and Demons scattered as the fight took place in the Market. "Luz, get back to the Owl House with King. I'll meet you there in a bit." Eda deflected one of Lilith's spells and casted a spell of her own. Eda didn't look back to see if Luz responded, focusing back on the fight instead.

Luz nodded, even if Eda didn't see, and turned and ran back in the direction of the Owl House. King settled himself on Luz's shoulder as she started running, looking back at Eda. "Do you think she'll be okay?"

Luz didn't get a chance to reply as Coven scouts blocked her path. "You're under arrest for fraternizing with a criminal!" Luz growled in annoyance and turned back around and ran back towards Eda and Lilith.

Luz ran past the two witches, Eda firing a blast of energy at Lilith who put up a shield to block it. Coven scouts chased behind Luz, some stopping to help Lilith. Coven guards blocked her path ahead again, Luz skidded to a stop as the guards tried to surround her.

Luz huffed, she couldn't use her staff to prove she was part of the Emperor's Coven. At least not as long as King was with her and Eda being a short distance away. Luz stumbled out of the way as they started firing spells at her, she unclipped one of her potion bottles and threw it. It was deflected, Luz looked around as she pulled out another potion. She only had ten in total- well nine now.

She spotted a nearby alleyway, blocked off by a couple scouts. Determined, Luz ran straight towards them. King yelped, clinging tightly to her shoulder as Luz dodged another spell. When she got close enough, Luz threw the potion at the scout's feet, leaping over the two paralyzed scouts and making a sharp turn into the alleyway.

A blast hit the corner of the building sending Luz to the ground, King being flung from her shoulders and landing on the ground in front of her. Luz stood up with a grunt, her back burned and her hands and arms stung, but she ignored it as she scooped King back up.

"Luz it's a dead end!" King yelled in a worried tone. Luz narrowed her eyes as she sprinted forward "hang on!" She told him, using her momentum to jump up on the back wall and kicking off it, grabbing onto the left building ledge. Her foot slipped on the wall, her claws digging into the rock ledge to keep her from falling. Luz fixed her footing on the wall and scrambled up the rest of the way, heaving herself over the ledge and onto the roof of the building.

Luz took a moment to catch her breath, King looked back over the ledge and saw the Coven scouts looking around. "Luz." King warned tugging Luz's sleeve and looking back at her. Luz looked worriedly over the ledge, ducking back when a scout looked up.

Luz stood up and turned around, running to the edge of the building and leaping onto the next building. Luz stumbled forward trying to catch herself before running to jump to the next building, King clung tightly to her shoulder.

Luz jumped a couple more buildings before stopping and sitting down to catch her breath. Her hands stung from her scrapes and her back now had a dull ache. Her skin crawled and itched, her curse flaring up. King leaped off her shoulder and scampered up to the front of the building they were on.

Eda and Lilith could be seen still fighting a little ways away. Eda firing off another spell, Lilith was too slow to avoid it and was blasted back into a nearby building. Eda took this chance to escape, hoping onto her staff and flying off. King's tail wagged as he went back to Luz.

"She got away!" He cheered, leaping into Luz's arms. She chuckled tiredly "that's great, King." She stood back up, still holding King in her arms. She yelped as someone grabbed the back of her shirt and suddenly she and King were dangling above the town, holding each other tightly.

"There you are kiddo." Luz looked up and saw Eda. The Owl Lady pulled them up onto her staff, Luz sighed in relief as King went to cling to Eda's shoulder. Eda was pretty banged up, scrapes and scratches all over her. Part of her hair was covered in ash, probably from an explosion and a cut above her eyebrow that was bleeding.

"Could have warned me before yanking me into the air." Luz commented, looking down as they passed Bonesburrow and over the forest. Eda shrugged "not enough time." Eda simply replied. "Don't need my sister catching up to us."

"Anyways, I told you kids to get to the Owl House, not grab front row seats." Eda said. "Well... there were a lot of Coven scouts." Luz started. "Luz was so cool! You should've seen her! She jumped off a wall to climb up onto the roof and jumped from building to building!" King exclaimed, tail wagging excitedly.

"Oh yeah?" Eda said, arching an eyebrow. "Where did you learn that, kid?" She asked. Luz shrugged uncomfortably "at some Human Realm... camp, thing." Eda hummed in acknowledgment as they landed in front of the Owl House.

They hopped off the staff, Hooty greeting them. "Open up the door Hooty. I'm gonna take a nap." Eda yawned. "Hoot, hoot! Okay!" Hooty replied, swinging the door open. "Oh and keep an eye out for those Coven goons, Hooty." Eda informed while walking into the house.

"Will do!" Hooty replied as the door closed behind them. King leaped off of Eda's shoulder and onto the couch to take a nap, while Eda went upstairs to do the same. Luz went upstairs to her room to drink one of her elixirs, seven remaining afterwards.

Luz went to the bathroom next, washing her hands to clean the dirt from the scrapes. Once done, she looked over her hands. The scrapes weren't that bad, so there was no need to bandage it up or anything. Her back still stung a bit, but unable to get a good look at it Luz just ended up going back to her room. Not even bothering to deal with it.

Luz laid down on her sleeping bag, on her stomach and pulled up her phone to look over the pictures she took at the library. Looking over the ingredients list again, ignoring the expensive or hard to find ingredients, Luz was pretty sure Eda had at least one or two of the ingredients in her Potions room. The other ingredients Luz was pretty sure she knew where to get them, as for the expensive or rare ingredients? Luz was probably gonna have to save up on some snails.

She turned her phone off and set it aside, getting more comfortable on the sleeping bag. Today was exhausting, hopefully the next few days give her a break.