It was Friday morning, it hadn't been very long since the Blight Industry meetup and Amity had a lot to think over from that night. Mainly about the Amber Guard themself, and the possibilites that stem from it.

Amity had been worried about Luz that Wednesday morning when she didn't show up to school. After the whole Petrification thing with the Owl Lady she was sure the human would of done something stupid to rescue her. She was surprised when it was Lilith, head of the Emperor's Coven, that rescued the Owl Lady instead.

Since then she hadn't seen Luz anywhere, it was like she vanished. But now the Amber Guard was back from whatever mission they were on for the last month or so. Amity didn't know what to think of the pieces that seemed to be connecting in her head.

She was on her way to school, so maybe she could talk to Willow and Augustus about it since they were unbanned now. Again, due to the Amber Guard's interference.

Amity was at first surprised when the Amber Guard jumped down from the rafters to help her on stage. But after the Golden Guard turned the Abomination off, Amity was able to process that the Amber Guard used the same Paralyzing Potion that Luz used at the library.

Now Amity didn't know all that much about Potions, but hanging around Boscha enough let her know it was at least a potion that wasn't used often or even at all. She'd never heard of it before or read it anywhere so it was odd that Luz and someone from the Emperor's Coven would use the same potion that she's never heard of before.

It could of just been a crazy coincidence though, however there was something else that the more Amity thought about it the more sure she was about her forming theory. Although it had been muffled due to the mask, the Amber Guard's voice sounded almost exactly like Luz.

Amity finally arrived at school, the chatter of students breaking her from her thoughts. Taking a quick glance around, she didn't spot Willow or her friend. Maybe she could talk to them at lunch. Amity went up the steps and headed inside, she stopped by her locker before heading to her first class. Maybe she could visit the Owl House after school as well.

The day couldn't get any slower for Amity, it crawled at a snail's pace. The bell finally screamed for lunch and Amity made her way out quickly. She hadn't seen Luz in any of her classes today, so either her theory was right or something happened to Luz that day.

She entered the lunchroom and quickly spotted Willow and Augustus at their table. She greeted them as she sat next to Willow, it was still strange to be talking to Willow again. Though Amity was glad that she had a chance to earn Willow's forgiveness, she had Luz to thank for that.

"Have either of you seen Luz lately?" Amity asked. Gus shook his head while Willow replied. "Not since the Grudgby game against Boscha. Have you?" Amity shook her head, "she should've come back to school by now, right?"

Willow shrugged "after the whole Petrification ceremony, I would think she would take a break from school to recuperate."

"But it's been weeks since then." Amity replied with a frown. "Do you think she went back to the Human Realm?" Gus piped up. "Without saying anything? I don't know." Willow replied.

It was quiet for a few minutes as the three ate their lunches. Amity gathered her thoughts on how she should go about telling them her theory. "How did you two get unbanned again?" Amity asked.

"Bump said it was the Emperor's Coven that overruled the ban." Willow explained. "I still wonder why the Emperor's Coven did that in the first place." Gus said. Amity hummed, "well I know that it had to have been either the head of the Emperor's Coven, or the Emperor himself and I don't see the Emperor doing that."

"So the Golden Guard lifted the ban?" Gus asked. "Or the Amber Guard." Amity said. "Or both." Willow said, she continued "you think one of them did it?"

"It had to be, no one else is above Mom." Amity stated. "But why would they?" Gus asked, looking between the two for an answer. Willow shrugged while Amity bit her lip before replying. "What if... Luz is the Amber Guard?" Gus choked on his drink while Willow stared at Amity.

"How...? That doesn't make any sense.." Willow trailed. "But it kinda does make sense!" Amity stated, she continued to explain her theory. "Luz showed up in the Boiling Isles about a month ago and that was around the same time the Amber Guard stopped patrolling around Bonesburrow."

Willow nodded, still confused on where Amity was going. Gus was just flabbergasted by the very idea. "And now Luz has gone missing- or at least we haven't seen her and the Amber Guard is back on patrols. You've seen them around town lately, right?" Amity asked.

Gus nodded "but that's not enough to go on saying they're the same person." Willow nodded in agreement "true but didn't we just say that either the Golden Guard or the Amber Guard lifted the ban? It would make since that if Luz was the Amber Guard, she'd want to lift the ban for us."

"Exactly!" Amity agreed, glad that Willow was starting to see what she was thinking. Gus tapped his chin in thought "well if all that does line up then why would the Amber Guard or Luz, be living with a criminal like Eda?"

That was a good question, Amity hadn't thought of that. "Maybe Eda might have some answers, should we go to the Owl House after school?" Willow asked. Gus and Amity nodded as the bell screamed for the end of lunch. "See you after school then."

The three got up and parted ways, heading to their different classes. Amity couldn't wait for school to end, she really wanted to figure out this mystery, but unfortunately school would once again go by agonizingly slow for her.

Once school finally let out for the day, Amity waited by the steps for Willow and Gus. Once they met up they made their way down the now familiar path that would take them to the Owl House. The three made sure to message their parents, and in Amity's case the Twins, on where they were going for awhile.

As they headed down the dirt path together, Willow spoke up. "So I've been thinking about it since lunch and remembered that Luz did have a strange looking staff, she told me not to tell anyone about it..." Gus lit up "oh yeah! I remember, she used it against that Basilisk that entered the school."

"Do you remember what it looked like?" Amity asked, Gus nodded and casted a spell circle. An illusion of the staff appeared in his hands.

It was grey with an orange tip. It had a single wing coming out of the side that was grey and red. The wing connected under the orange gem, where it was red with a small yellow coil wrapping around, connecting it to the staff. Amity studied it for a moment before nodding, "that's the same staff the Amber Guard used at my mom's meetup."

"Wednesday night mom had another meetup to sell her Abomination weapons and soldiers. I wasn't informed about the last one and it could have killed me if the Amber Guard didn't jump in." Amity explained. "You mean to tell me your mom almost killed you for some extra snails!?" Willow asked, eyes wide with alarm. "That is messed up." Gus commented.

Amity shrugged with a nod. "She probably knew they would jump in in time." She reassured them and herself. "Anyways not only does the staff match but I know that Luz and the Amber Guard used the same potion to fight."

"But anyone can use the same potions." Gus said. "That's the thing, I've never seen anyone else use that potion and I've hung out with Boscha enough to know that it doesn't exist in any potion books or anything." Amity replied.

They finally entered the clearing that the Owl House claimed as it's property, the door was slightly open since Hooty was inside. The Hextrio made their way to the front door, Amity taking the lead and knocking on the wood.

It took a couple minutes, but the door finally opened fully to reveal the Owl Lady herself. "Oh it's you three." She commented, stepping outside and closing the door leaving it slightly ajar again, blocking out the sounds of the living room.

"What are you three doing here?" Eda asked the trio, crossing her arms. "We wanted to see Luz." Gus replied. "We haven't seen her since before the Petrification and we were wondering if she's okay." Willow added.

"Oh right." Eda replied awkwardly. "Luz, uh... Is back in the Human Realm." She lied. Gus sagged in disappointment at the news, but Amity and Willow weren't convinced.

"Are you sure?" Willow asked. "Yeessss?" Eda replied looking away from them. Amity narrowed her eyes and Eda sighed, relenting "fine, fine, you caught me, but it's complicated."

"We have time, we even have some theories of our own." Amity replied, Gus raised his hand slightly "I don't have a lot of time, Dad expects me home soon."

"Alright, yeesh where do I even begin." Eda muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Maybe we could go inside?" Willow suggested, but Eda shook her head. "It's absolute chaos in there right now, ever since Lilith started living here anyway."

"Wait Lilith? As in former leader of the Emperor's Coven? That Lilith?" Amity asked. Eda nodded "that's how I was able to escape the Petrification, she rescued me after... well..." she paused.

"Alright let me start from the beginning. I had a portal to the Human Realm that I believed Luz had come through the day we met awhile ago." Eda started from the very beginning, Amity just thought she would start at the beginning of that day of the Petrification.

"She said that she wanted me to teach her magic so I let her stay. She learned glyphs, met you three, and got into all sorts of trouble. I suspected her home life wasn't the best, but after Grom I knew something was up-"

Eda stopped talking suddenly and turned around, curious the three teens looked behind her. The door was fully closed now, but it was hard not to notice the hole in the door where Hooty usually was. The sides of the hole had pulsing... flesh? Organs? Either way it was freaky.

Eda quickly opened the door and headed inside. Curious the teens glanced at each other before entering the house as well. The living room was a disaster, books and papers scattered about, the papers having different symbols on them, some being scratched out. There was also a huge pile of stuffed animals on one of the two couches. Eda was reading a piece of paper that she had picked up.

"Dang it King!" Eda yelled, crumbling the paper in her fist and tossing it onto the table, adding to the mess. "What happened?" Willow asked. "King went to his dang castle! And now I'm gonna have to save them from that dang creature." Eda complained, snatching a sash of potions that were hanging on the wall.

She put the sash on and called out "Owlbert!" It didn't take long for the palisman to come to it's witch, transforming into staff form. "Wait, castle?" Gus asked.

"Creature?" Amity asked at the same time. "Yeah, it's not an actual castle... I don't think, but it's off the Isles and far." Eda explained, heading back out the door and gesturing for the kids to come back outside.

"Can we help at all?" Willow asked as they headed outside again. The door closed behind them as Eda started to shake her head, pausing to really think about it then sighing. "Yeah, I suppose you could come with, but only two of you. Owlbert can't handle all three of you plus me."

Gus shrugged "I guess that's my cue to head home, but you guys have to fill me in as soon as possible, yeah?" Willow nodded, giving him a thumbs up. "I'll message you later tonight."

After Gus left, Eda urged them onto her staff quickly. Willow clung onto the Owl Lady as Amity clung to Willow. They quickly took off and were soon flying high above the boiling sea.

It was quiet until Amity spoke up, "could you continue what you were saying before. About Luz?" She asked, looking down at the boiling sea below them. "Right, that. Where was I... oh yeah. After Grom and... everything that happened that night that I won't reveal, cause that's something Luz has to tell you if she hasn't already."

Willow glanced back at Amity who shrugged in confusion. Eda continued "Luz seemed off the next day, but I didn't press since I thought it was about the night before, but then the day after was that field trip to the Emperor's Castle."

"Oh I remember!" Willow said. "Luz snuck away from the group and me and Gus tried to look for her. We found her captured by Lilith and she sent us to the Owl House with her staff."

"Wait, what!?" Amity asked, she was ignored as Eda nodded and continued. "Lilith and I fought in front of the Emperor's Castle and she was using Luz as bait. I ended up getting captured because of my curse and next thing I know the Emperor is asking for the portal to the Human Realm."

"Obviously I refused and I was taken to be petrified. Luz ended up coming right before I was put on stage..." Eda paused thinking back on the interaction. She hadn't thought to much about it since that day, she remembered the conflicting look in Luz's eyes, the tears, was that an act? It couldn't have been, it was to genuine.

"I... gave her the key to the portal and that's when I was sent to be petrified. Lilith soon came to my rescue and we made it back to the Owl House, she split the curse with me and I assumed Luz had gone back to the human Realm like I told her to do."

"But...?" Amity pressed slowly. Eda sighed, "but Lilith said that Luz was the Amber Guard." Willow gasped and looked back to Amity, astonished that the green haired girl was right.

"Called it." Amity stated, which startled Eda. The cursed witch looked back at them curiously. "Amity was just telling us at lunch why she thought Luz was the Amber Guard." Willow explained.

Eda shifted her gaze to Amity to explain, and she did. Amity first pointed out the timing that Luz first appeared and how the Amber Guard had stopped patrolling Bonesburrow for that month, then Willow told Eda how Luz had a strange staff that the human told her to keep a secret.

Amity continued to explain that Willow and Gus were banned from Hexside on Wednesday and later unbanned by someone in the Emperor's Coven. Then she explained what happened at her mother's meetup, how the Amber Guard jumped in to help her, wielding the same staff Gus had showed her an Illusion of not that long ago, and a potion that she had seen Luz use before.

Amity then mentioned the last thing that convinced her that Luz and the Amber Guard were the same person. "Even though it was muffled from her mask, her voice was the same." She finished. It was silent as Eda processed the information.

"Wow kid, you really pieced it together. Huh?" Eda sighed. "Well all that aside we're finally here." She gestured in front of them. Amity and Willow had to lean to the side to see.

Fog faded to reveal an island full of trees, a tall building that stretched above the dense forest surrounding it. The trio landed on the beach and hopped off the staff, sore from the long flight.

"We have to make our way on foot, it's too thick to fly in. But promise me you'll do as your told." Eda eyed the two witchlets, who nodded. "Promise!" They chorused.

With a nod from Eda the trio headed into the forest in search of Lilith, King and Hooty.

A/N: You may have noticed at the top of the chapter is a drawing I did. I can't draw people so I drew them as cats using fallowhollow's references, and I traced the door and other background stuff. I drew it inbetween chapters 25 and 26. I was going to use it as a preview for this chapter but I couldn't get it to load on AO3 so I just used it here instead. Idk if I'll do more of these, let me know if I should. Anyways see you next time!