Hunter walked within a cave, holding an activated light glyph in one hand while holding Flapjack in staff form in the other. He stopped when he saw a large shadow on the wall in front of him. A deep laugh came from the direction of the shadow.

"Foolish child. Leave this place before you meet your demise." The voice said.

"Sorry not sorry, but that's not happening." Hunter said, and continued to walk forward. However, when he get closer, he stopped confused at teh sight before him.

"Huh?"

Garlog turned out to be a tiny creature casting a shadow in front of a lantern. Hunter picked him up and he let out a squeal while trying to escape.

"You're Garlog?" Hunter asked. He pulled out his wanted poster, which depicted the demon as large an terrifying, worth 4,000 snails. He lowered it to look at the demon in his hands. "This is pathetic."

"Small I may be, but you will soon know fear when I lay waste to all that you-" Garlog said, until King cut him off by eating him whole.

"King, drop it now. Drop it now!" Hunter said, and King scampered off, Hunter chasing after him. "Drop it! No! I'm not gonna play right now! King!"

+.*.+

Hunter stood in his room, Garlog now stuffed inside a bottle while Hunter set his phone against it, recording a video.

"Hola, mama!" Hunter started. "So, remember when I said that I'd explain when I got back? Well... I'm not good at talking in person - you know that more than most people - so I'm recording this video for when I get back. If I get back. Probably."

Hunter said, but quickly shook his head. "A-Anyway! I discovered a world called the Demon Realm, and in it is a place called the Boiling Isles. Apparently I'm not actually a human, but that shouldn't really be surprising because of my ears and eyes. I'm a witch, and this realm is full of witches and demons. I'm living with a really powerful witch called Eda the Owl Lady, and a small demon called King. Yes, that's his name."

He took a deep breath. "The reason I decided to stay in the Boiling Isles is because - well - I found out there's a lot of stuff about my past here. I saw the opportunity and I took it. And there's another reason..." Hunter made jazz hands and gave a nervous smile. "Luz is alive and was in the Boiling Isles the whole time! Surprise!"

"But guess what? She's working for Emperor Belos, who isn't exactly on my side. He sorta... uh... almost killed me last week...? But I'm fine now, don't worry! It's fine. I mean, Eda nearly got petrified and I got captured by the Emperor's Coven, forcing me to fight my own sister in order to escape and rescue Eda before having to deal with the Emperor trying to murder me and-"

He sighed, staring at the ground and stopping himself from rambling. Flapjack flew and perched on his shoulder with a chirp, trying to comfort him.

"On the bright side, this is Flapjack - my palisman! He's sort of my familiar. They're magical animals made from palistrom wood, and they form strong bonds with their witches." Hunter said quickly, trying to change the subject. "He helped me a lot a week and a half ago - when I got captured and Eda almost got petrified. Also, um... I sort of destroyed the portal back to the human realm...? It's okay though! I only did that because Belos wanted it and was going to kill Eda if I didn't hand it over. I have the portal key though!"

Hunter took out the portal key from his pocket, holding it up to the camera. "I'm gonna study this as much as I can and find a way back to you, I promise. I know it sounds bad, but its okay! Really. I have friends to help me."

+.*.+

Hunter brought his phone downstairs, continuing to record the video, but this time recording Eda in the kitchen, who was trying to cats magic.

"This is Eda, the Owl Lady - the one I mentioned took me in. She's the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles." Hunter said. Eda's spell failed. "Or, was. Her curse kinda overpowered her and weakened her magic. She's doing her best now, though."

+.*.+

This time, Hunter was recording Lilith somewhere upstairs, who was putting away her old clothes, donning new ones.

"Eda was cursed by her own sister, Lilith. And she spent her entire life searching for a way to undo it. It's still hard for them to trust each other, but with time everything will ease out." Hunter narrated.

Lilith stared out of an open window pensively, a small smile forming on her lips. Suddenly, Hooty appeared in the window, making Lilith jump.

"Hello!" Hooty said, and Lilith screamed, slamming the window in Hooty's face.

+.*.+

Outside of the Owl House, Hunter was still recording. Eda was constructing something.

"Even though Eda gets frustrated, she's found new ways to make up fro her lost powers." Hunter said.

"Check it, Hunter! A new hunting weapon. I will call her Stab-Catcher." Eda said with a triumphant grin.

"Without the portal, Eda has no human garbage to sell. So, we've resorted to working odd jobs to keep food on the table." Hunter said.

"Hey, King, did you know that apple is a hat?" Eda asked, aiming the Stab-Catcher.

"Really?" King said, placing an apple on his head, unknowingly standing in front of a target.

"Eda, no! King!" Hunter yelled, dropping the camera and tackling King out of the way before Eda threw the Stab-Catcher, landing on the bullseye.

+.*.+

Hunter was back in his room, finishing off the video.

"This week we're bounty hunters. Next week we could be anything." He said. "So, Mom, please don't be scared. I'll convince Luz to leave the Emperor's Coven, and we'll find a way home - and find out more about my past. But, in the meantime, I'll get stronger and learn how to use magic. Te quiero, mama. Te lo prometo, regresare a casa pronto."

Hunter stopped recording, and sighed.

"Hunter!"

Hunter stuffed his phone in his pocket and looked out his bedroom window, seeing Eda and Lilith waiting outside.

"Time to bring these bad boys to the market!" Eda called,.

"Eda, do you own anything that isn't covered in feathers?" Lilith asked, patting feathers off herself with a grunt.

"I had to deal with a curse for 30 years, so I think you can handle a few feathers." Eda said.

+.*.+

Eda, Lilith, Hunter and King walked in the streets of Bonesborough, noticing a statues of Emperor Belos has been erected and the place was crawling with Emperor's Coven guards. Hunter pulled his cowl tighter over his head, Flapjack chirping.

"The Emperor's really taking over, huh?" Hunter said. Images of him nearly escaping death flashed in his mind, but he quickly shook those thoughts away. Now was not the time to be remembering these things.

"I see it too, kid. And I'm trying to be civil." Eda said, kicking a demon decked out in Emperor's Coven apparel.

They walked up to a booth with the word 'BOUNTY' on it, Eda placing a bag of captured demons on a scale. The shopkeeper leaned down a bit to read said scale.

"Your payment." The shopkeeper said, plopping one snail in Eda's hand.

"A single snail? Are you kidding me?" Eda glared. The shopkeeper laughed.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't done yet." The shopkeeper said, snapping the snail in half.

"You can't do this to me. Do you know who I am?" Eda asked.

"Yeah, you're Eda the Owl Lady. What are you gonna do? We all know you're powerless now." The shopkeeper said.

Eda growled, trying to cast a spell but the spell circle disintegrated. "Ah! What the-"

The townspeople around began whispering to each other.

"I don't need your pity!" Eda yelled, holding up her wanted poster. "I was the most wanted criminal for years. You should fear me."

A passing garbageman grabbed her wanted poster and put it in the trash cart he was pushing. Eda stared.

"Don't worry, sister." Lilith said with a laugh. "At least my image still commands respect and fear."

She posed in front of a Coven recruitment poster with her on it, doing the exact same pose. However, the same garbageman burnt it using a flamethrower. King laughed.

"You're a traitor." He said with a giggle.

"What's going on? This is anarchy. Who told you to do this?" Lilith asked. In the poster's place was a renewed Coven recruitment poster, this time donning the Golden Guard. Hunter grabbed one of the posters, staring at it with a sad frown.

"Did you know her in the coven, Lilith?" Hunter asked, glancing up at her.

"Unfortunately, I did." Lilith said, grabbing the poster from him. "She always got special treatment because she was the genius teen prodigy. But she's really just a brat - and agent of chaos who was reckless and foolish. If she's in charge... vomit."

She balled up the poster and threw it in the trashcan. Hunter glared.

"Hey! That's my sister you're talking about!" He snapped. Lilith's eyes widened a little.

"She's your... sister?" She said, dumbfounded. Hunter looked at the floor.

"Well, my adoptive sister, yeah." He said. The poster unrolled itself and flew from the trashcan, flinging itself onto Lilith's face. She tried to rip it off, but after a few minutes of no success she gave up and stalked off.

Hunter turned to Eda. "Well... I think maybe we should take on bigger bounties. Maybe we'll earn more money that way." He said, looking at a bulletin board labelled 'Greg's List' and reading the posters there.

"Hmm. Lost Cerberus, no. Witch cackling lessons, no. Ah!" He took a poster off the board and showed it to Eda. "There's something called a 'selkidomus' ravaging boats up and down the coast. If we take it down we could earn a lot."

Selkidomus scales...

Eda shook her head, determined to keep those thoughts out of her head. She couldn't think about that right now.

"No. We gotta keep a low profile while my powers are weakened. And we need fast cash." Eda said, thinking of an excuse. "How about this guy?"

She gestured to a poster on the board.

"'The Abominable Cutie Pie'?" Hunter read with confusion.

"No, no, no. I hear it's very dangerous." Eda gasped. "And look, there he is."

She pointed, and - lo and behold - the cutie pie was there, sucking on a lollipop. It giggled and ran off, climbing the statue.

"You'll never catch me!" It said. Hunter rolled his eyes, Flapjack turning to staff form so he could fly up to the top of the statue. The cutie pie fell into his hands.

"You did it. You caught me." It said. Hunter groaned, as King climbed up to him.

Eda sighed. "Things aren't looking great, Lily. This bounty hunting stuff isn't putting food on the table." She said.

Lilith mumbled something into the poster.

"No apple blood. I spent the money on griffin eggs for Hunter. There's not a lot he can digest here - probably due to him being accustomed to human food." Eda said, the last part being a lie. Well, it wasn't impossible, but she was pretty sure being a grimwalker had something to do with it.

The sisters headed off.

"That's rough, buddy." The cutie pie said, and Hunter promptly dropped it at that, floating back down as Flapjack returned to animal form and perched on his shoulder. King climbed down from the statue.

"This is awful. Eda wouldn't be in this situation if it weren't for me." Hunter said. He stared at the ground and clenched his fists. "Maybe it would be better if I never came here."

King hugged his leg and Flapjack cuddled into his neck, trying to comfort him.

"You may not be able to change the past, but you can still change the future." King said. Hunter gave a small smile.

"Thanks, guys." He said. "I'm gonna help Eda and prove that I'm more than just a burden."

+.*.+

Hunter arrived at the Bonesborough Dock, slamming the Selkidomus poster on a barrel.

"The Selkidomus hunt. I'm coming along." Hunter said. A ship horn blew.

"You think you can handle this, squirt?" The captain of the ship said.

"Definitely." Hunter said determinedly. He was let into the ship.

+.*.+

The ship sailed through the Boiling Sea, rocking a little bit. Hunter had never been on a ship before, but miraculously he wasn't getting seasick. That would've ruined the entire plan if he was.

"When we defeat the Selkidomus and get a boatload of snails, Eda won't have to worry about money for a long time." Hunter said to King.

"King want a cracker!" King said, slipping into third person like he often did when feeling adorable.

"All hands!"

Hunter quickly lined up with the rest of the crew in front of the captain.

"Alright, crew. The Selkidomus has been ravaging the coastline. It was last seen in the Simmering Shoals. You know the drill, 'Snag the quarry, get the money galore-y'." The captain said, dropping a large sack of snails onto the deck. "We all do the work, we all get a cut."

The crew cheered.

"I have many debts!" A fish sailor said.

"'Till then, keep everything shipshape. This ain't no pleasure cruise." The captain said, throwing a broom to Hunter, who caught it. "Don't be a burden, sea squirt."

"I'm not planning to be." Hunter replied.

+.*.+

Over the next hour or so, Hunter completed a series of tasks, helping around on the ship - whether it was scraping barnacles off the ship's hull, using fire glyphs in the bellows of the ship, or even just mopping the deck - he was making sure to do his part.

"Well, ye had me confront my own biases and I got nothing but respect for ya now, squirt." The captain said, walking over to him. "I mean, sailor."

"Thanks, Salty." Hunter said. The crew cheered, while King booed, raising his cracker in displeasure. A bird tried to grab it from him.

"Hey, that's mine, you feather duster!" King yelled, as the two tugged at the cracker.

The ship hit a large wave, sending King tumbling into the captain's quarters. The doors closed behind him.

"Oof. Hey, King want a cracker!" He yelled, trying to open the doors. However, he gasped when he noticed an entire box of crackers on the desk. He noticed a letter next to the box.

Picking up the letter, King squinted at it in confusion. "Isn't this the Emperor's sigil?"

King turned up the brightness of the lamp. He stared in horror as he realized the entire room was filled with the Emperor's sigil.

"This ship belongs to the Emperor? Oh, boy. I gotta tell Hunter." King said.

"Unfortunately, you won't have the chance."

King turned to see the Golden Guard, and he screamed as she walked closer.

+.*.+

Salty's ship began to enter darker waters, Hunter staring out the edge of the ship.

"We're here. The Simmering Shoals. Eyes peeled, mates." Salty said, and the rest of the crew stood to attention.

A burning ship sailed past. Sailors took off their hats and paid respects.

"She's close." Salty muttered.

Hunter's eyes widened as he saw the Selkidomus' tail thwack against the side of the ship.

"She's here!" He called, using an ice glyph to corner the Selkidomus. He then used vines to wrap it and tried to pull it onto the ship.

"Help hi, boys! Put your back into it." Salty said, as the other members of the crew tugged on the vine. After some pushing and heaving, Hunter tied the vine onto the ship.

"Yes!" Hunter said triumphantly. However, there was an explosion on deck, making Hunter lose his balance and allowing the Selkidomus to escape. As he got up, he saw a silhouette of someone carrying a bag of money.

"Is that a - a ghost pirate?" Salty asked, terrified.

"We're being robbed." Hunter said, Flapjack turning to staff form. The thief jumped off the ship and onto a speedboat, heading to a nearby island.

Hunter mounted his staff, flying after the figure.

Once he closed in on the shore, he landed on the ground - but miscalculated his momentum and crashed into the thief, making them drop the sack of money. The money was washed away by the Boiling Sea.

"The money!" Both him and the thief yelled. Hunter turned to the thief, staring at them for a second, before knocking off their hat.

"Eda?!" He said, surprised.

"Hey." Eda said sheepishly.

"Why are you robbing our ship? And what happened to your legs?" Hunter asked, noticing Eda's legs were missing. Eda quickly reattached them.

"It's called 'disguising your tracks'." She said, standing up. "Now, why were you on that ship to begin with? You coulda gotten killed!"

Suddenly, a blinding red light shone from the horizon, getting bigger and brighter until, in a flash, the Golden Guard stood on her artificial staff, the Boiling Sea having gigantic ripples a few seconds later from her sheer speed.

"That can still be arranged, Owl Lady." She said. She got off her staff, standing on the ground, her mask hiding her face.

"Hellooo, criminals!" She said enthusiastically, her cape billowing in the wind. Hunter frowned - something seemed off about Luz. Oddly cheerful.

Eda was instantly on edge.

"Golden Guard. Come to arrest us?" Eda said, getting in a defensive position.

"Yup! Well, one of you." Luz said. "But first, you're both standing on a plant that eats flesh."

The two of them looked down and yelped, quickly jumping off it.

"Alright, Hunter will remain a sailor to repay all the money he just lost, while the Owl Lady will be arrested - again - for attacking one of the Emperor's ships." Luz said, her voice still unnaturally happy.

"'Emperor's ship'?" Hunter said, confused, turning to Eda.

"They're the only ones worth robbing." She said, then turned to Luz. "Why are you guys hunting the Selkidomus? It's a peaceful creature, and you're provoking it!"

"The Emperor order me to slay one. I'm just following orders." Luz said, then placed her hands on her hips triumphantly. "Besides, I've been ready for a high-seas adventure for a while now!"

Hunter had enough - Luz was acting really weird. She was usually cheerful, sure, but her voice was unusually joyful.

"Luz, I - are you doing okay? Well, are you okay, since you found out that Manny-" Hunter started, but Luz quickly cut him off.

"Yeah, perfectly okay! Totally. Everything's fine. Dad can't be dead. He can't." Luz said with a nervous laugh, her face hidden by her mask. Hunter gave her a worried frown, reaching out to her.

"Luz..."

Eda looked between the two, confused. And when she was confused, her first instinct was to attack something - that something being Luz.

"Well, I'm just gonna smack you around a bit!" Eda said, ripping off her arm to use it as a weapon against Luz.

"Eda, wait!" Hunter said, trying to reach for her but missing. Luz was a little surprised but blasted Eda back with her staff - although she didn't seem to be using her full power on her. Maybe it was because Hunter was there. She quickly recovered from what Hunter had asked her moments before.

"How about..." Luz said, using her staff to manipulate the ground underneath Eda - so that now she was directly above the steaming waters. "I leave you dangling above the Boiling Sea? Around these parts, just the steam is enough to cause third-degree burns."

"Eda!" Hunter yelled, running forwards to pull her back onto land.

"Wait, Hunter!" Luz said, her voice sounding panicky. She quickly used her staff to bring Eda back onto land, but Hunter tripped and fell into the scalding water. Eda and Luz gasped, the latter dropping her staff, mortified.

However, Hunter got up unscathed, leaving all three of them confused. He was steaming, sure, but was unscathed.

"It... didn't burn me...?" Hunter said, staring at his hands with wide eyes.

"Hunter, don't you dare do that ever again!" Luz and Eda said in unison, but then stopped and stared at each other, a little embarrassed. Hunter blinked, walking away from the water.

"Okay, okay! I won't..." He said sheepishly. However, he quickly got the conversation back on topic. "Luz, please don't do this."

After a few moments of hesitation, Luz sighed. "Fine, I won't be a big 'ol meanie. No one will have to be a sailor or get arrested, if one of you follows those Selkidomus tracks and slays the beast. Here! I'll help!"

She used her staff to materialize a sword, the weapon landing in Hunter's hands. He just glanced down at it and glanced back up at her, clearly not wanting to kill a peaceful creature. Luz sighed.

"You're making this difficult... Go, or this cutie patootie will be my roommate in the castle forever." Luz said, pulling out a birdcage and lifting the shade aside, revealing King. King yelped, and Luz let go of the shade.

"Fine, fine! I'll do it." Hunter said, gripping the sword's handle tightly. Flapjack chirped insistently, as if trying to convince him not to, but he walked towards the cave anyway.

"Hunter, wait! Hunter!" Eda called, running up to him. "Hunter, don't kill the Selkidomus. We can find another way out of this. Luz is your sister, maybe you can convince her."

"I already convinced her not to arrest you - Luz is stubborn. She won't be convinced a second time, even if it's me." Hunter said. "If you and King want to be free, then I have to do this alone."

"What's this 'alone' business? You're not alone, we're-" Eda said.

"What? Sticking together?" Hunter cut her off, and stopped walking, turning to face her. "Because you stuck with me, you lost your magic. You almost got turned to stone, and now you can't even afford your apple blood because you're worried about what I need to eat. It's my fault all this happened. That's why I've got to do this alone - I'll make it up to you. I promise."

And he jumped down into the Selkidomus' den.

"Hunter!" Eda called.

Hunter fell right on top of the Selkidomus' head, dropping the sword upon the impact and watching as it clattered to the ground far away. The Selkidomus stirred, and looked about ready to roar, but for some reason didn't. Hunter slipped down from the head and fell onto the ground with a thud, groaning. Flapjack pulled on his hair in an attempt to help him get back up.

After getting up and dusting himself off, Hunter got in a defensive position with Flapjack in hand, ready for the Selkidomus to attack him, but it did no such thing. Instead, it sniffed him, and after a few moments, used its tail to bring him closer.

"What the...?" Was all Hunter could say, utterly confused by what was happening. Suddenly, he heard yelling, and looked up to see Eda swinging in on a vine, tackling him behind cover. The Selkidomus roared at that.

"You think throwing your life away is gonna help me?" Eda said. "Well, it won't. You helped me find King's crown when you barely knew me. You saved me from turning to stone and you even got me talking to my sister again. So, unfortunately for you, my life is pretty great, because I'm friends with Hunter, the witch."

Hunter teared up a little at that, Eda grabbed his cheeks, stopping him.

"Now, your guilt-ridden brain is clouding your judgement. There's gotta be a way out of this, where no one has to get hurt." Eda said.

Behind them, a baby Selkidomus sounded, snuggling against Hunter's arm. They went out from the cover, and the adult Selkidomus growled a bit upon seeing Eda - but once it was clear that Eda wasn't attacking, the Selkidomus stopped. Hunter and Eda cautiously stepped forward, the baby Selkidomus snuggling into its mother.

"Hm..." Hunter said, thinking. He pulled out a plant glyph, an idea forming. "Eda, do you want to learn your first glyph?"

+.*.+

Luz looked up from playing with King, seeing shadows on the wall of Eda and Hunter fighting the Selkidomus. Hunter slayed her, before dragged her head into Luz's view.

"Ew, why are you touching it with your hands? Gross." Luz said, chuckling despite herself. Hunter would've chuckled, had Luz not been acting weird, and so simply sighed.

"Now, give us King." He said. Luz gladly opened the cage, King immediately running over to Hunter and Eda.

"Thanks! You can find your own way home. Pleas try to stay out of trouble." Luz said strangely happily, before her tone turned more worried. "The Emperor is not a merciful man."

After a few moments she mounted her staff and waved with her sickly cheerful tone back. "Bai!!"

And with a red flash, she was gone.

Hunter turned back to the Selkidomus corpse, which was actually made from plant magic. Eda was activating a bunch of light glyphs with wonder.

"My first glpyh. Did I do good?" Eda asked with a grin.

"Yeah. You did great." Hunter said. The Selkidomus and her baby came towards them, the baby coming up to Hunter and hugging him. He chuckled.

"Wait, what is that?" King asked, clinging to Hunter's jeans.

"Oh, don't worry King. That's the Selkidomus - but once she found out we weren't a threat to her baby, she was friendly towards us." He paused. "She already seemed friendly towards me though, for some reason."

Right... because the Selkidomus sniffed the scales he's made from, it mistook him for an abandoned Selkidomus baby. It also explains why the boiling water didn't effect him... Eda thought.

"Eh, probably recognizes that you're a great person. I'm too chaotic and unpredictable for it to trust immediately." Eda said quickly, before turning to the Selkidomus. "This area is dangerous. You need to move further out into the sea."

The Selkidomus nodded, before regurgitating a pile of what looked to be golden puke.

"Hot dang! It gave you the treasure of the sea." Eda said.

"Uh... what is that? Is it gold?" Hunter asked, confused and a little grossed out.

"It's selkigris. Ah, people pay big money for it at the Night Market. Ah, feel that money, Hunter." Eda said, lathering a handful of the stuff in Hunter's face.

"No, Eda! Stop!" Hunter said, trying to back away.

"Luxuriate in it. What, you don't like to luxuriate? That's a whole pile of luxury right there." Eda said, continuing to do so while Hunter kept repeating the word 'no'. Eda eventually just picked Hunter up and threw him into the pile - Flapjack flying away so as not to get in the pile. Hunter screamed, his voice muffled inside the selkigris.

"Move over!" Eda yelled, jumping into the pile herself, flattening it.

"Eda!" Hunter yelled, popping his face out of the pile, his ears going red. He laughed despite himself, though, all of them laughing.

+.*.+

A tired Eda, Hunter and King arrived back at the Owl House.

"We're home." Eda said, and yelped as she tripped over Hooty.

"Eda, come here. I have a gift for you. To prove that I'm trustworthy, I'm giving you a peek inside the Emperor's Castle." Lilith said, gesturing to a cauldron of potion she'd brewed on the table.

They leaned to look at the potion's surface, which showed a corridor at the Emperor's Castle that split into two paths. Four distracted guards are at each side doing nothing. A guard on the left turned to one on the right.

"Sup." He said.

"Sup." The other said in response.

"Uh... what are we supposed to do with this?" Hunter asked.

"Whatever you want. Don't you see?" Lilith said. "These troops don't know what to do with themselves. So, go crazy. Pull whatever pranks your heart desires. They're clueless without me."

"Oh, Lily, you couldn't have been more right." Eda said. "Oh, I'm in a good mood. Who wants to get takeout and draw faces on Hooty?"

"No..." Hooty said, shaking his head... thing.

"Yay! Me, me, me! I do! Yeah! I'm in!" King said excitedly.

"I'm too tired for this, you two go have fun with that." Hunter said, sitting down with a sigh.

"I'll protect you, Hootsifer." Lilith said to Hooty with a warm smile, and Hooty reciprocated said smile.

"Alright, what do we wanna eat?" Eda asked.

"Anything but seafood." Hunter said.

"Crackers." King suggested.

"We're not ordering crackers." Eda said.

"Bees!" Hooty suggested.

"I'm fine with whatever. Things are starting to feel right again." Lilith said.

+.*.+

Luz sighed, pacing back and forth in her room, outside of her Golden Guard uniform.

"Gah! I don't know what to do! I want to protect Hunter and reconnect with him, but at the same time Emperor Belos wants him - for whatever reason he won't tell me!" Luz said worriedly, finally flopping onto her bed.

She turned over, and noticed a book about palismen on her bedside table. She reached for it, flipping open to a random page.

"Hunter seemed happy with his palisman. I wish I could have one too..." Luz said, but then froze when she heard what she'd just said. "Ugh, but palismen are made of wild magic! They're dangerous."

She stared at the page once more, then sighed. "But... maybe I could have one anyway. Maybe I could prove that wild magic isn't dangerous, by taming a palisman!"

She closed the book, a small smile forming on her lips.

"But for now, I should probably get some rest."

Unfortunately, she got no rest that night. She couldn't stop thinking about that moment back on that shore - Hunter asking if she was doing fine. She was, she was doing totally fine - her dad was alive, everything was right in the world, and soon she'd come back home and reunite with her parents, alongside Hunter. Yup. That's how things would go.

Tears welled up in her eyes despite her trying to smile. She was sure if she looked in a mirror right now her smile would be very lopsided and fake.

Who am I kidding? Everything is not fine. I can't believe I... I lost a year of spending time with him. All this time, I thought he was alive and I could gush to him about how much I've been through here in the Boiling Isles, and...

Luz collapsed into sobs, crying and wailing into her pillow but making sure to keep quiet so as not to wake anyone up. Silently crying into her pillow, Luz wrapped her blanket around herself tight, trying to comfort himself but desperately failing.

"P-Papá... Te extraño, p-por favor no te vayas... Tienes que estar vivo... Por favor..." She cried into her pillow quietly, sniffling.

And for hours she cried into the night, until the first rays of sunlight filtered in through the window at dawn.