Archive of Our Own

Darius cleared his throat, and the chatter around the table died down. “I call to order this meeting of the Covens Assisting in the Transition—Raine, for once, please don’t say it—”

“AKA the CATs!” Raine interrupted. “Hiss!” A number of the others around the table joined in the hissing. Eda laughed quietly, leaning back with her feet on the table and her arm behind her head.

Darius did not join in. “Every day,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose with one gloved hand, “you make me grateful that this is a temporary organization. Which does actually bring me to our first agenda item.” He picked up some papers and shuffled them. “Edalyn, how have your efforts to spread the word about elections been going?”

“Mixed.” Eda pulled her feet off the table and sat up straight, her tone serious. “Lily’s been having good luck setting things up in the cities—” Lilith, a few seats away, gave a little wave of acknowledgment “—but over in the wilder parts of the Isles, the people I’m talking are pretty resistant to having anyone rule over them at all, even if it’s someone they get to choose. And frankly, it’s hard to blame them.”

Darius sighed. “We could leave them be, but frankly, wild witches are the people I want to hear from the most in a post-Belos world. Any ideas?”

Raine leaned forward over the table, meeting Eda’s eye briefly. “We need to find a way to appeal to them. All they’ve ever seen of the covens has been downsides—if we can show them that there’s value for them in the new system….”

Eda listened intently.

If anyone had told her a couple of years ago that she’d be involved in government—and actually find it interesting, to boot—she’d have slugged ‘em in the solar plexus and stolen their wallet. But that was when the government had meant Belos and his pawns.

Belos was dead now—finally, verifiably dead—and had been for almost a year. The Collector was pacified. The islands were saved, the inhabitants were freed, and everything was happily ever after. And then the dust had settled, and the question had arisen: 

What happens now?

There wouldn’t be another emperor—Eda had made it publicly known that anyone who wanted Belos’s throne would earn a throatful of harpy talons for their trouble, but frankly no one was interested anyway. So, no emperors, and no kings. But after the Day of Unity and the Collector’s games, there were island-wide problems that needed solutions, so there had to be some overarching organization to coordinate the response.

Luz had suggested something called ‘demo crazy’, or at least that was how Eda chose to pronounce it, so they were giving that a try. The CATs 2.0 had formed in the interim to try to get things set up, and when they asked Eda to help out, she couldn’t say no.

It was weird, sitting in on boring government meetings and actually being interested in them, doing this mundane menial work to plan for the future. But maybe not as weird as it felt to actually have a future to plan for.

“… and the trial of one Odalia Blight for crimes against witchkind is stalled because we’re having a hard time finding impartial jurors,” Darius said, near the end of the meeting. He grimaced. “Because everyone hates her.”

Eda snorted. She had her legs up on the table again. “Isn’t that a neat trick? Tick enough people off and you can’t even be tried for your crimes.” She rolled her eyes. “Can’t we just toss her in jail already?”

“It is a problem we’re running into for many of the former coven heads,” Raine admitted. “But we’ll figure it out.”

“Well, we can figure it out next meeting. We’re over time as is, and I need my R&R.” Darius rifled through his papers again, and then his expression brightened. “Oh, of course, I almost forgot. The inaugural Kickmass party in Bonesborough is in just a few weeks, around the former site of the castle, so spread the word and bring friends.” He smirked, and met Raine’s eyes, and then Eda’s. “Or more than friends, as the case may be.”

Eda smiled to herself, feeling a comfortable blush emerge, and saw Raine smiling in much the same way across the table. But… there was a pang, too.

“Anyway, meeting adjourned, and Merry Kickmass.” With that, Darius’s body melted into abomination goo, and he swirled into the floor and disappeared.

Lilith snorted. “Showoff.”

The dozen or so attendees walked out of the CATs headquarters—actually the same building in Latissa that they’d used as a hideout, just before the Day of Unity. Most of them walked or flew away quickly, though some like Lilith hung back for one-on-one conversations. When Eda walked out the door, Raine was waiting for her.

“Hey,” they said, leaning in for a quick peck on the cheek.

Eda smiled. “Hey yourself, Rainestorm.”

Raine let out a long sigh and slumped against the building. “Those long meetings take a lot out of me these days,” they complained. “Still getting used to that.” The sunlight on their skin threw the network of scars across their skin into stark relief, like they’d been struck by lightning.

Eda leaned up next to them, and leaned into them too. “You know you can take a day off if you need to, right?”

“This work is important, I don’t want to miss it.” Raine sighed. “You and Darius never have any problems, and you got it just as bad as I did on the Day.”

“Betcha twenty snails Darius just teleported himself straight into a mud bath, where he’s the mud.” Eda’s mouth twitched into a smile. “That guy spends twenty three hours a day relaxing, and I don’t blame him one bit. And as for me, I’m used to this in a way you aren’t.” She poked Raine on the arm for emphasis.

“If you say so.” Raine’s tone made it sound like they weren’t really listening.

Eda narrowed her eyes. “Raine, so help me, if I find out you’ve been overexerting yourself I will carry you back to bed with my own hand, and enforce mandatory bed rest for twenty four hours. And the Owl Beast is with me on this.” She leaned forward, looming over Raine a little and smirking. “I’ll pin you there myself if I have to.”

Raine blushed but didn’t lose their composure, matching Eda’s smirk with one of their own. “Well, when you put it that way… I’m tempted.” 

They both laughed. Then Raine looked down from her face. “You’re not wearing your prosthetic today?”

Eda shrugged, holding up both arms—well, one and a half arms, at least. “Hey, didn’t need it today. And Alador’s still working out the kinks in those Abomin-Arms. Gives me some royal pins and needles.” She rubbed her stump and grimaced.

“Do you at least have it with you?” Raine frowned at her. “I know you can handle yourself, but… I worry.”

Eda heard footsteps coming out the nearby door, and a familiar voice. She smiled. “Tell you what, Rainestorm. If I ever need a hand….”

Lilith walked out the door, having finished whatever conversation she’d been having—just in time for Eda to reach out, grab her right arm, and yank. It popped off at the elbow like the limb of a doll. “Hey!” Lilith squawked, with indignation rather than pain.

“… I’ll just borrow one of hers!” Eda finished, sticking it onto her own elbow and wiggling ‘her’ fingers.

“No you will not.” Lilith marched over and yanked the limb back, then reattached it firmly onto her own body once more. “You never washed it before giving it back last time, and you still haven’t told me what that muck was under my fingernails.”

Eda cackled. “Do you really wanna know the answer to that?”

“No! I don’t!” Lilith walked away with her head held high. “Also Dad wants to know if you want to come to dinner tonight!” she continued in the same overly aggrieved tone. “He’s making fleshloaf!”

“Sounds good!” Eda cupped her hand around her mouth for extra volume. “I’ll whip up some ghoulash to go with it!”

“Lovely!” Lilith shouted. “See you there!” Her palisman flew out from beneath her clothes and transformed, and she rode away on the staff.

Eda sighed contentedly. “Oh, it’s nice we get along so well now.” She smiled at Raine. “Hey, speaking of get-togethers, did you know Demonico’s restaurant opened up again? National heroes eat half-off.”

“Only half?” Raine raised an eyebrow. “I remember you using the five-finger discount whenever we went on dates as kids.”

“Eh, I’m old and boring now. Plus it’s not as appealing when you’ve only got five fingers.” Eda snorted. “So, whatcha say, you free this weekend? My treat.”

Raine scratched the back of their neck. “Ugh, sorry. I’ve got, um… party planning for Kickmass with the CATs.” They blushed. “More or less booked solid until the day of, actually. I don’t think I’ll have the energy for a date.”

Eda stared at them for a moment, and then sighed. “Well, I won’t tell you to push yourself. But I’ll definitely see you at the party, right? You won’t be, I dunno, stuck in an orchestra pit or something?”

Raine turned to face her and took her hand in both their own. “I wouldn’t miss seeing you there for the world,” they said. “Just you and me together. No work, no obligations, and no stress. Believe me, I can’t wait.”

“Right!” Eda laughed. She wondered if it sounded fake to Raine. “No stress!”

A low rumble caught their attention, and in a few seconds, a transport worm rounded the corner—one of the first ones that had come back into operation, post-Belos. “Well, that’s my ride!” Raine said, pushing off the wall and trotting toward it. “See you around!”

Eda waved, smiling as the worm slithered away, Raine riding atop it with a dozen other commuters.

Then she sighed, and slipped her hand into her pocket, and pulled out the ring there.

“No stress,” she repeated, and grimaced as she turned it over in her hand.

“So what the heck is ‘Kickmass’, anyway?” Luz asked, flying next to Eda few days later. “Is it like a Boiling Isles version of Christmas?”

“Christmas?” Eda made a retching noise. “That’s one of those Belos holidays, isn’t it.”

Luz pouted. “He didn’t come up with it….”

Eda threw her arms out wide—two arms right now, actually, since she was wearing the Abomin-Arm prosthetic today. “Doesn’t matter. We don’t want anything to do with any of that stuff. No Christ, no Christmas, and anyone named Christopher is on thin ice!” Eda added, shaking her fist in the air. “No, this holiday is a Boiling Isles original, and it’s brand new too!”

“Brand new?” Luz squinted in concentration. “If it’s new, then…. Oh! It’s been nearly a year since we beat Belos, hasn’t it?” she asked, hopping a little in her seat with excitement.

“That’s right!” Eda grinned. “We’re celebrating the anniversary of the day we kicked the Emperor’s… butt clean off the Isles!”

“You hesitated for a second there. Before butt.”

“Let’s just say that if they’d listened to me, the holiday wouldn’t have had an M in it.”

They flew over Bonesborough, Eda riding Owlbert and Luz riding her own winged-snake palisman. Below them, people were putting up holiday decorations. They varied wildly from house to house, since there weren’t any traditions to observe, but Eda could see a lot of effigies of Belos in various states of dismemberment. Not to mention a lot of red for blood, and dark green like Belos’s slimy body.

“So, how’s it going with Raine?” Luz asked, in the tone of voice that begged for hot goss.

“Oh, that? Couldn’t be better!” Eda laughed. “We’re taking it slow but steady. Hit our six month re-anniversary a little while back, go on dates when we can….”

“Slow but steady?” Luz squinted. “I thought you’d have popped the question by now.”

Eda swerved in midair. “What? What, no, not yet.”

“Ooh, but you wanna. It’s written all over your face.”

Luz’s grin was so cheeky it made Eda want to punch her on the arm. She settled for giving her an aggrieved glare. “Hey, don’t you quote me at me! Since when do I listen to myself anyway?” Then she sighed and looked down at the ground. “It’s just… I wanna take the time to do it right this time around. Make it perfect.”

Luz’s eyes shimmered, and then widened. “Oh my gosh. You’re going to propose to them on Kickmass! It’ll be so romantic!”

Eda quirked an eyebrow, and internally complimented herself for only reacting by that much. “Kiddo, we’re celebrating the day we killed a guy. What part of that screams romance to you?”

“Amity and I made out super hard right after we finally beat him.”

Eda raised a finger, her mouth open, and then lowered it. “Point made.” Then she grinned, and leaned closer to Luz. “Speaking of which, you’re going to visit her now, aren’t you? Lucky little devil.”

For the first time, Luz’s mood dimmed, and she looked down at the ground. “Not really that lucky.” With that, she started descending toward a street Eda vaguely remembered.

Eda followed her. “What’s up? Trouble in paradise?”

Luz didn’t answer at first. She dived down fast, pulling up just before the ground, and touched down in front of an apartment block. It was brand new in the last year and modern in a way that contrasted starkly with the other buildings around it. Now Eda remembered—this was where the Blights lived now, after the manor had been wrecked in all the chaos a year back.

Luz un-staffed her palisman, and he coiled around her shoulders. “Thanks, Snakob,” she said, rubbing her cheek against his and smiling for a moment. Then she sighed and walked toward the building.

“Luz,” Eda said, touching down behind her, “don’t tell me there’s something wrong between you two?”

“No, not between us.” Luz looked back at her for a moment. “It’s her mom’s trial.”

Oh, right, that. Eda winced.

Luz squinted at the big array of buttons on the wall by the door, then pressed the one labeled Blight. “It’s really dragging on, and I think Amity’s been taking it the hardest of all of them. She’s doing a little of that thing I always used to do, where I’d act like nothing’s wrong, but….” Luz sniffed. “God, was I that obvious when I did it?”

Eda reached her flesh-and-blood arm around Luz’s shoulders and pulled her into half a hug, and Luz leaned into it. Titan below, it hurt to see her face fall like that. To see that scar on her eyebrow and that sadness in her eyes.

“So… I’m just trying to be there for her,” Luz said. “But it’s so hard, and there’s not really anything I can do except be there, and… I’m not messing with time magic again. I learned my lesson.” She laughed weakly. “But I wish I could just speed things up for her. Just make it so this was done.”

“I hear ya.” Eda’s voice was low. “Kiddo, listen to me, okay?”

Luz looked up at her.

“What you’re doing now, with being here for her and talking to her? Keep doing that.” Eda met her gaze earnestly. “But you know you’ve gotta let her do it for you too, right? Don’t clam up, or try to spare her feelings, or, or….”

Luz nodded, which was good, because Eda was out of things to say.

Muffled footsteps sounded from inside the building. Amity jogged down the stairs, visible through the glass front door, her hair vividly purple from a recent dye-job. She opened the door and smiled brightly. “Hola, batata! Hello, Eda. Are you here about your Abomin-Arm, or….”

Luz didn’t say anything, She stepped forward and pulled Amity into a tight hug. Amity’s smile froze on her face for a few seconds, before it trembled and vanished.

“I brought some of those human realm snacks you like,” Luz said, softly. “And Mom’s maduros, and all the Azura audiobooks downloaded on my phone.”

“That sounds really nice.” Amity sniffled and hugged Luz tighter. Even Luz’s palisman joined in, coiling around Amity’s shoulders as well.

Luz reached down and got her arms around Amity’s legs, then lifted. “Scoopsie-daisy. Come on, let’s see if your room has enough blankets to make a fort.” Amity giggled, and bent her legs around Luz’s waist, and Luz carried her across the lobby and up the staircase without apparent effort.

Eda smiled at them until they were out of sight. For all that Luz talked about it being hard, those two made it look easy.

Could it still be that easy for her, even now?

“All right, one more time. Breathe in deep,” Raine said.

King breathed in deep.

“With your abdomen, not your chest,” Raine corrected.

King relaxed his shoulders, and his tummy stuck out a little.

“Visualize what you’re going to do. Imagine the path through the air, let your whole body go into the motion, and….” Raine chopped their hand down. “Fire!”

King stepped forward with a mighty “WEH!”

The magical circles of his attack blasted forward toward Porta-Hooty, who’d twisted his body into several large loops like a giant crazy straw, and was holding a wooden target in his beak. The attack circled up through each ring in turn, spiraling through the air, and struck the target hard enough to snap it off.

Eda beamed, and hurried over to him. “You got it! Nice work, King, you’re getting better with that voice every day.” She patted him on the skull.

“Ha ha!” King jumped with triumph, fists raised in the air. “The Hexside entrance exam will cower before my titanic might! Cowerrrrr!”

Eda put a hand to her mouth and snorted.

King’s eyes widened, and he sheepishly lowered his fists. “Heh, got a little carried away there. I’m just really excited, is all!” His eyes shone. “I’m gonna learn how to do bard stuff, and potions, and eat lunch with Luz all the time, and get in trouble in ways that are so weird they’re gonna have to invent new rules to put me in detention!”

“I don’t know about that,” Raine said as they walked over too. “Thanks to Lord Calamity over here, Hexside’s got a pretty comprehensive rulebook.” They elbowed Eda with a smirk.

“Oh, thanks to just me?” Eda elbowed back. “As if you weren’t also a little hellion?”

“Yes, just you, because some of us managed not to get caught.” Raine chuckled, and Eda chuckled back.

The moment was interrupted by a deep, strident cello note playing over and over—Raine’s alarm tone. They pulled out their scroll and silenced it. “Drat, thought I had more time.” They sighed. “Derwin’s coming to pick me up any minute now, so I guess we’ll wrap things up.”

They bent down to King’s eye level—which was higher now than it had once been—and rested a friendly hand on his shoulder. “King, you might not be a bard in any traditional sense, but what you’ve learned to do with that voice of yours would put our singers to shame. Keep it up, and I can’t imagine how far you’ll be able to take it.”

King made a little happy noise. “Thanks, Raine!”

“Any time.” They stood up. “Whoops, that’s my ride!”

Eda glanced to the side to see Derwin approaching by palisman. Raine hurried over to her and craned their neck up to peck her on the cheek, and she smiled back at them. Then they were off, hurrying toward Derwin as he touched down.

“Well, we’d better ship out too,” Eda said, walking over and slinging Hooty’s backpack over one shoulder. “Owlbert, mind giving us a ride?”

Owlbert did not mind, and soon she and King were on their way home from the field. The sports field at Hexside itself, funnily enough.

Sending King off to Hexside—yet another thing Eda couldn’t have imagined doing a few years ago, both because she’d never given the idea of King’s education any thought and because she’d thought of Hexside as where individuality went to die. But King was her son now, emotionally and legally, and Hexside had more than proven itself during Luz’s first few months there. Not to mention it was one of the few places left standing after the Collector’s antics were finished.

So yeah, King was going to Hexside, and the sooner the better—his titanic growth spurt seemed to have just barely started. He’d gained at least six inches over the last year, and seemed to be accelerating. Hopefully, if they enrolled him soon enough, he’d still be able to fit inside the building when he graduated.

For now, though, he was still small—and still surprisingly quiet in his seat behind her on the staff. “Hey, King?” Eda asked. “You all right back there?”

“Great! Great. Just, um….” He tapped his claws together, making a little clicking noise “Do you think if I try to make friends with anyone there, they’re gonna be weird about me being, you know…. A Titan?”

Eda frowned for a moment. “Huh, I dunno. Maybe? Someone’s always weird about something.” Then she reached back with her stump and patted him on the back. “But Luz is as one-of-a-kind as you are around here, and she’s had a great time at Hexside. And you will too.” She winked.

“Thanks, Eda.” King smiled, with his eyes at least. “I just wish the exam was scheduled sooner! I feel like I’m driving myself nuts thinking about how it could go wrong, even though I’m super excited for it!” He bonked himself on the skull for emphasis.

Eda squeezed her teeth together. “Huh! Isn’t it funny how that can happen?”

They landed in front of the Owl House. Eda unslung Hooty from her shoulders, and he hopped his way over to the front door, and began the horrific, squelching process of reattaching himself to the house. Eda and King looked away and tried to pretend they didn’t hear anything.

“Hey, King?” Eda said, her voice raised to be heard over the visceral noises behind them. “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah?”

Eda looked down at him. “What do you think about Raine? Be honest.”

“Raine?” King scratched his chin. “Well, they’re really good at music. And they’ve really been helping me with my powers, even though they’re super busy! It’s nice to have someone who can really help me get a grip on this stuff. And besides that….” He paused for a moment to think. “You know how you used to not care about stuff? And then Luz came and she cared so much about everything that you started caring too?”

“I guess?” Eda shrugged.

“Raine cares a lot. And I think they do some of that for you too, and I like that.” King nodded. “So, yeah, I guess I’ll be okay with them being my step-parent.”

Eda’s eyes flew wide. A few feathers even popped out of her face.

“Whoa, whoa!” King held up both hands placatingly. “I didn’t read your diary! It’s just really obvious. To everyone.” He narrowed his eyes. “You are gonna do it, right?”

Eda gritted her teeth. She reached back into her hair and pulled out a chewtoy made for attack hellhounds. It was the only thing that could withstand her chompers. Once she had it in her mouth like a piece of gum, she felt a little more grounded.

 “Yeah,” she said, her voice muffled a little. “I’m thinking of proposing at Kickmass.”

“Finally!” King beamed (with his eyes). “Need any help? I can hold up some of those romantic poisonous human berries!”

Eda laughed weakly, and chewed faster.

King squinted. “You don’t seem that excited.”

Eda chewed faster.

“Aw, gross, Eda, you’re getting spittle everywhere!” King winced, stepping away. “Why do you even have that thing?”

“Look,” Eda said, “when the Owl Beast gets antsy, either I chew on this, or I chew on voles. And too many voles give me reflux, and reflux gives me tonsil stones, and then I gotta shake em out.” She pulled off her head with one hand and shook it, and a few small yellow stones fell out the hole at the bottom of her neck.

King retched. “Blech! I just threw up in my mouth a little.” His eyes narrowed again. “Hey, if you think disgusting me to my core is gonna make me drop the subject, think again! I live with Hooty, I’m used to it!”

“I’ve made him barf five times this year!” Hooty announced proudly, now reattached to the house. “Gunning for six!”

Nuts. Eda sighed and reattached her head. “Can’t sneak anything past you, huh?” She spat out the chewtoy, and it landed over by the front door.

King looked at her plaintively, and Eda sighed and sat cross-legged. King scurried forward and curled up in her lap, eyes closed with contentment. He wouldn’t be able to do it for much longer, so they were trying to make the most of it these days.

“Why are you worried about proposing?” he asked.

Eda started brushing his fur with her hand. “Look, I didn’t want to get into it,” she said. “I mean, this is ancient drama, from before I found you. But you know the gist of it, right?”

“You were struggling with the curse, you wouldn’t let Raine help you, they got frustrated and dumped you,” King recited. “Yeah, I know.”

“Right. And now we’re together again, and it’s great, but a lot of the time I just feel so… stupid.” Her voice shook a little. “For wasting all those years we could have had, because I was too dumb the first time. And sure, I’ve got the curse mostly figured out, but there’s this thing now—” she waved her arm stump “—and the work with cleaning up the isles, and… what if something else comes up that I struggle with, and I just go back to bad habits?” Her hand rested still on King’s side. “What if I just drive them away again?”

“I hear ya, I hear ya. Keep brushing.” King cracked an eyelid open. “What if you don’t?”

“That’s the hope. But… ugh, I don’t know….”

King made a little grunt of annoyance. “Eda, if you don’t propose to that witch by Kickmass, I swear on the me that I’m going to ask Hooty to help you. And no one wants that.”

“I want that!”

“… except Hooty,” King amended.

“Acknowledgment! Hooray!”

A little laugh escaped Eda’s lips. “All right.” She sighed. “I just wanna make sure I get it right this time, you know? Raine deserves that much.” She looked down at King, whose breaths were getting slower as she kept petting. “Hey, if you’re still awake down there, I might just take you up on those poisonous berries.”

“Granted,” he mumbled. “Your union will be… blessed by the Titan….” And then he was snoring.

“Hey, uh,” Hooty said after a while, “so you two gonna come in, or….”

“Okay,” Eda said to herself, pacing back and forth. “So I get them away from the Kickmass party for a bit, find a nice secluded point at the top of the castle rubble right under the blood moon, and I pop the question there.”

She shook her head. “No, too cliché.”

She raised a finger. “Maybe a musical number? Raine loves music!”

She slapped herself on the forehead. “What am I thinking? Raine was the literal Bard Coven head! I can’t hold a candle to that!”

The Owl Beast, sitting in front of her, gave her a withering look.

“Well, I don’t hear you coming up with anything! Come on, Eda, think!”

There wasn’t anything else to do but think. Eda was in the dark, empty void where she went when the Owl Beast took control. Unlike the first couple decades she’d been thrown into here, it was by choice this time; sometimes the Owl Beast needed to be let all the way out, not just partway with the harpy form. She didn’t know what it was getting up to out in the waking world, although they’d hashed out an understanding that it wouldn’t eat anyone unless they were very annoying or tasty.

So for now, the place that had once been the object of her nightmares had turned into a place for her to get her thoughts in order, with the Owl Beast as a silent sounding board. Unfortunately, it wasn’t proving that much more useful like this.

Eda slumped down to the, for lack of a better word, floor, and looked at her stump. “Crud on a cracker. I don’t even get to have both arms in here?” She groaned. “Maybe I just don’t propose. Maybe we just keep dating, and I keep waiting to pop the question. Forever. That sounds workable.”

The Owl Beast hissed.

“Yeah, I know, it sounded stupid to me too.”

But the Beast made a noise that sounded frustrated. It lumbered forward, grabbed her with one arm, and pulled her close with a second hiss. “Hey,” Eda said, “what exactly are you—”

She was in the real world again, in harpy mode. Around her were woods on all sides. Before her on the ground was an old three-horned demon, maybe a little under her dad’s age, looking very confused.

“Oh, um, hi there, old timer!” Eda grinned awkwardly, and then stopped when she remembered how many fangs she was baring by doing that.

The demon eventually found his voice. “You’re the Owl Lady, aren’t you?”

“What gave it away?” Eda crouched down to the man’s level to offer him a hand up. “I hope I didn’t cause you any trouble just now. I wasn’t really, uh, at the wheel.”

“No, it was my mistake,” he said, wincing as he let Eda pull him to his feet. “You startled me, and I lost the reins, and….”

Eda looked around. There was a wagon near the guy with one wheel in a ditch, filled with mystery meat for the night market—probably why the Owl Beast had come here. In the distance she saw a ratworm careening madly around the forest, squeaking wildly.

She groaned. “Give me just a tick.” She took off, soaring between trees, and only needed a few seconds to land with an earth-shaking thud right in front of the ratworm. “Whoa, girl, down.”

The worm screeched at her.

Eda screeched back, much, much louder.

The worm cowered.

Eda relaxed, and petted the ratworm’s head. “There ya go. Mama’s not gonna hurt you.”

The ratworm still wore her bridle, so Eda took that in her hand and guided her back through the trees. It took about two minutes to return to the wagon, and when she got back, Eda let go of the ratworm for long enough to lift the wagon out of the ditch herself.

“Thank you, Owl Lady,” the demon said, attaching the reins once more. “I really can’t thank you enough.”

“You did just now, more than enough.” Eda slapped the wagon. “Well, don’t let me keep ya when you’ve got sales to make.”

“Yes, I suppose I’d better get—”

He didn’t finish his statement: he doubled over in pain as he was stepping onto his wagon. Eda caught him in time before he fell off, and looked worriedly down at him: if he needed healing magic, she was the wrong witch for it.

“I’m okay,” the demon wheezed, “I’m okay. This comes and goes, ever since….”

In her staring, Eda noticed that the demon’s sleeve had come undone a bit. She could see the edge of a Beastkeeping sigil, and jagged scars running from it onto his hand. “The Day of Unity,” she finished, getting him sat down on the steps of his wagon. “Are you sure you’re okay, old timer?”

“Well, truth be told, I guess I’m not sure.” The man sighed through the pain, which did at least seem to be subsiding quickly. He took a couple deep breaths. “I need to see the Healing Coven about it, but everyone seems to need to see the Healing Coven about it, and they’re so backed up on appointments….”

Eda helped him up into the driver’s seat as he kept going: “At this point, if there is something wrong, that would be fine, as long as I knew. I just want an answer at this point, even if it’s a bad answer! Better than waiting for that appointment to finally arrive.”

Eda sighed. “I hear that a lot these days.” She smiled at him. “Hey, when you get to the market, tell them your wares are Owl Lady approved. That should move some product for ya.”

“Oh, why, thank you—”

She didn’t wait for more thanks: she bent her knees tight, then leaped into the sky, clearing the treeline in moments. 

“I’ll tell them,” she murmured to herself. “At Kickmass, I’ll tell them.”

Eda lay on the couch in the Owl House dying room, staring up at her now-vintage wanted poster that she’d gone to a lot of trouble to restore. The witch on the poster, cackling with a fistful of fire, didn’t look like the kind of person who’d be anxious about anything as minor as a proposal.

“Sixteen days,” she murmured to herself. “It’s only sixteen days.”

She’d have gone on moping for a lot longer than that, but Hooty interrupted her with a massive gasp from outside. “Oh my gosh! They’re back!”

Eda squinted, pulling her feet back on. “Singular or plural they?”

“Both!” Hooty’s door flung itself open, and as Eda stood up she saw Hooty extending himself out towards two distant figures. His voice was also distant, but Hooty was nothing if not highly audible. “Hola, Camila! Hiya, Collector!”

“Hooty!!!” the god-child replied, even louder.

When Eda got out to meet them, the Collector was laughing as Hooty wrapped him in a many-coiled hug.

As it had turned out, despite technically being older than the isles themselves, the Collector was fundamentally an isolated, impulsive little kid. Unlike Belos, who had needed to be stamped out like a cockroach, what the Collector needed was guidance. And between them, Camila Noceda and Eda Clawthorne knew a thing or two about looking after a lonely, excitable child.

“Hey, Cammy,” Eda said, raising her arm in greeting. “Had fun on the apology tour with Lex over here?” (No, she wasn’t going to call him ‘the Collector’ every time. She had a standing rule: kids got one syllable, two if she was feeling generous.)

Camila, who was dressed warmly like she’d just gotten back from the Knee, smiled. “They were very sweet. And more people let him help put things back together than the last few times. I guess word is spreading.”

“I earned so many gold stars!” the Collector exclaimed, and indeed his nightcap was covered in shiny human stickers.

“Oh, so that’s what you’re the collector of,” Eda said, snickering.

“Collector!” Hooty exclaimed, releasing them from the hug. “You’re never gonna guess what happened the other day.”

“What happened?”

“I saw a bug!”

The Collector slapped both hands to his face in genuine shock. “Holy moly! So did I!”

“I wonder if Lilith is gonna be jealous that Hooty has a new best friend,” Eda wondered aloud to herself. Then, to Camila, she said, “You wanna stay for dinner and tell me how it went?”

Camila grimaced. “Ay, I’d love to, but I don’t get that many vacation days off of work and I don’t want to ask Vee to cover for me again. I’d better get back to the portal.”

“Oh, oh!” The Collector popped out from behind her, though Eda was pretty sure he hadn’t actually traveled the intervening distance through physical space. “I can send you right there!” Then they paused, and cleared their throat. “Only if you want me to, I mean.”

Camila beamed, and produced another star sticker. “Very good, mijo!” She applied it carefully to what looked like the one part of the nightcap that wasn’t already bestickered, and then patted him on the head. “And I would love that, thank you. Last hug?”

“Last hug!” The Collector jumped and grabbed her in a four-limbed hug, and Camila hugged right back. “I’ll see ya next time, right, Camila?”

“Of course! That’s a pinkie swear.”

The Collector giggled. “All right, bye!” And then space folded inside their arms, and Camila was gone. From experience, Eda knew she’d been safely deposited at the portal door to the human realm, but it never got easier to look at someone’s physical form convolving into oblivion.

Or rather, it never got easier for Eda. Hooty let out a huge gasp. “Oh my gosh that looks fun! Do me, do me!”

The two of them laughed up a storm as they returned to the house, with the Collector bending Hooty into physically impossible shapes—more physically impossible than was usual for him, anyway—and Hooty somehow enjoying it. In many ways, Hooty was pretty much the perfect playmate for the Collector, being both nigh-unkillable and infinitely eager to play along with their antics.

“Make sure you only do that outside,” Eda warned as she stepped through the door, but in a light tone. “I can’t make you hot chocolate if the syrup spills through a hole in the universe.”

“I get hot chocolate!?” The Collector beamed. “Yes!”

Eda got to the kitchen and assembled the ingredients for the human beverage, chuckling to herself. She probably should have expected it, after all the other weirdos she’d stumbled into adopting one way or another, but she’d gotten fond of Lex over the last while. What had started as a kinda-sorta-penitentiary relationship had grown into something more parental. If anything, the little squirt reminded her of Luz when she’d first shown up.

“… and then we got to this one town,” the Collector was saying to Hooty, audible through the door, “and I’d kinda sorta destroyed the, um…. What’s it called when they have a lot of messages on pieces of paper and there’s a building where people work to sort them and give them to people?”

“Post office?” Hooty asked.

“Maybe?”

“Hmm… library!”

“Yeah! Library! I helped them put that back together, and then I got to play hide and seek in it with the other kids for hours! We got so many games in! And I totally won, too!”

The cauldron had gotten the milk hot enough, so Eda stirred in the syrup, then poured it into two mugs. “Hooty, Lex! Hot chocolate’s ready!” she called out, carrying them into the living room on a tray.

The Collector appeared in the living room—again, without actually moving through space to do it—and swiped his mug off the tray. Hooty extended himself through the doorway and swallowed the mug whole, swished it a few times around in his throat, and regurgitated the now-empty mug right where he’d plucked it from.

Eda snorted and sat down on the couch, and the Collector took a different seat, already sporting a milk mustache. “Hey, Hooty!” he exclaimed, tilting his head backwards over the top of the chair to see the door. “Did you see any other cool bugs while I was gone?”

“Not that cool,” Hooty said, “but tons of cool stuff happened! King got better with his Titan powers, I held a piece of wood, and Eda’s gonna propose to Raine!”

Eda was glad she hadn’t made three mugs of hot chocolate, because if she had, hers would have just gotten spat out. “Hooty!” she exclaimed. “Do you blab that to everyone who drops by?”

“Nope!” Hooty said, smiling proudly. “Mostly they ask me when you’re gonna do it!”

Eda slapped a hand to her face and pulled down, groaning. At least this newest agitation wasn’t going to bring out the Owl Beast unexpectedly, though: it was always very quiet when the Collector was around, despite a year of mending bridges.

When she was done stretching her skin, though, she noticed the Collector looking confused. “Hey, Lex, you can ask if you’ve got a question,” she said.

“Yeah, um….” The Collector tilted his head to the side. “What are you proposing about? Is it, like, some kind of deal between you and Raine?”

Eda smiled a bit. “I guess you could call it that. Proposing means asking someone to get married. You know what that is?”

The Collector thought about it for a few seconds, then shook their head.

“Marriage is when you like someone so, so much that you wanna spend the rest of your life with them.” Eda frowned for a moment, thinking of Amity Blight’s parents. “Well, that’s what it’s supposed to be.” But the smile soon returned. “And that’s what I’m going to do with Raine…. Eventually.”

“Eventually?” The Collector squinted, and brought the mug back to his lips to slurp noisily.

Eda scratched the back of her neck. “Well, there’s this party in a couple weeks. I think I’m gonna pop the question then? If I don’t griffon out at the last second,” she mumbled.

“A couple of weeks?” They looked aghast. “And you might not even do it?”

“Hey, I’m kidding!” Eda held up one hand. “I’m totally gonna do it. I just need some time to, uh, work up the nerve.”

“Okay,” the Collector said, and Eda hoped that would be the end of it as they took another sip—until they put their cup down again. “But then you’re gonna get married right away, right?”

“Well, usually after you propose, you have to wait a while to plan the actual wedding, which is when you get married. Sometimes it takes, like, a year, but then—”

The Collector’s loud, long groan cut off the rest of her words. “Seriously?” they asked, and then sucked down the rest of their hot chocolate in a single gulp. “You’re waiting to do a thing, and once you’ve done that thing, it means that you’ll have to do more waiting before you do the thing you actually want to do?” He flung both hands into the air, one still holding the mug. “You people are crazy!”

Eda sat up straighter. “Hey, it’s not that simple, kiddo.”

The Collector looked pretty skeptical of that. “Is it one of those weird social rules you people have? Like, uh, don’t teleport people without their permission, or don’t blow up buildings while you’re playing tag….” They counted each rule on their fingers. “Only propose to people at parties?”

“Well—no, it’s not a rule, exactly, it’s just—”

“Because Miss Camila said I have to make sure to do things by the rules so I don’t hurt people. Are you gonna hurt Raine if you propose too fast?”

“I mean, when you put it like that, I guess not—”

“Then what?” They thrust both hands out to the side. “You said you really really like them, right? Like you want to spend the rest of your life with them? And waiting is the woooooooooorst!” they moaned. “Why would you want to wait for that?”

Eda opened her mouth to argue.

No arguments came out. For a moment, it felt like the kid in front of her had moved the moon again, and this time he hadn’t even needed a finger to do it.

She stood up. “Hooty, hold down the fort for a bit.”

“Oh my gosh!” Hooty gasped, stars in his eyes, as Eda ran through the front door. “It’s happening!”

“Raine!”

Raine nearly fell over in their chair. “Gaah— Eda! Hi?”

Eda, in harpy form, stepped off the windowsill of Raine’s house and into their study. It had been about five minutes since she’d left the Owl House. She rummaged in a fold of feathers on her thigh, to make sure she hadn’t lost her little payload.

Raine flipped over some papers of whatever they’d been working on—it looked Kickmass related, whatever it was. “Eda,” they said, “if this is about dinner at Demonico’s, I told you I don’t really have—”

There it was. Eda dropped to one knee and pulled out the ring. 

“Do you wanna get married?”

Raine stopped like someone had just stolen their ability to speak. A faint blush colored their cheeks., but the continuing silence didn’t do anything for Eda’s nerves. Eventually, after what felt like hours, they found their voice. “Eda? Are you proposing to me right now?”

“I’m asking.” Eda shuffled closer, still kneeling, although that put her at eye level with Raine standing up. “I wasted decades of my life because I didn’t tell you things when I should have. I spent so long alone, without you, and I never want to do that again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Raine Whispers, and I want the rest of my life to start twenty years ago, but I have to settle for today, so….” She clasped Raine’s hand in her own. “Will you marry me?”

For a few seconds more, Raine stared at her as if she were speaking a whole other language, and Eda’s heart pounded in her ears so hard she was surprised the room didn’t echo. 

And then, for some reason, Raine started laughing. Laughing so hard they rested a hand on their knee for a moment to keep their balance.

“What?” Eda asked, feeling her nerves wilt.

“Sorry, sorry, it’s just….” Raine turned back to their desk, pulled open a drawer, and reached deep into the back of it. They pulled out a little box, and when they opened it, there was a ring in there. “I was going to offer you this at Kickmass,” they said, smiling crookedly.

Eda stood and grabbed Raine in one single motion, spinning them around in a one-armed hug. She wanted to break into a song loud enough to resound across the Boiling Isles, she wanted to fly above the clouds and to the stars, and she was finding it very difficult to think of reasons not to do those things.

“Eda,” Raine wheezed, even as they laughed with her. “Bit tight!”

Eda let them down. “So is that a yes?”

Now Raine reached out to embrace her, and she bent down to let them kiss her. When they pulled away, they looked as beautiful as the first day she’d fallen in love with them. “It’s a yes.”

Eda smiled so wide it hurt the corners of her mouth.

“But oh, shoot,” Raine said, turning away. “I really was looking forward to proposing at the Kickmass party. The CATs were helping me with this plan, and….”

Eda squinted. “Hey, is that what’s been keeping you busy so much recently?”

“I mean… I’ve been doing other things too?” They grinned sheepishly. “But it has come up.”

She laughed. “And here I thought I was the only one nervous about it.”

“I wasn’t nervous! I was just….” They trailed off. “Okay. I was a little nervous. But I did want to make it an event! I guess there’s no point now….”

Eda shook her head, still smiling. “Hey, now, you’ve got me curious about the plan too. I say, go for it!”

Raine frowned. “But… I already know your answer?”

“Exactly! So now it’s something to look forward to instead of something to worry about.” Eda smiled with the pride of someone who’d just made a winning argument. “Don’t tell me what you’re planning, either. It’ll spoil the fun.”

They considered it for a bit, and finally smiled. “Okay.”

And with that, Eda nodded and stepped away. “Well, I gotta head back. I left Hooty in charge of Lex, so there’s about a thirty percent chance the Owl House is now a smoking crater.”

Raine’s eyes widened. “You do need to get back.”

“And you need to finish planning that proposal!” Eda hopped back up to the windowsill. “I’ll see you at Kickmass if I don’t see you sooner. Surprise me!”

She jumped out into the sky and soared, lighter than air.