The light of abyss (The owl house x Marvel)

Eda happily hung up her apprentice's first wanted poster right next to her current one. It hadn't even been a full week yet but Luz had clearly been paying attention and learning a lot.

...Okay, technically it was just a poster showing she'd been banned from the grounds of Hexside, but in some ways that was even better. Eda knew that Luz was too smart and talented for that indoctrination center and they must have kicked her when they realized that they'd never be able to break her.

This called for a celebration: She'd teach Luz how to crack safes tonight.

Speaking of her apprentice, Luz was sitting at the kitchen table contemplatively. It was weird, Luz was normally a little ball of energy... Unless she'd drunk bitter bean blood recently, which even with the disgusting amount of sugar the girl added seemed to help her focus better for a bit. That was weird, too.

Back on topic, it was honestly a bit unsettling to see Luz so quiet, so Eda slid up to her: "Snail for your thoughts?"

"Oh, it's nothing important," Luz insisted.

"You didn't fall for another con while you were out, did you?" Eda asked.

"No," Luz said quickly. "Totally learned my lesson about weird old men in bath robes with pockets full of glitter the other day."

"Well then what's eating you?"

"It's really not important."

"Luz," Eda insisted, "I've gotten very used to you running around like a hyperactive... hyperactive thing. This is the longest I've had to go without stopping you from putting your face in something magic since you got here and if we're being honest, seeing you sit this still for this long is a bit creepy."

"I'll have you know that I'm perfectly capable of sitting still," Luz insisted in mock offense. "I can even get woodland critters to come and sit on me."

Eda sighed. "If you tell me, I'll tell you the story of my trip to Las Vegas."

Luz's eyes narrowed. "You first."

Eda rolled her eyes and recounted the tale, finishing with "And that's why I can never go to Oregon. Your turn."

Luz took a deep breath. "So there's this girl..."

"Oooh," Eda teased. "Got a crush?"

"What? No!" Luz denied. "It's just... Wait, would you have a, you know, a problem if I did?" Eda seemed cool but they'd only just met and a lot of people seemed cool until you brought up a certain topic. If Eda was gonna broch it first, Luz might as well get confirmation.

"Why would...? Oh, right," Eda began in confusion before clarity struck. "Humans have that whole thing where some people can't mind their own business. Nobody in the demon realm cares about your dating preferences. We don't even have words for that kind of thing here."

"So someone who likes boys and girls...?" Luz began.

"Is just someone who likes boys and girls," Eda confirmed. "There's no special word for it here because it's too normal for anyone to care to come up with one."

"Huh."

"Now, what is it about this girl?"

"So her name is Amity. I first saw her when she was picking on Willow—"

"The chubby, muscular kid?"

"Yeah, her," Luz confirmed. "This Amity girl was picking on her and at first I thought she was just a Mean Girl but... While I was pretending an abomination for Willow, I got that weird anxious feeling back and—"

"And that wasn't the first thing you felt like sharing?" Eda asked incredulously. "That weird sensation is the only clue we have for what your weird dark aura powers are and... Ooh, that reminds me, I managed to get a healer to run some tests for you under the table."

"Tests?"

"If you're so certain that your shadow aura thing isn't a 'mutant' power," Eda began, "then you need to figure out what it is. Going by your theory that it's got something to do with coming to the Isles... Well, Magic for witches and demons is what we are. It's our flesh, blood, bones, and bile—especially bile," Eda explained. "So if your powers are related to our magic, a bit of routine blood work should clear things up."

"Okay then." Mentally, Luz decided not to ask if a demon realm medical expert would know enough about humans to tell what was normal and what wasn't. "So it only lasted for like a minute this time, and when it was done I had this like... Weird tingly sensation at the back of my neck, like.. Like I was aware of all the people around me. And uh... Amity acted really angry about losing her top student badge to Willow. She even jumped on a table like a demented teal Spider-Man, but... I just get the feeling that she wasn't really angry. It felt like she was confused, scared, disappointed, and a little sad."

Eda snorted. "Luz, some kids are so brainwashed by schools that they stake their whole life on how well they performed, or what their social life was back then, or whatever... Don't you humans have a phrase, 'peaked in high school?' or the like? This Amity girl is probably just some prissy pants grade grubber who just realized that all of her accomplishments in school are completely meaningless and had a personal crisis at the thought that she wasted her time regurgitating facts instead of learning practical skills or having an actual life."

"I don't know," Luz countered, "she definitely had the 'popular mean girl' attitude."

"Maybe she's just a mess?" Eda suggested, "What did you say her name was again?"

"Amity," Luz repeated, "Amity Blight."

"Blight?" Eda asked. "Did this kid have green or brown hair?"

"Both. Why?"

"Uh, no wonder the kid's messed up," Eda replied. "I went to school with her parents, before I wised up and left. Alador was scatterbrained as heck and Odalia's more of a control freak than Emporer Belos." The pale witch shrugged. "Any kids they have are either trouble makers or a ticking time bomb of neuroses. No middle ground."

Luz sighed but didn't respond.

"...You're already planning to try and befriend her, aren't you?"

Luz did not answer. Eda was about to pour herself an apple blood and start explaining why that was a bad idea when the front door crashed open and Hooty stretched his way into the kitchen declaring "Company!"

Shortly afterward, Hooty's conspiracy theorist friend Tinella 'Tny Nose' Nosa walked in carrying an alligator purse. "Doctow Nosa wepowting fow duty!"

Luz blinked. "She's the healer?"

"I gwaduated medical school," Tony Nose replied, somewhat offended.

"Yeah, but you also think that the world is a triangle," Luz countered.

"And?"

"I mean, back where I'm from most conspiracy theorists are sort of, uh... Not down with modern medical science."

Tiny Nose glared. "Don't you dawe lump me in with the anti-poshews," she said quite strongly. "Those people are cwazy."

"Tell me about it," Eda agreed before turning to Luz. "Look, kid, do you have any idea how hard it is to find a good, trustworthy back alley doctor? She's willing to do this for free since you helped her escape the Conformatorium and this is our best bet for figuring out what the deal with your powers is."

"Fine," Luz agreed. "Sorry uh, Dr. Nosa."

"It's okay," the tiny demon replied before opening her purse and pulling out a very, very big needle. "Now let's get those blood samples."

"I immediately regret this," Luz said quickly, then gulped as she held out an arm.

Ten minutes later, Luz was lying on the couch sucking a jug of something that managed to be both sweet and bitter threw a straw, Tiny Nose having appropriated the kitchen table for tests after dividing Luz's blood samples across several vials.

"Sorry about that, Luz," Eda said, "I didn't know that humans needed that much of their blood."

"Has anyone told you that your voice sounds like a sassy grandma?" Luz muttered deliriously.

"I'll try not to take that personally," Eda replied dryly. "You feeling better?"

"A little," Luz admitted. "...What am I drinking?"

"...I'll tell you when you finish it," Eda answered in a tone that suggested that Luz wouldn't like the answer.

"So I've been meaning to ask," Luz began, "you talk about witches and demons... So are witches not demons?"

Eda raised a hand and rocked it non-committally. "There are some pretty big differences between witches and biped demons, who are... Well, the ones who have the biped body plan. Witches and biped demons have the same magic, but witches have much more... you know, take any two random witches and they'll look more like each other than any two random biped demons. There are differences in hair and skin and stuff, and you'll occasionally get say, someone with purple skin or a third eye, but witches mostly look all the same. We also have some things that no species of demon does, and there are some universal demon traits that witches don't have."

"Huh," was Luz's initial response. "So if you're not demons then what are you?"

"There are a couple of different theories," Eda began, "the one I like is that tens of thousands of years ago, enough humans for a stable population ended up here in temporary portals and the ones who could best stomach the food in the demon realm survived and adapted to it over time and occasionally interbred with the more human-like biped demons. There are too many similarities between witches and humans for us to be completely unrelated and the oddities you sometimes see in witches could be throwbacks to biped demon ancestors. Also," she finished, "the Emporer's coven really hates this theory and tries to suppress it so that'd get it my vote even if it didn't make sense."

"Cool," Luz answered. "So you're like... Atlanteans. Or Inhumans... Never got why they'd want to be called that... Where's King?"

Eda laughed. "If you'd look down, you'll see that he crawled on top of you and fell asleep eight minutes ago."

Luz looked down and there he was, the King of Demons in his adorable, fluffy glory just curled up snoozing. "So he did... Seriously, what am I drinking?"

"If I tell you you won't want to finish it."

"Ee~daa?" Luz whined.

"Look, it helps with blood loss and it's safe for humans, just finish it."

Luz manifested a visage most grumpy, but dutifully slurped up the last of the concoction.

However, before Luz could demand answers Tiny Nose walked into the living room "The wesults awe back. Luz the human, youw blood tested positive fow puwe evil."

Luz sat up, causing King to fall off of her with a "weh!" and looked at the small biped.

"You're gonna have to walk me through that."

"Fwom your blood I extracted a substance that defied all conventional wules of mattew and enewgy, as if it was both and neithew," Tiny Nose explained, "extensive testing confiwed that it was anti-thetical to life and magic, as if meant to cowwupt and consume both. My pweliminawy theowy is that you wewe somehow combined with an organism composed of this substance at the genetic level and its traits laid dormant in your genome until you entewed the Boiling Isles and pwoximity to abundant ambient magic twiggewed these latent twaits to manifest. I then destwoyed the sample with fiwe, as it is much too dangewous to leave awound." She then reached into her bag and pulled out ten snails. "This should covew the damages to youw kitchen table, Ms. Eda."

"Huh, neat," was Eda's response. "Thank your time, Tiny."

"Anything for fwiends," the tiny demon replied happily before making her way out of the Owl House.

Once she was gone, Eda facepalmed. "Okay, you were right. I'll try to find someone who isn't a conspiracy theorist to run the tests again."

"If I'm gonna have to give that much blood again I'd rather not," Luz replied apprehensive.

"Suit yourself," Eda replied, "Now if you're feeling up to it I wanna teach you something cool."