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Hunter walks through the door of his bedroom and immediately tucks into a roll-dodge, hopping up to see a crossbow bolt embedded in the wall where he was standing a moment ago.
He shoots a look at Luz, knelt on the floor and aiming a wrist-crossbow straight at him. A quick scan of the room – scattered with weapons, maps of the castle, and a particularly eye-catching chalkboard with the words “Hecazura RULEZ” and assorted battle plans scrawled in manic handwriting – tells him he’s missing something. Specifically because he had to dodge similar attacks from coven scouts throughout the castle on his way here.
“Okay,” he says slowly. “What in Titan’s name happened at the book club?”
Luz reluctantly withdraws her crossbow. “You have to promise not to be mad.”
Instead of pointing out that he’s already pretty miffed at the fact that she tried to shoot him, he just nods. She immediately slams the ground with a little fist.
“ Steve happened.”
That has many connotations. The last time ‘Steve happened,’ Luz sicced her guildersnake on the new recruits under the guise of a training exercise. “Care to elaborate?”
“He thinks Azuralin makes sense ,” she says, plopping onto the ground and out of her battle-ready kneel. “Malin Gael the Mysterious Soothsayer isn’t good enough for Azura. He’s way too mean to her friends and only nice to her, which is messed up! I told him this, and he told me that the ‘dynamic is interesting because of his mystery’ and that they’re ‘foil’, which is stupid. Azura isn’t foil. She’s a witch!”
“Being a foil means that they bring out certain aspects of each other during their interactions because of their differences,” Hunter explains absentmindedly, tracing a finger over a stray battle axe. It’s almost as tall as Luz. He has no idea how she got it up the tower herself. “And then what?”
“Oh. Well…” Luz furrows her brow, as if struggling to remember. “That nice scout from the east tower agreed with me, and told Steve that even though they’re ‘foil’, that Hecate has a more in-depth relationship with Azura built on initially being rivals, and then coming to terms with their differences. Malin’s is built on distrust and desperation, which isn’t nice. Oh!” She hits the ground again. “And then Lilith agreed with Steve!”
That takes Hunter off guard. “Lilith was at the book club?”
“Yeah! And then the captain from the Ice Squad said something mean to Steve, and the scout from the foyer called the captain a rude word, and–”
“Just how many people were at this meeting?”
Luz takes a second to count on her fingers. “Dunno. A lot? Anyway, someone ended up firing a spell, and everyone started fighting.”
“Luz,” Hunter says, concerned. “People are still fighting in the halls.”
Luz at least has the grace to look abashed. “I know. I’m trying to stop it.”
He takes a cursory glance at the battle plans on the chalkboard. None of them hint towards a peaceful resolution. “...how, exactly?”
“Tío says that in order to eliminate conflict, you must vanquish your enemy absolutely,” Luz parrots, turning back to her maps. “Steve is stupid and wrong. So I’m gonna vanquish him.”
Hunter knows on some level that Emperor Belos would not appreciate his words being used in this context, but he honestly can’t find fault with what she’s saying. The quickest way to end conflict would be to win, technically. “Lemme see that map,” he says. She hands it over easily, mumbling about organized troops and ambush maneuvers. He might as well help, to make it end quicker.
Besides, it’s just an argument about fictional characters. People can’t be that passionate about the topic to the point where they’d risk losing their place in the Emperor’s Coven.
Right?
-000-
Raine Whispers clues into the Castle Blackout, as it has been dubbed by the public, three days into the incident.
They’re not surprised when they discover an uprising was triggered by a book club gone wrong – art has always been heavily restricted in the Boiling Isles ever since the end of the savage ages for a reason. What is surprising is that it has caused enough upheaval to disquiet the Emperor himself – scouts have reported absolute silence from the throne room, almost as if he’s disappeared entirely.
Not that it helps that the scouts that return come back… strange. Raine has had three separate coven members ask them what they think about ‘Hecazura’ or ‘Azuralin’. They’ve avoided answering thus far by responding with “I’ve never read the series you speak of,” but they’re not sure how long they can fall back on that response – someone has been leaving The Good Witch Azura books around their office. It’s only a matter of time before they’ll have to read the series, or else risk endangering themself. Bard Head Scooter has already fallen prey to the scouts, dragged into the conflict without his consent. He has refused to leave his own office in fear of the mob outside.
What would Eda do… Raine isn’t sure, in this context. Her advice of punching things in the face can only go so far. Plus, Eda never seemed the artistic type, outside of the few bardic spells she learned while they were together. Perhaps she would gravitate to whatever caused the most chaos…?
Based on reports, a child was the assigned leader of one of the rogue parties. Eda would find that hilarious, no doubt.
Raine eyes the first Azura book in the series, laying innocently on their desk. They reach out and flip through the pages.
It wouldn’t hurt to do a little research, they suppose.
-000-
Luz’s mind swirls. She taps the feather bit of her quill against her nose as she scans the scroll one last time.
“What do you think?” The scout in front of her asks eagerly. There’s a long line of equally excited coven members behind her, all holding their own scroll, canvas, sculpture, or other work of art they have deemed worthy of battle.
Luz smiles. “It’s really good!” she says honestly. “Did you already run it by the beta readers?”
“Yes, ma’am.” The scout hops in place a few times. “They gave me a few notes on grammar, and they said some really nice things about the bird symbolism I had at the end.”
“Oh! Yeah!” Luz finds the section she’s talking about. “I noticed that. Hecate and Azura interactions are usually associated with fire, so the phoenix was a cool idea. And the reincarnation trope is always super fun to read!”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
Luz carefully rolls up the scroll, handing it back to the scout. “The Azuralins won’t know what hit them,” she decrees, causing the scout to squeal with excitement. “We’ll post it in the east wing with the last batch of poetry we got from the North Tower squad. They’ve been on a writing streak lately, and this will only buff the defences. Brother?”
Hunter, wearing a spare scout mask, turns from where he’s critiquing a captain’s painting of Hecate holding Azura in a close ballroom dance. “Hm?”
“Do we have updated reports?”
“I’ve been hearing chatter about some pressure in the west hall,” he clips, looking back to the painting. “Someone dropped off a huge essay about every interaction Azura has had with Malin and the intricacies of their dynamic, complete with annotations and quotes. A witch’s duel broke out close to there as well.”
“We’ll put the sculptures over there next,” Luz decides after a moment of thought. “If another duel breaks out and the sculptures are broken, we have an excuse to push harder at the Azuralin hotspots. Maybe Eberwolf can do the dropoff?”
“I’ll let them know.”
“Cool!” Luz turns to the next scout in line – a taller one holding a small porcelain doll designed to look like a fan-design of what Hecate and Azura’s child might look like. “Awwwww, that’s adorable!”
-000-
“Kikimora,” Emperor Belos says. “Care to tell me what exactly is going on?”
The demon kneels before him. “A shipping war has broken out, sir.”
To Belos’s credit, there’s barely a pause as he processes the statement.
“I was unaware that such childish whims could shut down the functionality of all of our scouts .”
Kiki does flinch at that. “My Emperor,” she says. “The scouts have actually fulfilled their functionality to the highest degree in the past seven days–”
“They are not supposed to ATTACK EACH OTHER!”
His voice booms throughout the room, a demonic growling heard as an undercurrent. Kiki freezes, struggling to control her breath. “Of course, your Majesty.”
“Fix this.”
She clenches her talons, knowing exactly who is at fault. “It would be my honor, my Emperor.”
-000-
Raine finishes the Azura series, and isn’t impressed.
It’s an alright story, they suppose. It’s in progress, of course – only three of the books are out so far. They can see how a majority of the Isles could be captivated by the narrative. It’s simple with some admittedly interesting worldbuilding, if a bit wordy. Certainly nothing to cause a mutiny over.
A mutiny . Good Titan, that’s an interesting concept.
Nothing has ever caused the castle to go silent like this. The last reports that came in described a militia-esque battle happening within the halls, using fanworks and art as ammunition while tensions rise. Writings about phoenixes turning into actual phoenixes and attacking the opposition. Essays spitting words into the air like darts. Paintings flooding the halls with color and music that seep from the canvases.
All headed by a single child.
Raine wonders if an attacking force like that could take on the Emperor and succeed.
...It wouldn’t hurt to help the child, would it? Anonymously, of course. Can’t have anything traced back to them. Besides, that young lady Hecate from the novel is very much obviously in love with the main character.
It almost reminds Raine of how they and Eda used to act.
With a full heart, they take out a sheet of empty music paper and summon their violin.
-000-
“Kikimora did WHAT?”
Luz’s shout echoes throughout the hall, making everyone freeze. The poor messenger cowers before her, perhaps expecting punishment. The Emperor tended to act the same way when receiving bad news, after all.
Instead, Luz grips her hair. “That’s so unfair!” she growls. “She can’t just do that!”
“You have to admit,” Hunter says from beside her. “It certainly got your attention.”
Luz doesn’t warrant that with a response, instead scurrying over to the bin of weapons and pulling out a sword almost as tall as she is.
“Hold on,” Hunter says. “I know you’re upset–”
“She set the poems on fire, ” she cries, giving up trying to heft the sword up and just throwing it back in the bin. “She didn’t even retaliate with her own creation, just did a spell circle and poof!” She throws her hands wide. “Gone! That’s so rude!”
“So we give her something she can’t catch on fire,” Hunter says, turning to a captain. “Someone mentioned an anonymous fanwork earlier?”
The captain nods. “It looks to be a bardic spell, sir. A love ballad.”
Luz perks up a bit.
-000-
Luz’s squad of bards ambushes Kikimora in the west hall.
The ballad spell is so strong that it nearly blows the demon through a wall.
-000-
Hunter will admit that he may have gotten… carried away.
But after a month of nonstop fighting, seeing their fearless leader looking particularly contrite at the foot of the Emperor is a sobering sight for him and the scouts. It’s impressive how quickly both sides stood down once they realized the Hecazura leader had been captured by a third party.
“Is this what I get for taking you in?” Emperor Belos scathes. “Causing a revolt in my castle? Do you even know how your actions have affected the rest of the Boiling Isles? The Titan itself?”
Hunter sees his sister’s shoulders draw up.
“Sorry,” she mutters. “I was trying to do what you said.”
“I don’t recall telling you to cause a complete upheaval of my coven.” The Emperor’s face is covered, but the sneer is clear. “So I question how exactly you came to that conclusion.”
“I was trying to vanquish Steve.”
There’s a palatable silence.
“Repeat that. Now.”
Luz stands a little straighter. “You said that the easiest way to stop fighting was to vanquish your enemy completely. Whatever it takes.”
Hunter isn’t sure, but he thinks he sees Lilith flinch out of the corner of his eye.
“I didn’t mean for it to go so long,” Luz says. “Vanquishing people is harder than you make it sound, even with the help I had from everyone else.”
Another silence.
“Lilith,” The Emperor says. “What would you say your… faction had in terms of fighting prowess and direction?”
Lilith bows slightly. “The Azuralin forces were led by a scout figurehead, commanded by my supervision. Kikimora eventually joined our forces as advisor and general. In terms of numbers, we were even with the opposition.”
“Were you winning? ”
Lilith falters. “No, sir.”
Some of the scouts from the Hecazura side share sly glances.
“I can’t believe this,” Belos mutters, almost incoherent behind his mask. And then, louder. “We will not speak of this incident again, and if any of you remind me of the month-long conflict where you struggled to defeat a ten-year-old, you will be stripped of your rank, banished, and executed accordingly.” To Luz. “Your… fan work will be restricted. Understood?”
Luz looks devastated, but nods all the same.
“Good.” Belos turns. “This will not happen again.”