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Luz and Amity walked down the street casually, the same as any other day. They had been spending a lot of time together lately, ever since confessing their mutual feelings. They visited the Bonesborough museum, the fair –careful to avoid any pig-owned stand, the market –idem as before, the beach –where Luz lamented the impossibility to swim and consequent chance to see Amity in a bikini. But in all honesty, they could’ve taken a trip to the sewers and still had fun as long as they were in each other’s company.
"Hey Luz?" Amity chimed as they strolled hand in hand, nibbling a cone of eye scream. Not a typo: it was literally made of screaming eyes.
"Yeah?" the human girl replied absently, too focused on how the sun shone on her girlfriend’s violet hair; a scene she would never get tired of. A parade of rainbow-colored unicorns could’ve marched in front of them and she wouldn’t notice.
"Do you mind if we make a quick stop? My father needs me to pick up a book at the library.”
"Are you kidding? I love the library! Well, except when we’re chased by murderous books and angry librarians… oh what am I saying, I love those parts too."
Amity somehow managed to both chuckle at her human’s infinite enthusiasm and sigh at her abysmal lack of self preservation. The two went up the stone steps leading to the library's front door, pushed it open and peered inside.
The building was empty, hauntingly dark and eerily quiet, the shutters outside the windows closed shut and making the girls feel more like it was the dead of night. The two nervously inched their way inside.
"That's weird" Amity murmured suspiciously, eyeing the front desk "The library's supposed to be open today. Where is the librarian?"
"Something isn't right here" Luz agreed. The Boiling Isles were always loud and chaotic, no matter the time or place. This silence felt unnatural "C'mon, let's take a look around."
The girls prowled silently through the gigantic halls. They stalked through aisles and aisles of books, peering around corners of shelves, only to see more empty hallways and bookcases. This wasn't adding up at all. Why was nobody there? After several minutes of walking aimlessly the two met back, neither having any more clues about what was going on than they had to begin with.
"We've combed the entire area and still no sign of anything suspicious" Luz grimaced "So why do I feel even more on edge than before?"
"I'm not sure, but there is one place we haven't checked yet" Amity pointed towards a massive steel door padded with heavy locks. A large sign read: ‘FORBIDDEN SECTION. ENTRANCE GRANTED ONLY TO STAFF MEMBERS.’
Luz blanched. "Y-you can't be serious. Last time we went in there, you got your pass revoked and I had to babysit a paper dragon to get it back! What do you thing they’ll do to us if we get caught again?!"
"Aw, where did your adventurous spirit go?" Amity joked, knowing this was her girlfriend's weak point "There’s something fishy going on, and it's likely happening behind that door. What would the good witch Azura do in this situation?"
Luz gave a sigh of fond desperation, knowing she had lost this round “Since when did you become the troublemaker?”
“What can I say? I guess my awesome girlfriend is rubbing off on me.”
Luz blushed. She’ll never get tired of hearing the ‘g’ word from those perfect lips.
Amity took out her library pass to open the door; but to their surprise, they found it already unlocked!
"Someone's in there..." Amity whispered.
THUMP!
The sudden loud noise caused her to nearly jump into Luz's arms. They heard voices arguing from behind the steel door.
"Careful you idiot! These scrolls on wild magic are almosta thousand years old!"
"What does it matter?" argued another voice, "They're just paper! Besides, doesn’t Emperor Belos WANT this eretic stuff destroyed?”
The girls’ gazes met in a look of horror.
"Eh, I guess he's right, technically" a third voice chimed in.
THUMP! PLUNK! CRASH!
"You are BOTH idiots! The Emperor said to bring the material intact so he can view its contents before burning it" the first voice shouted again, sounding dangerously close to ripping his hair out "Now fill that sack and let's get out of here."
"Oh no! What do we do?" Luz whispered frantically.
"Looks like there's only one thing to do” Amity’s mouth twisted in fierce determination. Belos had done a lot of awful things, but desecrating and stealing from her favorite spoton the Boiling Isles? That went in the top 10 “Since we have the element of surprise, our best chance is to ambush them when they come out."
“Agreed. There are just three of them, and by the sound of it they share the same braincell.”
“So you think it’s a three-mouthed demon?”
“No I mean” Luz fumbled for a way to explain that human expression to her cotton candy goddess before deciding to prioritize the current issue “Nevermind, I’ll tell you later.”
The girls went silent as the voices started up again in the room.
"Is everything packed up?"
"You betcha."
THUM!
Whack!
"I told you to quit that!"
"Ouch! Geez, alright alright!"
It was quiet for a moment. Luz slipped some paper gliphs out of her pocket while Amity prepared to summon an abomination, watching the door, waiting to strike.
"Hey, when are we heading out?" a voice said impatiently.
"I told you, we can’t leave until the others finish patrolling the hallways to make sure it's all clear. They'll be back any minute now."
The girls froze, eyes wide in shock the instant they heard this "Crap."
They both turned on their heels and prepared to sprint to the nearest hiding spot, only to find their path blocked by a pair of masked individuals, one tall and the other short, wearing identical white cloaks and cowls. The unmistakable uniform of the Emperor Coven scouts.
For a few seconds, the four just stood there staring at each other awkwardly. Luz broke the standstill.
“Hey guys” she smiled awkwardly “We’re looking for the librarian, have you seen him? No? Alright, guess we’ll be on our way than.”
“Sure, go ahead” the short scout stepped to the side to let them through. The other smacked him on the head.
“You idiot, we can’t let them leave! They may have heard about our secret mission!”
Luz gasped overdramatically. “You’re on a secret mission? That’s so cool!” she faked a fangirl giggle “You guys must be, like, the Emperor’s elite.”
She elbowed Amity, silently telling her to play along.
“Uh, yeah, super cool” the purple haired girl pretended to swoon “With those cool capes… and cool masks…”
A great actress she was not. Luckily the scouts weren’t the brightest around. Also it wasn’t often someone complimented them.
“Aw, shucks…” the short one was literally wiggling in excitement at all the praise lavished upon them.
“The masks are pretty cool” agreed the tall one, proudly stroking his grey beak “Well, if you haven’t heard anything I guess there’s no harm in letting you go.”
The girls discreetly high fived.
And of course, the thieves inside the room chose that moment to burst through the steel door carrying several bags full of books and scrolls. Three burly demons in basic clothes, likely hired goons. “Mission complete, we’ve stolen all the scrolls just like Emperor Belos wanted and-” they took in the scene before them "What is going on here?"
The scouts stared at Luz and Amity “Any chance you didn’t hear that either?”
“… would you believe us if we said yes?”
The newly arrived trio were not interested in talking. Two blue-skinned demons dropped their loot and began tracing spell circles while the third, a cyclop with no visible mouth, brought out a spear and crouched into a fighting stance.
The girls didn't have any more time to chat their way out of trouble. They dove to the sides, just in time for a pair of ice blocks to crash where their heads had been only a second ago. The spear wielder took a swing, the sharp metal swishing through the air right in front of Amity's nose as she leant back to dodge. Not giving her a chance to counter, he launched yet another assault on the young witch, spinning the weapon viciously.
“All I wanted was to have a nice date without life-threatening situations” scowled Luz as she dueled the spellcasters, hands on her hips like a cowboy. Too bad western movies didn’t exist on the Boiling Isles “Is that so much to ask?”
“My condolences. Now take this!”
The young human ducked to avoid a fireball and responded with a plant gliph, summoning a thick vine that latched to the unfortunate demon’s ankle and sent him flying down the hallway. However this left her open to his companion; a powerful wind blast to the gut launched her back on her heels, doubled over.
"Luz!” Amity screamed. She had no time to worry about her girlfriend, as her own opponent was relentless in his assault.
"You're a quick one, aren't you?" his grin was audible despite the lack of mouth as he thrust his spear towards her “Let’s see how long you can keep up!”
All emotion drained from Amity’s face. With a graceful dip to the side, she avoided the attack and watched it skim by her face without much care. A quick spin of the wrist drove a giant abomination fist into his stomach, causing him to collapse on the floor.
“Hmph” she scoffed disdainfully as the cyclop wheezed in pain, clutching his bruised ribs “Longer than you it seems.”
A nearby squeal and the smell of burnt clothes signaled Luz had dealt with her own foe. ‘That’s my girlfriend’ she thought smugly.
"Now!" came a shout from behind her. Titan, she forgot about the coven scouts!
Amity gasped as she watched the air around her formulate into water droplets. The droplets congregated to create floating puddles, which then launched themselves onto each of her limbs. The water engulfed her hands and feet and compacted around them, trapping them inside as if they were encased in glass.
“Damnit, let go!” she yanked her arms, trying to move her fingers and summon another abomination. No use, they were held in place and could barely twitch.
The water spread apart in an X shape, pulling Amity into all four directions. Eventually she could stretch no further and just hung in the air, immovable as her body was helplessly spread apart, each limb extended to its limit.
The whole time this had been going on, a second orb of water was forming around Luz’s form despite her obvious attempts to break free. The water formed shackles around her limbs and pulled her into a floating spreadeagle identical to Amity next to her in the corridor.
“My gliphs!” she complained as the liquid drenched her arsenal of paper spells and turned them into a pile of useless mush “Do you have any idea how hard it is to make them?”
“You literally just draw on a piece of paper” deadpanned Amity “Also, priorities.”
“But paper is expensive” whined Luz, who had apparently decided that was her priority “And Eda always takes it out of my paycheck –of which, I may add, I have never seen a single snail!”
"What do we do with the girls?" one of the scouts asked, nervous “They vave seen too much, we can’t just kick them out like the librarian and the other regulars.”
"We don't have a choice. We'll have to keep them here until we can give them some memory-erasing potion to make sure they don't remember any of this."
The group nodded to each other in agreement.
"Alright, grab the sleeping powder and get them taken care of."
Luz and Amity whimpered and looked at each other with growing fear. What kind of mess had they gotten into this time?
The tall scout slid a hand into his cloak. When it came out, he was holding a vial of glittery gold dust.
"No! Don't! Sto- mmm!”
"Get that thing away from Ami- mmmph!"
For the two girls, the world quickly faded to blackness as the fumes forced them to sleep.
Amity tugged at the icy restraints that strapped her to the heavy wooden chair, wrists forced behind the backrest and ankles bound together inside a literal ice cube. She hadn’t stopped struggling since she woke up in the small storage room, five minutes or so ago, but there seemed to be no way out of her current predicament. The frozen bonds were too tight for her to slip out of and too strong to shatter, fully enveloping her hands and feet so she couldn’t trace any spells.
The only way to freedom would be working together with her fellow captive, and the only way for that to happen was if she could somehow manage to rouse the sleeping beauty from her slumber.
Yes, Luz read her that fairytale. Though why human children would be lulled to sleep by a horror story where the poor witch is ostracized by the community and then killed by a prince who kisses slumbering strangers without their consent, is beyond her.
Turning her attention to the similarly chair-tied Luz across the room, she tried once again to call out for the unconscious human.
“Lhhmmmz!” the pathetic mumbles caused drool to seep out the corners of the crystal ball jammed into her mouth, the spit rolling down the sides of her face. She was more concerned about her girlfriend at the moment though, as she had yet to show any signs of awakening. No one knew the effects of sleeping powder on a human! What if she was allergic, or cursed to an eternal nap like that story? Granted she wouldn’t mind playing the part of the prince, but still!
Thankfully she could see her chest rising and falling, so Luz was at least still breathing. Amity could only wait for the sleeping powder to wear off. Hopefully that would be before the scouts returned to erase their memories.
“Hmmmm…”
Amity’s eyes snapped wide at the low groan. The drooping head started to nod as Luz finally regained consciousness. A couple more grunts came, her muscles beginning to flex against the icy bonds.
“Lhhhzz!”
“Hmmmppfff?” this time, the muffled call seemed to snap Luz out of her sleepy daze. Her head shot up, her stomach churning at the sight of her helpless girlfriend.
“Miiifhy!” she shouted through the thick vine wrapped around her mouth. Her pupils bounced back and forth as she examined Amity’s predicament, the surrounding area, and lastly her own bindings. The only movement she could make was kick her bound legs up in the air. She repeatedly slammed the icy block on the floor and grimaced as it held strong, not even a crack to show for her efforts.
“Cammpfff oouuu moolll ooovverrr eeerrr?” mewed Amity, motioning with her head for the girl to move closer. She would’ve done the same, but her own chair was so tall her feet didn’t touch the ground.
The one thing Luz was still able to move were her legs, even though they were firmly stuck together. Placing her frozen feet on the ground, she tried to drag herself closer to Amity. It was harder than she thought, the chair was heavy and the ice was slippery on the wooden floor, and before long her legs began to cramp up badly.
“Heermmmee jummeeehhh!” Amity encouraged her, knowing their captors could return at any moment.
Luz wasn’t about to give up so easily. She changed tactic and spun the seat around, pushing herself along instead of pulling. The difference was night and day and soon she made her way to the side of her girlfriend.
“Yeemmpphfffff!” Amity cheered through her gag “Cammpfff oouuuu shrachhh uuhh uuffff?”
Luz instantly realized what her friend had in mind. Her arms strained as she stretched towards Amity’s handcuffs and started vigorously scratching her own against them. Slowly, the shape of a gliph began to take form on the ice surface. It was a long and excruciating process, and Luz had to constantly crane her neck to make sure the details were right, but finally the symbol was complete.
A simple tap, the roar of fire, and their manacles were reduced to a puddle of water. From there it was child’s play for Amity to smash the foot restraints. The girls stood up, shivering but free.
Of course, their bad luck chose that moment to strike again in the form of a familiar couple of scouts walking in.
Amity was the first to react. She moved in front of Luz, determined to protect her unarmed girlfriend. “Stay behind me, I’ll take care of them. Abominations, rise!” she lifted her hand, and two large masses of purple ooze emerged from the ground and advanced toward their targets.
As the creatures moved in, she used the cover of their body mass to trace a second spell. The tall scout pointed his staff at the closest abomination, only for a pair of goop shackles to clasp around his wrists from below.
“Abominations, grab the other!”
As the abominations leapt at the short scout, he waved his staff and effortlessly cleaved the purple golems in two, causing them to destabilize and dissolve. Amity fired off a fire spell, and he responded in kind. It was a magical clash, and the flames briefly met in the center of the room before the man's superior magic power began to push her back. Scouts may not be the sharpest talon on a griffin’s claw, but their strenght was nothing to scoff at.
Amity grunted under the strain and made to summon another abomination, but before she could complete the circle she found herself knocked down by the force of his blast. The scout fell upon her, his staff pointed at her head. She tried to maintain her composure, but her eyes betrayed the fear she felt.
“You’re quite good, but in the end you’re still just a child.”
Just then, Luz let out a kamikaze scream as she threw herself right at the man, pushing him to the ground with a hard thud.
“Hero dive!” she shouted triumphantly as the scout groaned in pain underneath her. She looked at Amity, whose jaw was dangling in surprise “What?”
“That was either the coolest, or the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s me, dumb and cool” Luz boasted.
She didn’t see the man quickly recovering, nor that his hand was still clenched around the staff. With a flick of the wrist, Luz found herself forced off of him. Beige-colored wrappings erupted from the tip, encasing her from her feet all the way up to her mouth. They encircled and constricted her, and she let out a muffled shriek as she was rendered utterly helpless. Amity had no time to react before she was wrapped up as tight and as inescapably as her, bound and gagged on the floor.
The scout stood up and brushed himself off, knowing that their chance of escape was gone.
“So, that was interesting...” he said, observing his work with smug satisfaction as Luz struggled with all she had and let out several muffled screams. The wrappings encasing her held fast, and even if she did break free, she’d be no match for him without Amity. The scout pointed his staff at her and for the briefest of moments considered blasting her head off and be done with it. In the end he settled for freeing his companion.
“Give them the memory potion and let’s go” he muttered, massaging his bruised ribs “If I never see another human again it’ll still be too soon.”
“Wait, didn’t you grab the potion?”
“What? Why would you think that?”
“You said you had it!”
“I said I had it with this job! Not that I had the potion!”
The tall man rubbed his neck sheepishly “Oops?”
The only reason Amity didn’t facepalm was because her hands were bound. She couldn’t believe she once dreamt of joining this coven of morons.
“Fine, let’s go get it. And this time we’ll both take a vial just to be safe.”
“What about the girls?”
“Does it look like they’re going anywhere?”
The scouts walked out the door and closed it behind them. Left on their own, Luz and Amity looked at each other and tried to understand what the other was thinking, unable to speak through the layers of magical wrapping on their mouths.
As Luz sat a few feet away, she could see Amity squirming. Her hands were the only thing below her nose sticking out of the wrapping, and she was using one of her fingers to trace a magic circle on the ground while uttering something indecipherable.
While Amity tried to trace a spell, Luz began to writhe and struggle, her body shaking like a worm. The bonds had the consistency of medical gauze and the stickiness of duct tape, and conformed to her frame as she fought them with everything she had. Nearby, Amity was successful in completing the spell only for it to fizzle out as soon as it appeared, and she cursed in frustration after a few failed attempts. Evidently the wrappings contained some sort of magic inhibitor. Amity glanced at Luz flopping and struggling on the ground, rolling around and crying out as she fought to break free.
‘Luz, it's okay. I promise we'll get out of this.’
Luz had to stop for a moment to catch her breath, her nostrils flaring. She looked over at Amity, pure determination in her eyes, an identical promise in her gaze. They shared a loving look with each other, and Luz gave an encouraging smile, hoping the sentiment would shine through despite her lips being covered.
Amity squirmed closer and shifted into a sitting position so she could press her forehead against Luz’s. ‘We're going to get out of this’ she repeated through her gag. Luz couldn't understand a word, but the message was still clear and she nodded.
Amity began to wriggle to her feet and gestured for Luz to do the same, using each other’s body as support. Neither girl was completely steady, and they both fell down several times before they made it up. Amity gestured toward the door.
‘Maybe they forgot to lock it’ she tried to communicate. With the level of ineptitude the scouts had demonstrated so far, it wasn’t that far-fetched. She looked back toward Luz to make sure her companion was following her, then started to hop forward.
Progress was slow, every hop deliberate and careful to avoid tripping and falling, and the two girls couldn't help but feel nervous. Luz decided to ease the tension by making funny noises. Amity groaned at first, but after Luz emulated a meowing kitten she couldn't stop a small giggle.
The doorknob began to turn.
Luz and Amity paled in dread. Their bad luck was working overtime today! They frantically searched for somewhere to hide, perhaps trick the scouts into thinking they had escaped. Luz noticed a tall bookshelf and they scooted behind it as quickly as they could, just as their captors re-entered the room.
“We’re back” said the tall scout with a laugh, holding a bottle of memory potion “Didja miss us- wait where are they?”
“They escaped?” gaped the short scout “How? They were bound tighter than a merchant’s purse!”
The girls relaxed; their gambit had worked. They peered over the edge of the bookshelf toward the door, and saw it was still cracked slightly open. This was their chance. As the scouts bickered over who’s fault this was, the girls scooted along the ground and placed both feet against the shelf. Three…
“They must be here. The door was still locked!”
Two…
“Unless the kids we caught were just illusions and the real ones had already run away.”
One…
“You can’t tie up an illusion, you moron!” pause “Can you?”
“Don’t ask me, I flunked Illusions three years in a row.”
Now!
The girls braced themselves and pushed with all their strenght. The bookshelf creaked, wobbled… and collapsed right on top of the scouts. They screamed as the furniture crashed on their heads, burrowing them under three hundred kilos of wood and assorted items.
Luz and Amity cheered loudly, even more so when their magic bonds dissolved due to the casters being out of commission. The girls stood up and exchanged a high five.
“You were awesome!”
“No, you were awesome.”
“No, you are.”
“You.”
“You.”
“You.”
“How about we were both awesome?”
“I can live with that” shrugged Luz before gesturing to the scouts “Now, what do we do about these guys?”
Amity smirked. “Something tells me they won’t be a problem” she pointed at the memory erasing potion. The glass had shattered, coating both men in a greenish mist “Judging by the amount of potion they just inhaled, they’ll be lucky to remember this week at all.”
Luz didn’t share the enthusiasm “That may be, but… what about the stolen scrools?”
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that. By now those goons are long gone, and probably already destroyed them. There is nothing we can do” to Luz’s surprise, the purple haired witch didn’t appea bothered in the least. In fact the smirk on the face only grew wider “Aside from waiting for the reprint, that is.”
“The what now?”
“I work here, remember? So, unlike those idiots, I know that all important documents are saved in special crystal balls and can be printed at any time.”
“You mean like a flash drive?”
“… I have no idea what that is, but sure.”
“Cool!” Luz wrapped an arm around her girlfriend and the two walked out of the building “To sum it up: we tried and failed to save a bunch of old scrolls that didn’t actually need saving, kicked some Emperor Coven butt, got captured by said butts –twice- and ultimately defeated them with the power of love and a really heavy bookshelf. Overall not our best date, but not the worst either.”
“Definitely better than having Hooty disguise himself as a pink swan because you were too shy to confess.”
Luz blushed in embarrassment “You’re never gonna let that one go, are you?”
“Never.”