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Luz glances around at the abandoned storage unit, taking note of this place looking different from the last time Eda and her were here. Even some of the boxes are in shambles. This place has seen better days.
“Are you sure that this is necessary?” Luz walks up a seemingly stable pile and picks up a box from it, it breaks quite easily. Yikes.
Yeah this place definitely has seen better days.
“Yes. We need to check every box because despite the Emperor Coven's lack of certain skills", Darius says as he paces himself near Eda's apprentice and her son, analyzing which piles are top priority at the moment. Luz snickers from the comment. King snorts as they both give each other a look. Yeah that's an understatement of the century. "They were still considered the enforcement of the isles, which includes collecting stolen stuff.” Darius clarify.
Though it's clear what his real opinion is by the certain part of his mouth twitching upwards.
King takes in the damage and the recent marks on the stone floor. “I would be more surprised if there was anything left to collect. This place looks like Hooty trying to find an eye rat in a room.” King shudders from the memories, “The horrors.”
Darius looks so concerned and disturbed from that information.
“I still question that house demon. That is a house demon, correct?” After helping Eda with the mind potion to get the kid out, the group debated what the owl tube was. He knows house demons. Eberwolf knows house demons.
So what in Titan is that owl tube?
“He’s a bug demon, so kinda.” King replies, waving his claw in a waving motion.
That just left Darius to have more questions.
“I don't wanna know.”
Which he rather not have the answer to thank you very much.
Darius shakes his head as continues his point to the kids, “Besides, returning stuff to people is the first step in gaining their trust that we are fixing things.” The kids under his care gave him blank stares.
He had forgotten that despite all their maturity, they were still kids.
He had also forgotten at that moment as well that these were Edalyn’s kids.
“Is it hard? I thought fixing buildings for people would be enough to start.” King raises his claw to his chin as he thinks about it more.“Then again. I see your point.” Luz nods in agreement.
Seeing that they are getting it, he mentions what the C.A.T.T.s’ (He still disagrees with the name but he got outvoted again.) current goal at this point of time. “If we truly want to change things, we need to put in a new system once we get rid of the coven system.”
Luz asks, “And that is…?”
“We are working on it.”
“So you have no clue.” Luz deadpans, King nodding in agreement as they both judge him.
“...”
“...”
“…”
Darius starts to walk away to the others that are helping, muttering under his breath not so far from earshot from Luz and King, making them chuckle.
“I'm starting to see the resemblances.”
While Luz regains breath from laughing, she notices something sticking out of the boxes. Something familiar.
Luz narrow eyes in focus on that pile. Her ears barely register King's comment.
“Oh man! Haha! The way he just left. Hah. Oh all this means spirited laughter making me tired. No wait. It's still funny.” King continues laughing, unaware of Luz moving away from him.
“Wait, is that…” Luz marches up to the crate, moving aside the loose items away from what she saw. She lifts up a typewriter. A familiar typewriter.
“Jarvo?” The demon typewriter slowly opened their eyes, recognition in their eyes. It gasps in surprise from the familiar face in front of him. Despite her face looking older and a new eyebrow scar that wasn't there before.
It is still the human-witch in training.
“Hey girl.” The typewriter said, wearing off the habitation spell effects. Those scouts never have manners.
“Hey King, look who I found!” Luz shouts at King, spooking him from his monologue laughter. King trudges up to them, climbing the obstacles next the box and climbing upon Luz to eye view with the demon typewriter.
He was obvious to Luz's wince from his weight. Luz doesn't want to admit it, but King is definitely getting older.
He won't be her little brother forever.
“Woah man. You look like you've seen better days.” The king takes in the state of the demon. He wasn't kidding. The typewriter clearly has been rough handed when unconscious.
“Well it was a matter of time before the covs came.” Then the typewriter looked to the right, pointing attention to familiar papers near him. The siblings' eyes widened in surprise. “Besides, someone got to keep an eye on your writing.”
“Wait, is that our old transcripts!?”
“And our book too.” King piped in. He glimpses at the book underneath the papers, recognizing his author photo on the backside of the book.
“It is! Jarvo! You are the best typewriter man ever!” Luz lifts the typewriter to air, cheering from relief of finding more items from the owl house.
Luz okay with the new furniture everyone got for the owl house but there is just something having the old homely stuff you know.
“Okay! Okay! Now let me sleep.”
Luz raises a brow, “But were you…?”
“Being forced to sleep is different.”
“Fair enough.”
Point taken, Luz acknowledges as she places them, organizing the pile to make it more comfortable for them to sleep. King picks the transcript as she finishes up.
Luz lowered her voice, "Sweet dreams.”
She takes notice of lack of weight on her shoulders.
She looks around in confusion before seeing King now farther from where she is at. She frowns when seeing King's downward expression.
She strides to him, bending down to sit next to him. She couldn't stop herself asking the question in her mind.
“What's wrong?”
King shrinks into himself, ashamed of his past mistakes. “I was a jerk back then wasn't I.”
Ah. So that’s why.
Luz looks away for a second, pondering what to say. She turns to King to set the record straight.
“Hey now, first off you are a child.”
King straight-facedly retorts back to her., “You are two.”
Luz puts her hand against her chest, offended, “Hey!”
King's skull moving upwards, he couldn't help himself giving the last jab. “What it's true. I call it how it is sister.”
Wait a minute, was that a reference-“Dang it Luz, you haven't learned your lesson.” Luz berates herself. Such a rookie mistake.
“What lesson?” King tilts his head in wonder.
“Taking your internet privileges away”
Now it was King's turn to be betrayed.
“Et tu, Luz.”
They couldn't keep it in any longer. They snicker from the conversation they had.
“Thank you Luz. Guess I got in my head again.” King appreciates Luz is with him. He wouldn't know what to do without her here.
He couldn't stop staring at lights floating up in the air.
“Nah I get it.” It was obvious to her. Despite it being months from the battle and the people's efforts of rebuilding.
Those months of peace before everything went to the Day of Unity would forever stay a memory.
Luz held the transcript tightly.
So let's make it a reality.
“You know what. Let's do it.” Her voice oozes with confidence.
“Weh?”
Luz stenches her arms out, “Let's make a sequel!”
King whiplash from that. “But why?”
“Why not? Besides this time we do this together,” Luz gestured to herself and King, his eyes lit up in excitement. It would be nice to do this. “And without the stretchy deals with terrible publishers.” King hops on Luz's shoulder. He is insulted (despite how much true it was but his honor was on the line.)
“You are not going to let that go are you?”
“No.”
________¥________
“Hmm…” Luz takes a step back from the planning board they both set up today, a few days after helping Darius with the storage. Luz’s brows furrow as she takes in consideration what they wrote so far.
“This plot point would work with this one, while it would be nice to have this one, we should have this earlier…” Luz mumbles, connecting the strings and rearranging some of the notes on the board in their room. She tenses up before relaxing as she hears footsteps in the hallway. She looks behind her to see King bring in a box at least half of the size of him.
“Uh, not to be too nosy but... What's this?” Luz takes a moment to process the amount of letters of some kind in the box King brought in as he puts it on the table before shuffling inside it.
“I asked a few CATTS around to collect some fan mail from our last book. To see what suggestions we can make in our next book.” King answers while holding a pink letter, he opens it up to see it was a fan love letter. Sweet but not what he's looking for. At least it's nicer than the other love letters. The hair scarf did not smell great nor was it easy to get rid of the stench out of his fur.
Luz puts her hand on her chin, thinking about King's point. “That's not a bad idea. While I'm a good writer, I do a habit on-”
“Gushy parts?” King calls her out, smugness in his voice knowing he was right looking back.
Luz remembers reading the first draft King wrote for the sequel before getting captured.
“Yeah. As for you, it's the opposite.”
Two can play this game.
“Yeah that's fair.” King hates to admit it. She has a point about it. But…
“My book still won though.”
Luz narrows her eyes as she judges him.
A moment of playful tension passes as Luz and King read through the letters, some more savory than others.
Luz sighs, processing the contents in the letter before putting it on the “maybe” pile. While the “good idea" pile being a bit smaller than that. “Okay. While these suggestions aren't bad, they well…”
“Morbid as heck that's not in writing?” King deadpan as he puts another one in the “nope” pile. It being twice the height of the piles says how morbid they are.
King is never against more blood in stories he reads. But even he needs standards.
“Well at least we got some inspiration.” Luz smiles shakily, King without breaking eye contact, simply opens a very pink letter, show it to Luz.
He puts in the “nope” pile once seeing Luz's face falls in horror as she reads more of the words that are written on it.
“And what to avoid.”
Yup. Gotta love fan letters.
They finished up organizing the piles, throwing away the “nope” pile to make room for ideas.
“Now this leads to the next point of discussion.” King springs to attention from Luz's statement.
“What do you mean?”
Luz pauses for a moment, figuring out how to answer King's question. “Well…” She glances to the side, King following her view point to the first book they made together technically on the table. “It's the same reason why Rulers Reach became so popular.” Luz stares back at King, remembering that particular memory. “It's angsty.”
“Yeah. That was a fun time. Everyone thought this was fluff and all cozy,” He slams his fist to his palm on his other hand. “Then BAM! Pain hits so fast like a ratworm race! Especially with the twists. Even Luzara's death…” He trails off, seeing Luz faraway look.
Oh no.
“Luz…?”
“Huh…?” Luz blinks, still unfocused from what King said. “Oh. Yeah. That part shocked me. You got me good with that part.”
King instantly knew something changed in Luz as Luz almost frantically started to focus on the notes on board.
“Luz…”
“Anyway, that part of the memory loss on that demon queen would definitely be brought back...”
“Luz…”
It's like she's here.
“...And of course more development on magic! I mean we set up in the first place, so we should explore the connection to the Kingdom and-and why no one else knows about it. Maybe we should Ruler former enemies to explain that-”
But she's not.
“...Luz.”
He doesn't like this.
Not one bit.
“-Now let's not forget about that twist ending. We should explore how Ruler feels losing his only true friend at the end there. I mean. I know all about grief!”
Her face twisting in a desperate overwhelming pain, held back by her desire not to worry her loved ones.
“I practically died for it!”
King couldn't handle this anymore.
“Luz.” He went to hug Luz, holding her tightly as she was breathing heavily from shouting earlier. Still huffing from the unexpected outburst she had.
“We don't need to do this, you know!”
Her chest hurts a bit.
“We can make a different book! So fluffy that it would make the most angstiest demon cry from the gushy parts!”
Yet it doesn't feel so heavy now.
“And we don't care because who cares what everyone else thinks!-”
“Thanks hermano.”
King looks up to see her face soften, tiredness weighing on her eyes but now aware. He smuggled his head in closer to her, lower as much he dislikes due their height differences. Luz wraps her arms around him despite that.
“I'm really glad my dad brought you back, Luz.”
They stay there for the time being, taking in each other's presence. Feeling the warmth from each other, hearing the other's heartbeat.
To know they are still here.
Luz looks down to him, glances around before her mind clicks what to do. “You know, I think I know how to write for our next book.” She grins when King, without looking up, left out a familiar tiny confused sound.
“Weh?”
_________¥_________
“-And that's the plan we have so far. Any suggestions?” Luz finishes up telling her story to her friends in the living room in the owl house. Willow looks at them in surprise, Hunter stands frozen on the side of the couch, Amity next to him, staring at Luz and King in a different light. Gus decides to raise his hand.
“Yes Gus?”
“So when were you going to tell us you and King wrote Ruler’s Reach?” Gus asks.
King and Luz look at each other, baffled by what he said. King answers Gus's question in confusion. “I kinda thought it was obvious.”
Amity tries to shake up Hunter for his attention but he still remains frozen, still in shock from the knowledge that two of his friends are the authors of his favorite book. Amity sighs in defeat before looking at the siblings to explain their bewilderment of the situation. “I mean we knew King wrote it since it had his picture. We didn't know that it was you who originally wrote it.”
“Yeah. My bad. I was.. in my monarch phase.” King sheepishly rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed from his past actions.
Gus leans back on the couch as he rescues King from shameful past. “Relax King, we get it.” Gus relaxily loosens his shoulders to let King know that the past is the past.
“You do?”
“Yeah. Like how Amity was. Except it was her early teen years.” Amity's head slowly turns to Gus, narrowing her eyes. “What! Am I wrong?”
While Gus tries to convince Amity to not kill him into an early grave, Luz decides to speak up. “Anyway, got any ideas.”
Willow decides to put her two snails in the pile, because why the heck not. “I could help expand the world building, not to say it's bad.” She reassures them on that last part based on their look. There was a beat of silence. Luz chuckles nervously, “But your boiling Isles environment knowledge isn't up to date with your human lingo.”
“Yeah. King has been helping on that front.” Luz mentions in her defense.
“She isn't kidding.” King admits in defense, “She blends in so well that I keep forgetting she's not from here.”
“Aww. Thanks King.” Luz gosh about it, King laughing from the compliment.
Maybe she hasn't realize-
“Wait a minute. Hey!”
No wait, too late.
“I can say some plotlines need a bit more flair.” Gus pipes in their sibling spat, putting emphasis on the flair part. Luz titled her head.
“I thought it was too much flair.” She half jokes. Gus gasps in playful shock.
“There's no such thing as too much flair if you knew where to put it.”
“I could help with grammar at least. Or like Wills said. At least translate human lingo to witches' lingo.” Amity comments after the theater kids talk about adding flair more to the book, bending down to pet Ghost before she runs off to play with the other palismen.
“Make sense. Your drawing skills need some work.” King snip back.
“It's a work in progress.” Amity growls slightly, letting this comment go.
“It must be a slow day then.”
Of course King ignored the warning and just added more fuel to the fire.
“King. Choose your next words wisely.”
Everyone holds their breath to see what happens next.
“...”
“...”
“I will apologize once you bring me cupcakes.”
All hell broke loose as Amity got up to chase King around the house.
“I SAID I WOULD GIVE YOUR CUPCAKES TOMORROW!”
“NAH AH-WEH-LUZ HELP!”
On one hand, Luz wants to save King from Amity's wrath.
“Hmm, let me think.”
Then again, what kind of girlfriend would she be if she doesn't help.
“No.”
“TRAITOR!”
Luz chuckles when King yelps as he jumps over the table when Amity comes close to catching up to him. Willow hides her smile behind her hand knowing that Amity wasn't that angry to begin with. Gus was about to follow them as they run to another room until taking notice Hunter hasn't moved an inch since Luz and King reveal they are the author of Ruler’s Reach.
“Umm. Hunter? You're good?”
What happens next was something they should've been prepared for, as they listen to the info dump and theories from Hunter in the next 8 hours.
Honestly, Luz forgot that Hunter’s username was RULERZREACHF4N.
She should have expected this.
She was not expecting to be shaken a lot from him though.
King wasn't either.
__________¥__________
“And what's in it for me?” Matt Tholomule questions, suspicious from this surprised visit from Luz today. Not he that he minds, most of the time. But why today of all things. He's working. Well, part-time to be specific, his boss was surprised to see him this morning. Come to think of it. It feels like he is forgetting something.
Probably not important.
Matt thinks about the deal Luz offered to him to help release Ruler’s Reach 2. Sounds too good to be true.
Luz gives him a sly face before pulling out a bag onto the counter. He gasps in surprise seeing what was in the bag.
Twilight's Spark hair products including the shampoo that makes your hair so good that it literally sparkles. Although not to be confused with the human film Twilight, we don't talk about that incident. But still.
It is the best thing witchkind have ever created.
“Blight?” Matt utterly softly, afraid a simple loud noise would disturb this illusion. Because as much as he likes to get it himself.
It's expensive as heck.
“No actually.” Luz scratches her neck self-consciousily. “Turns out people give you gifts when you save them from a tyrant who should've died over 50, centuries ago.”
“Where's my gift then?”
Luz was perplexed with what Matt asked. Doesn't he remember what today was? “Didn't Bump tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“You forgot today's-”
“Oh Titan! I'm going to be late! Ok Luz! I do it if you don't tell anyone I was late! Deal?”
“Deal.” She responds as Matt rushes to the door. Turns out Matty forgot that today was Hexside's ceremony for the leaders that help with the school when the Boiling Isles was under Collector's reign while Luz and her friends were in the human realm.
At least she got the book published without needing any sketchy contracts in a bar.
She can't wait for the reviews.
“Have you heard? The sequel is out!”
That was the first thing Luz heard not far behind her as she waited for her and King's food. King recommended this place due to his road trip with Steve back then.
“What sequel?”
On one hand, it would be rude to be nosey in other people's conversations.
“Ruler’s Reach!”
But where's the drama in that?
“I thought it was canceled?”
“It was! But it's not anymore! Come on, let's hurry to the newly repaired bookstore, they definitely would have it since it is a perfect opportunity for an opening.”
She takes a moment to stare at the direction where the people left, before hearing a cough behind her from the worker. He beguilingly holds out the bag of her food to her. She says thanks to the witch as she starts to head out, taking notice King isn't back yet. Where did he go?
While her eyes wander to find that furball, she eardrops another conversation similar from earlier from the tables.
“Titan. This is the best thing I've ever read! This made me feel so many emotions in a good way. That cliffhanger though, can't wait for the next one.” Their friend scoffs at that, leaning back on the chair as much as he possibly could.
“I don't know man. It feels rushed to be honest? I guess. They probably should have left it alone. Like I love having my questions answered but I still have more questions.”
Luz pulls her cat hoodie tighter. In retrospect, they didn't plan that far ahead. They, ( cough, King.) didn't expect a large fanbase. How their books keep getting popular is a very good question? Like how?
“That ratworm dug. First off. You are a fast reader. Literally! Unfair advantage. And it's called world building for a reason. Not every detail has to be explained. I for one love the open world. Means more room for my fanfiction.”
Huh. Luz ponders for a second about that phase, that more pg than the snorses version. Also wait, there's fanfiction?- of course there is. She'll definitely check that later in the future.
“Not my fault I have better genetics than you.” They stick their fork tongue at them. “Still. It's like they are trying to recapture lightning in a bottle. They should have left perfection alone.”
“I say they nailed it.”
“Agree to disagree.”
Walking farther away from earshot, Luz takes a few minutes to wonder where King went. She takes one last scan around the outdoor sitting area, seeing if she missed anything.
Two witches walk past her to the back of the line, spooking her from her thoughts.
“Dude. You have no idea how much I love this book. Like they finally explained why Ruler and Luzara are friends in the first place when dealing with Ruler's grief.”
Luz involuntary flinches from that, King and her did have a down to earth talk about that. It was quite relieving to know she wasn't alone in her thoughts on this.
Now looking back, King did look happier after that at least, so progress. They should have more talks more often.
Luz still does need to take those therapist appointments in the future though. Mom isn't letting her off the hook yet. Dang it Steve.
“I know right!? Throw my heart to the ground and stomp on it. Why don'tcha. The haunting narrative is my favorite troupe.”
No longer distracted by people's conversations. …Okay, a bit less distracted. Luz takes in her surroundings and notices how close this area is to the inner bones ribs of the Titan.
“And don't get me started on the what Ruler did around the en-”
Close enough that it would be easy to get to in walking distance.
“Dude! Don't spoil it. I haven't read that far yet.”
Things start to click as she paces forward towards the likely destination of where King went.
“My bad.”
_________¥_________
“Thought I'll find you here.” She announces her presence to King, who was sitting down next to one of the Titan's bones behind him. King looks up from his book, it being their copy of their book, before his head darting away from Luz. Luz’s shoulders lowered down, sighing before walking up to him to sit down next to him. One of her legs stretches out on the ground while the other leg is bent, looking out of the distance.
The sun over the red trees lower over the horizon, the sky turning into twilight soon. The sky shifts its colors from orange to purple, making the skies look like a beautiful canvas. Luz can’t ever get over how the skies in the Boiling Isles look. There was a calm breeze that blew over them, an enjoyable moment if it was any other time.
King broke the silence.
“How do you deal with it?”
His voice barely audible, if Luz wasn't paying attention to King at the moment, she would have not heard it. It was clear to her that she wasn't meant to hear that when King's body tense in realization that he said that out loud before resigning himself in defeat.
“How do you grieve for someone you barely met?”
She didn't know how to answer that. Luz knows grief. She knows how to look at things and to expect something else to happen. But it never does. To have empty spaces in photos that should have been 3 instead of 2 people. To act older because the time has passed according to other people. To pretend it doesn't hurt on most days. To act that everything is fine.
But grief doesn't work like that.
It never does.
“To tell you the truth…” Luz starts off, a haze of emotions in a mix that is too hard to make out in her tone. King's head perking up, all ears to hear someone who's in a similar position as him. Someone who understands. “There's no really proper way to grieve.” Luz admits honestly. Some days you cry to your sleep, weighted from everything earlier those days. In others, your emotions are in such a mess that they crash into each other enough that you can't pinpoint that particular enough to define. And you want to explain but you just can't find the right words to describe or carry the weight of it.
“...There's going to be days you're fine. And there would be days where you feel…” Luz chokes on the sentence, her face scrunching in thought of finding the right word. She pulls her leg back, about to wrap her arms around her legs close to her chest in comfort before hesitating. She exhales as she turns back to her earlier position.
“...hollow.”
“I miss him.” King says, leaning next to her. Luz brings her right arm around him, hugging him closer, she leans down to kiss his forehead softly. Stringbean appears from her hoodie, making a noise only they can make to ease him. King nudges a bit closer to Luz, Stringbean wrapping herself against his neck in support. He asks softly, looking at the book still in his paws. “Would he like the book?”
How many times has he visited Palm Springs with Eda, never knowing his dad holds him in the palm of his hands? How many times has he looked at himself in the mirror, unaware of his dad looking back?
How many times has King ever lived unaware how much his dad loves him but never can hug him? To show his pride to King when he does something right, his embarrassment of his son's ego, her exasperation from his mischievous shenanigans.
Their unconditional love for their child.
And would there be a time that King can no longer do them with his loved ones once he outlived them?
“No doubt about it.” Luz tenderly smiles at King, Stringbean making a noise in agreement. “He would have loved it. He'll be roaring from the sea. Being like ‘That's my kids’ book’.” There wasn't any doubt in her voice that King's father would be so proud of their work.
“That would cause the isles to shake.” King turns his head at her finally, humoring her a bit.
“Exactly.”
They stare at each other before laughing ruefully, weary from how the days go. At the same time, pride filled in their chests from how much they grew from before.
When making Ruler’s Reach, there was silly joy of starting their book, bitterness of being sidelined, arrogance in a certain furball (Hey!), a bit of fear of being almost turned to cubes and an adrenaline rush of being together and escaping with their lives.
Now with Ruler's Reach 2. There was a journey of self reflection, a few mental breakdowns and trauma dumping in between. Concern for the fans (We don't talk about that letter!). There was delight from listening to their friends and just hanging out, including the theory dumps from Hunter. And hearing everyone's excitement and constructed criticism on the side.
Today is a good day.
“I'm glad you are here, sis.”
Despite its ups and downs, Luz doesn't regret it one bit.
“I'm glad you're here too, hermano.”
For they would remember this for days to come.
…
…
…
…
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ACCIDENTALLY WIPE LUZ'S MEMORIES, KING!?”