#heehoo might yeet at ao3 later

[roseverdict]

I HAVE BEEN ENABLED

ok so. we don't know what we'll find on the other side of the portal, but just bear with me here

〜

Everything was a blur.

How long had she been forced to play along with the devil-child's idea of a game?

She couldn't quite say.

CHASE

Her muscles were getting tired for some reason, and there was a splotch of color in front of her that moved faster than the rest of the world.

CATCH

The blob stopped moving, and so did she. Up close, it was a bit clearer to see the shifts in color on the blob. Black inside brown inside white shook back and forth inside a larger blot almost the same color as a bird tube worm.

KILL

More of the almost-bird-tube-worm color shot out from under violet, slapping something white onto her forelimb-

-lightning jolted up her spine for a moment, repairing parts of her mind she hadn't realized were broken-

-and Eda sucked in a gasp, hastily pulling herself off the witch. "I- Titan, I'm so sorry-!"

After taking a few heavy breaths, the witch smiled knowingly and eased herself back to her feet. "Está bien. You were not yourself."

The accent was like nothing from anywhere in the Isles, but Eda's eyes widened in recognition anyway. "Wait, you're not a witch, are you?"

"Not like you, perhaps, Sra. Clawthorne," said the woman, smiling a little larger as she dropped the hood of her tattered cloak to reveal rounded ears. "My name is Camila Noceda. You may know my daughter, Luz?"

Eda gasped, this time left unable to speak for a moment as recognition, pride, and fear all jostled for attention. "Your daughter is an amazing person-wait, is she here?!"

"She is putting another part of our plan into action," responded Camila. "However, she was very insistent that we rescue you first."

"Whuh?" Eda said intelligently. She glanced down at herself- apparently, the Collector saw fit to keep her locked in her original owl beast form- and noticed the square of paper on what would have been the inside of her wrist.

As she watched, the paper fell off, an unfamiliar combination of sigils obscured by a mirror image of the Bard Coven's mark, leaving only bare feathers where there should have been a small harp.

"It goes right above my head, but Luz came up with that. Said it would re-induct you into the 'Bad Girl Coven' and let you help us again," Camila continues, smirking slightly at the words "Bad Girl Coven."

Eda forced down the- alright, fine, it was maternal affection for the kid, not that she'd ever say it out loud- that threatened to overwhelm her and grinned. "Always ahead of the game, that kid."

Camila nodded, but before she could respond-

"No, no, no! YOU'RE NOT PLAYING FAIR!"

The two women glanced up in fear, but the Collector wasn't paying attention to them. Instead, a flurry of flying blurs swooped in and out and all around like a swarm of fire bees. As they watched, the Collector swiped a hand out angrily, knocking one of the fliers aside.

And Luz herself nearly fell off her staff (and Eda would celebrate later at the sight of a new palisman at the head of that staff) before clambering back on and rejoining the fray.

The scream came from both women. "LUZ!"

Luz didn't seem to hear them, high in the sky as she was.

Eda found herself surprised at the honest-to-Titan growl that came out of Camila's chest, but she grinned and bent all four of her legs. "Hey, Camila. Need a lift?"

The dark smile that came over Camila's face would be enough to make Belos crap himself, were he still a being that could crap at all. "Sounds like a plan to me, Sra. Clawthorne."

Eda mirrored the expression on her own face. "Please, that's my mom. Call me Eda."

whoooooOOOOOOO WANTS UNBETAED TOH FIC SNIPPET THAT'LL PROBABLY GET JOSSED ONCE THE NEXT EPISODE AIRS????? :DDDDD