#numericalbridge fic

[numericalbridge]

Title: Caught in the Grip

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 2684

Characters: Raine and Darius

Summary: Darius is ill. Of course, Raine can handle it.

-

There is a nasal quality to Darius’s voice:

“I was betrayed.”

“No, you weren’t,” Raine really hopes he can hear their exasperated sigh even from the other side of the room.

“Betrayed and abandoned in my hour of need,” he throws one arm over his face and turns his head away from them. From the top of the bed’s headboard a little abomination warbles at him.

Raine crosses their arms, “May I remind you that Eber only had to travel to the Shin because you’ve insisted that there is just one single healing-potion shop on the whole Isles that is good enough for you? And…”

“And should a simple trip to the Shin take this long?” Darius shrugs impatiently, then coughs.

Raine sighs again. “Yes, he had to stop to assist a difficult Terror Tooth birth. He’ll be back soon.”

“Splendid!” Eyes open on the purple scarf wrapped around Darius’s head, and they all roll at once. “The miracle of the Terror Tooth’s birth is sooo important while I am suffering here.” The bed creaks as he shifts uncomfortably. “My face is sticky, and I can’t breathe through my nose,” Darius laments. One of the abominations that cluster around the bed offers him a steaming mug of something, but he waves it away without looking. “I probably have a fever, and my skin feels like it’s about to slough off...”

“You were caught in the Grip,” Raine reminds him. “It sucks, but no need to be this dramatic.” They soften their voice, “You’ll feel better in no time.”

Darius grumbles under his breath. From their place by the door Raine can’t quite hear him.

“Come on, don’t be like this... Do you want me to read to you?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to make an inhalation potion for you?”

“No, it won’t help.” He coughs again.

What else to suggest? Raine tries to think. The windows of the big bedroom are covered by heavy curtains, and a heavy purple duvet is suffocating the bed. There is also the horrid yellowish ointment Darius has smeared onto his face to ‘clear sinuses’. Add that to the gloomy atmosphere of the room, and it’s no wonder he is feeling particularly terrible.

“It’s so stuffy in here, at least let me open the windows.”

“No,” this time Darius actually sits up and turns to face them. “Do you want to get caught too?” A big abomination steps in between Raine and the windows and menacingly raises a spray bottle filled with disinfectant fluid. “Stay out of the gripping range!”

“Fine! If you insist,” Raine returns to their place by the door. Darius re-assumes his sulking position in the bed.

“Do you want me to turn on music or bring you your journals?”

“No.” He pulls the duvet up to his chin and then rolls over, turning his back to them. “Just leave me to suffer alone, in silence...”

Raine feels like they would need to chew over that last bit. “Does this mean you want to rest?” they inquire. “You can just say so, you know?”

No response.

“I’ll make you a Bone and Bile soup with boiled dumplings,” Raine decides. They remember his grandfather used to cook it for special occasions. “Sounds good?”

He mutters something that Raine takes as a ‘yes’. The little abomination babbles excitedly and swings its legs back and forth.

“I’ll send you a message when it’s ready. Now try to sleep.”

They quietly exit the room, leaving Darius in the care of his abomination court.

Their scroll crows.

“2 healthy teethlings,” says the message. Attached is a photo of Eberwolf with a pair of accordion-shaped fanged creatures. All three are covered in a rather slimy substance that makes Raine feel queasy. “Heading back soon. Is it a complete disaster back there?”

Raine throws a quick glance at the door of Darius’s bedroom. Should they choose mercy? “Could’ve been worse. Is he always extra dramatic when ill, or is he just messing with me?”

It takes a moment for Eber to reply. “Idk. Probably both. Not like he would ever show anything in the Coven. See u soon.”

Raine frowns. Covens, it’s always the Covens. Nevertheless they reply with a ‘claws up’ emoji and head downstairs. On the way they nearly collide with an abomination that has its arms full of Darius’s research journals.

Shaking their head in exasperation, Raine wonders whether Darius used to be even more stubborn when he was younger. They... can’t quite remember. They definitely can’t remember him getting ill when they were in school together. Raine themselves were sick often but usually with nothing more serious than a common mold. And Darius had once send them a card that screamed marching songs at them. Raine frowns again, tugs on their earring. First, clean your hands, then prep the soup.

They wash their hands in the first floor bathroom. The sink is unnervingly clean. Can they remember the names of the songs that were on that card? The memories make them feel a little uneasy. It is unlike them to think a lot about their high school days – after all, they were so eager to graduate and leave behind the school that had failed Eda. But Darius tends to dwell on the past, and apparently it can be contagious. Raine always wanted to move forward. They catch themselves touching a scar on their cheek. And to move forward, you need to leave some things behind.

The soap in the bathroom smells of lavender and clover moss. Raine knows that being sick must feel especially unpleasant for Darius, with his particularities about cleanliness. If only he wasn’t always so stubborn. Well, the soup will make him feel better. Raine will make it right.

---

Darius’s cottage is smaller than what Raine had imagined, but the kitchen is very spacious and brightly lit, and everything is, of course, immaculately clean and in perfect order. They have little trouble finding what they need for the soup, and the recipe isn’t difficult. Soon the pot is simmering on the stove while Raine is cutting the last batch of vegetables. The cool evening breeze is billowing the curtains, and in the adjoining room the clock is ticking pleasantly. Raine is humming to themselves, and it feels nice to cook like this in peace.

A year has passed since Belos’s death, but there is still so much work for them to do, and Raine barely has time to relax. They accept it with equal measures of pride and weariness. And the Owl House is always bustling with activity. Raine thrives in the chaos of Eda’s household and embraces the challenges of the new Boiling Isles, but sometimes… sometimes it just feels so right to enjoy the calm and…

“Which cutting boards did you use?”

The knife misses the carrot and clatters to the counter. Incredulous, Raine turns around and peers out of the kitchen. Unbelievable! Darius, accompanied by one of the abominations, has made his way almost to the bottom step of the stairs. He has wrapped a blanket around himself and looks utterly miserable, yet he still manages to sound demanding:

“Please tell me you didn’t use the orange one for the vegetables…”

Honestly, Raine needs a moment to compose themselves. And everything was going so well! “What are you doing here?” they hiss. “You should be resting! And I thought you were all about not spreading the infection everywhere!”

Darius scoffs. Then coughs into an abruptly summoned handkerchief. “Abominations’ll disinfect everything,” his voice sounds uncomfortably raspy. The abomination behind him sprays the wall with disinfectant and starts wiping it with a cloth.

“But I,” Darius slowly makes his way towards the kitchen. His voice is getting raspier and raspier with each sentence, and it’s painful to hear. “Want to be sure you won’t poison us, in addition to everything else.”

“Oh, great!” Raine puts their hands on their hips. “Don’t worry, I used the right boards. It’s not that difficult, considering they all are labeled! Satisfied? Now go and rest!”

Of course, Darius pays no attention to their words. Instead, he uses his magic to move a small sofa closer to the kitchen door. The message is clear, Raine notes darkly. Darius places the sofa at a safe non-gripping distance, and lowers himself into it with a groan. The abomination hurries to help him take off his slippers.

Just ignore him, then. Raine returns to the kitchen to finish the vegetables. It is time to add the last batch to the soup. Raine will make everything right. Despite his efforts.

“Did you trim the tendrils off the beetle-goat meat?”

“Darius!” Raine returns to the door. “I know how to cook! I don’t need your… pestering.”

“Oh, really?” Darius crosses his arms. “You don’t know my kitchen, and you cook like a college student still on the run from the Choosey Hat!”

“That’s not true!” Raine feels their ears warm up. Absolutely not true! Well, maybe sometimes… Just ignore him!

They throw the vegetables into the pot, prepare the dumpling dough, clean up a little and set up a timer. Well! Even he should be satisfied now.

Raine marches back into the room, still fuming. Without looking up Darius raises his hand and creates an abomination chair for them. ‘Beanbag chair’, as Luz would call it. Placed, of course, an appropriate distance away from Darius’s sofa. Scowling, Raine falls into it, hoping that the squishing sound annoys him.

“You’re terrible,” they mutter.

Darius huffs in response.

Raine stretches their arms and settles more comfortably. They watch Darius out of the corner of their eye. Already several more abominations has congregated around him. One of them hands him a warm towel, and he presses it to his face. They really seem to gravitate towards him, Raine muses. Just another thing they failed to notice when they started their Coven Head career.

Darius himself looks awfully uncomfortable, and his breath is definitely labored. Yeah, the Grip sucks. Raine thinks back to their own experience with getting caught in it once or twice in their youth. Not the most pleasant times. Should be even worse for someone who hates everything gross. Why won’t you just let me help? they silently plead. If only he was more understanding and less… him... when they are trying to help. If only he would communicate.

Raine turns on their side and observes the little abomination toddling its way down the stairs. Darius sneezes and mutters in annoyance.

Raine imagines the gripping arms, hands, all around him, invisible but there, stretching out with barely audible squelching sounds. Like mud, stretching towards them.

“Raine?”

They blink the unwanted imagery away. Stupid bout of fancy, they say to themselves in Eda’s voice.

“Raine?” Darius says again. He has lifted the towel from his face. His eyes, despite the feverish glint, are sharp.

Raine feels a twist inside their chest.

“Did you just remember that you used the wrong board?” Darius rasps.

“It’s nothing.” They feel... frustrated. Why does he have to act like that?

The little abomination has made its way to the sofa and babbles to be picked up.

“So, how are you doing?” Raine asks hopefully, trying to calm down their irritation. “Any better?”

“Of course not,” Darius lifts the little abomination up and sets it on the armrest. “I don’t even have my medicine.”

Raine purses their lips and reaches to check their scroll:

“Just passed the Gnawed Bone Village,” writes Eber. “How is patient zero? Insufferable?”

Raine grins. “Eber is asking about you.”

“Traitor.”

“Ah, don’t be like this. Do you really not want to go back to your room and rest?”

“Raine…”

“I’ll bring you your soup when it’s ready.”

“Raine, please, stop being pushy!”

“Pushy?” That’s new. “I am not pushy, I am trying to help you feel better!”

“By being pushy?”

“Oh, fine!” They have half a mind to let it go. But if Raine were ill, they just know he would’ve been hovering over them or sending them stuff they like while acting all unbothered, and it frustrates them beyond reason. “Then why don’t you return to your room to be far away from the pushy me?”

Darius sighs heavily, and Raine realizes he is also trying to keep his temper in check.

“Because it’s so boring there,” he says at last. Raine suspects he is trying to redirect the conversation. “It feels terrible there.” Darius gives his towel to one of the abominations. “At least back in the Castle you could busy yourself with keeping up appearances,” he muses to himself. A different abomination offers him a new towel.

“Must have been tough,” Raine notes. They are still frustrated with him, but they are also a little curious.

“Oh, it was horrible! But it certainly kept you from getting too focused on the aches and all that good stuff,” he waves his hand in the air. “Put on the concealment stone, stay away from Hettie and her ‘unpatientable’ medicines and hope Terra gets gripped. Great times!”

“Look at the bright side,” Raine offers. “Despite my pushy presence everything is so much more hygienic here.”

“And boring.”

“Aww, I always knew you were secretly a workaholic.”

“Don’t,” Darius gives them a look. The little abomination pats him on the shoulder. “But what else am I supposed to do? Wait till one of you gets into trouble?”

“Or,” Raine rolls their eyes, “I don’t know, just try to relax and let me help you instead of annoying me? And then Eber will be back with the medicine.”

Darius purses up his lips. And, oh, now he is going to cross his arms.

Raine raises a finger against potential objections, “No one is getting into trouble, and if someone does – there are others who will help... You know, you are always fussing over everyone... Just let me, maybe, return the favor?”

“I am not fussy,” Darius’s ears twitch. He coughs. Then he gives up. “To be fair, I do appreciate your help and concern and everything,” he nudges the little abomination with his finger to make it warble. “Not that I enjoy all this attention or anything,” Darius quickly adds. So, basically a confession that he does enjoy it.

“Of course.” When Eber gets back he won’t get enough of this.

“But, Raine, you don’t need to… be in such a hurry and push it.”

“I don’t…”

“I get it. You want to help, and we didn’t have a great start back then, and...” Darius stumbles over his words. “Just... it’s all right. I get it.”

After that they fall back into silence. There is still some time left before Raine has to add the dumplings to the soup. Darius seems to doze off. Raine rolls over and puts their hands behind their head. The ceiling is violet and cracked with age. Raine sighs and tries to relax and enjoy the quiet.

Of course, it is not a real silence with Darius’s wheezing breath and the abominations groaning and babbling among themselves, but it is comfortable, and it feels right to be here, and Raine has been missing this, and they’ve almost lost it. But they can be better! They think about what Darius was trying to tell them. And they wonder what would have happened if the two of them had never grown apart. But there is no point in wondering, Raine decides, for it can only lead to heartbreak. More important is what they can do now. And maybe they shouldn’t rush things. Their glasses begin to mist up, and Raine has to take them off.

“What are you doing now?” Darius’s rasping voice inquires. “Don’t tell me you already got gripped.”

“It’s nothing.” Maybe they are out of practice. They put their glasses back on. One eye is opened on Darius's scarf, and it is squinting at them suspiciously. Darius himself has sat up and is also watching them. “It’s just that… I’m glad we are friends again,” Raine admits.

Darius blinks at them, then settles down again. “Yeah,” he says. “I’m glad too.”

[phddyke]

I've posted the complete fic on numericalbridge (although i'll probably move it to ao 3 once i get an account but i couldn't wait, lol)

OH MY GOD THAT WAS SO GOOD. So GOOD, I am speechless. Please send me the link as soon as you get it on AO3, I want to make sure I leave you some kudos and a long, lengthy comment (when I’m feeling less speechless).

Also, Belos was lying to him, right? RIGHT?

[numericalbridge]

This would take me so long to edit and polish (so hopefully the grammar problems and wording choices are to be fixed), but i am impatient, so here is a tiny wip teaser for the King and Darius and Eber fic (AU set pre-canon):

----

Something made a clicking sound above King's head. Eh? The clicking repeated, louder. The ratters raised their hackles and scrambled away, growling in disappointment.

King turned over and looked up. Two glowing eyes opened in the darkness above him. Too big for a ratter.

Suddenly King found the strength to move. He tried to crawl back to the nearest wall. The glow of the eyes settled on him.

"St... stay back! I have a sword!" King patted the dirty ground searching for a weapon. "An evil magic sword!"

The glowing eyes disappeared. Did King's threat work? With a soft thud something jumped on the wall in front of him. King gulped. The eyes opened and stared down at him again. The creature slithered down the wall and landed on all fours. It was... a demon! On the smaller side and covered with orange fur. Dressed like an outdoors-y witch. They sniffed at King.

"Hell-o, fellow demon," King mastered. "As a loyal subject to me... maybe you could be so kind and point me towards the way out of here?" King lowered his head and tapped one of his claws on the back of his other hand.

[numericalbridge]

These are super rough, but i just wanted to share some tidbits from the fics i've plotted but not sure whether i would write in full. All are from different stories:

A.

"Darius?! Darius! Please, please, wake up!"

The voice is sending pinpricks of pain right through his brain. Darius opens his eyes. Everything is swaying. It feels like all the energy has been drained out of him. What happened? He blinks groggily and attempts to sit up.

"You're alive!" Eda's human ward - Luz - lets go of his shoulder and mutters something in a language Darius doesn't understand. "Is Eda all right? Everyone else?"

"Where are we?" He doesn't recognize the place. There are lines of strange glyphs around the two of them. "And what are you doing here?" he demands. He doesn't like this. Where are the other kids? His head is still foggy. The Ceremony. The fight. The translocation. "Yes, Eda and the rest should be safe. Are you here alone?"

Luz twists her mouth into a forced smile, "Well, you see... But first ugh..." Her eyes shift. "Please don't freak out..." she mutters.

Is she looking at his arm? He follows her gaze to his sigil...

B.

Raine knew that look. Imperious and somewhat disgusted, as if he had just seen something so beneath him that it fascinated and repulsed him in equal measures yet wasn't worth a verbal reaction. That look was enough to shut up even the oldest Coven Heads. Only... Raine couldn't recall it ever being directed at them.

Then the boy's lower lip wobbled, and the illusion was shattered.

C.

"I assume the Great Demon King has not heard the blood-curdling tale of Brie the Blimp?"

"Brie the Blimp?" Ha! The name was catchy. But King had his mission.

"Oh, yes," the witch said. The abomination on his head shifted. "The mysterious and frightening witch-eating flying apparatus." He raised an eyebrow and then nodded towards the window. "They say she prowls the skies on nights just like this."

"And?" King asked - just in case. He had to find Eda, but this was something new. He needed the intel!

"Oh, I don't know," the witch leaned his head on his hand. "Perhaps this story is too much..."

"No!" King objected. "The King of Demons is not afraid of some old nursery story. I demand to hear the blood-calling... blood-curling tale of the evil Blimp!"

"Hmm, all right," the man smiled, "if you insist."

King grabbed one of the abomination toys closer to himself - also just in case - and plopped down to listen.

"It all started one bright and peaceful morning..."

D.

"Oh my Titan! Are you Perry Porter?!" one of the scouts squealed. "From the Crystal Ball? For real?!"

"Yes, yes," Perry forced himself to say. Normally he would be embarrassed, but this time was different. "Glad to meet a fan..."

"Do you even know who this is?" the scout pestered their colleague who shrugged non-comittally.

"I love seeing you on the Crystal Ball!" the first scout addressed Perry again.

"Thank you. But can I help you?" Perry knew his voice sounded polite, but his heart was pounding. Here we go.

"We are looking for dangerous rebels, potentially wild witches," the less enthusiastic scout announced. "They were seen in the vicinity of your house. Have you noticed any suspicious activity?"

"I don't think so," Perry answered. "But there is a forest behind these houses, it would be easy to hide there."

"Are you sure you didn't see anyone?"

"Come on," the chatty scout interrupted them. "It's Perry Porter! He would've noticed if the rebels were here. Thank you for your time!"

No, thank you.

"No problem."

E.

"Oh, wow, this Construction Coven's book is surely a brick," Luz waved the book in front of herself. Judging by the blank stares, the joke didn't land.

"The most prominent figures of the Construction Craft, tome 2," Skara read the title from below.

"Sounds fun," Luz started - she had a really good one...

"Hey!"

Eberwolf grabbed the book right out of her hands, and she nearly fell down the ladder. Eber hurried to the other side of the room, put the book on the desk and began hastily turning over the pages as if looking for something specific. Then they seemed to find that something. He read the page, chirping almost silently to themselves and tugging on his mane from time to time.

"Eber?" Darius had stopped mending the abominations and came up to stand by them.

Eber shook their head, jumped down the chair and silently trotted out of the room, leaving the book on the table.

Darius sighed.

"What happened?" Skara asked.

Luz leaned to look in the book. There was a portrait.

"Galatea Vault," Darius said. "She was the Construction Coven Head before Mason."

[numericalbridge]

Title: Untitled

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 224

Characters: Raine, Darius and Eberwolf

Summary:

A ficlet based on this AU.

----

“Come on! Pull!” Raine grabbed Darius’s arms, and Eber jumped onto his shoulders and then onto the wall and tried to dig through the muddy cords that held him in place.

Nothing helped.

Raine pulled. A shoulder seam of their shirt gave way and something snapped in their back. Their breath was catching. Darius was trying to shift into his abomination form, but no magic was working properly in the mindscape. Raine grabbed him across the waist and tried to pull that way, to no avail. Dark spots swayed across their vision.

“Raine!”

Raine raised their head and met Darius’s eyes. They were bloodshot. Sweat was running down Darius's face.

“Raine,” he repeated, softer, and his eyes shifted.

Raine followed his gaze. Eber was still trying to claw through the wall of muck. Raine understood. They nodded. A simple sleeping spell still worked. Eber’s eyes rolled up, then closed, and Raine caught him before he could fall down. They put him carefully on the floor.

“Darius…”

“Go,” Darius rasped. His left arm was half-submerged into the wall. “I’ll try to distract Belos. Stall him, taunt him. Maybe I’ll manage to do something.”

Raine reached out and touched his face.

“You go,” Darius said thickly, “tell his secrets to everyone.”

Raine pressed their foreheads together. Then they kissed him on the cheek, picked up Eber and ran.

[numericalbridge]

very important reference post for my fics - my fan names for Eber's ratworms.

This one is Gobler:

and this is Daisy-wyrm:

[numericalbridge]

Title: At the Precipice (The Rot AU)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G (briefly mentioned and implied character deaths)

Word count: 2464

Characters: various

Summary:

On the Isles plagued with the Rot fourteen-year old Darius spends his morning battling with anxiety and worrying about his relationship with his father, until the routine is interrupted by the arrival of an unusual visitor.

---

In the dream he was running from the Rot. The putrid grayish-green waves threatened to choke out the whole world. He ran until he stumbled and fell to his knees, wheezing. And that’s when the Emperor appeared, the golden cloak billowing in the wind, the mask bright and cold. Radiant light swirled around the jagged staff, and even the Rot retreated before its purifying glory.

Relief washed over the boy, but then the Emperor turned round to face him. Pinkish flood was running down the mask from the empty eye sockets, like tears or blood…

---

Darius woke up in his bed, gasping for air, pressing his hands to his chest. The pale morning light fell through the narrow windows of his room. At the foot of his bed the palismen stirred and murmured. A peahen and a horned crayfish he’d been fostering at Daddy’s insistence. Darius gently swung his feet to the floor, careful not to disturb them any more. He tried to steady his breath.

“A bad dream,” he whispered apologetically to the critters.

He slid his feet under the purple carpet and wiggled his toes. The anxiety was building up. He slid his feet out.

From the heavy dressing table near the bed the new doll stared at him with dead green eyes. Another present from his father. Darius sighed. He had heaps of toys, all kinds of them: cloth and plush, wooden and ceramic, many of them custom-made... most of them purple creatures with blank green eyes. On the shelves and on the windowsills, on the chair and on the dressing table. Rows and rows and rows of them, threatening to take over his small room.

Darius hesitated, then reached for his scroll. Another village on the Southern Condyle had to be evacuated because of the Rot. No fatalities. A band of robber wild witches attacked a military outpost near Bonesborough. A convoy was looted. The restorations of St. Epiderm’s facade were going on well.

Darius patted the palismen on their heads and opened the chat for the Hexside drama club that Raine had recommended to him – the kids were nice, and chatting with them was always fun. Smiling a little, he reread their conversations from previous days. But this morning nobody seemed to be awake just yet.

He put away the scroll.

Careful not to step on the toys that didn’t fit on the shelves or anywhere else in the room, he prepared water and some fruit for the palismen. He wasn’t sure whether the creatures actually needed the food, but they seemed to enjoy playing with it. Their bowls were purple, of course.

He went through the motions of his morning routine. Today was his free day, and he had no classes or training, and so he could take his time.

He carefully chose the outfit for the day. Nothing flashy, but, after studying his reflection in the mirror, he decided he looked good. The frame of the mirror was purple too.

He applied one of the fashionable liquid concealment stones – the product of a rare frivolous collaboration between the Healing and the Illusion Covens – to dye his hair. Now his locs were almost the same colour as his eyes. Cool. He used the stones often, and the effect was always striking.

He whistled while making his bed. The bedclothes, the silken pillows, the quilt – everything was purple. Daddy had assured him over and over again that he could choose any colour he liked, but Darius could tell what Daddy really expected him to pick. But it’s not a big deal, not really.

After saying goodbye to the palismen Darius left his room.

---

The corridors of the Castle were quiet at this time of the morning, and when you looked out of the tall narrow windows you couldn’t see the Rot anywhere. Darius paused briefly, imagining the Golden Guard, in full regalia, saving the common folk and vanquishing the Emperor’s enemies. What would it feel like to be out there? It was foolish to daydream about it, of course. The Rot was not fodder for picture-book adventures. Darius felt the anxiety returning.

He strolled slowly down the corridor, nodding to the passing servants. Should he go and watch scouts train in the yard? The day already loomed ahead empty and purposeless.

The ping of his scroll. A new message from Raine! Darius couldn’t hide his smile. Unlike Daddy or the tutors, Raine always seemed to know what would cheer him up.

He opened the message.

“Good morning, Darius. How are you doing? Busy training?”

“No,” he typed out honestly. “Today’s my free day. Every third day is. Don’t really know what I want to do today,” he couldn’t resist the urge to complain.

They replied almost immediately: “Oh. Then, maybe you could help me out? ^o^” A cat face emoji? Seriously? They really type like an old person.

“Can you look for ‘Music of the early Savage Ages: Concepts and Classifications’ in the Castle’s library? I’ve heard it should be among some of the oldest collections. I can explain some spells from the book to you later.”

Darius considered it. He supposed the book would be in a very remote and, strictly speaking, forbidden section of the Old Library… but he had nothing better to do. “Sure, I can try.”

“Thank you so much! Oh, and you’ll probably find some fascinating works about the Empire’s early history in the same collection. I think they might interest you.” Another cat emoji. Darius rolled his eyes and immediately felt guilty: Raine seems so lonely…

Perhaps he shouldn’t trust them so easily – he still didn’t know them very well after all – but they seemed harmless. He even briefly wondered whether one day he’d be able to visit them… wherever they lived… and maybe they could tutor him in bard magic. Just another daydream. Daddy had made it very clear that these days it was far too dangerous for children to travel because of the Rot and the wild witches.

Still, after this brief exchange with Raine he felt less anxious.

Murmuring his favourite song from the 'Ride the Gryphon' musical, he took the stairs down to Daddy’s study room. ‘The cozy office’ Darius used to call it when he was younger. Unlike the other offices around the Castle or the oppressive Throne Room, ‘the cozy office’ was sunny and comfortably cluttered. There his daddy did paperwork and sometimes accepted visitors with petitions.

The guards stationed at the door let Darius in at once.

“Good morning,” Darius muttered awkwardly. “I hope I don’t interrupt...”

Daddy smiled at him from the messy desk. “Darius! Up so early? You truly are your father’s son,” Daddy laughed at his own ‘joke’. Embarrassing. “Come, give your dad a kiss.”

Tips of his ears twitching, Darius dragged his feet over to the desk. He was fourteen, almost a witch grown, and yet his father didn’t seem to realize it. Darius allowed himself to be babied, and only rolled his eyes a little. Not like his father ever noticed.

From beside Daddy’s elbow his palisman chirped his greeting. He was very old and cracked all over, and he couldn’t really fly anymore, only flutter a little, so he spent most of the time resting on the pillows that Daddy hand-sewed for him. Darius patted the bird on the head. The palisman was made for their family generations ago, Daddy had told Darius, and deserved to rest and enjoy the comfort.

“So, Darius,” Daddy returned to his work, signing and stamping papers, but his eyes were still smiling. “How is your morning? Did you eat breakfast?”

“I’ll eat later.” Darius settled onto a bench by the side of the desk. “You know I never feel hungry early in the morning,” he reminded his father.

“Hmmm,” Daddy hummed. Already immersed in the paperwork.

“The palismen are doing well,” Darius added, trying to get more attention. He used to love to just sit and watch his father work, and help where he could, and talk. Perhaps today Daddy would have time to eat breakfast or dinner together? Or maybe he would tell Darius one of the stories about his glorious younger days. Darius loved those stories, even though sometimes they made his father sad. The story he loved the most was the funny one about the time Daddy had participated in a sports competition. Darius loved it even more than the heroic tale about the slaying of the great basilisk. Perhaps today he will tell it again… but Daddy continued working, nodding to himself and petting his palisman from time to time.

Darius frowned. He was getting jittery again. “Maybe I’ll go to the library today,” he said. It felt awkward, talking to his father like this when he clearly didn’t have time for Darius. “But only if it’s alright with you…”

Daddy looked up from the document he’d been reading. “Of course you can go. Just be careful. And, please, stop being so apologetic. You have to become more confident.”

“Of course, Daddy.” Of course. A true Golden Guard wouldn’t constantly falter and hesitate. “Can we, maybe, go together?”

Daddy’s eyes – their colour the only feature he shared with Darius – softened. “I’m sorry, Darius. I am very busy... as is usual with me...” he chuckled. “I know, I know... But the Rot is spreading rapidly in the South...” Daddy shook his head. “But don’t you worry! We’ll find a way to stop it, as we always do!”

“Of course, I understand.” Darius felt something, not just the usual anxiety or fear, flutter inside his chest – Daddy looked very sad, almost forlorn. He looks old. Darius felt sorry for him.

Daddy shuffled some papers, examined one of them more closely, then sighed and rubbed his tired eyes. “Lilith Clawthorne’s passing had affected me too, I guess,” he muttered. “I didn’t expect that.”

Darius looked down at his feet. What could he say? The apprehension was growing, and it was tiring. Darius pressed his hands to his chest. But Daddy was constantly worried too. Daddy is sad all the time.

Darius shuffled his feet. “I… I’ve made a new spell!” More confident. More Golden Guard-y. “I’ve created it all by myself… well, um, with only a little help from the guys from this chat…” Actually, Raine had given him some tips, but they had insisted that he shouldn’t even mention them.

“Really?” Daddy’s face brightened, his eyes lit up. He pushed his quill aside. Now he looked excited, almost like a little kid. “Show me!”

Darius stood up and straightened his shoulders. A withered goosebump plant was living out its last days on the corner of the desk. Darius pointed at it and whistled while drawing a spell circle with his finger. A familiar deep hum resonated inside his chest, as always happened when he performed complicated spells. The plant responded, its branches spreading and dancing. Invigorated by the tune.

“Ah, a bard spell…”

Darius’s hand froze. The spell faltered. Daddy’s mouth was a thin, stubborn line. His eyes were hard. Disappointed.

Darius lowered his hand. There’s no point. He knew what would follow.

Daddy blinked, catching himself. “Oh. Oh, no, baby!” he hurriedly got up from the desk. “Of course every magic is good! Great, even! Darius!”

Here he goes again. Daddy roughly drew Darius to himself and peppered his temples with quick, smothering kisses.

“My son is so talented! You are wonderful, my baby, it’s your Daddy who is too old-fashioned… But I’m unlearning it!” Daddy laughed nervously. “You know how back in my day the bard magic was considered weak? That's all it is!”

His palisman squawked angrily.

Darius supposed he should expect a new toy very soon. That’s how it always went with his father: first disappointment, then guilt, then suffocating affection and meaningless presents.

“But you’re doing so great!” Daddy had gone red in the face trying to convince himself.

“It’s okay, Daddy,” Darius pulled away from him. “Really. It’s nothing.”

But Daddy wasn’t listening... Then his ears flicked, and suddenly his eyes were sharp. He motioned: Silence.

Darius listened. Sounds of a commotion outside. Shouts?

With a sharp motion of his hand Daddy signaled for Darius to stay back by the wall.

The mechanical staff – tall and imposing, all sharp edges – was already in Daddy’s hand. He put the mask on. Darius hated the mask. Gone was Daddy, and only the Emperor remained. Sharp-witted and coldly playful, the golden feathers of his cloak shining like wyvern scales.

Darius straightened up too, like he was taught to stand at court – still and alert.

“Your Grace!” a red-faced guard opened the door. Someone shouted something from behind him in a language Darius didn’t recognize. “This old woman is causing trouble!”

“Let me through! Let me in!” An elderly woman barged into the study, her walking cane clacking on the stone floor. She was older than Darius’s tutors, probably as old as Raine, and had a bandage covering her left arm. She breathed heavily, as if she was very tired.

“Are you the ruler of this place?” she demanded, adjusting her thick glasses with her free hand.

“A human?” Daddy muttered. Darius stared – yes, the ears! A human on the Boiling Isles? His breath caught. What does it mean?

“Leave us!” the Emperor barked, and the guards bowed and scurried away.

“Yes, I am the Emperor of this Realm. Now. How did a human get here?”

Darius felt an unusual sort of pressure building up in the room.

The woman frowned, “Emperor... You are the one they call Hunter, yes?” She swayed a little, leaning heavily on her cane.

Something strange then happened. Daddy turned away from the woman and leaned his arms on the desk. Like… like he didn’t know what to do or what to say. Like he couldn’t face the woman? Then he tore off the mask. But he almost never exposed his face in front of strangers!

Darius felt something bigger than fear creeping up his spine. He saw that Daddy’s magenta eyes had darkened to an almost amaranth colour.

“Afraid,” someone said. Something soft and heavy bumped into Darius’s shoulder. “He is afraid.” Darius looked and saw that Flapjack had fluttered his way onto his shoulder. Darius cupped him into his hands. The pressure was building up.

The Emperor drew himself up and turned back to the woman.

“Hunter… haven’t heard that name in a long while…” he mused. “How do you know it, human?”

The threat in his voice was obvious, but the woman didn’t react, as if she hadn’t heard him at all. Dread, Darius felt dread.

“My name is Camila Noceda,” the woman said. “I came here searching for my daughter. I’ve been searching for over twenty years, and now I am going to get my answers.”

[numericalbridge]

Title: Mallow (part 1/3)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 2922 (Full fic - 9340)

Main characters: Darius, that one little abomination (Mallow)

Other characters: the previous Golden Guard (Virgil); in the full story - Eber, Raine, Luz, various palismen

Summary:

An AU where the little abomination was the previous Golden Guard's palisman

x - [part 2] - [part 3] - [full story]

----

Darkness and the deep connections of the old nerves. Whispers. All of them. Fewer of them. Hands, molding. Then – a shape. The desire: a childhood that never was, days on a beach under the sky that is blue; new places to explore, new magic blends – out of the box, out of the confines; new magic shaped to move; wild curiosity, but anchored by deep, sentimental connections.

Two bright mauve eyes opening, the form unfolding from the wood.

The voice, rendered childlike with wonder: “Wow, you are so unique! Our eyes are almost the same!”

Mallow. The name was Mallow.

----

1. Mallow.

“Aren’t they cute?” There was a hint of an amused smile in the corner of Virgil’s mouth.

Darius stared at the round abomination-shaped creature on his mentor’s palm. They stared back at him with curious eyes. Their colour resembled Virgil’s.

Darius sighed. He was no fool and could see the real pride hiding behind the nonchalant amusement on his mentor’s face. Still…

“Isn’t it forbidden?” Forbidden means dangerous. Surely Virgil understood how risky this was. Nothing is safe.

“Well,” Virgil’s face darkened, “I know you can keep a secret. What’s done is done.”

He shoved the creature at Darius, and Darius took them. They walked up his arm, balancing like an acrobat and murmuring softly. They did look kinda cute, but Darius felt a little bitter that this was an abomination – his domain. And he didn’t talk to you when he decided to create them. Are you already falling behind?

“An abomination but made of wood?” Darius wondered aloud. He sat the palisman down on the only table in Virgil’s Latissa apartment, then created a small abomination of his own – made to resemble Mallow, but with bright green eyes. Mallow gasped and toddled towards it, babbling. They seemed enthralled. Darius snickered.

“I knew you’d like them!” Virgil laughed and roughly shook Darius by the shoulders – an almost brotherly gesture that meant he was extremely happy with himself. Yet he didn’t tell you how he got the palistrom wood.

“Ugh, it’s interesting,” Darius freed himself and adjusted his clothing. Great, now his scarf was all askew. “But why an abomination?”

Virgil shrugged. “You know that I find the magic fascinating. And…” he stared at the two abominations – the palisman and the real one – circling each other on the table, “and it felt like it would mean… But you are evading! Admit that you like cute things!”

“Oh, please!” Now, who was evading? Darius shook his head. He understood that the palisman business was a very personal matter. And a lot of things about Virgil were a mystery. He loves experimenting with magic and discovering new, borderline forbidden uses for it, that’s true… Strange how he trusted Darius with the secret palisman, but not with his deeper concerns and troubles. Darius supposed they were similar in that regard... yet Darius had opened up to him, no matter how hard it had been. At least he will be less lonely back in that place…

“It should be nice to have company in the Castle?” Darius guessed.

“I suppose,” Virgil followed the palisman with his eyes. “Do you ever want to have a palisman of your own?”

Oh. Darius poked at the abomination he had created. That. “No.”

“No? Never?”

“Maybe when I was very young. But I had a rust-toothed cat when I was in school, and she was… she seemed better than any palisman.”

Darius remembered Raine showing off their newly carved Foxglove. That terrible rat Alador had. Nissa was smart too. Darius’s free hand played with his scarf. Perhaps palismen lasted longer than pets, than family even…

“Besides, what’s the point? The whole connection with you, the hidden desire, is sort of creepy. And they would probably outlive me.” He could still picture his great grandmother’s palisman, suffering so. “Figure out your desire, connect with something, leave it behind, alone forever… That is, if they aren’t…”

Confiscated.

The word hung between them, heavy. Virgil’s jaw tightened. Mallow stopped playing with the abomination and stared up at them, their perpetual frown frozen.

“It would just be a bother to make one, anyway,” Darius concluded with a sigh and a mildly annoyed pout.

“Hmm...” Now Virgil looked… sad? Uncomfortable? Because of all the palismen he’d been confiscating while keeping a secret one for himself? Because of what Darius thought about palismen in general?

Darius patted Virgil's palisman on their round bald head. “I think you should’ve carved them some decorations. Their head looks empty,” he graciously suggested in an attempt to change the topic.

Virgil payed him no mind. “I think Mallow is worth it,” he muttered softly.

I hope you won’t get into trouble. Virgil was changing, and it perplexed and troubled Darius, even though he was glad that his mentor’s loyalty seemed to shift towards helping the common witches and demons rather than being just the Emperor’s loyal guard. But gone was the almost boyish, at times almost cruel recklessness. Virgil was now more thoughtful, more composed. Still ruthless. And he still never talked about his personal life, at least not directly. And part of Darius was afraid to prod, to push him towards wrong decisions. And the change... how would it affect their relationship? Wondering this was selfish, but Darius knew very well that friendships didn’t last.

“Have you thought about getting a new rust-toothed cat then?” Virgil asked.

Darius’s grip on the scarf tightened. “No.” He hated the look on Virgil’s face. “I don’t have time for pets.” He doubted that some random cat would be as smart as Nissa.

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, I have to go. I have a report to give at the Coven meeting this evening,” he very timely remembered.

“And you’ll be the best prepared, of course.”

“Obviously.”

“Just don’t get into trouble.”

Darius allowed himself a scoff. “With whom? All those old people?”

He readjusted his scarf one more time and headed towards the exit.

“I won’t let you get hurt, I promise,” a voice whispered, so softly that Darius thought he had imagined it. Yet he turned. Virgil was talking to the little abomination in his cupped hands, and it was cooing quietly back at him.

----

Hurt. Once safe and warm, now hurt, surrounded by cold stone walls. Hiding, hunted. The voices are beckoning – far away yet welcoming. But the secret passages are now as familiar as the old nerve-routes. He had used to send them into the passages – to help, to uncover. But now he is gone. And their head feels strange. Weak. There is a dent, an injury. He had send them away. Follow the voices or stay? What was his wish?

Mallow remembers.

They stay.

----

2. Secrets in the Castle.

Shuffling.

Darius paused and listened. He was on his way back to his rooms after yet another dreary, exhausting Coven Head meeting. He was tired and he needed a bath and his skincare routine to soothe the anxiety that was eating away at him.

Desperate shuffling behind the walls.

He could imagine all the dirt and mold behind the shiny new panels, golden and cold and always damp.

The kitchen staff had complained and complained about strange noises – can’t be just a usual hamsteroach infestation, they insisted – until Terra decided to get rid of the source herself. Not out of generosity, obviously. She just wanted to sic her freshly grown plant monstrosities on something small and defenseless.

The shuffling grew closer, more desperate now. Cornered.

“It’s something the old cook used to feed,” they’d theorized. “Now that she is gone, it is grown hungry.”

Darius hesitated for a brief moment. He could just picture Raine Whispers teasing him if they were there with him. But, of course, they weren’t there. Too damn pure and principled for the Castle. For him. Spoiling Terra’s game would be good, he thought. Only, nothing felt good anymore. These last years – just a hideous blur. The only thing he felt was being tired and being cold. Was it like this for Virgil too?

Sounds of movement farther away – Terra’s thorny snaps gaining on their prey. The thing in the wall thrashed and scratched. An abomination tendril shot towards the brass vent cover and pulled it open. Easy.

Something fell out, dirty and covered in webs. Dark purple like an abomination, but its eyes the colour of a delicate flower.

“Mallow?!” For a brief terrifying moment he almost felt relief… or hope… or... Because if the palisman is alive…

Almost.

He stared at the thing. They scrambled out into the corridor and tried to escape into the vent on the opposite side. Darius caught them with the abomination tendril, and they snarled at him almost like a real animal, like no abomination would have ever done.

“They don’t like you very much,” Virgil’s voice laughed, distorted by time. Never mind. With a snap of his fingers – so easy, so effortlessly perfect – he translocated the palisman to his rooms.

How many years have passed? Were they hiding the whole time? he wondered, horrified. And the thought that if the palisman was alive, then he could be… That thought would have destroyed Darius. What does Mallow know?

The plants, hungry for their prey, reached the vent, and he dispatched them – annoying eyesores – with another twist of his fingers. Perfect. And sometimes almost cruel. Perhaps it was a good thing that Raine wasn’t there with him.

Bile in his throat, he headed for his rooms. Act normal. Perfect, effortless. Practiced ad nauseum. Should be easy. Hand clutching at the cloak. Why now?

Couldn’t he be left alone? Just be left alone to – as his aunt had angrily spat – self-destruct in the cold indifference of the Castle.

Mallow was sitting on his bed, stuck in the abomination matter, once cute downturned squiggle of their mouth melted into an almost sinister grimace. The eyes were dimmer than he remembered… or was he misremembering?

How long had it been? Could they recognize him?

He almost laughed, imagining how he would introduce himself to this palisman. Or was all this part of some particularly cruel trap? Some of the other Coven Heads might know… He turned abruptly, checked the doors and the protection spells. One, two, three, four. And again. Again.

The mauve eyes followed his compulsive writhings until Darius practically fell to his knees in front of the bed, exhausted. He felt like his whole body was trembling, and he couldn’t stop it.

The abomination… the palisman stared and stared.

“Mallow?” There was a significantly sized dent on the side of their normally round head, under all the dirt. “What happened?” To you. To him.

No response.

He released them from the abomination trap. They sprang up and made several wobbly steps as if to escape. But they seemed sluggish, perhaps disoriented. Perhaps they were tired. Perhaps they have been hiding in the walls for too long…

Darius dimmed the lights in the room. The palisman sat down and blinked.

“Better? Now, come here. No need for this attitude, just let me clean you.”

Did they remember how they used to play? Darius’s hands were shaking, and there was an uncomfortable heaviness inside his head, so the little abomination he summoned turned out all wonky. Mallow didn’t react, just stared, but they allowed him to clean them up, and when Darius finally collapsed on the bed, they didn’t run away.

Perhaps they knew what happened to Virgil? He couldn’t bring himself to ask. And how would they even communicate? If only he had paid more attention to Virgil’s talk about the palismen… Was this why Virgil has been so insistent on introducing them?

What did Virgil want? Someone to keep his secret? A co-conspirator in a rebellion?

Mallow shook their head and tried to pat the dent with their stubby hands. Why an abomination?

Perhaps there could be a use for them...

Before Darius fell into an uneasy sleep or a half-dazed stupor, full of echoes of the familiar voices, Nissa’s purring, and Mallow’s eerie staring eyes, he thought: This can be a start of a working partnership.

----

3. The Change.

The new arrangement was strange, but he had wanted Mallow’s help – spying, sneaking, seeing what he couldn’t see. And so they would do it again, even if every memory was painful.

Everything was so different now. Distant. “Run,” the voices whispered. “You can be with us, safe.”

Something compelled Mallow to stay. Maybe the curiosity and readiness for novelty – that desire that had awoken them and gave them their form. But that special love, that longing for a family – that’s what was missing ever since he was gone.

Empty.

“No,” the strongest of the voices insisted, “I’ll give you a home if you come to my Forest. You can’t have that in the Castle anymore.”

Fear and pain and memories, again and again in circles.

Mallow stayed.

Darius said they had an arrangement. That Mallow could still help. At first Mallow didn’t believe him, but then they began to understand what Darius wanted to do. Darius – hollow and cold, frozen by the same moment that had taken him from Mallow. This wasn’t a true bond, oh no. But even Mallow could see that their goal was the same…

-

Fear, pain. Again. Just wanted to help. Almost caught. Almost…

Blindly running. Blindly falling, down and down... then a crack. Hurt. Blinded. Knew the hidden Castle passages so well, yet now down here, can’t see.

Something essential seeping away.

Mallow ran and ran. Hurt, more than before. Why? In the past: his voice ordering them to hide. In the present they ran, and then they stumbled along. No way to escape the blinding hurt…

“Mallow? What happened? Did you deliver my…” Darius rose from the table, eyes round.

Mallow keened in pain. Save me, help me!

What would he think? He’d never begged.

Now Mallow was being undone, and he wasn’t there with them.

Mallow, cracked and seeping green like all their broken brethren who screamed in terror in the Beating Heart Room.

Darius, stooping to pick them up.

Darius, frowning.

“Head hurts,” Mallow moaned, but Darius couldn’t understand them.

Darius, pacing, voice strange, “I can’t trust anyone… Eda, perhaps? No, no. No time.”

Then Darius’s face was set. “Can you… go to your staff form or whatever it’s called?” Impatient.

Mallow raised what remained of their head to look at him… It was so long ago… the old routes called… They could do it. The shell hardened, the consciousness dimmed, but the voices grew louder, soothing them.

Voices, far away and nearby. Even the stooped motionless one from the Castle.

“Just as I thought, that dent was a weak spot…” Then there was scraping, and cursing under the breath, and angry muttering.

Mallow, surrounded by the voices, dreamed of the moment they were given their form. But this was different, artificial – no connection, no calling… Their head hurt less.

“Now, I’ll try something.” Something cool and alien, covering their head, almost soothing, slipping through the wood, merging with it.

“Mallow? Can you hear me? You can, ugh, transform back?”

They sprang back, animated. The pain was almost gone, and Mallow blinked at the suddenly bright room with their one remaining eye. The fracture – where the dent used to be – it felt covered and mended. Artificial… They reached up with their hands, but their arms were too short…

“What are you doing? Ah, fine, look here.” Darius, holding up a mirror.

Mallow squeaked. The abomination cap blended perfectly, reinforcing the wood.

“I did what I could to close the wound. I tried working with the wood, as much as I dared, but there just wasn’t enough, so I reinforced it with abomination.” Darius sighed. “This was too close to a forbidden magic blend,” he muttered. He looked tired and weak, and there was a cruelly sharp vertical crease between his eyebrows.

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t have any spare palistrom wood, so I had to improvise. It should be flexible enough, and it won’t decay – a special formula used for… What?”

Something didn’t look right.

Mallow gestured and gestured. Darius pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed dramatically and shook his head. “I don’t understand… and don’t run around just yet!”

They climbed onto his drawing table and pointed at one of his sketches.

“What? Oh. Oh, really?” Darius looked surprised. Like he couldn’t believe them. “Well, I suppose it could help you to blend in, in a pinch... hide in plain sight and all that, yes? Hmm, and it might help you see.”

He scratched his chin, then drew a spell circle, expanding the abomination on the top of Mallow’s head. An eye opened, and the eye was green.

Changing, changing... shouldn’t be like this. What would he think?

“You all right?” Darius asked. Mallow crooned, admiring their new hair in the mirror. Their own eye – now also green. “Is it a yes?” Darius sighed again. “You surprise me, palisman.”

Mallow had discovered that they liked surprising Darius – he was different then, less cold. Almost like before, with him. They liked the little pals Darius made for them too. They weren’t like Mallow and their brethren, but instead gooey and hollow, yet the way Darius treated them was almost like they were special and dear to him.

“You know,” Darius muttered, setting them down on the sofa beside the table, “my old vice-principal back at school had a palisman that helped him see…”

Mallow settled down, listening.

[numericalbridge]

Title: Untitled (dariraine au 0)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 2471

Main characters: Hunter, Terra

Other characters (minor roles): Bump, Eber, Flora, Hettie

Summary:

Hunter gets entangled in Terra's plot. (technically part of my dariraine AU)

----

Hurry! Hurry! You can do it! Hunter almost ran down the corridor. He knew he could be there on time! Uncle had promised that he could attend the meeting if he finished all his other duties first. All the Coven Heads and other high-ranking officials and scouts were supposed to be there to discuss the preparations for the Day of Unity, and Hunter had a few ideas about the security measures – and Uncle had said that he would allow Hunter to bring them up in front of everyone. If only he would get there on time!

Post the scouts at the edges of the Outer Area, make a schedule and rotate them so everybody can see a little part of the ceremony… He almost ran into Adrian Graye, who shouldered him in retaliation before briskly walking away.

Was… was the meeting already over?

Vitimir scurried past him.

Hunter was afraid he would be late, but not this late!

Osran glided by, entranced by his Crystal Ball.

The Coven Heads are already leaving...

Hunter made sure to give Alador Blight a wide berth – he still wasn’t certain whether Amity had told her father anything about their altercation at the Eclipse Lake. Hunter didn’t tell Uncle about her involvement, but could he trust the Blight girl to do the same? Yet the Abomination Coven Head didn’t seem to even notice him, completely absorbed by his scroll. They do say his relationship with his family is distant at best… still, Hunter had to be careful.

The other Coven Heads were catching up.

Terra nearly bumped into him, then stopped and gave him a strange, interested look that made him move faster.

Maybe Uncle was still in the Throne Room? Maybe he would listen to Hunter’s ideas?

Much more slowly Mason and Scooter Crane walked on, arm in arm, whispering to each other. Mason was clearly adjusting his pace to old Crane’s painfully slow gait.

In front of the Throne Room doors Hettie Cutburn was giving orders to some scouts. No one paid Hunter any attention.

Is Uncle still inside? Hunter walked into the Throne Room, but only Eberwolf was there, sitting on the table, shuffling through some papers.

“Eberwolf? Is the meeting already over?” Obviously it’s over! He nearly slapped himself in frustration. Stupid! “I mean, why is it over so early?”

Eberwolf yelped ambiguously, yawned, and started scratching themselves behind the ear with their foot.

“When did the Emperor leave?” Hunter tried again.

“Ah, there you are,” a melodic voice interrupted him. Flora!

“What are you doing here?” Hunter demanded. She wasn’t even part of the Day of Unity preparations!

“I was looking for the Beast Keeper,” Flora replied curtly.

“I want to see those new ratworms,” she addressed Eberwolf, who happily jumped down from the table. “And I have no time for children,” she muttered under her breath.

Hunter heard her! He clenched his fists. He was the Golden Guard! He outranked everyone in the room! And Flora wasn’t even a real official or anything.

“Let us not linger,” Flora turned to leave.

Eberwolf trotted out of the room, their face unreadable. This was unfair! Disrespectful! Seething with righteous anger Hunter followed them out.

“I need those worms ready and fit by the time of the expedition,” Flora was saying. The scouts gave her curious looks. Only Hettie didn’t even turn her head – instead the Healing Coven Head continued talking to her subordinates, and her voice grew louder and louder. Flora paused and smirked.

Eberwolf growled something. “Ah? Really?” Flora raised an eyebrow. “Mating season? Well,” for some reason she looked in Hettie’s direction, “I’m sure even the worms have better courtship manners than some.” She winked.

Hettie furiously turned around to face her.

Flora said something else, but Hunter didn’t quite catch it because Eberwolf started to make motions like they were chocking or about to barf out a hairball, while Hettie’s face went completely red, and she stomped off, scowling, not even listening to the scouts who trailed behind her.

“Just as I thought,” Flora laughed, playing with her whip. Eberwolf stopped barfing and sat up, flicking their ears. They chittered.

“Come, Beastie, we have work to do,” Flora said, and, before Hunter could demand an explanation, the duo walked away.

Hunter blinked. “But why… Hettie…” he muttered. He had never seen her like that before. “What just happened?”

“Oh, Dandelion, don’t worry your innocent mind about it,” Terra said right over his ear. Terra! How did she manage to sneak up on him? “This is too much for a fragile young brain,” she cackled.

“I… did the meeting start early? I wanted to propose some plans for the Day of Unity,” he said, failing to stop his mouth from running.

“Oh, yes,” Terra grinned, then frowned. “Did you think it was supposed to start later? Perhaps Kikimora has forgotten to send you a message with the correct time? I swear, she can be so forgetful sometimes,” Terra widened her grin. “Especially when it comes to you, Dandelion.”

Kikimora? Hunter wouldn’t put it past her to mislead him on purpose! “Yes, maybe that’s what happened,” he agreed. Damn that demon!

Terra inched closer. Hunter took a step back. Why did he have to run his mouth around her? They were alone now, and he wasn’t sure whether she was still seeking test subjects for her ‘venomous plant program’.

Terra creeped even closer. “So, what were you saying, Golden Guard? You wanted to show off your ideas?” She pointed at the papers in his arms.

Hunter nodded and took another step back. Now he just wanted to go back to his room and complain to Flapjack.

“You want to be helpful?”

Hunter nodded again, already regretting it.

“Well then, maybe you could help me?” Terra made a face that was probably supposed to be amiable. Hunter simply felt creeped out.

“Eeh, of course?” He remembered himself. “Of course, Head Witch Snapdragon.” He squared his shoulders. “I will be glad to assist you.”

Terra smiled serenely. “How wonderful. Thank you, dear.”

He didn’t have time to reply. A blink of an eye, and vines sprouted out of the floor, surrounding them. A heartbeat, and they were in Terra’s Greenhouse.

“Ah, now we can talk. How nice to be able to breathe again,” Terra inhaled deeply, savouring the rich, earthy smell of her Greenhouse.

“Aah,” Hunter barely had time to dodge a striking whipsaw plant that had lunged at him, rattling in its flowerpot.

Terra hummed to herself, busy checking the leaves on a huge tree-like plant with a hazard symbol on its pot. Hunter struggled with the whipsaw. It hissed and snapped at him. Hunter was grateful for his gloves.

Terra summoned a pair of secateurs. “Oh, what were we talking about?” She started trimming the tree. Hunter finally managed to free himself from the angry plant.

“Ah, yes! You see, Dandelion, I’ve been thinking about the Day of Unity. Oh, what a glorious day! But,” she sighed, “this marvelous future seems really hollow if you don’t have anyone to share it with.” She sighed again. “Perhaps Mason’s prattling about his family got to me, but he has his sprigs, and Osran and that old coot Crane have their grandchildren. Even the Blight has a family, though they can’t stand him. And the others have apprentices…”

Terra snipped off an offshoot from a spiky plant.

“So maybe I need an heir, some budding talent to share the royal future with… Someone skilled and loyal to a fault…”

An heir? “Eh…” Hunter tugged at his collar. “It’s not like I’m not honored, Head Witch, but my Uncle… I mean the Emperor… he says he has plans and I have to help him…”

“Of course I don’t mean you!” Terra snapped. The spiky plant lunged itself after its offshoot that was frantically crawling away. “Obviously.”

“Oh, obviously you don’t!” Phew, Hunter very nearly said. “So, do you have someone in mind then?”

Terra instantly calmed down. “Of course I have someone in mind.” She motioned with her head for him to follow her towards a desk with a surprisingly new version of the Crystal Ball on top of it.

“Hettie had set up this thing for me,” Terra muttered. She summoned a can of repellent. “So it’s probably bugged.”

She sprayed the Ball. Various bugs and worms crawled out from all around it and were promptly gobbled up by the hungry plants.

“Now we can look. My heir needs to be sufficiently powerful but trustworthy…”

Hunter wasn’t sure he really believed that she wanted an heir out of sentimental values. According to the Castle’s rumour mill, ever since she was badly injured during the Incident nineteen years ago, Terra had been gradually losing her health and her magical abilities – something you couldn’t afford to lose when you were one of the Coven Heads. So Hunter decided that the logical conclusion was that she needed a skilled apprentice to help her protect herself. Someone who could be enticed with the promise of the bright royal future as her heir, but who would be loyal enough not backstab her to get the position sooner. That someone would be hard to find.

“And here she is,” Terra turned on the video. A girl in glasses was talking passionately to a crowd.

“From the Owl Lady's petrification ceremony?”

Terra nodded her head. “Willow Park, a student in Hexside.” She pulled out a document folder. “I’ve been keeping an eye on her ever since.”

She dropped the folder into Hunter’s hands. He dutifully flipped through it. Wow, Terra seemed really thorough with her research! Only…

“But, Head Witch, she seems like a real troublemaker, hanging out with…” He remembered his own encounter with Luz… with the human… no, this was different…

“Yes, yes,” Terra shook her head sadly. “Hanging out, as you youngsters say, with that human and the Owl Lady… very, very regretful. What a waste of talent! Tragic really… but perhaps she isn’t a lost cause. She is young enough to be fixable…”

Terra sighed sadly. At this moment she seemed genuine for the first time since Hunter had known her. “Oh, to find someone talented and malleable and loyal… I knew a promising young sprout like this Willow once. Also a bit of a troublemaker, but seemed to grow out of it… only to turn out to be a traitor.”

She frowned and looked down at her arms, and Hunter noticed pale old scars with something darker, almost purplish, embedded under them.

“But perhaps that happened because I have left them alone. If I get to the Park girl before it’s too late, maybe it will be different. But I need to know whether she is worth the risk. Is the flower poisoned to the roots, or can it be saved with the right approach?”

The spiky plant finally caught up with its offshoot and devoured it in a single gulp.

“And,” Terra looked back up at Hunter, grinning again, “That’s where you come in.”

----

“Your grandson, Head Witch Snapdragon?” the principal of the Hexside school raised his head from the application form. The creature on his head twitched its tail in irritation. “I didn’t know you had grandchildren.”

Hunter smiled as wide as he could manage. He was sweating in the uncomfortable crapaud-wool jacket that Terra had forced on him, and the pomade in his hair made his scalp itch. He was 75-85% sure that she had dressed him up like a much younger child, but he didn’t protest. At least he was being useful? Uncle usually seemed to appreciate Terra’s help.

“Yes,” Terra crooned happily. “My dear little… ugh…”

“Caleb,” Hunter reminded her. He wondered how Flapjack was doing. Embarrassingly, Hunter was already missing that bird.

“Yes, my dear Caleb,” she smiled like the most sinisterly proud grandmother on the Isles and kicked Hunter under the desk. “I’ve had the poor child homeschooled on the grounds of his fragile disposition and because schools these days are just fertile grounds for bad influences… Still, we decided to give it a try. But of course,” she narrowed her eyes at the principal. “We first have to see whether your school is worthy of teaching my grandson.”

“Is that so?” the principal looked skeptical.

Hunter really needed to scratch his head. Would be nice to have a head creature to scratch your head for you...

“Just let him walk around for a couple of days and see for himself if this is the right place,” Terra continued. “Obviously, St. Epiderm and Glandus are more prestigious, but I decided to give this…” she pursed her lips and looked around the room, “place a chance, since we go way back.” She smiled sweetly.

The principal knitted his fingers and hummed under his breath. He looked even more skeptical now.

“Of course, there are huge benefits to having my grandson in your school… Oh? What is this?” She dropped something on the desk. “A little donation to help you fix up your auditorium. And of course,” her grin widened, “there are huge downsides of not allowing him in.”

The principal handed the check back to her. “Keep it, Head Witch. I know I can’t stop your… plan. If your grandson likes the school we can enroll him, but he’ll need to pass the entrance exam.”

An exam? Like the scout trial?

“All right then,” Terra got up. Hunter followed. Did he need to say something to the principal? Terra took him by the elbow and half-dragged him towards the door. He only said a single word during the whole ordeal.

“That went well,” Terra decided. “Now, Dandelion, remember your mission?”

“Yes, Head Witch,” Hunter straightened up. “Find the Park girl. Befriend her. Find out whether she is suitable to be your heir.”

“Right, right… Look!” Terra dragged him to the window. There was the girl! And her friend… Gus? And another girl Hunter recognized from Terra’s folder. Good thing that according to the files the human and the Blight should be away training with Lilith Clawthorne.

“Now,” Terra squinted at him. “You, Golden Guard, you do know what normal teenagers your age are like, right? Dandelion?”

“Ah, yes, of course!” This shouldn’t be difficult. “They… they like… schedules? Discipline?” he trailed off. “Sports?”

“No!” Terra slammed her fist on her palm. “Teenagers this age don’t like ‘discipline’.” The leaves on her head rustled menacingly. “Power! Raw ambition! That’s what they are all about. Who gets on the top of the school food chain, no matter by what means! Remember: they are ruthless creatures and would tolerate no weakness!”

Hunter nodded. He wondered what Terra was like in high school.

“You understand?”

“Yes, Head Witch.”

Terra looked out of the window and smiled.

“Oh, I know this will go great.”

[numericalbridge]

Title: Mallow (part 2/3)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 3414 (Full fic - 9340)

Main characters: Darius, that one little abomination (Mallow)

Other characters: Eber, Raine, Luz, various palismen; in the first part - the previous Golden Guard (Virgil)

Summary:

An AU where the little abomination was the previous Golden Guard's palisman

[part 1] - x - [part 3] - [full story]

4. Introductions.

“What is this? Who is this?” Eberwolf chirped and pointed at Mallow’s hiding spot.

“Nothing, it’s just…”

“I can smell them!” Eberwolf sniffed the air, intentionally loud. Darius cringed. Disgusting.

“It’s just an abomination of mine. Useful for certain types of covert work.”

“Nah, I can smell the difference. The old wood, hiding under the goo. Smart.” Eberwolf grinned, pleased with herself.

Darius considered her. They were tentative allies for now, and he thought he could trust her… for the most part. “Trust no one in the Castle,” Virgil would’ve said. Open up to no one. And trusting her with Mallow especially…

“Come out, little one,” Eberwolf barked. Then she whistled. Loud.

“What’s this accursed sound?” Darius scrunched up his nose. The damned demon was capable of making noises that would awaken the Titan himself!

“Palismen love the whistling,” Eberwolf chittered. “Oh, Hell-o!”

Mallow emerged, blinking sluggishly in the light of the room, and slowly toddled towards Eberwolf, evaluating her with their perpetually serious green eye. Then they looked at Darius.

“Mallow, this is Eberwolf the Huntsman. She is my ally.”

Eberwolf yelped happily. Mallow considered her in silence. They were thoughtful just like that.

“And this is Mallow...”

“Hi, hi, hi! Nice to meet you,” Eberwolf greeted in a sing-song... growl… and offered them her paw.

Mallow blinked, nodded to Darius, and retreated back to their hiding spot.

Eberwolf stared, crestfallen. Perhaps even a little hurt. Her ears flicked.

Darius snorted, “Oh, they are not like one of your obedient beasts. Mallow doesn’t trust just anybody.” He considered his nails. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”

Eberwolf turned her head away. Her ears twitched and lowered in embarrassment. Or shame. Ah.

Ugh, perhaps Darius was far too generous for his own good: “Don’t worry too much about it. They clearly accepted you in their own way.”

Eberwolf gave him the side-eye.

“They don’t really have much experience working with others. So if you want to work together with them, you should be considerate and… Wha...” She was climbing onto his shoulder. She was climbing his cape.

“Stop this immediately!” he spat.

“I just want to hear you better,” she sang innocently.

“No! Behave yourself, you’re acting like some... feral mutt!”

Eberwolf growled into his ear.

“Get down!” He tried to shake her off. “What a nerve!”

She was doing it on purpose! Moreover, he spotted Mallow’s green eye following them with an almost amused expression. Traitor.

----

Something is changing again. Mallow doesn’t know whether they like the change. Before, Mallow and Darius were the same: disconnected from everyone, but united in their strange alliance. Now there are others. Darius is talking more, in a weirdly animated way, and Mallow doesn’t understand what this change in him will bring. In the past, when he was alive, Darius didn’t pay Mallow much attention. He called them ‘cute’, but they weren’t his ally.

Now Darius has new allies.

----

“Foxglove, no! Stop it!”

The fox was clawing at the wall of Virgil’s old Latissa hideout. Titan-damn, Raine and their palisman.

“Rein in your fox!”

“He’s just curious about something,” Raine replied lazily, zero apology in their voice.

“It’s because of Mallow,” Eber offered from the bunk bed where she was lounging and sharpening her claws on a whetstone.

“Mallow?” Raine raised their head and adjusted their glasses, curious.

“Yes, I suppose I should introduce you now,” Darius decided. “Since you’ll be working with them. Just control your uncouth beast.”

Raine clicked their tongue. Foxglove trotted up to them and circled their legs excitedly.

Darius knocked on the secret panel, and it slid aside. Mallow stepped onto his palm.

“Mallow. Raine Whispers.”

Mallow squinted at Raine, then looked up at Darius, questioning.

“What? Yes, this is the Raine I’ve told you about,” Darius admitted in a low voice. Can’t let Raine hear.

“A palisman?” Raine leaned forward to have a good look at them, Foxglove yapping from the floor. “I didn’t know you had one.”

“Well, I don’t,” Darius replied. “Mallow’s not mine.” He set them down on the big table in the center of the room.

Mallow warbled. Foxglove yelped something at Raine that made them look at Mallow even more intently. “Oh?”

Mallow cooed. Eber was staring too. Darius’s ears twitched. Were they all onto something he didn’t know?

“We are working together. I’ll use Mallow to send you and your associates – students or whatever – messages. In the Castle too. You understand?”

Mallow waved at Raine. Eber groaned – still bitter about Mallow’s standoffish attitude towards her.

Raine either wasn’t convinced of Mallow’s abilities or they didn’t get what ‘the palisman is not mine’ meant. Their eyes glinted mischievously. “Why do they have your… em… hair, then?” they asked.

Darius groaned.

“Because,” Raine continued, “I remember you’d thought that Alador’s miserable rat was, I quote, ‘cringe’?”

Darius sighed. Checked his gloves for dust. This meant ‘don’t ask me any more stupid questions, don’t give me a headache’. “Stop being silly, Raine. The hair… that was to make them blend in with my other abominations.”

Mallow warbled again, fast.

“Ah, yes,” Raine grinned, “because all your other abominations having the same hairstyle as you is absolutely not…”

Foxglove yapped and growled.

Raine blinked. “Oh? Emergency operation? Ah, really? He saved you?” Raine addressed Mallow this time, but Darius noticed the quick look they gave him. What was that? Surprise? Of course it was…

“That was very sweet of him,” Raine grinned wider.

Eber jumped from her bunk bed and hopped up to the table. “What? What happened? Because Eber wasn’t told the full story,” she demanded.

Darius paid her no mind. Raine… “How do… how would you know what happened to Mallow?”

Raine reached down and scratched their palisman behind his ears. “Foxglove told me. They have very deep connections of their own, you know? The palismen.”

Darius looked at Foxglove. Then at Mallow, propped up royally on the table, their eye glimmering mysteriously. Darius often wondered, perhaps a little obsessively, what were they thinking about. What do they know?

And now even Raine, who was willing to let him and Eber die just a few weeks ago, could understand them? Raine would have happily destroyed Virgil’s legacy as if it is nothing.

“Wait, how do you communicate with them?” Raine suddenly asked.

“I… we just sort of guess?” Darius squirmed under their stare. No, he couldn’t be bitter over a palisman that wasn’t even his. No way. “They can sign a little, and they can point at writing or pictures to communicate with me. We have a perfectly fine, well-thought-out system,” he assured them.

Mallow nodded sagely.

But this wasn’t a real bond, Darius guessed, looking at Raine and their fox. Was it disappointing for Mallow? Painful? It wasn’t even like the connection Eber had with her beasts.

“Ugh, time to go back,” Raine sighed heavily, checking their scroll. “But I’m looking forward to seeing you again, Mallow.” They winked at the palisman.

Mallow waved at them and then at Foxglove.

Eber copied Raine, but Mallow ignored her as usual. It was a sort of a game between the two... or so Darius hoped.

He translocated Raine and Eber back to their places. Then he finally was able to sink into the bed, groaning.

“Praise the Titan, now I can rest,” he grumbled to Mallow. “But, oh, that bard and their Foxglove…” Of course they had been hiding their palisman successfully, didn’t have to give him up. Just like a real hero.

A tug on his cape. “What?”

Mallow signed: “There is another.”

“This again?” Darius had assumed Mallow meant Foxglove, but now it seemed that they thought there was a different hidden palisman in the Castle, and for some reason it made them nervous.

“Are you sure?”

Mallow nodded, agitated. A bird, very old. A boy.

Darius put his chin on his hands, thinking: the youngest scouts and staff… that one weird guy Steve – it seemed like he wasn’t a complete doormat…

Mallow was very persistent and kinda upset about the palisman, but the limited communication between them just wasn’t enough.

Darius felt another headache coming on. “Well, maybe you can explain all this to Raine’s palisman, and then he will tell them, and then, finally, they will inform me.”

He wasn’t showing his bitterness, right?

“What? Don’t give me that look. I saw it! And don’t pull so hard on the cape, thank you very much!”

Mallow glared at him, then crossed their arms and turned away. Pouting. Or just thinking about something. How could Darius tell?

This was Darius’s closest ally in the Castle for years! Yet, Darius realized, even they were as distant from him as everybody else. What could they be thinking about? He couldn’t even guess.

A palisman, not his own. A rebellion where he was playing a villain. When he was little, he had a bond even with his damn rust-toothed cat. Now?

This was probably concerning. Disturbing even.

Was this what the look Raine gave him after he introduced Mallow was really about? Of course, Raine had had the luxury of staying away from the Castle for so long. They still were able to get bothered and to worry about their secrets from Eda and all that nonsense. Acting like a nice person. Teasing him, like they weren’t looking down on him for all these years.

Eber claimed they were ‘buddies’… Yet just how well did they know each other, really? Darius was always annoyed, and his particularities clashed with hers. How long would she tolerate him once the rebellion is over?

Does any of this matter? The rebellion and the Day of Unity were the only things that mattered. Virgil would’ve thought so too. Looking up to a witch who is long gone.

And what kinds of relationships and bonds did Virgil, ever so secretive, have in his life? Darius wondered, tickling Mallow with an abomination tendril, the way they usually liked. But they were still pouting.

Only the Day of Unity mattered right now. Don’t waver, don’t doubt, don’t get distracted.

Finally Mallow shuddered and tried to push the abomination away, cooing with what – for them – was laughter.

----

There is another palisman in the Castle. He is old and independent in a way that almost scares Mallow. He calls for them just like the others, but there is something else. The loss. It frightens them – the connection so unwanted, yet so familiar.

But it’s all right. Mallow doesn’t want to talk or bond or chirp. They are all right. The others – their brethren in the forests, the bird in the Castle – lose someone, and they find new connections. But Mallow has their job to do.

The Big Day is near, and Darius seems busier, more haunted. Mallow has their own duties – spying, watching, conveying. Always one step away from the Monster of the Heart Room. So it’s all right, even if the promised big changes scare them so much that sometimes they almost forget his wish.

----

Darius was surprised to find the human child in the kitchen in the middle of the night. His aunts surely would have made a great fuss and send her to bed immediately, but, honestly, he had no energy to argue with yet another teenager.

“Are you supposed to be awake at this hour?” he asked just out of obligation. “Any responsible adult would greatly object to you staying up this late. And you will probably fall asleep during the day,” he added.

The girl raised her head. She looked very young and very tired. That little outburst of hers over Eda must have been exhausting. Darius couldn’t imagine how she managed to find the energy to get all aww-y over Raine and some stupid team name… Perhaps Raine does actually possess some kind of teacher’s intuition.

Darius put his hand under his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Although I suppose Eda isn’t one to reinforce the curfew,” he noted. Has Eda actually managed to become some kind of responsible adult? he wondered.

“Oh, I just wanted to sit with…” the girl gestured at the egg-shaped palisman carving on her lap. “I’ll stay just a little longer, if it’s all right?”

Yes, there was a stark difference, Darius decided, between her chirpy, bouncy attitude from before and this more subdued, almost depressed demeanor.

“Hmm, so this is your palisman?” he asked.

“Well, yeah,” she perked up. “They haven’t hatched yet. I decided to give them a chance to decide themselves what to be, right?”

“An interesting choice,” Darius conceded. All he wanted was a cup of char tree tea to drive away the headache. Just two more days… Two more days, and then... it’s over?

“And I wanted to ask,” the human raised her hand like she was in school. “Ah, is this, like, your super secret cool spy hideout or…?” She looked around, as if distracted by a completely different thought. “Because there are all these cool weapons around, and King will, maybe, want to play with them when he isn’t so tired…”

Darius tensed. “No, those aren’t mine.” Should he really explain this? “And I’m just using the place. It used to be Virgil’s… my late mentor’s apartment. He liked to collect old weapons.”

Or he was preparing to arm himself and others in an insurrection against the throne. And was Darius really going to blabber on about his dead mentor and the good old days to this human child? Right now, just before the Day of Unity, when he needed concentration and all the rest he could get?

But the girl sat up like she was waiting for a story. What would be the point? At least when Terra recounted her youthful adventures during the Coven Head meetings, there was always some sort of bloodthirsty moral to it.

Don’t get too attached, it will hurt you and twist you into something you won’t like. Here, the moral.

“But those weapons are certainly not toys,” he forced himself to say instead. He hoped this marked an end to the conversation. He turned to rummage in the cupboard.

“So, was your teacher a rebel too?” The girl certainly didn’t get the hint.

Was he? A rebel? Darius didn’t know. He certainly imagined Virgil as a rebel, but that was just a guess poisoned with sentimentality. Mechanically, Darius pulled a cup from the cupboard. A mournful green eye stared up at him. Mallow! How did they get in there? Were they listening? Did they understand?

“Oh, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Did I ask the wrong thing?” the girl practically leapt out of her seat, fumbling with her palisman carving.

Mallow. The girl. Whatever. He could do whatever Raine could do.

Darius slowly turned the cup upside down, and Mallow fell out.

“Don’t apologize. It’s not a big deal. Please, stop apologizing! He’s gone, and that was a long, long time ago. I don’t know where his true loyalties lay, or what his real motivations were.” Mallow might know. Maybe even other palismen. Darius nearly laughed out loud at the thought, but stopped himself. Ah, yes, do what Raine would do.

“This is Mallow, by the way. His palisman.” He stepped aside so that she could see. “This is Luz the Human, the Owl Lady’s ward... And her future palisman, I suppose.”

“They are sooo adorable!” Luz made a gesture as if to pinch Mallow’s face. “Who is the adorable squishy?”

Mallow cooed, mildly offended.

“Aww, do you work for the rebellion too?”

Mallow nodded solemnly.

“Well, they have a talent for, as you would call it, spy work,” Darius explained. He was glad that the talk about Virgil was seemingly over, yet a part of him, he realized with disgust, yearned to reminisce more. This wasn’t the girl’s problem, though. Judging by her reaction to Eda’s capture, she knew all about loss. How strange, to picture Eda in Virgil’s place. It would have been unsettling to imagine someone in his own role. Trapped by one’s own mind.

“But they are not your palisman now?” Luz asked suddenly, frowning in her sad way. “You don’t have a palisman?”

“No, as I’ve said…” What was on her mind? Her thoughts seemed to move from one thing to another very fast, and he couldn’t follow. And why was this reminding him of that old conversation? Should he talk about his cat now?

“A-ah! I know! Have you heard – I suppose you should’ve, being a Coven Head and all – we have a program at Hexside now, adopting out the palismen who had lost their witches or demons,” she jumped up again, excited. “Sooo?”

“So?” He supposed when everything would be over Mallow might want to find someone new. It would be good for them. Darius didn’t look at them. Then, the last reminder of Virgil will be gone. But Mallow wasn’t Darius’s property. It was ridiculous and cruel to feel bitter. Yet he couldn’t look at them…

“So you can adopt Mallow as your own palisman!” Luz threw her arms wide as if already celebrating the adoption.

Darius startled, yet again strangely and vividly reminded of Virgil. But could he? He met Mallow’s eye. Their expression was as unreadable as ever.

“No.” The connection, the one Hunter had spoken about, the one between Foxglove and Raine, it just wasn’t there. “I think our situation is different.”

“Oh.” Luz’s face fell for a moment, as if this was, somehow, her fault again. “I… I see…”

Darius leaned back against the kitchen counter. “It’s not like it’s a bad thing,” he said. “We already work very well together. Right, Mallow?” They nodded and murmured.

“And…” Darius threw a deliberately exasperated look in the direction of the doorway that led to the main room, “unlike my other colleagues and co-conspirators, Mallow is well-behaved and isn’t prone to bringing in dirt from outside. They definitely have more sense than some people I know.”

Luz giggled, and Mallow muttered in agreement.

And, perhaps, it really wasn’t so bad? Was it weird? Darius supposed it was weird, to seriously ally himself with his dead mentor’s palisman... but it wasn’t bad; and with Eber and the rest of them – he supposed he should’ve given up by now on not being weird. And, if it wasn’t for Mallow he would have…Did he need that special magical bond to connect with the creature? He just wished he knew their thoughts on the matter.

“We can work with what we have…” he concluded. Would have…

“Oh, I get it, I think…” Luz said, now contemplative.

“Still, I wish this little guy would hatch soon,” she added, looking down at her palisman carving and patting it gingerly. “Is it bad? Am I impatient? Or, like, selfish? But humans don’t have palismen, so what if…” she trailed off. What if I did something wrong?

Darius shifted uncomfortably. Titan, even navigating the Coven politics was so much easier than this. “Well,” he started. “You are young, so it is natural that you are impatient…” He knew how to shut his fellow Head Witches up, how to spot a trap… but this? This?

Mallow warbled and gestured with their arms.

“What? Well, I am glad to announce that, if I understand them correctly, Mallow doesn’t seem to think that there is anything wrong with your palisman. So that’s not a problem.”

Luz raised her head. “Ah, thank you, Mallow,” she muttered awkwardly.

Darius hesitated. “And there is nothing selfish in you wanting this, I am sure anyone will tell you the same thing. Look, even adults need time to sort things out – just ask Eda!”

“Yes, I suppose,” Luz looked contemplative again, gently cradling her palisman.

“Now, child, go to bed, it’s too late,” Darius remembered that it was the middle of the night. He made a shooing motion with his hand. “I swear, if my aunts were here, they would have given you an earful.”

----

If there is a change, if there is someone who will call to them again, who will find them again… Mallow trembles at the thought. Is there a future if the Monster is still in the Castle, and his voice still calls to them and orders them to run and hide?

Yet isn’t the Castle their home? The Castle is not as terrifying as the Forest of the Voices or even Latissa where they were given form.

Yet the Castle is a trap.

Both their home and a trap.

[numericalbridge]

Title: Shards

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 2967

Characters: Darius, Odalia, Alador, the previous Golden Guard (Luca)

Summary:

My take on the friendship break-up between Darius and his friends.

*

He whirled around, his new cloak billowing in a swoosh of fabric. And in the mirror his reflection whirled around, colours bright. Neat. Darius stopped and stroked a gallant pose, just like he’d seen his grandpa do in the old Crystal Ball recordings. Almost right. But for the play he’d need to be even more dramatic.

“Like Flexor the Brave, the hero of Ulna...”

“You mean the loser who threw away his life in that one battle?”

The voice nearly made Darius jump.

“Odalia!”

She stood in the doorway of the prop room, arms crossed, looking smug. “If you ask me, it was a pity his family had to suffer because of him. What a waste of magical talent,” she sighed.

“Do you need to be such a cynic?” He wanted to show off his costume, but he doubted she would appreciate it.

“A cynic?” She put her hand over her heart. “I just payed attention during the class.”

She strolled into the room, and a moment later Alador trudged in after her. He looked kind of uneasy, Darius noticed when they did their special handshake. Odalia raised an eyebrow at the prop swords that gathered dust in the corner, “And here you are, playing pretend in this filthy room like a kid.”

“It’s called acting, Odalia,” Darius scoffed. “You can pretend to be sooo grown up and like everything is beneath you, but guess who got the lead role? I did.”

“Sure. Anyway...” she crossed her arms again, then uncrossed them. “We…” she shot a pointed look at Alador, who had wondered over to the other side of the room, “wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Really? Is this about your future wedding?” he winked at her.

“Darius, please,” she blushed deep crimson. “I swear, you’ve been so unusually childish lately! This is a serious conversation. And I mean it!”

Wow, forceful. For a moment she sounded almost like her grandmother.

Darius looked questioningly at Alador, who squirmed, but nodded and then turned away to inspect some carvings on a small worktable. Strange.

“Alright then, what’s the matter?” Darius relented. He put his hand on his hip, checked the reflection in the mirror. The pose was sufficiently graceful and unbothered. But he just wanted to try on his costume and rehearse the role, and then he wanted to play abomination battles with Alador. He barely had time for anything since his training with Luca had started! Sometimes he even had to skip his walks with grandpa. But Luca would say that avoiding a serious conversation with his friends was immature.

“This is about the Golden Guard,” Odalia's voice was terse.

“Luca?” Why would she bring him up?

“Yes, this Luca... You’re always busy training with him, talking about him, how great he is…” She rolled her eyes. Was she... jealous? So weird. “You even missed my Oracle Convention,” she continued.

“And you never have time for our abomination battles anymore!” Alador chimed in. He created a small shaggy-looking abomination and made it run circles on the table.

“I… Well, OK, I’m sorry,” he supposed he could see why his friends were unhappy, even if he always warned them that he would be busy. It isn’t Luca’s fault, though. “I won’t miss your Convention next time, I swear! And I’ll find time for our battles too.” He pointed a finger and created a small crew of little guys to chase Alador’s abomination. “This whole thing with the mentorship is just a rare opportunity to see by myself how the Emperor's Coven works, Luca says. But I won’t miss another time when you need me to cheer for you…”

“Yeah, there might not be another time,” Odalia interrupted him.

What? That came out of nowhere… Is she… Darius’s stomach dropped.

“Are you, like, fatally ill?!” he blurted out. This can’t be real!

“What? No!” she sputtered. “Of course not!” Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tease me like this, Deamonne,” she sounded like her grandmother again. “I am thinking about what is best for you here, even if it’s unpleasant to hear.”

“Alright, alright, sorry!” I really thought… his ears burned. “I’m glad you’re OK.” The embarrassment was going to eat him alive.

“And you know what is not good for you? That Golden Guard!” She caught Alador, who was clearly trying to sneak out of the room, by the elbow. “Everyone knows it!”

What?

“My aunt mentioned it too,” Alador whispered.

“What are you two talking about?” Darius clenched his fists. They were surely annoying him on purpose! “Stop being so vague and just explain!”

“We are telling you! My parents, my uncles, Alador’s family – they all say that the Golden Guard has fallen out of the Emperor’s favour, and everyone with connections to the Castle knows it. They say he has angered the Emperor, and his position within the Covens is extremely perilous.”

Was that true? She wouldn’t lie like that, of course, but did Luca know? He promised to show me his favourite fishing spot, he looked happy… Darius’s hand gripped the hem of his cloak. Did he miss the signs of his mentor’s troubles? Just like that, so caught up in the excitement and the novelty of the mentorship...

“If, if it’s true, then we need to warn him!”

“Oh, I bet he knows,” Odalia suddenly leaned in and touched him on the shoulder. “He displeases the Emperor constantly, so he probably doesn’t care, thinks he is irreplaceable. Or... or maybe he believes he is stronger than the Emperor. Won’t surprise me if he thinks himself invincible, that brute...”

“Don’t call him that!” Darius swatted her hand away. How dare she? She liked to tease and was at times judgmental, but not like this! He looked over at Alador for help. His best friend since preschool. Alador was staring at the abominations, mouth downturned like he was solving a difficult equation.

“Luca is smart, and he cares,” Darius insisted. “And all you do is repeat some stupid gossip!”

Odalia groaned. “Listen! This is serious. When he falls, he’ll take you down with him.”

Darius shook his head. Luca would have a plan... Would he? He insists he is a humble soldier, not a politician… Darius’s hand found the side of his cloak again. The fabric was rough to the touch.

“And, maybe it’s just a gossip for now, and maybe he does care,” Odalia shrugged. So confident, even smug. But her speech was getting faster. “Or maybe he won’t hesitate to throw some high schooler under the falling blimp! He is the Emperor's Coven personified, they say, and everyone in the Emperor's Coven is cut-throat.”

“You don’t know him!” Why can’t she just leave him be?

“Well, even if not, he is a danger – to you, and your future career, even to your family’s prosperity! Do you understand, Darius?” she grabbed his shoulders again. “You have to cut your ties with him, until it’s too late!” She shook him. The nerve!

“Ah, stop this, just stop!” He freed himself from her grasp. “He’s my mentor, I can’t just abandon him!”

“And I am your friend!” Her voice became shrill, “Please, I don’t want to… My father was talking about you too.” Her mouth trembled, “You’ve changed, Darius. First you endanger yourself with that transformation-into-abomination nonsense... and I bet your Luca encourages it! It’s like you’re self-destructive or something. Even my parents noticed. So stop all this nonsense, right now! Please, I don’t want to…”

Darius twisted the fabric of his – prop, fake – cloak. “You don’t want to do what, Odalia?” he whispered.

“Well,” she blinked like she was going to cry, “well, my parents say you can’t help someone who won’t help themselves. Soon they will start talking about forbidding me to hang out with you!” she stomped her foot for emphasis. “And I don’t want to…”

Twisting and twisting. This feels so weird.

“But will you?” His temples were pulsing with sudden pain. “Will you just stop being friends with me if they order you?” What was this sinking feeling he was experiencing? “Like I’m nothing to you? Eh?”

“I am your friend,” she insisted. She pointed at Alador, who still stood with his head down, “We are friends! But do you want to drag us into your mess? All because of him?”

“Answer me!” The abominations jumped up and liquefied. Alador flinched.

“If you insist on endangering our future and the success of our families, then perhaps I will.” She jutted her chin out. “If you don’t care about us anyway!”

No crying.

His lips curled into an unpleasant grimace, “You do look just like your dear old grandmother right now.”

She sputtered like an angry cat. Ha, didn’t expect that!

“How dare… well, you know,” she collected herself, “at least she cares about her family’s legacy. You just want to throw it aaall away, like one of those ‘heroes’ from your play pretends.” Odalia shook her head. “But I don’t know what I expected. You were always weird, treating your abominations like pets and clinging to your grandfather like a baby. Bet you’ll be lucky not to get petrified!”

“Well, then,” his voice broke only a little, “maybe then I’ll spare you the trouble and cut ties with you right now!”

She recoiled, shocked. Then she remembered herself.

“Fine, fine,” her smile was a tad too forced. “When you have no future, and you are broke, don’t come begging for my... for our... help,” she hissed.

Darius didn’t grace her with a response.

“Come on, Alador, he’ll regret it!” Odalia turned, and, heels clacking, stormed out of the room.

And good riddance! A wave of abomination hit the wall. Splat! Darius’s anger suddenly dissipated, and he felt exhausted. Purple goo dribbled down the mirror.

Ugh. At this rate he would need to take anti-headache potions like some elderly witch. And what will grandpa think about all of this? Everything is changing so fast... In the dirty mirror the boy drooped his shoulders.

Darius felt sad, and he was anxious about Luca too. Luca was strong and very serious, but he always cared. He wanted to help, even when Darius acted out in frustration. It would be unthinkable to betray him. Of course, Darius wouldn’t know how to explain it to Odalia. She would call me childish again. She just can’t see… More and more she was absorbing her family’s attitudes.

Well, when – if – Odalia calls him, he won’t even answer. Fine by him, if she would just do whatever her parents ordered her to do!

A movement startled him.

Alador froze, his hand near Darius’s shoulder. “Sorry. Odalia didn’t mean it about petrification, I’m sure. And she doesn’t really want to stop being friends with you.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Darius twisted the fabric of the cloak. Fake, just so fake... “But you know that she will, if they tell her.”

Alador looked at him reproachfully. “Still, you shouldn’t have, ugh, insulted her either. Comparing her to old Mrs Blight was too much.”

“Then she shouldn’t act like that.”

“Why are the two of you always so difficult,” Alador muttered under his breath.

“She’s acting like her family put an earwig spell into her brain or something,” Darius summoned a handkerchief to wipe the mirror. “She will stand by them whether they are right or not, and they can’t be right about Luca! You should talk to her later – you are closer, maybe you can talk some sense into her…”

“My family talks about the Golden Guard too.”

Just stop.

Alador sounded like he was reading the news on the Crystal Ball, “Being close to him has the potential to be dangerous.”

“Oh, come on, Al! You were with us during the trip to the Knee. You actually know him. I can’t betray him!”

“I... well... Still, I think maybe Odalia is right. And he isn’t the only way to get those Coven connections...” Alador wasn’t looking in his direction. “I don’t want to stop being friends with either of you.”

“What?” Darius felt like his throat was constricting. Like he couldn’t breathe. Friends since they were six. “Not everything is about your Titan-damned connections...”

He didn’t even shout, but Alador took a step back. Coward.

“You… is this whole mentorship thing really so important to you? If you won’t stop... being like this, Odalia will be angry with me too! And my parents might also see this situation as a problem. They’ll stop liking you! Maybe you’re right about the Golden Guard, but it’s not like he is your family or anything!”

Why does this feel so heavy? Why is everything happening so quickly?

Alador lifted up his hands, as if to plead with him, “Ah, I’m not explaining it right... All this is so much trouble!”

“And you can’t be bothered, right?” Darius wondered. “Too much distraction from your precious studies...”

“Come on, Darius! You should just make up with Odalia and stop the mentorship thing, at least until it’s safe again! Then everything will be just like before,” Alador bobbed his head up and down, like it was so simple.

“What a smart plan,” Darius sneered. The abomination matter around the room was bubbling, and his temples were throbbing.

“Yes!” It was Alador’s turn to stomp his foot. “I just don’t like trouble between my best friends! It’s simple!”

“You don’t even have your own opinion on Luca and whether he is dangerous,” Darius shook his head. Heavy. He still wasn’t crying. “You just want to stay in your little safe bubble like a coward... No trouble for Alador! And I know you won’t break up with Odalia if she cuts ties with me. Admit it! If I were in Luca’s place you would’ve already abandoned me… You are worse than her!”

The abomination matter boiled up and erupted into whirling columns all around the room, scattering the props around. The mirror cracked.

“Please, why are you so mad…”

Why? Well, Odalia was a heartless bitch poisoned by her family, and Alador was a spineless hack with no opinions of his own! Why should he care about them?

Darius darted towards the exit, and when Alador tried to grab him, shoved him away.

“Don’t touch me ever again!” Darius spat. More like sobbed.

“Fine then! Run! Odalia is right about you and your... theatrics!” Alador tried to shove him back. No matter. Darius ran.

He wanted to go back and punch Alador, but he wasn’t crying. He wasn’t acting immaturely! They wanted him to just abandon Luca… It hurt.

He ran out of the school building, tore the – stupid, childish, fake – cloak off and threw it to the ground.

It hurts.

*

Luca found him an hour later at the back of the school grounds, hunched down under the char tree, head in hands. The Golden Guard watched in silence, until Darius reluctantly raised his head.

“Bad day?”

Darius sighed. He didn’t feel so angry anymore. Odalia’s betrayal didn’t seem real now, yet – unlike their previous spats – he couldn’t imagine simply making up with her next day. And Alador… oh, that Alador... Darius’s head still hurt.

“It’s nothing… just my stupid so-called friends,” he muttered.

Luca sat down beside him. “Alador and Odalia?”

Darius nodded, “She can be so stubborn and forceful, but he… he just follows her around, always choosing what will trouble him less so he can quickly return to his abominations. I don’t know... we were friends for so long, but it’s like we are from different worlds…” Like they were always ready to throw me away.

“Then, do you want to try and reach out to other kids? Find new friends?” there was an uncertainty in Luca’s voice.

Darius couldn’t help but snort, “I don’t think it’s that simple. Sorry.”

As if those other kids won’t be the same.

“Oh, was it bad advice?” Luca wondered. “I am not very familiar with, um...”

“Teenager drama?” Darius rolled his eyes. “I know, I know it’s stupid...”

They wanted him to betray Luca…

But was Luca really in danger? And what does it mean? Would he simply be dismissed from his Guard position, and then they’d still be able to train together? “Or he just won’t care about you anymore,” Odalia’s voice offered smugly. Darius dismissed it. He wanted to question Luca, but he didn’t dare – Luca always evaded any talk about his relationship with the Emperor and the Emperor's Coven. He isn't your peer like Al and Odalia.

“Darius?”

Ah, yes, friends...

“I don’t know,” he said bitterly. “We had fights before, but now it seemed deeper, somehow. I just don’t know…”

Luca reached out and hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder, “And it’s scary?”

“I.. guess,” Darius admitted. They made me feel small and useless...

Luca patted him on a shoulder in an almost gentle manner. “It’s alright. You don’t have to find the answer immediately. Talk to your grandfather, he can probably give you better advice,” Luca smiled ruefully. “I’m sure you’ll figure it out. And whether you want to mend your friendship with them or not, I’ll support you.”

“Thanks,” Darius replied weakly. Luca was really trying.

He always cares.

“I’ll stand by you too, no matter what! I swear!”

“Oh,” Luca barked a laugh. “I appreciate the sentiment, but it is my job to keep you safe, you know. Not the other way around.”

Darius blinked. Luca was in a rare sentimental mood. Or you look that terrible. But it sounded nice. Safe.

“It’s getting late,” Luca got up to his feet. “You should go home before your grandfather gets worried. I'll move our training to another day.”

Darius was tired. He hesitated. "Can you walk with me to the town?" I just don't want to be alone.

Luca nodded. "Of course," his voice was almost soft.

Safe.

[numericalbridge]

TOH WIP 1

Rating: G

Excerpt word count: 402 

Characters: Darius, Eberwolf, that one little abomination (Mallow)

Excerpt from the wip. This is an AU where that one abomination that delivered messages to Raine is the previous Golden Guard’s palisman.

*

“What is this? Who is this?” Eberwolf chirped and pointed at Mallow’s hiding spot.

“Nothing, it’s just…”

“I can smell them!” Eberwolf sniffed the air, intentionally loud. Darius cringed. Disgusting.

“It’s just an abomination of mine. Useful for certain types of covert work.”

“Nah, I can smell the difference. The old wood, hiding under the goo. Smart.” Eberwolf grinned, pleased with herself.

Darius considered her. They were tentative allies for now, and Darius thought he could trust her… for the most part. “Trust no one in the Castle”, Virgil would’ve said. And trusting her with Mallow especially…

“Come out, little one,” Eberwolf barked. Then she whistled. Loud.

“What’s this accursed sound?” Darius scrunched up his nose. The damned demon was able to make noises that would awaken the Titan himself.

“Palismen love the whistling,” Eberwolf chittered. “Oh, Hell-o!”

Mallow emerged, blinking sluggishly in the light of the room, and slowly toddled towards Eberwolf, evaluating her with their perpetually serious green eye. Then they looked at Darius.

“Mallow, this is Eberwolf the Huntsman. She is my ally.”

Eberwolf yelped happily. Mallow considered her in silence. They were thoughtful just like that.

“And this is Mallow...”

“Hi, hi, hi! Nice to meet you,” Eberwolf greeted in a sing-song... growl... and offered them her paw.

Mallow blinked, nodded to Darius and retreated back to their hiding spot.

Eberwolf stared, crestfallen. Perhaps even a little hurt. Her ears flicked.

Darius snorted, “Oh, they are not like one of your obedient beasts. Mallow doesn’t trust just anybody.” He considered his nails. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”

Eberwolf turned her head away. Her ears twitched and lowered in embarrassment. Or shame. Ah.

Ugh, perhaps Darius was far too generous for his own good: “Don’t worry too much about it. They clearly accepted you in their own way.”

Eberwolf gave him the side-eye.

“They don’t really have much experience working with others. So if you want to work together with them, you should be considerate and… Wha...” She was climbing onto his shoulder. She was climbing his cape.

“Stop this, immediately!” he spat.

“I just want to hear you better,” she sang innocently.

“No! Behave yourself, you’re acting like some... feral mutt!”

Eberwolf growled into his ear.

“Get down!” He tried to shake her off. “What a nerve!”

She was doing it on purpose! Moreover – he spotted Mallow’s green eye following them with an almost amused expression. Traitor.

[numericalbridge]

Title: Allium (Mallow AU bonus)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 1044

Main characters: Mallow (that one little messenger abomination), Allium (Jerbo's plant abomination from season 1)

Other characters: Darius, Eberwolf, Jerbo, Viney

Summary:

Mallow meets Jerbo's plant abomination.

(This is a joke bonus for Mallow fic, but this is not actually 'canon' within the AU. In the main fic Mallow - who is the previous Golden Guard's palisman - had been acting rather standoffish towards Eberwolf, until Eber decided to ignore their antics. But in this fic Eber tries a different approach.)

-

“Ugh, there’s too many people here,” Darius grumbled, looking about. The first post-Belos Convention of Magic seemed to be a great success. The large building was filled with witches and demons of all ages.

“Eber!” Darius called out. “What are you doing over there?”

He made his way through the crowd towards a small booth at the very end of the ‘Convention Avenue B’. Mallow clung to his shoulder. The crowd was way too big for their comfort, and the lights were too bright. At least it was darker in the corner, where Eberwolf was occupying the booth. She was sitting on top of the counter, facing away from them.

“Eber?” Darius asked again. He too, Mallow knew, was starting to get frustrated with the bustling crowd of the Convention. Thankfully, there were only a few guests around this particular booth.

“Oh,” Eber growled, “I’m just playing with baby Allium.” She turned around and put something… someone… on the counter.

Mallow leaned out to take a better look. The creature was similar to Darius’s little pals but bigger, and their body seemed to be made out of soil! They had big eyes, and a white flower was growing out of their head. Mallow warbled curiously.

“And what is this?” Darius drawled. Mallow could tell he was intrigued, but they doubted he would appreciate the soil-structure of the strange pal.

“As I’ve said,” Eber barked, “this is baby Allium. She is Jerbo's abomination. He created her by combining abomination and plant magic. She is so smart!”

‘Baby Allium’ gurgled, and one of Eber’s beetles escaped from her mouth. She tried to catch it, without success. Eber hugged her to herself.

“Isn’t she the cutest?” Eber looked right at Mallow.

The cutest? Mallow glared.

“So smart and friendly!”

Allium flapped her arms up and down as if agreeing with Eber. Boorish.

“Who is the cutest abomination? Who is my friendliest abomination friend?” Eber purred. She continued to look straight at Mallow. Mallow continued to glare.

“Hmm,” Darius said.

Eber grinned. But what did Eber know about abominations? Darius would never like this plant-abomination creature! He would never even touch someone made out of dirt. What was so particularly cute about this Allium anyway? The insipid flower?

With an absent-minded smile Darius transformed his arm and then covered it with an additional layer of abomination. He reached out and lightly poked Allium’s belly. She blinked owlishly and tried to grab his hand.

“Abomination, can you talk?” Darius asked in his commanding, professional voice, but Mallow knew he was secretly delighted because he found the creature cute.

Mallow scowled at Allium. Just an oversized version of Darius’s little pals, really... Except she was no pal of Mallow.

“Oh, yeah, she can’t really talk.” A tall, lanky teenager – Jerbo – emerged from somewhere behind the booth. “Or doesn’t want to talk,” he scratched his head.

Allium freed herself from Eber’s paws and waved at him.

“She is quite different from the state-approved abominations,” Jerbo hastily added for some reason.

“So, you’ve created her?” Darius asked. “Quite impressive.” His eyes drifted back to Allium, “Abomination, can you walk, please?”

Allium got to her stupid stubby feet and toddled on.

Eber chittered, “So cute!”

“Yes, very good,” Darius nodded approvingly.

Mallow wrung their arms. They couldn’t understand – what was so special about this? Any little abomination pal could toddle! And Mallow even wore their glasses today! Did Dell Clawthorne invent special glasses just for Allium? No! Mallow wished Raine and Foxglove were there. Raine would not have let Darius get away with this. In the back of Mallow’s mind the voices of their siblings were laughing, but they chose to ignore the mockery.

“I think your skills are remarkable,” Darius finally addressed Jerbo who straightened up and grinned proudly. “And you were thinking out of the box too. I wonder… she seems very aware of her surroundings?”

“Yes, she can even count… I think,” Jerbo replied, blushing at the compliments.

“Remarkable,” Darius repeated himself. “I think even my old college professors would’ve been impressed.”

“Thank you, it’s an hono… I mean, I am against the old system of education because it was limiting creativity of students and oppressive and... Anyway, what some old authority figure might say means nothing to me!”

“And still you can’t help but preen like a proper teacher’s pet,” Viney – she was one of Hunter’s friends – said from behind Jerbo, startling him.

“Not true...”

“Sellout!” she noted brightly.

They playfully argued with each other.

“Allium, here!” Eber called, opening her arms.

The abomination started to toddle back to her but then looked up and noticed Mallow for the first time.

Their eyes met.

Allium stopped in her tracks and opened her mouth. Then she raised her arms as if trying to grab Mallow. Ha! Mallow had the high ground.

Mallow checked – Darius and now Eber, too, were distracted by Jerbo’s and Viney’s antics. Allium was pointing at Mallow and trying to warble. Is this also meant to be cute? Mallow opened their own mouth and showed her their fang.

Allium’s eyes widened, and she fell backward, landing on her behind. Now, this was funny.

“Okay, okay, let’s stop,” Jerbo was pleading.

“Nah,” Viney laughed. Then she suddenly frowned. “Is Allium... crying?”

“Hmm?” Jerbo blinked. “Strange. What happened?”

Allium was rocking back and forth while silently opening and closing her mouth. Her eyes were half-shut. The flower on her head swayed pitifully.

Well, now Mallow was feeling kinda bad.

Eber chirped sadly at Allium.

“I don’t understand... What could’ve caused this?” Jerbo wondered.

“Yes,” Darius turned his head to look at Mallow. “I wonder what could’ve caused this?” Mallow warbled in protest. The voices whispered disapprovingly.

“No, don’t cry,” Eber pleaded. “Do you want to play with a beetle?”

Mallow sighed, almost like a witch would do. Then they climbed down Darius’s arm and cautiously approached Allium. They considered her – this novel abomination. Then they pulled out one of the beads that decorated their glasses and offered it to her.

Allium stared at it for a long moment and then grabbed it. She marveled at her new toy, turning it over and over. At least she stopped crying. Then she reached into her flower, pulled out a squirming beetle and offered that to Mallow.

“Aww, look,” Viney exclaimed, “they are friends!”

Friends? Mallow eyed the beetle uneasily. Great.

[numericalbridge]

Title: Head Witch (team red stories 1)

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G (brief mentions of a foreign object stuck in a wound)

Word count: 2217

Main character: Eberwolf

Other characters: Darius, Terra, the previous Construction Coven Head (Galatea Vault), Belos. Mentions of other Coven Heads.

Summary:

Head Witch Eberwolf and the very beginning of their friendship with Darius.

----

The meeting room is a chaos of sounds and smells. The scents all mingle together, separate into individual threads. Poisoned soil and creeping vegetation – Terra. Sweat and drying mortar – Galatea Vault. Medicine, nowadays mostly medicine, from Scooter Crane. Abomination mixtures covered by the lavender cosmetics Darius Deamonne smothers himself with. And then something else, something unknown and confusing coming from the direction of the Emperor’s masked figure. Almost like mud, but not quite like it. Almost like an old graveyard that was flooded.

Eber turns their head slightly to one side, trying to puzzle it out. What can it be? He has to fight himself from opening his mouth... He keeps his face neutral. This is the only way.

The scout-commander (heavy odor of armor grease and acne ointments) is droning on and on about expenses and plans for drill exercises – it’s all very simple, and there was no need to call for this meeting. The other Coven Heads look bored too. Eber wants to go back to the Winged Piglets’ Borrow and check whether Rosie’s wound is healing well, but instead they have to sit and stay put and listen… That smell is always present during the meetings. Not like a sickness of a wound, more like…

“Very well. I think that’s enough for today. Thank you, Captain,” the Emperor says. There is a mocking playfulness in his voice, as usual. But the Captain kneels down, and the Coven Heads stand up and bow, and Eber does the same. Now he can run back to the Borrow!

“Forgive me for my interruption, My Emperor,” Terra suddenly says. Osran oofs quietly. The Emperor gestures for Terra to continue, and she smiles triumphantly. “I have something to show you – Thorny Snaps, now fully grown and ready to destroy the Empire’s enemies.” She snaps her fingers, and the plant monsters slither out of the floor. The smell of the greenhouse and wicked potions. The other Coven Heads mutter, and the Emperor nods his masked head. The Thorny Snaps hiss. Sap runs down their flowering heads like thick saliva.

Eber nods their own head up and down, trying to catch the plants’ attention. Not like Eber’s beasts, but similar. Can they understand Eber? Terra can’t understand. Does she treat you wrong? The plants open and close their salivating maws; the thorns on their thick stalks glint like fire-bees’ stingers.

“Impressive,” the Emperor muses. Dry. Sarcastic? Eber can never understand this tone.

“A demonstration, my Liege?” Terra asks hopefully. The mask inclines. Terra grins and summons something onto the big table.

Squeaking. Small. Alone. Stinging stench of terror.

The plants lunge. Eber jumps.

He snatches the squealing baby ratworm out of the snapping mouths, lands on the opposite side of the table and snarls, showing off all their mismatched teeth: ‘Stay back!’ The plants recoil. Eber covers the baby protectively with one arm: Safe. Be quite.

The plant monsters snap their mouths and seethe but don’t attack. All the Coven Heads are watching. Adrian Graye laughs.

“What is this?” Terra’s eyes narrow. “Do you think this is the time for one of your daimonic little pranks?” She makes a step forward, raising her hand to draw a spell circle.

“Terra, please,” Galatea Vault’s voice cuts in. “Should we fight over this?”

Eber subdues the low growl rising in his throat.

“Look at them – like a rabid beast!” Terra hisses.

“Hmm,” the Emperor drums his fingers on his staff to draw their attention. “Head Witch Eberwolf, explain yourself.”

Eber forces themselves to turn and speak simplified, clear beast-speak. “This isn’t a fair fight. They would’ve just eaten the baby.”

“This is nature,” Terra interrupts, mocking them. “You’d think a Head of the Beastkeeping Coven would know about food chains.”

“This not nature,” Eber wants to say. “This is a Castle’s meeting room. No herd to call for help, no soil to burrow into to escape. These are not natural predators.”

Terra won’t care.

“Grown plants against a little ratworm. Not a very impressive demonstration of their hunting prowess,” Eber growls slowly so Terra can follow. “Maybe someone is unsure of their abilities.”

Terra’s face reddens. “Oh, I am quite sure.”

“Do you have a better subject for the demonstration, Head Witch?” the Emperor inquires.

“Fight Eberwolf then, not the baby,” they bark before they can begin to doubt their decision... or think it through.

Terra’s face twists. The other Coven Heads whisper among themselves. Galatea Vault puts one of her hands to her chest. Someone giggles.

The plants coil around Terra. The thorns seem to elongate and curve. “Oh, are you really sure, Head Witch?" Terra crows. “There are four of them. You can understand numbers, right?”

“Terra, Eber, you don’t need to…” Galatea tries to interfere. “Terra, we can all see that they are quite impressive...”

“Fight Eber,” Eberwolf repeats.

“No, maybe…” Galatea tries again.

“Gladly, you little…”

“Ugh, should we really be doing this?” Darius Deamonne’s voice interrupts her. From the corner of their eye Eber can see that he is looking into one of those new ‘scroll’ things. “Some of us have work to do,” Darius reminds them. “And – what’s equally important – a manicure appointment,” he adds.

“Yes, yes, that’s right,” Galatea hastily agrees. “We can’t just waste our Emperor’s precious time with something so insignificant.”

“No,” the Emperor waves his hand. “I think this might become a good lesson for all of us. Proceed.”

“Of course, My Emperor,” Terra bows.

Eber hides the baby worm in their mane.

“Someone definitely needs to be taught a lesson,” Terra says brightly. Her plants coil up like springs.

“Agreed,” Eber growls.

The smallest, quickest Snap strikes. Eber jumps up. Lands on top of the biggest plant. Toothy mouths snap at them, and they snap their own teeth in retaliation. Avoid the thorns. Dodge another strike. Eber’s claws are raking. Smell of sap is flooding his nares. Now, jump down. Eber almost slips on the polished, shiny floor. Another strike, another jump… a sudden blow throws him onto the table. Galatea gasps. Eber rolls, springs back onto all fours. The baby squeaks. Eber pants, waiting for the plants’ next move. Vitimir whispers something to Hettie about a wager. Darius Deamonne is watching intently.

“Has the demon had enough?” Terra coos sweetly.

Eber lunges right at her, but at the last moment dodges to the side, and Terra’s spell hits the biggest plant. A pity. Eber jumps up in between the coiling stalks. Right-left, quick as an angry tarasque. The plants twine and twist, chasing after him. The Coven Heads are watching. They all think Eber is weak. Eber is stupid. Left-right. The plants coil around each other. Stupid beast. The plants get tangled up with each other. Bite each other. And when they start biting, they can’t stop. Terra’s fault. Made Eber feel small and stupid. Now just push…

The room reeks of blood thrill and sap. Eber stands on top of the squirming, oozing plant pile, panting heavily from exhaustion. Their whiskers twitch from stress. The baby is wiggling unhappily in his mane. And the Coven Heads are staring.

“You…” Terra is raising her hand again. There is something really unsettling about her.

“Well,” Darius Deamonne says, snapping shut his scroll, “looks like you’ve lost, Terra. Are we finally done?”

Scooter Crane nods his head, “I am tired of this.”

“It was a fair fight,” Galatea reminds Terra, who is still fuming.

“Seems that Head Witch Eberwolf has won,” the Emperor says. “Although I would advise him to refrain from such drastic actions in the future.”

Eber feels the blue eyes fixing on them, evaluating them. Appraising the Coven Heads and judging our strength. Always. Vibrissae above Eber’s wrists are so tensed up it almost hurts.

The Emperor turns his head to look at Terra. His voice lowers to a softer, more companionable tone, “But I am impressed by the dexterity and… fervour of the plants. If only they were less bite-y towards each other… I’d like to see them reinforcing the defenses of the Castle. Your work pleases the Titan, Terra.”

She bows, proclaiming her gratitude, and happily teleports the feebly writhing Snaps away. There goes the opportunity to befriend them.

“Now. Dismissed.” The Emperor disappears in a flash of the reddish magic. The aftertaste of that smell lingers.

Still panting, Eber jumps down from the table – they need to take a look at the baby as soon as possible. Ah! Something… hurts? Eber’s arm is hurt? He raises his left arm – a patch of fur and skin is torn out. Eber yelps in frustration, but doesn’t lick the wound. They’ve had worse.

The other Coven Heads are filing out of the room. Most of them have already thrown Eber and the fight out of their minds. Terra stops beside Eber. He tries to ignore her and walk past, but she nearly trips him up.

“Our Emperor is too merciful. And to think he is even excusing the disgusting behavior you’ve exhibited in his presence!” she rumbles. “But if I were you, I’d be very careful. You never know...”

“That’s enough, Terra,” Galatea’s bulky figure steps in between them. “Have you not been young and reckless once? Head Witch Eberwolf has won. The fight was fair.”

Terra scoffs but doesn’t argue and just marches away. Finally! Now it’s just Eber, Galatea and Darius Deamonne who still linger in the room.

“Are you hurt?” Galatea asks Eber. “Oh, dear! I can send one of the healers who help at our Construction sites to take a look.”

“No, it’s nothing,” Eber chirps. Eber is tired. And this is not different from any other injury he gets in his line of work. Eber must be strong. And anyway, Galatea has her own, more important duties to attend to.

“Are you sure?”

Eber just huffs. He is not a fragile whelp. Head Witch Deamonne has paused at the door and is giving them an amused look. And the fur on Eber’s back is still raised from the tension of the fight.

Galatea sighs. “Just take care of your wound, please,” she says before walking away.

Eber trudges to their room – their first real room, just for themselves and inside a real building!

First thing first – they plop the baby on the round table by the bed (tingling smell of polish, of their own, proper furniture). The baby is a grey morph with round, protruding red eyes. About 4 weeks old but small and dehydrated. Eber summons a kit for orphaned ratworms, makes a temporary nest and prepares the formula. The baby takes the bottle well. Need to keep for a week, then introduce to the herd, Eber growls to it while it feeds. The ratworm, Gobler, blinks sleepily.

But Eber’s arm still hurts. Bad. Eber squints their eyes. They need to take care of this. He puts Gobler into the nest and looks for medical supplies – he has plenty in his room, but everything he has is for the beasts… Nah, these should do. The wound is wide but pretty shallow. Eber has had worse.

Only there is a small thorn caught in the wound; it pierces right through the meat. Eber pulls on it. It’s stuck. Eber doesn’t like tending to their own injuries. The thorn pulses with something greenish. Poison? Eber pulls again. Yelps. Then tries pincers. Tries their teeth. This won’t just heal on its own. Gobler blinks at them slowly and softly squeals. The more Eber pulls, the more it hurts. Why can’t they pull it out?! Eber whines. Imagines the poisonous odor of an infected wound. Cut it all out?

Something shifts.

The purple surrounds the thorn, and Eber feels a tiny pull, then another shift.

Eber squawks. Gobler hisses. The thorn falls onto the table. Eber stares at the thorn, then at their wound. It is bleeding slightly, but it is free of foreign objects.

“Ah, so it works,” Darius Deamonne says from the door. Eber yelps. How did they miss his arrival? Must have been the poison. “I’ve always wanted to try my teleportation spell on very small objects,” Darius shows the size with his hands. “Thanks for being the test subject... I guess,” Darius smirks and leans against the doorpost.

Eber looks at their arm, then at Darius again. Why?

“Well… Oh, also – here,” Darius draws a spell circle, and a small box appears on Eber’s table. Carved on the lid is the sigil of the Healing Coven. Gobler bobs its head up and down.

“A reward for today’s entertainment,” Darius explains. “Since I suspect you only have medicine for your beasts.” His eyes linger on the ratworm who is trying to nuzzle the box with its nose. “Titan, that thing is ugly,” Darius adds, but Eber can almost see a smile starting to form in the corner of his mouth.

Eber tilts his head to one side. Curious. But they are not so foolish as to be fully trusting. “Thank you,” they chirp a little ambiguously, leaving their tone open to interpretation. Since Darius seems to know the beast-speak quite well.

“Whatever,” Darius turns to leave. “But, please, learn that in the Castle forgetting to close the doors can be quite dangerous,” he mutters as a goodbye.

Eber pets Gobler and stares after Darius, thinking.

[numericalbridge]

Fic masterpost

Wounded Hearts - An AU confrontation between possessed Raine and Darius, and the aftermath. Written before the finale.

Mallow - An AU where that one little abomination was the previous Golden Guard’s palisman.

[part 1] - [part 2] - [part 3] - [full story]

wip excerpt - Mallow meets Eberwolf.

Allium - a joke bonus fic, not actually 'canon' within the AU: Mallow meets Jerbo's plant abomination.

Shards - My take on the friendship break-up between Darius and Odalia and Alador.

Caught in the Grip - Darius is ill. Raine can handle it.

At the Precipice (The Rot AU) - On the Isles plagued with the Rot 14-year old Darius and his father encounter an unusual visitor. AU.

Untitled (dariraine au 0) - Hunter gets entangled in Terra’s plot. Technically part of my dariraine AU, but there is no dariraine in this fic.

Untitled previous Golden Guard fic

wip

Untitled Ficlet - a ficlet based on this AU (team RED enters Belos's mindscape, but everything goes wrong)

Team RED stories:

Head Witch - Head Witch Eberwolf and the very beginning of their friendship with Darius.

+

wip tag - wip excerpts and cut scenes/outtakes

OCs reference + fan names for Eber's ratworms

[numericalbridge]

Title: Mallow

Fandom: The Owl House

Rating: G

Word count: 9340

Main characters: Darius, that one little abomination (Mallow)

Other characters: the previous Golden Guard (Virgil), Eber, Raine, Luz, various palismen

Summary:

An AU where the little abomination was the previous Golden Guard's palisman

If you prefer to read it in smaller parts:

[part 1] - [part 2] - [part 3]

----

Darkness and the deep connections of the old nerves. Whispers. All of them. Fewer of them. Hands, molding. Then – a shape. The desire: a childhood that never was, days on a beach under the sky that is blue; new places to explore, new magic blends – out of the box, out of the confines; new magic shaped to move; wild curiosity, but anchored by deep, sentimental connections.

Two bright mauve eyes opening, the form unfolding from the wood.

The voice, rendered childlike with wonder: “Wow, you are so unique! Our eyes are almost the same!”

Mallow. The name was Mallow.

----

1. Mallow.

“Aren’t they cute?” There was a hint of an amused smile in the corner of Virgil’s mouth.

Darius stared at the round abomination-shaped creature on his mentor’s palm. They stared back at him with curious eyes. Their colour resembled Virgil’s.

Darius sighed. He was no fool and could see the real pride hiding behind the nonchalant amusement on his mentor’s face. Still…

“Isn’t it forbidden?” Forbidden means dangerous. Surely Virgil understood how risky this was. Nothing is safe.

“Well,” Virgil’s face darkened, “I know you can keep a secret. What’s done is done.”

He shoved the creature at Darius, and Darius took them. They walked up his arm, balancing like an acrobat and murmuring softly. They did look kinda cute, but Darius felt a little bitter that this was an abomination – his domain. And he didn’t talk to you when he decided to create them. Are you already falling behind?

“An abomination but made of wood?” Darius wondered aloud. He sat the palisman down on the only table in Virgil’s Latissa apartment, then created a small abomination of his own – made to resemble Mallow, but with bright green eyes. Mallow gasped and toddled towards it, babbling. They seemed enthralled. Darius snickered.

“I knew you’d like them!” Virgil laughed and roughly shook Darius by the shoulders – an almost brotherly gesture that meant he was extremely happy with himself. Yet he didn’t tell you how he got the palistrom wood.

“Ugh, it’s interesting,” Darius freed himself and adjusted his clothing. Great, now his scarf was all askew. “But why an abomination?”

Virgil shrugged. “You know that I find the magic fascinating. And…” he stared at the two abominations – the palisman and the real one – circling each other on the table, “and it felt like it would mean… But you are evading! Admit that you like cute things!”

“Oh, please!” Now, who was evading? Darius shook his head. He understood that the palisman business was a very personal matter. And a lot of things about Virgil were a mystery. He loves experimenting with magic and discovering new, borderline forbidden uses for it, that’s true… Strange how he trusted Darius with the secret palisman, but not with his deeper concerns and troubles. Darius supposed they were similar in that regard... yet Darius had opened up to him, no matter how hard it had been. At least he will be less lonely back in that place…

“It should be nice to have company in the Castle?” Darius guessed.

“I suppose,” Virgil followed the palisman with his eyes. “Do you ever want to have a palisman of your own?”

Oh. Darius poked at the abomination he had created. That. “No.”

“No? Never?”

“Maybe when I was very young. But I had a rust-toothed cat when I was in school, and she was… she seemed better than any palisman.”

Darius remembered Raine showing off their newly carved Foxglove. That terrible rat Alador had. Nissa was smart too. Darius’s free hand played with his scarf. Perhaps palismen lasted longer than pets, than family even…

“Besides, what’s the point? The whole connection with you, the hidden desire, is sort of creepy. And they would probably outlive me.” He could still picture his great grandmother’s palisman, suffering so. “Figure out your desire, connect with something, leave it behind, alone forever… That is, if they aren’t…”

Confiscated.

The word hung between them, heavy. Virgil’s jaw tightened. Mallow stopped playing with the abomination and stared up at them, their perpetual frown frozen.

“It would just be a bother to make one, anyway,” Darius concluded with a sigh and a mildly annoyed pout.

“Hmm...” Now Virgil looked… sad? Uncomfortable? Because of all the palismen he’d been confiscating while keeping a secret one for himself? Because of what Darius thought about palismen in general?

Darius patted Virgil's palisman on their round bald head. “I think you should’ve carved them some decorations. Their head looks empty,” he graciously suggested in an attempt to change the topic.

Virgil payed him no mind. “I think Mallow is worth it,” he muttered softly.

I hope you won’t get into trouble. Virgil was changing, and it perplexed and troubled Darius, even though he was glad that his mentor’s loyalty seemed to shift towards helping the common witches and demons rather than being just the Emperor’s loyal guard. But gone was the almost boyish, at times almost cruel recklessness. Virgil was now more thoughtful, more composed. Still ruthless. And he still never talked about his personal life, at least not directly. And part of Darius was afraid to prod, to push him towards wrong decisions. And the change... how would it affect their relationship? Wondering this was selfish, but Darius knew very well that friendships didn’t last.

“Have you thought about getting a new rust-toothed cat then?” Virgil asked.

Darius’s grip on the scarf tightened. “No.” He hated the look on Virgil’s face. “I don’t have time for pets.” He doubted that some random cat would be as smart as Nissa.

“Hmm…”

“Anyway, I have to go. I have a report to give at the Coven meeting this evening,” he very timely remembered.

“And you’ll be the best prepared, of course.”

“Obviously.”

“Just don’t get into trouble.”

Darius allowed himself a scoff. “With whom? All those old people?”

He readjusted his scarf one more time and headed towards the exit.

“I won’t let you get hurt, I promise,” a voice whispered, so softly that Darius thought he had imagined it. Yet he turned. Virgil was talking to the little abomination in his cupped hands, and it was cooing quietly back at him.

----

Hurt. Once safe and warm, now hurt, surrounded by cold stone walls. Hiding, hunted. The voices are beckoning – far away yet welcoming. But the secret passages are now as familiar as the old nerve-routes. He had used to send them into the passages – to help, to uncover. But now he is gone. And their head feels strange. Weak. There is a dent, an injury. He had send them away. Follow the voices or stay? What was his wish?

Mallow remembers.

They stay.

----

2. Secrets in the Castle.

Shuffling.

Darius paused and listened. He was on his way back to his rooms after yet another dreary, exhausting Coven Head meeting. He was tired and he needed a bath and his skincare routine to soothe the anxiety that was eating away at him.

Desperate shuffling behind the walls.

He could imagine all the dirt and mold behind the shiny new panels, golden and cold and always damp.

The kitchen staff had complained and complained about strange noises – can’t be just a usual hamsteroach infestation, they insisted – until Terra decided to get rid of the source herself. Not out of generosity, obviously. She just wanted to sic her freshly grown plant monstrosities on something small and defenseless.

The shuffling grew closer, more desperate now. Cornered.

“It’s something the old cook used to feed,” they’d theorized. “Now that she is gone, it is grown hungry.”

Darius hesitated for a brief moment. He could just picture Raine Whispers teasing him if they were there with him. But, of course, they weren’t there. Too damn pure and principled for the Castle. For him. Spoiling Terra’s game would be good, he thought. Only, nothing felt good anymore. These last years – just a hideous blur. The only thing he felt was being tired and being cold. Was it like this for Virgil too?

Sounds of movement farther away – Terra’s thorny snaps gaining on their prey. The thing in the wall thrashed and scratched. An abomination tendril shot towards the brass vent cover and pulled it open. Easy.

Something fell out, dirty and covered in webs. Dark purple like an abomination, but its eyes the colour of a delicate flower.

“Mallow?!” For a brief terrifying moment he almost felt relief… or hope… or... Because if the palisman is alive…

Almost.

He stared at the thing. They scrambled out into the corridor and tried to escape into the vent on the opposite side. Darius caught them with the abomination tendril, and they snarled at him almost like a real animal, like no abomination would have ever done.

“They don’t like you very much,” Virgil’s voice laughed, distorted by time. Never mind. With a snap of his fingers – so easy, so effortlessly perfect – he translocated the palisman to his rooms.

How many years have passed? Were they hiding the whole time? he wondered, horrified. And the thought that if the palisman was alive, then he could be… That thought would have destroyed Darius. What does Mallow know?

The plants, hungry for their prey, reached the vent, and he dispatched them – annoying eyesores – with another twist of his fingers. Perfect. And sometimes almost cruel. Perhaps it was a good thing that Raine wasn’t there with him.

Bile in his throat, he headed for his rooms. Act normal. Perfect, effortless. Practiced ad nauseum. Should be easy. Hand clutching at the cloak. Why now?

Couldn’t he be left alone? Just be left alone to – as his aunt had angrily spat – self-destruct in the cold indifference of the Castle.

Mallow was sitting on his bed, stuck in the abomination matter, once cute downturned squiggle of their mouth melted into an almost sinister grimace. The eyes were dimmer than he remembered… or was he misremembering?

How long had it been? Could they recognize him?

He almost laughed, imagining how he would introduce himself to this palisman. Or was all this part of some particularly cruel trap? Some of the other Coven Heads might know… He turned abruptly, checked the doors and the protection spells. One, two, three, four. And again. Again.

The mauve eyes followed his compulsive writhings until Darius practically fell to his knees in front of the bed, exhausted. He felt like his whole body was trembling, and he couldn’t stop it.

The abomination… the palisman stared and stared.

“Mallow?” There was a significantly sized dent on the side of their normally round head, under all the dirt. “What happened?” To you. To him.

No response.

He released them from the abomination trap. They sprang up and made several wobbly steps as if to escape. But they seemed sluggish, perhaps disoriented. Perhaps they were tired. Perhaps they have been hiding in the walls for too long…

Darius dimmed the lights in the room. The palisman sat down and blinked.

“Better? Now, come here. No need for this attitude, just let me clean you.”

Did they remember how they used to play? Darius’s hands were shaking, and there was an uncomfortable heaviness inside his head, so the little abomination he summoned turned out all wonky. Mallow didn’t react, just stared, but they allowed him to clean them up, and when Darius finally collapsed on the bed, they didn’t run away.

Perhaps they knew what happened to Virgil? He couldn’t bring himself to ask. And how would they even communicate? If only he had paid more attention to Virgil’s talk about the palismen… Was this why Virgil has been so insistent on introducing them?

What did Virgil want? Someone to keep his secret? A co-conspirator in a rebellion?

Mallow shook their head and tried to pat the dent with their stubby hands. Why an abomination?

Perhaps there could be a use for them...

Before Darius fell into an uneasy sleep or a half-dazed stupor, full of echoes of the familiar voices, Nissa’s purring, and Mallow’s eerie staring eyes, he thought: This can be a start of a working partnership.

----

3. The Change.

The new arrangement was strange, but he had wanted Mallow’s help – spying, sneaking, seeing what he couldn’t see. And so they would do it again, even if every memory was painful.

Everything was so different now. Distant. “Run,” the voices whispered. “You can be with us, safe.”

Something compelled Mallow to stay. Maybe the curiosity and readiness for novelty – that desire that had awoken them and gave them their form. But that special love, that longing for a family – that’s what was missing ever since he was gone.

Empty.

“No,” the strongest of the voices insisted, “I’ll give you a home if you come to my Forest. You can’t have that in the Castle anymore.”

Fear and pain and memories, again and again in circles.

Mallow stayed.

Darius said they had an arrangement. That Mallow could still help. At first Mallow didn’t believe him, but then they began to understand what Darius wanted to do. Darius – hollow and cold, frozen by the same moment that had taken him from Mallow. This wasn’t a true bond, oh no. But even Mallow could see that their goal was the same…

-

Fear, pain. Again. Just wanted to help. Almost caught. Almost…

Blindly running. Blindly falling, down and down... then a crack. Hurt. Blinded. Knew the hidden Castle passages so well, yet now down here, can’t see.

Something essential seeping away.

Mallow ran and ran. Hurt, more than before. Why? In the past: his voice ordering them to hide. In the present they ran, and then they stumbled along. No way to escape the blinding hurt…

“Mallow? What happened? Did you deliver my…” Darius rose from the table, eyes round.

Mallow keened in pain. Save me, help me!

What would he think? He’d never begged.

Now Mallow was being undone, and he wasn’t there with them.

Mallow, cracked and seeping green like all their broken brethren who screamed in terror in the Beating Heart Room.

Darius, stooping to pick them up.

Darius, frowning.

“Head hurts,” Mallow moaned, but Darius couldn’t understand them.

Darius, pacing, voice strange, “I can’t trust anyone… Eda, perhaps? No, no. No time.”

Then Darius’s face was set. “Can you… go to your staff form or whatever it’s called?” Impatient.

Mallow raised what remained of their head to look at him… It was so long ago… the old routes called… They could do it. The shell hardened, the consciousness dimmed, but the voices grew louder, soothing them.

Voices, far away and nearby. Even the stooped motionless one from the Castle.

“Just as I thought, that dent was a weak spot…” Then there was scraping, and cursing under the breath, and angry muttering.

Mallow, surrounded by the voices, dreamed of the moment they were given their form. But this was different, artificial – no connection, no calling… Their head hurt less.

“Now, I’ll try something.” Something cool and alien, covering their head, almost soothing, slipping through the wood, merging with it.

“Mallow? Can you hear me? You can, ugh, transform back?”

They sprang back, animated. The pain was almost gone, and Mallow blinked at the suddenly bright room with their one remaining eye. The fracture – where the dent used to be – it felt covered and mended. Artificial… They reached up with their hands, but their arms were too short…

“What are you doing? Ah, fine, look here.” Darius, holding up a mirror.

Mallow squeaked. The abomination cap blended perfectly, reinforcing the wood.

“I did what I could to close the wound. I tried working with the wood, as much as I dared, but there just wasn’t enough, so I reinforced it with abomination.” Darius sighed. “This was too close to a forbidden magic blend,” he muttered. He looked tired and weak, and there was a cruelly sharp vertical crease between his eyebrows.

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry. I didn’t have any spare palistrom wood, so I had to improvise. It should be flexible enough, and it won’t decay – a special formula used for… What?”

Something didn’t look right.

Mallow gestured and gestured. Darius pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed dramatically and shook his head. “I don’t understand… and don’t run around just yet!”

They climbed onto his drawing table and pointed at one of his sketches.

“What? Oh. Oh, really?” Darius looked surprised. Like he couldn’t believe them. “Well, I suppose it could help you to blend in, in a pinch... hide in plain sight and all that, yes? Hmm, and it might help you see.”

He scratched his chin, then drew a spell circle, expanding the abomination on the top of Mallow’s head. An eye opened, and the eye was green.

Changing, changing... shouldn’t be like this. What would he think?

“You all right?” Darius asked. Mallow crooned, admiring their new hair in the mirror. Their own eye – now also green. “Is it a yes?” Darius sighed again. “You surprise me, palisman.”

Mallow had discovered that they liked surprising Darius – he was different then, less cold. Almost like before, with him. They liked the little pals Darius made for them too. They weren’t like Mallow and their brethren, but instead gooey and hollow, yet the way Darius treated them was almost like they were special and dear to him.

“You know,” Darius muttered, setting them down on the sofa beside the table, “my old vice-principal back at school had a palisman that helped him see…”

Mallow settled down, listening.

----

4. Introductions.

“What is this? Who is this?” Eberwolf chirped and pointed at Mallow’s hiding spot.

“Nothing, it’s just…”

“I can smell them!” Eberwolf sniffed the air, intentionally loud. Darius cringed. Disgusting.

“It’s just an abomination of mine. Useful for certain types of covert work.”

“Nah, I can smell the difference. The old wood, hiding under the goo. Smart.” Eberwolf grinned, pleased with herself.

Darius considered her. They were tentative allies for now, and he thought he could trust her… for the most part. “Trust no one in the Castle,” Virgil would’ve said. Open up to no one. And trusting her with Mallow especially…

“Come out, little one,” Eberwolf barked. Then she whistled. Loud.

“What’s this accursed sound?” Darius scrunched up his nose. The damned demon was capable of making noises that would awaken the Titan himself!

“Palismen love the whistling,” Eberwolf chittered. “Oh, Hell-o!”

Mallow emerged, blinking sluggishly in the light of the room, and slowly toddled towards Eberwolf, evaluating her with their perpetually serious green eye. Then they looked at Darius.

“Mallow, this is Eberwolf the Huntsman. She is my ally.”

Eberwolf yelped happily. Mallow considered her in silence. They were thoughtful just like that.

“And this is Mallow...”

“Hi, hi, hi! Nice to meet you,” Eberwolf greeted in a sing-song... growl… and offered them her paw.

Mallow blinked, nodded to Darius, and retreated back to their hiding spot.

Eberwolf stared, crestfallen. Perhaps even a little hurt. Her ears flicked.

Darius snorted, “Oh, they are not like one of your obedient beasts. Mallow doesn’t trust just anybody.” He considered his nails. “I’m sure it’s nothing personal.”

Eberwolf turned her head away. Her ears twitched and lowered in embarrassment. Or shame. Ah.

Ugh, perhaps Darius was far too generous for his own good: “Don’t worry too much about it. They clearly accepted you in their own way.”

Eberwolf gave him the side-eye.

“They don’t really have much experience working with others. So if you want to work together with them, you should be considerate and… Wha...” She was climbing onto his shoulder. She was climbing his cape.

“Stop this immediately!” he spat.

“I just want to hear you better,” she sang innocently.

“No! Behave yourself, you’re acting like some... feral mutt!”

Eberwolf growled into his ear.

“Get down!” He tried to shake her off. “What a nerve!”

She was doing it on purpose! Moreover, he spotted Mallow’s green eye following them with an almost amused expression. Traitor.

----

Something is changing again. Mallow doesn’t know whether they like the change. Before, Mallow and Darius were the same: disconnected from everyone, but united in their strange alliance. Now there are others. Darius is talking more, in a weirdly animated way, and Mallow doesn’t understand what this change in him will bring. In the past, when he was alive, Darius didn’t pay Mallow much attention. He called them ‘cute’, but they weren’t his ally.

Now Darius has new allies.

----

“Foxglove, no! Stop it!”

The fox was clawing at the wall of Virgil’s old Latissa hideout. Titan-damn, Raine and their palisman.

“Rein in your fox!”

“He’s just curious about something,” Raine replied lazily, zero apology in their voice.

“It’s because of Mallow,” Eber offered from the bunk bed where she was lounging and sharpening her claws on a whetstone.

“Mallow?” Raine raised their head and adjusted their glasses, curious.

“Yes, I suppose I should introduce you now,” Darius decided. “Since you’ll be working with them. Just control your uncouth beast.”

Raine clicked their tongue. Foxglove trotted up to them and circled their legs excitedly.

Darius knocked on the secret panel, and it slid aside. Mallow stepped onto his palm.

“Mallow. Raine Whispers.”

Mallow squinted at Raine, then looked up at Darius, questioning.

“What? Yes, this is the Raine I’ve told you about,” Darius admitted in a low voice. Can’t let Raine hear.

“A palisman?” Raine leaned forward to have a good look at them, Foxglove yapping from the floor. “I didn’t know you had one.”

“Well, I don’t,” Darius replied. “Mallow’s not mine.” He set them down on the big table in the center of the room.

Mallow warbled. Foxglove yelped something at Raine that made them look at Mallow even more intently. “Oh?”

Mallow cooed. Eber was staring too. Darius’s ears twitched. Were they all onto something he didn’t know?

“We are working together. I’ll use Mallow to send you and your associates – students or whatever – messages. In the Castle too. You understand?”

Mallow waved at Raine. Eber groaned – still bitter about Mallow’s standoffish attitude towards her.

Raine either wasn’t convinced of Mallow’s abilities or they didn’t get what ‘the palisman is not mine’ meant. Their eyes glinted mischievously. “Why do they have your… em… hair, then?” they asked.

Darius groaned.

“Because,” Raine continued, “I remember you’d thought that Alador’s miserable rat was, I quote, ‘cringe’?”

Darius sighed. Checked his gloves for dust. This meant ‘don’t ask me any more stupid questions, don’t give me a headache’. “Stop being silly, Raine. The hair… that was to make them blend in with my other abominations.”

Mallow warbled again, fast.

“Ah, yes,” Raine grinned, “because all your other abominations having the same hairstyle as you is absolutely not…”

Foxglove yapped and growled.

Raine blinked. “Oh? Emergency operation? Ah, really? He saved you?” Raine addressed Mallow this time, but Darius noticed the quick look they gave him. What was that? Surprise? Of course it was…

“That was very sweet of him,” Raine grinned wider.

Eber jumped from her bunk bed and hopped up to the table. “What? What happened? Because Eber wasn’t told the full story,” she demanded.

Darius paid her no mind. Raine… “How do… how would you know what happened to Mallow?”

Raine reached down and scratched their palisman behind his ears. “Foxglove told me. They have very deep connections of their own, you know? The palismen.”

Darius looked at Foxglove. Then at Mallow, propped up royally on the table, their eye glimmering mysteriously. Darius often wondered, perhaps a little obsessively, what were they thinking about. What do they know?

And now even Raine, who was willing to let him and Eber die just a few weeks ago, could understand them? Raine would have happily destroyed Virgil’s legacy as if it is nothing.

“Wait, how do you communicate with them?” Raine suddenly asked.

“I… we just sort of guess?” Darius squirmed under their stare. No, he couldn’t be bitter over a palisman that wasn’t even his. No way. “They can sign a little, and they can point at writing or pictures to communicate with me. We have a perfectly fine, well-thought-out system,” he assured them.

Mallow nodded sagely.

But this wasn’t a real bond, Darius guessed, looking at Raine and their fox. Was it disappointing for Mallow? Painful? It wasn’t even like the connection Eber had with her beasts.

“Ugh, time to go back,” Raine sighed heavily, checking their scroll. “But I’m looking forward to seeing you again, Mallow.” They winked at the palisman.

Mallow waved at them and then at Foxglove.

Eber copied Raine, but Mallow ignored her as usual. It was a sort of a game between the two... or so Darius hoped.

He translocated Raine and Eber back to their places. Then he finally was able to sink into the bed, groaning.

“Praise the Titan, now I can rest,” he grumbled to Mallow. “But, oh, that bard and their Foxglove…” Of course they had been hiding their palisman successfully, didn’t have to give him up. Just like a real hero.

A tug on his cape. “What?”

Mallow signed: “There is another.”

“This again?” Darius had assumed Mallow meant Foxglove, but now it seemed that they thought there was a different hidden palisman in the Castle, and for some reason it made them nervous.

“Are you sure?”

Mallow nodded, agitated. A bird, very old. A boy.

Darius put his chin on his hands, thinking: the youngest scouts and staff… that one weird guy Steve – it seemed like he wasn’t a complete doormat…

Mallow was very persistent and kinda upset about the palisman, but the limited communication between them just wasn’t enough.

Darius felt another headache coming on. “Well, maybe you can explain all this to Raine’s palisman, and then he will tell them, and then, finally, they will inform me.”

He wasn’t showing his bitterness, right?

“What? Don’t give me that look. I saw it! And don’t pull so hard on the cape, thank you very much!”

Mallow glared at him, then crossed their arms and turned away. Pouting. Or just thinking about something. How could Darius tell?

This was Darius’s closest ally in the Castle for years! Yet, Darius realized, even they were as distant from him as everybody else. What could they be thinking about? He couldn’t even guess.

A palisman, not his own. A rebellion where he was playing a villain. When he was little, he had a bond even with his damn rust-toothed cat. Now?

This was probably concerning. Disturbing even.

Was this what the look Raine gave him after he introduced Mallow was really about? Of course, Raine had had the luxury of staying away from the Castle for so long. They still were able to get bothered and to worry about their secrets from Eda and all that nonsense. Acting like a nice person. Teasing him, like they weren’t looking down on him for all these years.

Eber claimed they were ‘buddies’… Yet just how well did they know each other, really? Darius was always annoyed, and his particularities clashed with hers. How long would she tolerate him once the rebellion is over?

Does any of this matter? The rebellion and the Day of Unity were the only things that mattered. Virgil would’ve thought so too. Looking up to a witch who is long gone.

And what kinds of relationships and bonds did Virgil, ever so secretive, have in his life? Darius wondered, tickling Mallow with an abomination tendril, the way they usually liked. But they were still pouting.

Only the Day of Unity mattered right now. Don’t waver, don’t doubt, don’t get distracted.

Finally Mallow shuddered and tried to push the abomination away, cooing with what – for them – was laughter.

----

There is another palisman in the Castle. He is old and independent in a way that almost scares Mallow. He calls for them just like the others, but there is something else. The loss. It frightens them – the connection so unwanted, yet so familiar.

But it’s all right. Mallow doesn’t want to talk or bond or chirp. They are all right. The others – their brethren in the forests, the bird in the Castle – lose someone, and they find new connections. But Mallow has their job to do.

The Big Day is near, and Darius seems busier, more haunted. Mallow has their own duties – spying, watching, conveying. Always one step away from the Monster of the Heart Room. So it’s all right, even if the promised big changes scare them so much that sometimes they almost forget his wish.

----

Darius was surprised to find the human child in the kitchen in the middle of the night. His aunts surely would have made a great fuss and send her to bed immediately, but, honestly, he had no energy to argue with yet another teenager.

“Are you supposed to be awake at this hour?” he asked just out of obligation. “Any responsible adult would greatly object to you staying up this late. And you will probably fall asleep during the day,” he added.

The girl raised her head. She looked very young and very tired. That little outburst of hers over Eda must have been exhausting. Darius couldn’t imagine how she managed to find the energy to get all aww-y over Raine and some stupid team name… Perhaps Raine does actually possess some kind of teacher’s intuition.

Darius put his hand under his chin and narrowed his eyes. “Although I suppose Eda isn’t one to reinforce the curfew,” he noted. Has Eda actually managed to become some kind of responsible adult? he wondered.

“Oh, I just wanted to sit with…” the girl gestured at the egg-shaped palisman carving on her lap. “I’ll stay just a little longer, if it’s all right?”

Yes, there was a stark difference, Darius decided, between her chirpy, bouncy attitude from before and this more subdued, almost depressed demeanor.

“Hmm, so this is your palisman?” he asked.

“Well, yeah,” she perked up. “They haven’t hatched yet. I decided to give them a chance to decide themselves what to be, right?”

“An interesting choice,” Darius conceded. All he wanted was a cup of char tree tea to drive away the headache. Just two more days… Two more days, and then... it’s over?

“And I wanted to ask,” the human raised her hand like she was in school. “Ah, is this, like, your super secret cool spy hideout or…?” She looked around, as if distracted by a completely different thought. “Because there are all these cool weapons around, and King will, maybe, want to play with them when he isn’t so tired…”

Darius tensed. “No, those aren’t mine.” Should he really explain this? “And I’m just using the place. It used to be Virgil’s… my late mentor’s apartment. He liked to collect old weapons.”

Or he was preparing to arm himself and others in an insurrection against the throne. And was Darius really going to blabber on about his dead mentor and the good old days to this human child? Right now, just before the Day of Unity, when he needed concentration and all the rest he could get?

But the girl sat up like she was waiting for a story. What would be the point? At least when Terra recounted her youthful adventures during the Coven Head meetings, there was always some sort of bloodthirsty moral to it.

Don’t get too attached, it will hurt you and twist you into something you won’t like. Here, the moral.

“But those weapons are certainly not toys,” he forced himself to say instead. He hoped this marked an end to the conversation. He turned to rummage in the cupboard.

“So, was your teacher a rebel too?” The girl certainly didn’t get the hint.

Was he? A rebel? Darius didn’t know. He certainly imagined Virgil as a rebel, but that was just a guess poisoned with sentimentality. Mechanically, Darius pulled a cup from the cupboard. A mournful green eye stared up at him. Mallow! How did they get in there? Were they listening? Did they understand?

“Oh, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! Did I ask the wrong thing?” the girl practically leapt out of her seat, fumbling with her palisman carving.

Mallow. The girl. Whatever. He could do whatever Raine could do.

Darius slowly turned the cup upside down, and Mallow fell out.

“Don’t apologize. It’s not a big deal. Please, stop apologizing! He’s gone, and that was a long, long time ago. I don’t know where his true loyalties lay, or what his real motivations were.” Mallow might know. Maybe even other palismen. Darius nearly laughed out loud at the thought, but stopped himself. Ah, yes, do what Raine would do.

“This is Mallow, by the way. His palisman.” He stepped aside so that she could see. “This is Luz the Human, the Owl Lady’s ward... And her future palisman, I suppose.”

“They are sooo adorable!” Luz made a gesture as if to pinch Mallow’s face. “Who is the adorable squishy?”

Mallow cooed, mildly offended.

“Aww, do you work for the rebellion too?”

Mallow nodded solemnly.

“Well, they have a talent for, as you would call it, spy work,” Darius explained. He was glad that the talk about Virgil was seemingly over, yet a part of him, he realized with disgust, yearned to reminisce more. This wasn’t the girl’s problem, though. Judging by her reaction to Eda’s capture, she knew all about loss. How strange, to picture Eda in Virgil’s place. It would have been unsettling to imagine someone in his own role. Trapped by one’s own mind.

“But they are not your palisman now?” Luz asked suddenly, frowning in her sad way. “You don’t have a palisman?”

“No, as I’ve said…” What was on her mind? Her thoughts seemed to move from one thing to another very fast, and he couldn’t follow. And why was this reminding him of that old conversation? Should he talk about his cat now?

“A-ah! I know! Have you heard – I suppose you should’ve, being a Coven Head and all – we have a program at Hexside now, adopting out the palismen who had lost their witches or demons,” she jumped up again, excited. “Sooo?”

“So?” He supposed when everything would be over Mallow might want to find someone new. It would be good for them. Darius didn’t look at them. Then, the last reminder of Virgil will be gone. But Mallow wasn’t Darius’s property. It was ridiculous and cruel to feel bitter. Yet he couldn’t look at them…

“So you can adopt Mallow as your own palisman!” Luz threw her arms wide as if already celebrating the adoption.

Darius startled, yet again strangely and vividly reminded of Virgil. But could he? He met Mallow’s eye. Their expression was as unreadable as ever.

“No.” The connection, the one Hunter had spoken about, the one between Foxglove and Raine, it just wasn’t there. “I think our situation is different.”

“Oh.” Luz’s face fell for a moment, as if this was, somehow, her fault again. “I… I see…”

Darius leaned back against the kitchen counter. “It’s not like it’s a bad thing,” he said. “We already work very well together. Right, Mallow?” They nodded and murmured.

“And…” Darius threw a deliberately exasperated look in the direction of the doorway that led to the main room, “unlike my other colleagues and co-conspirators, Mallow is well-behaved and isn’t prone to bringing in dirt from outside. They definitely have more sense than some people I know.”

Luz giggled, and Mallow muttered in agreement.

And, perhaps, it really wasn’t so bad? Was it weird? Darius supposed it was weird, to seriously ally himself with his dead mentor’s palisman... but it wasn’t bad; and with Eber and the rest of them – he supposed he should’ve given up by now on not being weird. And, if it wasn’t for Mallow he would have…Did he need that special magical bond to connect with the creature? He just wished he knew their thoughts on the matter.

“We can work with what we have…” he concluded. Would have…

“Oh, I get it, I think…” Luz said, now contemplative.

“Still, I wish this little guy would hatch soon,” she added, looking down at her palisman carving and patting it gingerly. “Is it bad? Am I impatient? Or, like, selfish? But humans don’t have palismen, so what if…” she trailed off. What if I did something wrong?

Darius shifted uncomfortably. Titan, even navigating the Coven politics was so much easier than this. “Well,” he started. “You are young, so it is natural that you are impatient…” He knew how to shut his fellow Head Witches up, how to spot a trap… but this? This?

Mallow warbled and gestured with their arms.

“What? Well, I am glad to announce that, if I understand them correctly, Mallow doesn’t seem to think that there is anything wrong with your palisman. So that’s not a problem.”

Luz raised her head. “Ah, thank you, Mallow,” she muttered awkwardly.

Darius hesitated. “And there is nothing selfish in you wanting this, I am sure anyone will tell you the same thing. Look, even adults need time to sort things out – just ask Eda!”

“Yes, I suppose,” Luz looked contemplative again, gently cradling her palisman.

“Now, child, go to bed, it’s too late,” Darius remembered that it was the middle of the night. He made a shooing motion with his hand. “I swear, if my aunts were here, they would have given you an earful.”

----

If there is a change, if there is someone who will call to them again, who will find them again… Mallow trembles at the thought. Is there a future if the Monster is still in the Castle, and his voice still calls to them and orders them to run and hide?

Yet isn’t the Castle their home? The Castle is not as terrifying as the Forest of the Voices or even Latissa where they were given form.

Yet the Castle is a trap.

Both their home and a trap.

----

5. The Time of Miracles.

“Are you sure?” Darius shook his head again. “Why do you have to be so stubborn, palisman?” Why was everyone around Darius so stubborn? “You really should just stay in Latissa. I can translocate you back to the base right now.”

Mallow shook their own head in protest.

Stubborn. Stubborn little… squishy creature! Why this need to return to the Titan-forsaken Castle? At least Darius could understand Raine’s logic for being present at the ceremony – they were a powerful witch and could protect themselves. Mallow, of course, wouldn’t answer him, as mysterious as they pleased.

“All right then, not my fault if something happens to you!”

Perhaps it would have been smarter to send them on the ‘mission’ with Hunter and his palisman, since Mallow seemed weirdly in awe with that bird. It would have been a more subtle move. But they also seemed afraid of the bird and didn’t want to see him face-to-face. So they might have refused.

Did they really love the Castle so much? Loved to live in the passages behind those secretly rotting walls? Darius thought they would have favoured Virgil’s Latissa apartment. The place where they were probably born, the place that was peaceful and quite, and safe. Darius surely preferred it to the crypt of the royal residence or the stuffy buildings of the Abomination Coven, even if it was so quite and empty that sometimes it made him want to crawl out of his skin. But it was safe. Mallow barely tolerated it. Are they afraid of the outside world?

“Stay put. If everything works out as we planned, I’ll return for you after the Eclipse,” Darius told them.

The rebellion would still need to deal with Belos… if they didn’t get exposed during the ceremony… if they got past the other Coven Heads… Darius was sure he had the skill and the rage to get to the Emperor and… What then? It shouldn’t have mattered, but there was Eber, and Hunter, and… something touched his hand. Mallow had grabbed his fingers and was looking up at him, their eye gleaming.

Did they even have a chance to explore the outside world before Virgil was murdered?

They shook him by the hand, muttering quickly, worriedly.

“Yes, yes, I’ll… everything will be fine.” He reached down and gave them a pat, then turned and walked away towards the waiting Blimp. He didn’t look back.

-

A sparkling, twirling nightmare. The brightness burned Mallow’s eye. The tinkling and the clanking of the stars deafened the voices of their brethren – those of them far away, hidden and scared, and those of them who were trapped. More and more and more of them trapped, frozen in the forms that were wrong. Not like Mallow’s changed form – it healed, it soothed – but twisted into a mockery of themselves, simplified into dolls.

Everything was wrong now. Even more wrong than before!

And Mallow was alone again, but this was worse! Before, even when they were a fugitive in the Castle, and cold and scared, it wasn’t like this! They knew how to hide, what to do if they needed to escape. They knew what to expect from the Castle.

But when the Sparkling Change had begun, and the Castle shook, and the stars started to fall, Mallow was truly lost.

And Mallow wasn’t a toy, they weren’t!

So Mallow hid, as they always did, like he had told them to do, but then they couldn’t hide anymore.

Darius had said that he would come back for them, but he didn’t return. Yet Mallow waited and waited. For how long? And then they searched, but the old Castle was empty – there was a new castle above, the scared voices rustled and hissed – and all their old hideouts and nooks and tunnels were suddenly twisted and alien and intimidating, and it terrified them. And the outside was impossibly bright.

Darius and the others, were they in Latissa? His old hideout, his favourite place. Not Mallow’s.

Did Darius forget about them?

That’s what the voices of the Forest used to whisper about: abandoned and forgotten, cast aside... Just as it was after… When the Monster had raised his arm to strike, and he had told them to run and hide. And Mallow had hid.

Not a toy to be broken and discarded!

Mallow was his palisman, and he was brave and wanted them to help.

Had Mallow abandoned him?

It has been so dark and so cold.

Maybe it wasn’t safe for Darius to return.

And even the ancient route-connections were twisted now. Foxglove was almost silenced, the bird was missing. Mallow could barely hear the whispers from above because those palismen were so scared. Was the Monster-Emperor still somewhere out there?

Maybe Darius, too, was confused and disoriented.

Was Darius scared?

Did Virgil think about Mallow, the red seeping out of him, all alone?

And so Mallow left the Castle. They stepped out into the unbearable, colourful brightness. “Run, hide,” the voices pleaded. Mallow was also a spy, a part of the rebellion. They crawled and climbed, and they flew up, holding up the staff form on their own, even when they couldn’t see because of all the light…

-

“Edalyn, look!”

“Ah, it’s the little guy.”

“It looks like… Is it crying?”

“Hey, little fella, don’t worry. Here you are… Ouch! Oh… They bit me?!”

----

6. In the Aftermath.

And so, the other Coven Heads will continue to cause trouble, Darius mused. As much as it made him nauseous, it was easy to think about them – what should be done, how to mitigate the damage. The other matters… The other matters were different. He didn’t know how to even start processing everything that happened.

So, once Eber left to search for her precious beasts, and Hunter was safely transported to the Owl House, Darius made his wary way back towards the rubble of the Castle. He wasn’t foolish enough to sift through the debris all on his own, but there was an old Abomination Coven building nearby, so he climbed its stairs and sat on its balcony, resting his aching everything and observing the ruins of the wretched place. He thought he could smell its dust and its rot even from the distance. Through the years that specific Castle smell had become so familiar, and the phantom of it was hiding underneath everything. As if the Castle itself had become a parasite, intertwined with Darius’s very being.

So many years, spent trapped in that bright coffin. And, in the end, everything Darius did was for nothing. Couldn’t even take one swing at that bastard Belos. So many regrets. The work in front of him – and the rest of the rebels – was tremendous.

Darius looked up at the vibrant, bluish sky. What a strange colour. Should he see it as a dawn of some bright new day?

Something tapped him on the leg, soft-soft.

“Mallow?!”

They looked unharmed.

“I thought I’ve lost you!”

Mallow glared at him. There was something taped to their back. A note.

“The lil guy’s been searching for you. Really panicked when you wouldn’t move. They probably thought you were dead or something, crying and everything. So, now that everyone’s out of the Archives, I’m sending them out, since they are restless and want to find you. See you. Eda. (P.S. Did you carve them teeth???)”

Could he dimly remember Mallow trying to reach out to him when he was… when he was immobilized?

“I’ve told you Latissa would’ve been safer!”

Mallow crossed their arms and shook their head. Stubborn as usual.

Crying and everything.

Darius relented, “Glad you made it. How did you get out of the Castle and found Eda?”

They plopped down, still glaring, and leaned onto his ankle.

“Yes, I suppose she’ll tell me later.” Darius patted their head. Mallow crooned mournfully. “Because of Hunter’s palisman? Something happened to that bird, yes?”

Mallow closed their eyes and keened.

“We… we will get through it, I know. And…” Darius felt a lump in his throat, and his head started to hurt for real. He closed his own eyes, because it was so hard to say it aloud, but he had to. Look at him, almost as bad as Raine during their inauguration! But he had to say this. He owed it to Mallow, and to Virgil, and to himself.

Now or never. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there when that monster, our Emperor, died. But they say he is gone. So I think the Isles are free now. And… we can find Virgil’s remains, you know?” Mallow stiffened under his hand. So unlike an abomination. Darius swallowed. “We can give him a proper burial or at least a memorial or something.” He was exhausted, and his grief – over Virgil, over everything – was overwhelming him again. Trapping him. But he had to try. “We can start over.”

“Sorry,” he wanted to say, and he didn’t even know why.

“Or at least we can have closure,” he said instead. “We can mourn him.”

He opened his eyes and met Mallow’s green gaze. Mallow nodded.

A closure… Darius couldn’t imagine closure for himself, but he couldn’t let Mallow down, right? So they will finally have to face it. Together.

“You did a decent job as a spy, squishy thing,” he added and pocked them playfully.

Mallow crooned and closed their eye again, trusting.

----

7. The Beginning.

Mallow woke up early – in the dreams they shared with their siblings they could feel the new voice arising – but the sunlight was already bright and strong. They decided they would need Dell’s present today.

Darius was still asleep, of course. Mallow shook him, and he groaned. “Wh… already?” He tried to turn away. “What time? Too early… And you look ridiculous, by the way.”

Mallow didn’t grace him with a response, just kept shaking him until he got up. Then they waited comfortably on the drawing table, basking in the sunlight, just like many of their siblings loved to do. The little pals ran around the room, busy with housework. Mallow didn’t have time to play either. Not today.

“Darius is very fond of his abominations,” Virgil’s voice had told them, a long time ago. “He is really sentimental about them. But this is a secret,” he laughed.

Finally, Darius emerged, dressed casually yet immaculately. “So, are you ready?” he asked. Mallow nodded and climbed onto his palm and then onto his shoulder.

They walked through the town, and sometimes Darius stopped and talked to the witches and demons he knew. The old Coven armorer, the potioner who supplied the Owl Lady with her stuff, some teachers and students from Darius's old school. So different from the old days, when it was just Darius, and just Mallow, and Darius had to pretend.

And Mallow? Now Mallow wasn’t so afraid. They still disliked the crowds and the brightness – and even the shaded domain of the Bat Queen scared them a little – but they liked the warmth of the Sun, and the gentleness of the wind on their composite body.

“What a strange one,” the Bat Queen had said about Mallow, appalled at first at their modified form. But she came around.

“So, did you decide?” Darius asked once they left the town and entered the woods. Mallow shook their head. No. Hesitated. Not yet.

Maybe someday.

Darius looked partly relieved, partly saddened. But not so afraid anymore.

Mallow thought they were almost ready to answer to a new calling - similar but different, the old nerve-routes connecting them to someone else, someone who wasn’t Virgil. But not yet.

“You know,” Darius turned his head away, strangely bashful, “even if you decide to find yourself a new witch or demon, you can still keep in touch and even visit.” His ears twitched. He laughed: “Maybe we can set up a penstagram account for you?” Mallow pushed with their arms. “With these very fashionable accessories – Dell Clawthorne's finest work, I am sure – you can be a star. Don’t push on me! You and the Noodle could even text each other… Stop this!”

“Darius can be so...exasperating,” Virgil had complained. Exasperated and grinning and worried at the same time. Mallow didn’t understand it back then. “I just hope it won’t be stolen from him,” Virgil had confessed to them in a whisper.

They reached the clearing. It was quite a way from the town, and far away from where the Castle used to be. Sometimes Mallow still missed their secret tunnels and hideouts. The memorial for the Golden Guards stood in the clearing.

Darius lowered his head. Mallow sighed and crooned. Long ago, he would have understood, he would have replied. For Darius Virgil was a memory, now half-forgotten, distorted by time and vanishing behind all the new experiences. For the palisman the memory was untouched, the pain always acute. Virgil’s hoarse voice was always ordering them to run and hide.

Yet, Darius looked at the memorial wistfully, and Mallow understood that he too, in the witches’ way, would always remember him. And now Mallow could focus on the other memories: Virgil laughing, daydreaming, his wishes, the words that he had told them before, unsullied by those last moments. “A closure,” Darius had said.

“I wish I knew him as well as you probably did,” Darius muttered. “But it’s all right, that you keep your secrets.” Darius smiled, sad. “I understand.” His mouth twitched. “We can keep each other safe in our own way.”

Mallow gripped Darius’s shoulder and whispered mournfully at the monument: Always with Mallow, always remembering. Then they signed.

“Ready to go?”

Mallow nodded. Darius’s eyes darkened, and Mallow felt their abomination parts reacting, soothing-smooth. Everything shifted, and they were surrounded by different trees, in the different clearing, in front of the familiar gates.

Something leapt up, and Darius staggered.

“Eber!”

“Good morning!” she purred. “Hi, Mallow.”

Mallow gave her a careful once-over, waiting for her to notice how Mallow was on Darius’s left shoulder. In Eber’s place.

“Are you okay?” Eber asked Darius instead.

“Of course I am. What? Yes, a good day to you too, Eber. You finished your work early?”

Did she not notice that Mallow was sitting in her usual place?

“I am here today in an official capacity,” Eber pointed at her ribbon. Teasing, but also proud of herself, Mallow noticed. “Since today is such an important day.”

Mallow shifted to let her see them better. Was she not bothered? Mallow glared.

“You go ahead, I have to bring in Daisy-wyrm and Gobler.” Eber jumped up and sprinted into the woods where her worms were probably grazing. Before disappearing into the trees she turned around and gave Darius a thumbs up.

No attention for Mallow?

Darius followed the path under the canopy, wincing at the branches and the dirt. Mallow, too, was still apprehensive of this place. It reminded them of the old days. Yet the whispers that greeted them sounded softer, not as desperate.

But no reaction from Eber? No attention to Mallow at all? They wrung their arms.

“What is it? No use tormenting Eber? She certainly took to heart Raine’s advice on how to handle you.”

Mallow yelped.

“What? Foxglove didn’t inform you? Tricky, tricky fox. Just like their witch.” His face grew contemplative for a few moments, but there was no real bitterness anymore.

Something nearly flew into them and hissed.

“Noodle!” Darius grumbled. “Of course.”

Mallow croaked their greeting. Stringbean hissed again, turned upside down and tried to imitate Darius’s hair. “This one is even more strange,” the Bat Queen’s voice whispered in a resigned manner.

“Ah, there you are! Oh, hello, Darius,” Luz appeared from behind the trees. It looked like she had been running. “I thought I was going to be late! Human school… Hi, Mallow!”

Finally, attention to Mallow – where it rightfully belonged.

“No, but their little sunglasses,” Luz crooned, “they are just too cute for words!”

“They look ridiculous,” Darius scoffed. Mallow muttered in protest. “But the glasses help to protect their eye from bright light,” Darius conceded. Then he looked at Luz.

“Big day today…” He hesitated. “Are you ready?”

Luz laughed, a little tense, and shrugged her shoulders, “It’s not my big day…” She laughed again but, under Darius’s gaze, stopped and sighed, “I think… I’m ready. I’m super happy for Hunter and all…” Stringbean glided back to her and coiled around her arm. “Yes, Stringbean. I guess it just, like, brought back difficult memories.” Luz looked down at her feet. “Sometimes I still feel like Flapjack’s death was my fault, like I shouldn’t even be allowed to be here today…”

Stringbean hissed in protest. Mallow groaned.

“Well, Mallow says it was not your fault. Never has been.”

“I know. I know it now, but still… sometimes my mind, like, goes in circles around my mistakes. It’s stupid, I know.” She kicked a fallen tree branch out of her way.

“It is only natural,” Darius said. “Most people can’t just move on at once, and, I gather, for some it is harder than for others. And, Mallow says, everyone needs time to figure these things out. Even the Great Human Witch. But there are all your friends who are excited for you to be here today, so maybe you should trust them… and believe in yourself too? That’s what Mallow tells me.”

They were nearing the palistrom tree. Mallow could see the others gathered in a semicircle around Hunter.

“Didn’t you also rescue some palismen from Kikimora?” Darius asked.

“Oh, yes, that was fun,” Luz snorted at the memory. Then her eyes narrowed, “Wait, you can’t know what exactly Mallow says…”

Darius pointed, “Look, everybody is waiting.”

“Well, there they are, just in time,” Dell Clawthorne called out.

-

The wood unfolded, changed, responding, blue wings spreading for the first time, and Mallow felt the new-old nerve-routes surge and expand, the voices singing in unison.

“Waffles,” the boy’s voice called, and the palisman's song answered.