#or maybe she brought elixirs with her. she got in and out of owl beast form at least once in the human realm in canon sk

[crimeronan]

the idea of the Most Powerful Witch In The Boiling Isles hunting down Belos in the woods is deeply appealing to me, not even necessarily for thematic value but because it would be sick as fuck[1]. and also something deeply funny to me about INTENSELY traumatized Luz being rescued by a woman she only knows by reputation at this point in the timeline (and also this means she relatively quickly learns that her people and her Boy are all still alive. babygirl needs a break)

[1] in my heart, the Eda of five years prior to canon could evenly match Belos, but I think the exchange of less exertion but more time passed results in her being pretty close to Agony of a Witch in how her curse is progressing. so, I think she puts up a very good fight against a man who's got so much magical power due to his glyph carving and the skill to back it up on top of that, but ultimately gets knocked out

then, the owl beast comes out, and while Belos is able to handle that pretty easily, it DOES manage to knock his staff out of his hands, and when he's ranting at Eda, possibly on the verge of transforming himself in his rage, Luz (I think on some level having done the calculations of "this reads as rescue, not vengeance for a genocide, maybe people are alive? maybe Hunter is alive?" even if she doesn't consciously realize due to depression) picks it up and kills him with sleep spells just like in P!Luz AU canon because that's the one thing she thinks can bring him down without risking a transformation

Well, the footnote is longer than the original ask but I DID find a way to make it somewhat thematically resonant after all

:D

big fan of the idea that at some point in the middle of the initial fight, eda knocks belos down and has just enough downtime to call, "kid, are you okay?? raine sent me" before belos lashes out at her again.

and luz is like.

RAINE'S ALIVE??

:O :O :O

LOVE this. get his ass!!

[electricfied-wolf]

So are raine and eda together in this also everyone's reaction to king talking.

They are! I've mentioned Raine being Eda's partner once or twice, just never really outright said it bc those were just posts about the plot and less about their relationship.

However, they are still together, in fact, that's why Raine is also an owl beast. In this au, Eda was honest with Raine about the curse rather than hiding things, and so they made it their mission to stick by her and help her. Eda and Lilith kept in touch still, though that was the point where their bond was beginning to thin.

And since we're already on this topic, why don't I explain a bit more background as to how they got stuck in the human realm? And all ended up with the curse so early on? As for the King thing, I'll save that for another post! But a post that'll be made soon lol.

Eda wrote to Lilith about her revealing the truth about the curse to Raine....and hearing about that curse again? Lilith was hit with a wave of guilt when she remembered all the awful things that happened because of the curse, how that curse was her own fault...

She went against the emperor's wishes, she flew out to find Eda, and sat down with her one evening. She didn't want Eda to suffer alone anymore. Lilith was nowhere near ready to tell Eda the real story of how the curse came to be, but she had to make up for it somehow. She'd been getting letters from Eda for months, letters hoping that their sisterly love wouldn't fade because of the whole coven thing, hoping that she was doing okay, that maybe they could keep in touch. Each letter made Lilith feel worse and worse, especially when some of them were a tad bit torn or had ink spilled on half the page because of a transformation incident. Each letter reminded Lilith that her sister is more important than some dumb coven.

So, she begged Eda to let her share the curse between them, she was willing to suffer the same, to hide the curse from the emperor...if it meant Eda had to suffer just a little bit less, if it meant Eda could control it a little bit more. There was a long conversation that followed, Eda wondering where this came from, then telling Lilith she shouldn't risk what she's got for something like this. But Lilith was stubborn, and what turned into two sisters sharing a curse, turned into two sisters and the partner of one of them sharing it. Raine wanted in, spreading the curse between them...something about it felt right. Lilith soon realized she couldn't stay in the emperor's castle any longer, the curse was more than she'd bargained for, and it brought even more regret down on her. She sought Eda and Raine out once more, this time, asking to live with them. So, they became their own little coven, Raine and Eda had their own little "unofficial wedding", and things were alright for them.

That is, until they went to the human realm one night, one of them started to lose control, the other two panicked, one thing led to another, and the key was kicked back through the portal door, the door close and the portal remained in the Boiling isles. They were stranded without elixir or a way back, but...they did have each other.