Demons of a Feather

Luz sat on a tree branch between Eda and King, looking out at the Conformatorium. There was a twinge of guilt in her gut that she was trying to ignore; she didn’t like lying to Mamá as much as she had been. And her latest lie, that the plan they had to break into the contraband room without a human was just as safe and easy as doing it with a human was weighing on her.

She didn’t regret not wanting Mamá to help with this. And she didn’t want to risk Eda luring in a different human from Gravesfield anymore; Eda had been planning on intentionally getting someone, probably a kid around her age, to help them, but now that they knew Mamá lived in Gravesfield, they didn’t want to risk anyone noticing her and Luz’s resemblance and connecting Camila to them being kidnapped and extorted by a witch and her demon kids.

So plan A it was!

Hooray.

The barrier surrounding the contraband was a bit more complex than ‘only a human can pass through’. It had to be programmed with the specific magical profile of different types of demons before it was able to block them out. Stealing King’s bandana must have finally given Wrath enough fur to block both him and Luz, so they couldn’t just sneak in and out like they had for years.

So they were gonna go in from the top. The barrier generator was a big ring built into the ceiling and projecting the barrier to the floor below; they couldn’t get through the barrier, but they could get through the ring.

They were all going to fly up on Owlbert. Eda was going to have to shield them from the security, so she would be completely occupied keeping a bunch of different cloaking spells up, as well as keeping them invisible.

Luz would steer them to the center of the roof, before using one of her few Construction-based glyph combos to make a door frame in the open center of the generator. Any weight on the roof would set off alarms, so Luz had drawn this glyph on the thinnest, lightest paper the Night Market had to offer. Normally something like that would have cost a shiny snail, but the deal they had gotten for it was a real steal.

Once the door frame had opened up to the contraband, King would be lowered down in a tote bag tied to a rope. He’d grab Francois and his bandana, tug on the rope for Luz to haul him up, and then they’d shoot off back home.

And they had to time it all to fit in the two minute window they had while the guards were changing shifts.

“Ok, they’re about to start clocking out.” Eda had been using a telescope spell to watch the guards, and she despeled it with a wave as Owlbert hopped off her shoulder and shifted into staff form, wings spread wide. Luz slid on the front, with King hopping onto her shoulder and Eda sliding on behind.

Luz glanced back to see Eda closing her eyes and drawing the cloaking spells into existence. As the faint, comforting glow of Eda’s magic settled over all of them, Luz smoothly guided Owlbert over the Conformatorium. Even with Eda’s spells, Luz kept them in the shadows and as far from guard posts as possible; the fewer people actually looking at them, the less it would drain Eda’s magic.

They stopped over the roof of the tower, Owlbert holding them motionless in the air. Luz wanted to ask Eda how she was holding up, but she knew that distracting her mentor-mom as she was spinning five, wait no, six spells around them would just make this whole heist a lot more difficult.

Holding her breath, Luz pulled the special glyph out of the otherwise empty pouch on her belt. It was gossamer thin, translucent almost, and Luz bit her lip as she carefully leaned off the staff and gently activated the glyph before letting it drift onto the roof.

Luz huffed out a small sigh of relief as no alarms went off, and a door frame formed in the roof, complete with the little whatever-its-called where the doorknob would fit if someone ever wanted to fit a door to the Conformatoriums ceiling.

They were a little closer to the barrier than Luz had thought, but they were still inside of it, with easy access to all of the contraband. Quickly, she slid the coil of rope off her shoulder and opened the tote bag at the end for King to hop in. She lowered her little brother down, holding back a chuckle as he gave her a little salute on the way down.

She let the rope slide through her palms a bit faster than she would have if they weren’t on a time crunch, but not fast enough to make King motion sick. Once she lowered him enough, she saw and felt King hop out of the bag. She lost sight of him as he darted around the piles of stuff stolen by Coven goons, but she could feel as he threw something, probably Franscoi, into the tote bag.

She held back another chuckle as King came back into view, happily waving his bandana like a flag as he climbed back into the tote bag. Luz gave a sigh of relief as she started to pull him back up. This was turning out to be a picture perfect heist for the infamous Owl Fami-

The barrier shut off, and Luz heard King give a distressed weh as a large guard grabbed the tote bag and rope and gave a strong yank, pulling Luz off of the staff.

“Kids!” Eda grabbed at Luz, and multiple alarms started screaming as she dropped the cloaking spells. For a moment Luz was dangling into the Conformatorium, Eda clinging to her belt as she tried to pull King free from the guard.

“Hold it right there!” A guard climbed up onto the roof, firing off a spell. Eda tried to get a shield up with her free hand, only for the spell circle to break and feathers to fly as the guards spell sent Eda and Luz plummeting through the door frame.

Luz was barely able to get a safety hover glyph activated before the two of them hit the floor. Two sets of hands clamped down around Luz’s arms, roughly hauling her away from Eda as guards grabbed the witch and pulled her to her feet.

“Finally.” Warden Wrath loomed over them as more guards crowded around Luz and her family. “I have you now, Eda the Owl Lady.”

Luz’s stomach dropped as she realized they’d fallen for a trap.

*****

Camila sighed, putting away the last of her still-warm laundry. She had cried a bit after Eda left, but not as much as she had expected to.

There was a chance she could finally bring Luz home.

A little bit of hope.

Even if it was only under an illusion, it was still something.

She paced at the foot of her bed, feeling restless. She had taken care of enough yard work to keep the HOA off her back, bought what she needed for the…family dinner that Luz had wanted to do tomorrow, cleaned her whole house, and she still couldn’t just sit down and rest.

What else could she do?

Oh! Didn’t she have some ripe plantains? Maduros were Luz’s favorite when she was little, Camila could surprise her with some tomorrow! She sped into the kitchen to check, glancing out the back window out of habit as she did, and what she saw in the quickly fading sunlight made her freeze.

Someone was at the edge of the woods, staring at her house.

Someone who looked like-

With a gasp, Camila darted to her backdoor, throwing it open so quickly the glass shook in its frame.

But the person was gone. Camila could see a deer galloping a bit further away in the trees, but no sign of…

Of the woman who looked just like her.

Camila stood in the doorframe, dumbfounded for a moment.

As she closed and firmly locked the back door, Camila rubbed her hands over her eyes. Maybe she needed a nap. That was…probably it, right? She was tired after having a bit of a stressful week, and her eyes were playing tricks on her. Her brain just…overlapped her reflection in the widow…with the deer? and made her think she saw…herself.

That made sense, right?

Before forcing herself to sit down and turn the tv on for at least half an hour, Camila walked through her house and checked that every window and door was locked, twice.

*****

Luz’s stomach dropped as she realized they’d fallen for a trap.

A trap set by Warden Wrath of all people!

How embarrassing was that?

The four guards pointing spears at Eda parted as Warden Wrath approached her, barking at a few of the other guards in the room, “Can you at least try to muzzle the big one this time? Preferably before she tries to take someone else’s arm off?”

Two guards who were holding a muzzle that was built for a demon much bigger than Luz shared a glance, before starting to approach.

A low, loud growl rumbled out of Luz’s chest, one actually fit for a muzzle that size, causing the guards pace to slow, and several of the others to flinch. She felt the bigger of the guards holding her arms lean away from her.

Eda gave a growl of her own as she struggled against the guards holding her. Sparse gray feathers had started to sprout up and down her arms. That was not good. The cloaking spells must have been more of a drain on Eda’s magic than any of them had realized it would be.

“My guards could never get you, but I knew if I took something from one of your kids, you’d come running.” Wrath gestured at the guard who was holding King. Their fists were clamped around the opening of the tote bag to trap King inside. A strategy which Luz knew wasn’t working like they probably wanted it to.

King was violently wriggling inside the bag, and the guard was holding him away from their body to try and avoid King’s many pointy bits. Luz could already see their arms wavering from fatigue.

“Oh yeah?” Eda snarled, baring her fangs at the unfairly tall demon. The feathers on her arms grew and flared out, and Luz watched as a few more started to sprout, and a small dark spot showed up on her gem.

That was really not good.

In the eight years Eda had been caring for her, Luz had never seen what happened when her curse was fully in effect, but the way Eda clammed up and changed the subject whenever Luz had asked as a kid let her know it was…bad.

"Well, you got me, so now what?" As Eda glared at Wrath, Luz was scrambling for a plan. The four guards around her shouldn't be too hard to break free from, but Wrath would use Eda and King as hostages if they couldn’t get free when she did.

She had a few surprise smoke bombs in her tail, but Luz worried King would miss that as a distraction since he was trapped in the tote bag. She shifted her weight to one foot, and started to carefully and quietly scratch a glyph onto the stone floor.

“Eda the Owl Lady.” Warden Wrath loomed over the witch, before stunning Luz by dropping to one knee and whipping out a bouquet of flowers. “Will you go out with me?”

“Wha-?”

“What.”

“Gross!”

Eda, Luz and King all spoke at the same time, and they all stopped struggling against the guards holding them out of shock.

Wrath turned to glare at the siblings, and at the two guards holding the oversized muzzle, before turning back to a dumbfounded Eda as a few of the guards started to cheer him on. “You’ve always evaded our capture. You were always the one who got away. I found that alluring.”

“I hate everything you’re saying right now.” Luz wrinkled her nose. Having Warden Wrath as a step-parent sounded like something straight out of a nightmare.

“MUZZLE. NOW.” Wrath barked at the guards, before turning back to Eda, trying to regain his composure. “So how about it, Owl Lady? The most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, and the feared Warden Wrath. We’d be the strongest power couple ever!” There was a pause. “Plus, I mean, “ He chuckled, “it’s not like you can really say no right now.”

There was a moment of silence as Wrath's…offer hung in the air.

“So let me get this right,” Eda huffed out. “You had your guards stalk me, you personally attacked us, and stole a stuffed bunny from my eight-year-old, all so you could try and force me to go out with you?” Her voice rose as she spoke, and Luz sucked in a gasp as the spot on Eda’s gem started to spread.

“Boss?” One of the guards flanking Wrath sounded nervous as she spoke.

Wrath stammered a bit. “Uh, yeeeees?” At least he had the decency to sound sheepish.

Eda inhaled sharply, and Luz could tell she was trying to calm herself down. “Kids, ears. Now.”

Luz squirmed a bit more against the guards holding her, moving to try and cover her ears at Eda’s request, but-

THOOM

The Conformatorium rumbled, the floor shaking roughly and throwing everyone off balance, a few of the guards even toppling over.

An opening.

Luz slammed the outer edge of her foot into the side of the knee of one of the guards holding her arms, wrenching free from him.

She pivoted and swung at the other guard. Her fist, with four hard outer knuckle bones reinforcing the blow, cracked across his mask, denting it and sending him reeling away from her.

One of the spear-wielding guards lunged at her, but Luz easily dodged to the side, grabbing the shaft of the spear and spinning on her heel, throwing the guard into a pile of contraband behind her.

Luz spun the spear with ease before quickly disarming the last guard that was on her, who decided to turn and run after losing their weapon.

“Ptah-Luz!” King spat out bits of fabric as he ran over to her, Franscoi in claw and bandana firmly back in place, and he clambered up to his perch on her shoulder. The tote bag, which now had a large hole torn in the bottom, was stuck around his tail.

A loud screech from Owlbert pulled Luz’s attention back to him and Eda.

Eda cracked a guard across the face with her staff, before narrowly dodging a different guard trying to tackle her.

Owlbert was clenched in one of Wrath’s fists, and judging by the new rips in his hood, Owlbert had dive bombed him to help Eda.

Luz adjusted her grip on the guard’s spear before hurling it at Wrath, knocking his mask off and causing him to release Owlbert with a surprised yell.

“Time to go!!” Eda hopped on her staff as Owlbert reconnected to it, shooting over to Luz and swinging her on behind her. “Luz, door!”

Luz had already been pulling a glyph off of her belt, and the fireball she launched scorched a hole just big enough for them to fit through.

“OWLS!!!” Wrath roared behind them, and Luz could see him wedged in the hole in the door she made, one arm morphed into a mass of tentacles reaching after them.

Eda skidded to a stop when they entered the main holding area of the Conformatorium. Luz was thrown forward a bit, wincing as Eda’s hair poked her in her left eye.

“What the-?” Eda gasped, and Luz gave a gasp of her own when she leaned around Eda’s hair to see-

A jailbreak.

…a jailbreak that wasn’t caused by them?

The main doors of the Conformatorium had been blown off their hinges, and a good portion of the walls had gone with them. All the cell doors had been opened, and prisoners were streaming out or fighting the guards.

An idea popped into Luz’s head, and she quickly pulled a potion off her belt, “Eda, fly closer to the center of the ceiling, then book it out!”

Eda swooped up, and Luz hurled the potion up at the ceiling, right under the contraband room. Luz looked back as Eda dove, rummaging through her tail for a spare elixir as they flew.

The ceiling crumbled, spilling the contraband out and to where the prisoners could use it against the guards.

With a whoop, Luz and her family shot out of the Conformatorium, only to stop short once again when Eda saw the barrier around the Conformatorium itself had been activated.

“Aha!” Luz pulled out an elixir, handing it to Eda over her shoulder. Her head swiveled back and forth, taking in everything she could. There were guards all along the bottom of the wall, and the generator for the barrier only had two guards near it, but more would be on their way by now.

The main barrier could be broken through at the generator, unlike the contraband one, but it would take Eda time to do it. Maybe some of the prisoners would be willing to help Luz fend-

Music echoed through the solid stone courtyard.

Any fighting quickly stopped as the guards cloaks glowed and writhed, wrapping around their owners and restraining them.

A large crack tore through the barrier, before the entire thing shattered into nothingness.

As Eda’s feathers receded, she barked over her shoulder, “Hang on!”, before shooting off over the generator.

Luz caught sight of four figures in dark cloaks standing on the wall. They were all wearing masks, and one of them held an oboe, but they were flying too fast for Luz to catch sight of anything else.

As the Conformatorium and its escaping prisoners faded from view, Luz wrapped her arms around Eda’s waist and buried her face in Eda’s mane with a tired groan.

“That was a disaster.” Luz felt King climb into Eda’s mane from her shoulder.

Eda sighed, then patted Luz’s forearm. “Yeah it was kiddo. Yeah it was.”

“Who were those guys?” King turned around on top of Eda’s head. “Have you guys seen them in the Night Market ever?”

“No. Not that I remember.” Eda sounded distracted.

Luz pulled her face out of Eda’s hair. “Definitely not.” She leaned back, pulling out of the hug fully. “I would have remembered those masks.”

“Masks?” Eda glanced back at Luz.

“Yeah. Something with big ears.” Luz mimicked the shape of the triangular ears on the masks. “I couldn’t make out anything else in the dark.”

Eda hummed, before turning back around.

It was quiet for the rest of the night at the Owl House.

*****

Lilith Clawthorne, Head Witch of the Emperors Coven, leaned against the back cabin wall of the airship she was on. She gathered the top part of her dyed and straightened hair into her hand, pulling it out of her face. Her free hand reached over and plucked a wooden comb, colored white and gold and shaped like a raven, off of the table next to her. She slid it into her hair, fastening it all neatly in place.

She straightened, and smoothed out the fold that had formed in her dress. After tucking one last loose piece of hair behind her ear, she walked to the door, sighing before stepping back out onto the windy deck. Thankfully, it was less windy now that they were closer and flying lower and slower.

She came to stand next to the boy piloting the airship. “How far out are we?”

The Golden Guards bone-white cloak flowed a bit in the wind as he responded, "About five minutes."

There was silence for a moment, before he spoke again. “So, do you think Warden Wrath’s foolproof plan to catch the Owls actually worked?” There was a bit of an edge to his voice, but Lilith couldn’t tell if it was excitement or…nervousness?

Lilith side-eyed her co-worker, before giving a small huff. “I hardly think a foolproof plan can be made by a fool.” She held back a smirk when Golden Guards head darted towards her briefly, then back to the sky ahead.

“So there’s no chance it worked?”

Lilith glanced ahead as well, “It’s very unlikely.” She placed a hand on her hip. “I’m afraid, Golden Guard, that neither of us will be completing our assignments today.” In fact, she was certain they wouldn’t.

As the Conformatorium came into view, Lilith only had to half fake a gasp.

They had completely wrecked the place!

There was a gaping hole where the doors used to be, the yard was pocketed with smoking craters, and scorch marks and claw marks and all manner of remnants of combat. There were guards lying all over the place, many tied up in their own uniforms, but some were stuck in the stone around them or bound in vines.

There wasn’t a prisoner in sight.

Warden Wrath was dangling from the back of his underpants off a sconce on the wall. His hands were bound behind his back with his belt, and his hood was turned around backward and pulled over his face.

“Did the Owls do all that?” Golden Guard murmured as he brought the ship down to land in the courtyard.

“Let’s find out.” Lilith drew a circle, creating a platform of light blue energy under her feet. It smoothly lifted off the deck, and she heard Golden Guard activate his odd staff and follow her.

“Warden Wrath!” Lilith greeted, arms wide, “I take it things didn’t go to plan?” She stepped off of her platform and pulled the hood off of his face.

“This one wasn’t my fault!” Wrath blurted out. “We had all three Owls, with no way for them to escape, but just before we could lock’em away, those masked weirdos showed up and ruined everything!”

“Masked weirdos?” Golden Guard cocked his masked head to the side. “You mean the rumors of rebel activity are legitimate?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.” Wrath mumbled. “Can you please get me down now?”

Lilith cut the Warden down with a spell. “Well, it seems neither of us are actually needed here, Golden Guard.”

The Warden grunted as he thudded to the ground.

“Li-uh, Coven Head Clawthorne!” A familiar scout ran over, with a freshly dented mask, kicking a vine off his foot and refastening his cloak as he did, “Hang on! Please!”

“Steve! I was just about to look for you.” The senior scout was the one Coven member who Lilith normally selected whenever she needed an extra set of hands on a mission. He had been assigned to her squad back when she was a captain, and he had become a close ally in the years since.

“Thank you for volunteering to fill in out here after Severine got food poisoning.” Lilith gestured to the airship, “Would you like a ride back to your quarters at the castle? We can discuss your time-off request on the way back.”

“That would be nice, thank you ma’am.” Steve saluted.

Once they were all on the airship, Golden Guard wordlessly returned to the controls, quickly getting them back in the air, as Steve followed Lilith into the cabin.

As the door closed, Lilith groaned, her posture slumping, “I swear, if I get one more call out here just to find out that Warden ‘Lunch-thief’ had another scheme blow up in his face, I’m going to shove his mask down his throat!”

Steve snorted, lifting up his mask to reveal a grin and swollen black eye he hadn’t had that morning. “Would it make it better or worse if I tell you his real goal with this was to ask your sister out?” He drew a spell circle over his eye, and Lilith watched the bruising start to fade.

Lilith’s head snapped towards him, nose wrinkled, before just groaning again. “That is a mental image I did not need, so I’m just going to pretend you never said that.” She leaned against the desk. “Now, I couldn’t get Captain Dariun to change her mind about denying your request for tomorrow, but I got your assignment changed from a trip to the Toes to guarding me on a research trip to the Bonesborough library.” Lilith finally let herself smile a little bit, “But I don’t see why you would have to spend the whole time with me, so tell your brother I said happy birthday.”

“I can’t thank you enough Lilith.” Steve pumped his fist before returning his attention to healing his eye.

“It’s the least I could do after your help with…filling in at the Conformatorium for these last few hours.” Lilith stood straight again, “I’m going back out on deck while you finish with that.”

Steve gave her a thumbs up with his free hand as she left. Lilith went to go stand next to the Golden Guard, enjoying the view of the night sky from the driver’s spot.

“Owlet and the others got away. Shame.” Golden Guard spoke, “And the confirmation of an organized rebellion is…troubling. I’ll report it to Lord Belos as soon as we get to the castle.”

Lilith only hummed at that.

Even after Steve came out onto the deck, the rest of the flight passed in silence.