Luz poked her head out from over the edge of the window to her room as her heart hammered in her ears. After all, she had been out with Amity for long enough that, even if Belos’ party ran super late they were probably home by now. She then snickered to herself at the idea of the two older women trying not to pass out at one of the tables before forcing herself to stop. She didn’t want to make a sound after all. Not when she was trying to avoid trouble tonight.

It was hard to be careful though when her heart still hummed from all of Amity’s kisses. While she felt as light as a feather from so much pressure and worry being lifted off of her shoulders. After all, not only were girls allowed to like each other here, her girl liked her. Liked every part of her. Liked how awkward and weird and-

Luz shook her head rapidly before she let out a squeal of happiness about it all. It was just so hard. After all, her mind was full of ideas of what could come next. Dating, cuddling, marriage, kids, dealing with debt, and a hundred other things that were way farther into the future than she should think about but couldn’t help but do so right now. Not when it all sounded so good.

In the present though, she slowly, quietly let herself down onto the floor without a sound. She then slipped her shoes off and put them to the side like she’d kicked them off to make it look more like she had been here the whole time, or at least hadn’t crawled in like a criminal, before she began working on getting undressed. She would look like the same, sprawled out mess as she always did in the morning and she’d claim she hadn’t gone anywhere, they must have just forgotten to check on her. It wasn’t even because she was afraid of them disapproving of Amity actually. Lilith was once her mentor after all. No, she just didn’t want to get in trouble for disappearing like she had and worrying Eda.

That was a little hard to do though when a voice suddenly broke the silence. “So, how did it go, hoot hoot? Lulu and I want to know all the details.”

Luz’s face burned as she turned around to face Hooty. She then slapped her hands over his beak and went, “Shh.” She then looked back at the door and breathed out a sigh of relief. It hadn’t burst in immediately so she was probably safe. Then again, Eda’s room was a little bit down the hall from hers so-

Bam! “There you are!”

Luz now felt the blood from her face drain away as she turned around. Indeed, Eda was standing there. She wasn’t in her sleep clothes though. She was still in the same outfit that she’d gone to the party in and the extra heavy bags under her eyes implied that she might be running on less sleep than usual. Or none. The sight made Luz feel like someone ran a spear through her heart before she tried to cover for it by scratching the back of her head and gave out a nervous giggle. “Oh, Eda. Uh, how good to see you. Did you do something new with your makeu-”

“Were you out with Amity?”

The two locked eyes for a moment before Luz looked away. “Um, uh, yes.” She then looked up and said, “I’m so sorry for not leaving a note or anythi-”

She was cut off by Eda wrapping her arms around her. Luz blinked a few times before her mentor began to speak. “I’m too tired to tease you too much, but I’m guessing it went well? After all,” Eda said as she moved back a little but didn’t let go of her student, “she likes you too or you do a better job joking while you’re in pain than I do!”

Luz’s cheeks burned at that before she swallowed hard. “You… You knew?”

“Kid, you two were so obvious that you’d have to be blind in order to miss it.”

======+++++======

“Achoo!”

Boscha sat up, looked around as her body calmed down from sneezing itself awake, and then laid back down so she could get some more sleep.

======+++++======

Luz whimpered a little at that before biting her cheek and asking, “So… You’re okay with me and Amity being together?”

Eda was quiet for a few moments before stepping back. She then held up her hand and whistled slightly. There was a clatter of something before her staff slid into view, pulled to her by its inherent magic. The older woman then stepped to the side so that instead of to her hand, it flew straight at Luz. The energetic girl let out a small shriek before catching it at the last second. Her hands were then covered by Eda’s before the two locked eyes once again.

“Kid, I won’t say that this worries me. That I think someone as all high and mighty as that mess of issues isn’t going to someday hurt you. That she doesn’t quite fit for being one of us weirdos.” Eda gave Luz a wink before sighing. “But it takes a lot of guts to do something like this regardless and I’m not about to stop you. In fact,” she said as she stepped away and took her hands off of the staff, “I want to make sure that if anything tries to stop you now, you can take them. Even without your sigils.”

Luz was silent for a second before her eyes widened. She then looked at the end of the staff where Owlbert sat. The palisman shifted into being the small owl she knew so well before hopping onto her shoulder. They then gave out a small hoot and cuddled against Luz’s cheek before hopping back onto their place on the staff. The stunned girl then looked back at Eda and mumbled, “Your staff…”

Eda shook her head as she stepped into the doorway. “No. It’s all yours now, kid, for being so brave. Besides, I’m going to be you’re going to need all the help you can when it comes to Amity and Owlbert has never been too bad with the ladies.” She then gave out a bark of laughter and turned to leave.

“Thank you, Eda. This means the world to me.”

Eda stopped just out of sight of her student before she shut her eyes. Her body shuddered as she tried to keep it cool. Her dumb kid was growing up though. Was moving forward. One day it’d be moving on, regardless of if she was staying in the Isles or not. Owlbert… Owlbert would hopefully at least make sure she remembered who gave her the chance at all of this in the first place. That she owed Eda something. Like a visit. Just every now and then.

She looked up as a hand touched her shoulder. Eda caught her sister’s smile but it was the last straw as she broke down into quiet tears and the two pulled each other back to the privacy of their room. After all, they didn’t want to disturb Luz’s smile. Not tonight. Not when she had so much to be happy about and these older women’s greatest pain tonight was that the good news meant the best for someone they didn’t want to let go of.