Chapter 42

Not for the first time that day, Amity looked down at her beloved girlfriend. Luz was sick, and though it scared Amity to death she couldn't help but... Taking care of Luz when she was sick was one of the first things she imagined doing as Luz's girlfriend.

Luz had been in and out of consciousness all day after falling ill the previous night, and when she was awake she was somewhat delirious but right now, she was resting peacefully. The last time she was conscious she'd played with Echo Mouse for a bit and the mouse when prompted by the silly song Luz sang played a portion of Phillips's diary and Amity had to promise to send a warning to Eda and King, who were off questing on Luz's behalf after what was in all likelihood the immediately preceding diary entry gave them a lead. Luz has had to be wrestled back into bed after that first entry. Even without using her powers, Luz was deceptively strong.

But, after that promise, and after taking out her scroll to send the message, Luz had relaxed and fallen back asleep. Stringbean had assumed a form akin to a living stuffed animal and was being held in Luz's arms, periodically letting out hisses that Ghost had translated for Amity as contentment at providing comfort to her witch in her witch's time of need. Stringbean was such a wholesome palisman.

Luz's phone went off. Luz was too deep in sleep to notice it, yet, but Amity answered it anyway just in case. It's not like it was all that different from a scroll when you think about it.

"Mija, are you alright?" came the voice of Luz's mother. "You were supposed to call me this morning."

"Luz isn't feeling all too well right now, Señora Noceda," Amity replied. "She's been asleep most of the day."

"Amity? What's wrong? Is she alright?"

"She has... Well, it started last night... Has she told you how the plan to remove her Coven Sigil has been going?"

"That you've been feeding magic stuff to her alien side, like with the Titan Blood, to try and overcome it from the inside," Luz's mother replied. "I'm not sure I like that idea, but I guess it's better than flaying the skin off her arm."

"Well, I was able to... Convince someone with connections to supply me with some Titan Bone," Amtiy explained. A little globule, only a teaspoon or two, of a rich and dark purplish blue substance that glowed faintly in the dark. "And they delivered yesterday so last night we got everyone together to give Luz the and well, Titan Bone is the marrow of the Titan, it's almost as potent as the blood so... Her reaction was pretty bad." Amity would never be able to unhear Luz's screams. But, she didn't lose consciousness and was able to get a heavy-duty pain potion down. "But she was fine afterward... Until she wasn't. She started rapidly developing symptoms and... Dr. Nosa," it was still so weird that Tinella Nosa of all demons had graduated medical school, "ran some quick tests... She thinks that Luz was exposed to spores of the common mold at some point in the last few days and that the severe stress of her sigil's reaction compromised her immune system just enough for the spores to take root and spread."

"The common mold?" Luz's mother asked.

"It's a fungal infection. It causes congestion, chills, fever, headache, delirium..." Amity wracked her head for any symptoms she missed. "It's not normally all that big a deal, most witches are over it in a day, but there's no cure and we've got no idea if it might react oddly to Luz's biology. I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm scared, but... Her symptoms are progressing normally so far, she's sleeping peacefully now, and her doctor's scans say her body is recovering and fighting it off well so..."

"Gracias a Dios por las pequeñas bendiciones."

"Sí, gracias al Titán," Amity replied.

"Your Spanish is coming along well, Amity."

"Thank you," Amity replied. "Luz says I should be fluent enough to hold a casual conversation in a few weeks."

"Could you let me talk to Eda, if Luz is out?"

"Eda's not here right now," Amity explained. "We found a diary entree that gave us a lead on where we could find some Titan Blood, a place called Eclipse Lake up on the Knee, and the only way to stop Luz from rushing off to get it despite her condition was for Eda to agre and get it for her." Amity sighed. "Silly, wreckless, Luz. I'd complain but that kind of thing is part of what I love about her."

"Same."

"My first instinct was to volunteer to go as well but, well, that was old Amity talking." Amity sighed. "I was raised to see everything as an opportunity to prove myself... More like to justify my right to exist, really, and that all interactions were transactional. At first, when we started dating instincts were to do everything in my power to prove that I deserved Luz's love but... Looking at it in hindsight, I wasn't thinking of myself as Luz's partner: I was thinking of myself as a servant and Luz as my master and..." Amity took a moment to breathe. "She was quick to break me out of that. And I've grown, I understand now that that's not a healthy mindset, that I need to think of myself as equal to her if I want to do right by her. I've got nothing to prove, she loves me regardless and I love her the same."

"Well put," Camila observed. "I can't get over just how much more mature and confident Luz sounds when I talk to her. It's clear that you've both been good influences on each other."

Amity laughed. "I can't take credit for Luz's growth. She's had a lot of positive influences and a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. Your daughter is an amazing person and we're all lucky here to have met her."

Amity could hear Camila hmm on the other end of the phone before she changed the subject. "So if Eda is out... You're not watching Luz alone are you?"

"Well Gus, Willow, and Hooty are all still here and are supposed to be helping, but they got distracted going through Eda's collection of music tracks from the human realm... They were supposed to be looking for something to help Luz relax but the last time I went down there they were playing a rap album over the ambiance of a hail storm on a tin roof." Amity paused for a moment. "I think I'll stick with rock music."

At that moment Ghost padded into the room and let out a series of "Mows" that Amity understood as "I succeded in getting Clover's attention and she convinced her witch to return to the task at hand, preventing the soup pot from boiling over, but Emmaline is just as excitable as her witch and as always I fear that approaching the eldritch monstrosity that is the door may result in it devouring me." The palisman then approached for ear scritches, which Amity happily gave with her free hand.

"Okay, Ghost just said that Willow's back on track so there's that. And um... There was a second diary entry. The mines leading to Eclipse Lake are full of fools' blood, which is a dangerous Titan Blood derivative. I messaged Eda and while she hasn't replied, the notes say she's read it so they'll probably be back soon. Worst case scenario, if Luz takes a turn for the worse, I can call Lilith. If it's an emergency she'll be here in a heartbeat. Otherwise, all we can do is wait for Luz to ride it out."

Amity looked back at her sleeping girlfriend and, for a moment, wondered what she might be dreaming of.

TLOA

Luz found herself floating somewhere dark. As she blinked her eyes open, she realized she was lying on the surface of a body of black liquid in a dark but vaguely green-orange-tinted space. Little cube things were floating up and down.

The liquid under her felt solid, as weird as that was to say, but when she tried to sit up she found that she didn't have the strength to do so, forcing her to just lay back floating.

"Okay," she asked herself, "Where am I?"

"The Realm In Between," came a voice from all around her. It was vaugly familiar. A deep and powerful voice, but also warm and gentle.

"Your voice sounds like the way a good hug feels," Luz observed. She should be scared, but... Something about the voice's tone made her feel safe.

"Why thank you," the voice replied, "that's the best compliment that I've ever received."

"So, what exactly is the Realm In Between?"

"It's exactly what it sounds like, a realm in between... Well, a lot of things. The Human Realm and the Demon Realm. Reality and Dream. Life and Death."

Luz blinked. "Am I dead? Did I die? I'm not the only person to ever die of the common mold, am I?"

"No no no no," the voice reassured her. "You're perfectly fine. I've been wanting to talk to you for quite a while, Luz Noceda. There's something to a connection between us, Luz, and right now you're just the right amount of delirious and deep asleep that I was able to tug on it and bring your conscience here. You'll wake up no worse for wear soon enough."

"Okay, that's good to know... But, a connection?" Luz asked.

"Not a strong one," the voice said in a reassuring tone. "If it was a little stronger I could manifest my spirit to you and have this conversation face to face instead of the omnipresent voice schtick but we'll have to make do with what we have."

"Okay but... How do I have a connection with you?" Luz asked. "Who are you?"

"Well, to answer your first question, to start with you've been passively absorbing my power since you first stepped through the Portal all those months ago. I think you can guess the answer to the second question from there."

That left Luz if anything more confused until the gears in her head clicked into place and started trying. Then her heart skipped a beat. "Oh, Titan!"

"Oh, me!" the voice, the voice of The Titan, replied playfully.

"Oh, um... I'm sorry about the... Power stealing thing, Mister The Titan Sir."

The Titan gave a heart, deep-bellied laugh. "Don't worry about it. Even after my spirit passes on my body will continue to produce potent magic in abundance so long as even a shard of bone remains. Even if it didn't, the amount of my magic you've taken so far... Well, no offense but it's a bit like a mosquito sucking on the toe of a dinosaur."

"What about um... the humors, Mister Titan Sir?" Luz asked.

"I'm dead, Luz. Not all the way, but any chance I had of coming back to life has long passed. My flesh and blood and bone and bile... It's just meat. I'm glad that new creatures were born from my body, that they live on me, that they found use in what I left behind. And even if I wasn't... I can't think of a single greater use of the power left in my flesh to help a child in need. Use it."

"Are... Do the glyphs, um..."

"The Glyphs are mine, yes. Every Titan had their own symbol for the four primary elements, forming their own language of magic. If someone else manages to learn them, then they can use the glyphs to cast magic by drawing on the power of the Titan the glyphs came from."

"...Did you... Let me find them?" Luz asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you wanted to learn magic," the Titan replied as if it was obvious.

"That's it?" Luz asked

"That's it," the Titan replied. "While there are some things I'd appreciate it if you could take care of for me, well, chances were those were going to happen anyway—and that's not a prophecy thing, that's just a common sense thing—I gave you a chance to find my glyphs because I saw you and how you interacted with the people on the isles. A kind, friendly young woman who... Maybe needed a little guidance, but whose heart was in the right place and who looked upon everything in this world with wonder." The Titan asked. "I figured you deserved a fair shot. I'll admit, I was a bit more hands-on with making sure you had a chance to find the Light and Fire glyphs than I would have liked but well, those were emergencies... And putting the Ice Glyph in Eda's freezer was sort of a freebie."

"A freebie?"

"My plan had been to let you find it in a snowflake up on the Knee but after you and Amity got lost, well, fire was more important. But you found the Plant glyph entirely by yourself," The Titan finished. "And you've been figuring out combos really fast. In just a couple of years, you might memorize them all."

"Thank you," Luz. "For letting me find the glyphs and, for... Everything else."

"Believe it or not I haven't done that much," the Titan replied. "Sure, I let you find my glyphs but you did still have to make the connections and find them. You figured out how to use them on your own, you figured out the combos on your own, it's your own power that let you take in mine, from the air around you and from my humors. And you've been working very hard to make the most of the power you had and the power you've gained. You've actually been crediting me with a few things I haven't done," the Titan continued. "Your magic coming in when it did had nothing to do with that prayer."

"Yeah?"

"Truth be told, I don't really... Care for being worshipped or prayed to," the Titan explained. "I mean, I am what your people would call a god, an Elder God at that, but... So were all the rest of my people. It's just normal for us. I don't mind being praised or thanked on those times when I can exert enough of my remaining power to push a boiling rainstorm away from a city or the like, but that cult that Belos established? Urg, if I still had skin it would be crawling."

"So he is lying?" Luz asked.

"Through his teeth," the Titan answered. "Believe it or not I did try to talk to him once, but if he heard me he wasn't listening. He's just using my name to justify hurting people. Witch's and biped demons are supposed to mix the nine main magics and the elemental magics that anyone can use, together to find the ideal combination that's best for them. Even if it's just to make whichever of the main nine you like best a little stronger. Belos has convinced people that doing that will damage their souls and is using those blasted sigils to keep them too weak to properly rebel. Not to mention outright stealing magic bit by bit, piece by piece, from everyone so marked."

"Why? What does he get out of it? Other than power?" Luz asked.

"...It's better if you find all that out on your own," The Titan replied. "Suffice to say, he's a very small man with a very big ego to feed."

"Okay... Now, you said you'd been wanting to talk to me... About what?"

"It has to do with... Well, the nature of your powers."

Luz hummed. "Yeah, I'll be honest I'm not super happy about that. After the stuff with Adeghast, I decided that I wanted to become a with the hard way and... I'm happy with the magic I have but part of me is worried that I'm taking without earning."

"You been in Eda's homemade apple blood?" Came the Titan's voice. "Power isn't really something you earn or deserve, for one. It just sort of happens as the consequence of something else. But, in so far as such things can be earned you are more than putting in the work."

"But—"

"No buts," the Titan interrupted, "you were born with the potential to develop certain abilities, those abilities began to manifest upon contact with the ambient power around my body, and now that they have matured they give you certain advantages that would allow you to acquire more power quickly. Some would tell you that this is unfair and... To an extent, they have a point, but the world is rather flawed. Unless and until someone can create a perfect world, nothing will ever be completely fair. Your life, from what I've seen, hasn't exactly been very fair prior to coming to the demon realm, for example." The Titan paused, as if gathering his thoughts, "But, to get back to the point, you're not... Abusing your power. You're not just going around glutinously consuming sources of magic power for your own gain and getting by solely on that. The first few uses were by accident, and now you're only taking in what you need. You're using your advantages as a tool, and you acknowledge that they are advantages."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged.

"Think of it like with money: In a perfect world, either everyone would be rich or no one would be, depending on your perspective, because everyone would be prospering. But the world isn't perfect, so some people have more than others. Do you hold Amity's wealth against her?"

"No, of course not," Luz said defensively.

"Because she doesn't care for it," the Titan continued. "She doesn't think her family's money makes her better than anyone else, she has the same interests as the average teenage witch. While she's had some advantages due to her family's position, she's also had some setbacks and for the most part her success is the result of her efforts and I get the feeling that she's going to pay it forward. Compare this to her mother, who at some point got the idea that having a good head for business and marrying into money made her better than everyone else and who has mostly gotten by on manipulation and the exploitation of others. Your symbiote powers put you in a similar position, being able to consume things to increase your power gives you an advantage, but you're more like Amity than you are Odalia and I am certain that once you've mastered the power you have, and that you'll gain, that you're going to do great things with it."

"Thank you," Luz replied. "It means a lot to hear that, even if it wasn't a big concern."

"No, the thing is... Okay, let me start by asking you... Do you know the difference between White and Black Magic?"

"One's good and one's evil, right?" Luz replied.

"Not quite," the Titan replied, "You're thinking of Dark Magic and Light Magic. White Magic is clean, it involves raw energy and invocations of higher powers. White Magicians live apart from the world as they interact with it. Black magic is more... Visceral. Vulgar. It's magic that works with life and death, flesh and blood. Black Magicians live in the world as they work with it, and so are changed in turn as they change it."

"So... I'm guessing that... The confusion comes because Black Magic is more... Icky?"

"That and there's a greater temptation to exploit others for your own gain," The Titan confirmed. "When you could theoretically use a person as a battery, it can get easy to see people as batteries."

"Okay, so... My powers have something to do with..." Gears turned in her head. "The demon realm... That's all Black magic. All the magic here is bound up in organs and fluids, even the magic in the air is produced by your body. And I'm taking all of that in me so..."

"Very good, Luz," the Titan praised. "In the demon realm, it's just magic, but by the greater classifications of the cosmos everyone here is a black mage though since their biology is built around it it's not readily apparent. Also, do keep in mind that in nature there are no binaries: When you use my glyphs you're taking pure energy from a higher power, me. So that makes it White magic, but the energy comes from my body so that makes it Black. Sometimes it's not that easy to put just one label on something."

"Don't I know it," Luz mumbled.

"Now I tell you that to provide context... Have you heard the term 'King in Black?'"

"Yeah, wasn't that the name of the like, God of the Symbiotes? Didn't Venom kill him over the summer?"

One of the cubes floated over her face and lit up revealing a man with blue skin, a fanged mouth, and white hair.

"Knull," the Titan said, "He is... A King in Black. The King in Black of your dimension. But the position of King in Black exists in other universes and... Well, someone either becomes a King in Black by inheriting the position... Or being appointed it by the Celestials."

"So it's a job?" Luz asked. "Like... Like the Sorcerer Supreme?"

"Kind f, yes. Going back to speculating to a perfect world: Knull and Earth's Sorcerer Supreme should have been colleagues. A King in Black's job is to use life and the living to defend and maintain the multiverse from within much as it is the job of Earth's Sorcerer Supreme to defend your home reality from extradimensional threats. And, like Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, it's a tough job. Knull accepted the power, but rejected the responsibility and tapped into dark sources, channeling his control over life into a fragment of the Anti-All, creating from that font of primal anti-life the Living Abyss that his spawn are born from and with it shaped weapons to kill the Celestials and other divine and cosmic beings to steal their powers."

The image on the face of the cube changed, however, to silhouettes of massive creatures wanding across continents and wading through the boiling sea.

"Which brings us to the Demon Realm. You see, the Celestials believed they'd made a mistake. In appointing sole responsibility to your dimension on one individual. So they experimented here, in a dimension where raw, wild magic was more plentiful. Just like they did with life on your planet, they guided the course of evolution in the Demon Realm until my people were born," the Titan finished. "An entire race of beings who embodied life and nature itself, who even dead generate life and magic in abundance."

"The Titans were... A whole race of Kings in Black?" Luz asked.

"Yes," the Titan replied. "Which brings us back to you. You have the Living Abyss in your system. A portion of it is part of you. And Knull created it to channel the Anti-Life's abilities to corrupt and consume to steal powers, especially those of gods, hence it reacting to the ambient magic around my body and waking up. At first, your powers were almost antithetical to my own, hence my glyphs exploding and causing magical backlash when you used them in conjunction with your anti-life aura."

A thought occurred to Luz. "...About that backlash... Amity's not gonna have heart problems or anything in like thirty years because of that, is she?"

"Trust me, she should be fine," The Titan reassured. "Now, once your powers fully matured and you manifested your proper symbiote-hybrid nature, however... Well, then the power theft part started. As soon as that happened my ambient magic started feeding the evolution of that side of you, and there came a chance that..."

"I'm... Part spawn of a King in black," Luz connected, "and I'm absorbing the powers of a different King in Black, so... Am I going to be a King in black? Well, Queen."

"Sort of, you had the chance to gain that power... But as soon as you absorbed some of my blood, it became certain. Whether it happens tomorrow or in a hundred years, you will have the power of a Queen in Black. Whether you turn out more like me, Like Knull, or something else entirely... That's all in the air."

"Do... Do you want me to take over for you?"

"Oh heavens no!" The titan denied. "I mean, if you want to assume that responsibility I won't stop you, but it's a tough job and, like I said, the fact that the King in Black of your dimension had to do it alone might be why he went bad. In the prime of Titan civilization, there were so many of us that we basically got the job done by just existing. Even dead, the fact that our bones remain and still generate magic means that part of the job is done. And my child still lives. When he is grown he'll have children of his own, and so forth."

"...So do Titans reproduce asexually?" Luz found herself asking. "And... Take a really, really long time to grow up?"

"Yes and yes."

"But... What wiped you out in the first place?" Luz asked. "How do you know it won't happen again?"

"I mentioned Black and White Magic before going on a lecture on the nature of the Kings in Black," The Titan said.

Luz filled in the blanks. "...There are Kings in White, aren't there?"

"Yes. Beings of pure cosmic energy who exist beyond the planes of conventional reality and who protect and maintain the cosmos via the use of pure energies and direct manipulation of the narrative of existence. A race of beings you might have heard of, Luz," the Titan said, "tell me, what do you know about The Beyonders?"

"They're the people who invented the Cosmic Cubes and that bad things happen when they get too interested in what goes on on Earth," was Luz's rathered concerned response.

"I'm glad that you mentioned the Cubes, because that's an important part of the story. You see, that's how they make more of themselves. The Cube contains the same energy the Beyonders are composed of, eventually, it becomes self-aware and becomes a being in its own right, and then the resulting Cube Beings eventually mature into full Beyonders."

The image on the cube above Luz changed to a glowing blue cube crashing into and shattering against cold, barren earth. It was left in four large pieces, and one very small one.

"A Cosmic Cube was lost in this dimension and broken," the Titan explained. "There was no life on the planet where it ended up, as its atmosphere was too thin to shield it from the light and heat of the star it closely orbited. But, like many things in this dimension, that same star was saturated with powerful wild magic. Its light mixed with and altered the cosmic energies in the remains of the shattered Cube, and gave birth to... Well, they called themselves Collectors and Archivists."

The image changed to five figures, all shredded in the moon and star-themed pajama-like robes. Four of them were inhumanly tall, towering over the fifth whose proportions were more like a human child.

"These, for lack of a better term, Starborn Cube Beings somehow instinctively understood that the purpose of the Beyonders was to preserve life... But they took it a little too literally," The Titan said. "They would seal away living beings so that they would never die... But took sadistic pleasure in the act of hunting them down to archive them and if a creature sare resisted they'd exterminate all life on their planet themselves."

"That's horrible," was all Luz could say.

"At some point," the Titan continued, "they came to the Demon Realm to archive some of the oldest and earliest species demons... And discovered that my people were more powerful than them. And that, through some strange quirk of fate, our magic could negate theirs completely. So they used trickery, deception, and manipulation to kill my people starting with our children."

"...There are words I want to say right now but my Mom would be really angry with me if she found out I said them," was what Luz said dangerously calm.

"It got to the point that it was just me and my youngest, yet-to-be-hatched child left," The Titan finished. "After I hid my child away, I made absolutely certain that the Archivists would never be able to hurt him or anyone else ever again. There is one Archivist left, he's... Not a threat and the rest can never return."

"Okay," Luz replied, "so... I don't have to worry about that I guess."

"Which brings me back to the topic at hand," The Titan said somewhat apologetically. "That took longer to explain than I thought it The reason I wanted to talk to you, Luz the Human, is that... As I said, whether you assume the responsibilities of the role or not, sooner or later you will be a Queen in Black. And there's someone out there who is looking to exploit you for your powers. I don't know who, my ability to see things outside of this realm is limited and they're using dark magic to obscure themselves from me, but... Be careful, and keep an eye out for suspicious beings as your power grows."

"Okay, I guess," Luz replied. "I'll keep that in mind and... Wow, um..." She suddenly felt like she was fading. "What's happening?"

"You're waking up," The Titan said. "Until we meet again, Luz. Hopefully next time I'll be able to manifest to you properly."

The next thing Luz knew she was jolting awake. She blinked a few times and felt at her head as she sat up, feeling something was off about her scalp and...

...There were mushrooms on her head.

"I wonder if this is permanent?" She mused to herself.

"It's not," came Amity's voice prompting Luz to look over.

"Oh, hey Amity," Luz greeted with a smile. "So is this normal?"

"Yeah," her girlfriend replied. "It means you're passed the worst of it and you'll be okay. Here, let me," Amity then reached out and sort of ruffled Luz's hair with two hands, making all the mushrooms fall right off. "There. How are you feeling?"

"Hungry and like I need a shower," Luz replied. "Preferably in that order."

"Okay," Amity said. "Willow made some soup for you. Do you need help getting up?"

"No," Luz said as she climbed out of bed. Stringbean, no longer needed on Teddy Duty, resumed snake form and floated up by Luz's shoulder, rattling "Yay, my witch is okay!"

"Your mom called while you were asleep," Amity explained on the way downstairs. "I explained what was going on but she'll probably want you to call her back."

"Okay," Luz acknowledged. "I had the weirdest dream. I was floating on top of a black lake and I was talking to the Titan. He told me about my powers, the history of the demon realm, and some cosmological stuff. He was nice."

"That's good to hear," Amity replied.

As they got downstairs the door swung open and King scrambled in. He took one look at Luz, shouted "Luz!" and bolted to her for a hug as Eda, in Harpy form, struggled to get in through the door.

After the hug, which was "too tight, too tight!" King gives a summation of how the quest went.

"The bad news is, all the Titan Blood at the lake is dried up," he explained. "The good news is, we might have a new brother."

"Huh?" Luz asked, confused.

"Well I couldn't just leave him there," Eda said as she finally got through the door and revealed that she had a figure dressed in a coven scout uniform over her shoulders like a sack of potatoes. "Poor guy was digging his own grave when we found him," she finished as she sat the figure on the couch. A red cardinal who was familiar to Luz started buzzing around them.

"Oh hey, Little Rascal," she noted.

"His name is Flapjack," the figure said with a bit of pretentious petulance, prompting Luz to glance at him and get a good look.

"Oh, hey Hunter."