Chapter 47

Amity ran up the path as fast as she could. This was... This was... Terrible feelings were bubbling inside her and she needed to talk with someone to sort them out. She needed her Luz.

Barely paying Hooty any mind as she burst through the door, she found Luz kneeling on the living room floor furiously sketching at something.. And then Amity was hit with a wave of regret and anxiety and some complex form of sadness that snapped her to her senses. "Luz? Are you alright?"

Luz, noting Amity's presence, quickly said "Yeah, I'm fine, just..."

"I don't think she is," said a masculine voice and Amty took note that Hunter was on the couch, messing with a scroll and taking a picture of his palisman as the cardinal seemingly slept atop a bunched-up sweater. "She's been weirdly hyperfocused and productive all morning and said something about missing out on some sort of annual ritual she does with her mother. Ah, shoot. I meant to send that to Willow... Well, Gus will probably appreciate it too."

"Look, today's gonna be a bad day for me," Luz admitted, "but I talked with Mami, she understands, and... I just need to keep busy so I don't think about it. I've already discovered a couple of new glyph combos, gone back over all my notes on how the portal door works, and I think I've got a few healing spells down pat."

"Healing spells?" Amity asked.

"Well now that I have a bile sack and can do the nine main magics I got to thinking about um... I want to learn and master them all, obviously, but you've gotta start somewhere," Luz explained, "So when I was trying to prioritize I ended up thinking about how my life's been going lately and figured 'yeah, I'm probably gonna need this' so..." Luz finished by waving her hand.

Thinking back to all the fights and adventures they'd been in in the last few months, it occurred to Amity that Luz made an excellent point.

"She took a break while practicing the spells to practice palm reading," Hunter interrupted. "On me. She's not a very good oracle."

"I'm a great oracle!" Luz defended. "I can predict the weather months in advance with tea leaves."

"You predicted that I'm going to learn a horrible family secret some time in the next fortnight," Hunter deadpanned. "Explain how that's supposed to happen when I'm not living anywhere near my only living relative?"

"It could happen," Luz insisted.

"Stick to tea leaves," Hunter quipped.

"So, Amity... You wanted to talk about something?" Luz asked while turning back to her.

"...You're sure you're okay?" Amity asked uncertainly.

"I'm going to be fine," Luz insisted. "Now tell me your problem so I can see if I can help."

"Well, it started when... Today's the day of the Bonesborough Brawl," Amity began. "I've always wanted to enter and this year I'm finally old enough."

"What's that?" Luz asked.

"A tournament," Amity explained. "Witches and demons from all over the county meet up and duke it out with magic and martial arts in a series of matches to prove once and for all who the best fighter around is. My Dad was the Champion once when he was younger and... it's like the coolest thing he ever did in his life. I... I want to understand him better. I want to be like him, just a little bit, and... Anyway, I went to talk to him about entering and, maybe him coming down to watch me fight, and..."

"He said no?" Luz asked.

"No, I never even got to ask him," Amity continued. "As soon as I approached him he stopped working completely," which meant that things were serious, "and said that he had something very important to talk to me about, and... And..."

Tears welled up in Amity's eyes and she tried to force herself to calm down and... Luz had grabbed Amity's wrist, which was halfway raised to her mouth. Well, that was embarrassing. She hadn't tried to bite herself since making up with Willow.

"Amity, what's wrong?" Luz asked.

"My parents are getting a divorce," Amity choked out.

Luz responded by pulling Amity into a hug. "That's rough. Are you okay?"

"...No," Amity admitted. "I... I hate my mother but... She's still my mother. I never thought that, that she and my Dad would..."

Luz patted Amity on the back. "Did he say anything else?"

"No, no... I sort of ran off after he told me," Amity admitted. "I can't process this, I... I need..."

"A healthy distraction?" Luz suggested.

"Like King suggested for you?" Hunter observed.

"Quiet, peanut gallery," Luz deadpanned.

"A distraction..." Amity mused... Yeah, something that would keep her occupied all day. She could deal with this mess later. Tomorrow. Today, she'd... "Like entering the Brawl?"

"If that's what you want to do," Luz replied, "then let's do it."

TLOA

This was going so much better than Amity had expected. In the ring, no one else had stood a chance against 'The Might Mittens.' Not when she had her wits, her grit, and her Preciosa amada acting as both her personal cheering section and patching her up after each match.

Honestly, the hardest part was... Luz had briefly considered entering the brawl herself but realized Amity would need someone to heal her and decided to fill the role herself which naturally precluded being a competitor... But she'd already assembled a combat outfit, involving fingerless gloves, a sports jacket Eda had gifted Luz which the older witch had gotten from her days as the star of Hexside's grudgby team, and messing up her hair a little bit which had, well... Gotten Amity's heart racing even as Luz began to gush over how "pretty" the outfit Amity had assembled out of some of Eda's unsold human clothes was.

Amity had been quite pleased when Luz had elected not to change out of the "Spellraiser" outfit despite no longer planning to compete.

The tournament was winding down, and only the final round remained. If she won here, if she beat this one last opponent, then she'd be the Champion. She'd bring home the belt. Just like her Dad.

An alarm tone went off and Amity turned to Luz as the bad feelings Luz had been radiating earlier pulsed again. "What was that?"

"Nothing, just... Just a reminder for the thing," Luz dismissed. "It's totally not a big deal, just... Focus on winning right now, Mi campeona para ser."

"Are you sure?" Amity asked.

"Yeah," Luz insisted. "Look, it looks like they're getting ready for the last match," Luz said while pointing to the ring. "Go get'em, Hermosa," Luz commanded while planting a kiss on Amity's cheek.

Semi-Reluctantly, Amity marched off to take her position.

Breathe in, breathe out. Luz was fine. Luz knew well that if she had problems she could just tell Amity. She had this match in the bag. She'd win. She'd get her belt. Then she could spend the rest of the afternoon with Luz, and focus on her own problems tomorrow.

"For the final round!" the announcer declared, "we have the fresh young competitor who has won the assorted organs of the crowd with her tenacity, I present the Mighty Mittens!"

The crowd cheered for her. It wasn't the first time she'd been cheered on by a crowd, but it was the first time where it was both all for her and something she could be proud of. And as such, she made her entrance with pride.

"And her opponent," the announcer continued, "our reigning champion... The mighty... the muscular... the menacing... Warden Wrath!"

Wrath entered the arena, in his work uniform sans mask, and made a show of handing last year's belt off to one of the coven guards who worked with him, who seemed to be his entourage for the event. He then exhaled a gout of fire into the air as he took his position.

Again the crowd cheered, though a very deep voice "Go Daddy!" cut through much of the generic cheering indicating that Braxas was here. A sweet kid, despite who his father was, Amity adjusted her plans to make sure she didn't beat Wrath too badly if his son was watching and... What was that?

From where she left Luz, not even a second after Braxas had shouted... All of the bad feelings that had been radiation off of Luz all day just spiked tenfold and weren't going down. From the corner of her eye, Amity saw Luz suddenly bolt for the woods.

"And... Begin!" The announcer shouted, snapping Amity's attention back to the fight.

Amity's first thought was to forfeit, it was pretty clear that Luz was not okay, and addressing that was more important than some stupid belt. There was always next year.

However, just as she opened her mouth to announce her surrender she was tackled to the ground by a very large biped demon who was clearly expecting to earn his victory... But Amity's priorities had changed and the fact that she had to do this the hard way made her blood and bile boil.

She transformed, and with a single slimey punch sent Wrath flying off over her and then deformed and reformed herself to get up before shifting back to flesh just in time to see the demon land... Outside of the ring. Well, okay then.

"...Mother of Titan was that fast," the announcer declared. "It seems that our New Champion was saving her A-Game for the final round! Witches and Demons, winning by ring out, I present our new Champion the Mighty Mittens."

She was presented with this year's championship belt and was made to take a picture with it held above her head before it was fitted to her and then the crowd swarmed the ring as people congratulated her. From the corner of her eye, she saw Warth get up and she could have sworn she heard him say 'I'll get you next year,' before grabbing his son and stalking off but all she wanted to do was get done with this...

Eventually, she got fed up with it enough to summon Ghost and fly off. People would probably talk about that, but whatever was wrong with Luz was more important.

Following the feelings Luz was leading off like a beacon, Amity eventually found her sitting back against a tree in a clearing and landed so that she could walk up to her.

Luz looked up and very quickly wiped tears from her eyes. "H-hey Amity. S-sorry for running off like that. I got something in my eye and didn't want to make a scene," Luz shakily lied through her teeth. She looked at Amity's waist and saw the championship belt. "Oh, great. You won," she tried to congratulate. "I knew you could do it."

"I had to, Wrath wouldn't let me quit."

"Why would you quit?" Luz asked while suddenly adding panic to the bad feelings radiating off of her.

Amity sighed. "Luz, what's wrong?"

"Nothing," Luz insisted.

"Luz," Amity began. "My ab... My mutant power," with how.. Uncomfortable Amity was and, to a degree, still was with the revelation that witches were a subset of humans and that the official history of the origin of her species was wrong, well, admitting that she was one of these mutants would probably drive home exactly how serious she as right now. "You've been feeling bad all day, I know you have, and you've been acting a little off all day. I tried to ignore it because you said you were okay, but you're clearly not. You don't have to tell me what the problem is if you don't want to," Amity reassured while thinking back to how Luz didn't pry about Boscha the other day. "But I know that there is a problem, and I want to help, so please be honest with me."

Luz sighed. "Okay. You're right, I just... There's not really anything anyone can do and I didn't want people to worry." She took out her phone and handed it to Amity. "Check the alert."

Amity did so and got a message that read 'Gravesfield Graveyard with Mom, 5 PM.'

"It happened a long time ago and, it's totally not a big deal but... today is the anniversary of the day that," Luz began only for something to catch in her throat. "The day that my Dad... Passed away."

Amity was stunned, and could only look at Luz with a feeling of horror that that was what Luz had been trying to downplay all day.

"When, when he was alive, my Dad would always give me and my mom flowers on our birthdays," Luz continued. "And, after he... died, Mami and I would... Pick flowers and visit his grave and spend the day together but... I'm not with her, and I don't have any flowers." Luz swallowed. "And... I called my Mom this morning, and... She understands that this isn't my fault, and she says that Papi would understand but... That doesn't make me feel better."

"...Luz, I'm sorry," Amity said after a moment. "I just came in and dumped my problems on you when..."

"No," Luz said with a sniff. "Your problems are just as important as mine. And I wanted to help you, especially after what you said about, wanting to be like your dad, to have that... If I can't have that connection with my Dad, I want to make sure you can have it with yours..."

"I appreciate that," Amity replied, "but you have a bad habit of putting others before yourself." Like right now. Amity's parents might be splitting up but... In comparison... "If you want to help me, the best thing you can do is let me help you."

"There's not anything you can do, Amity," Luz answered. "I just... I need to keep busy is all."

"There's plenty I can do," Amity insisted. She animated Ghost and then sat down next to Luz. Pulling her girlfriend into optimal cuddle-while-sitting position, she beckoned Ghost to hop up on Luz's lap. "Summon Stringbean."

"Okay." Luz dutifully summoned her staff and allowed the palisman atop it to animate. Immediately the snake floated up to Luz's face and gave a concerned rattle. "I'm fine, Beany," Luz replied. "Just having a bad day."

Stringbean, being a good palisman, clearly did not believe a word Luz said. She quickly assumed an otter-like form and joined Ghost in snuggling up on Luz's lap.

"Okay," Amity began. "Luz... You're so strong, in so many ways. In a lot of ways you're stronger than I could ever be."

"Amity...?" Luz replied a little bashfully.

"But one thing I've learned from you... It's that you don't have to be strong all the time," Amity finished. "That it's okay to be yourself, to let yourself be vulnerable, to... Feel. If anything is a good reason for you to be... Not okay, this is. You don't have to bottle it all up."

"...I don't want people to worry," Luz replied. "I mean, it's not a—"

"It is a big deal," Amity interrupted. "You wouldn't be hurting this much if it wasn't. And we worry because we love you." This wasn't working, she needed to change strategies. "Tell me more about your dad."

Luz sniffed again. "He... He was always supportive. He was quick to praise my art, he taught me how to draw all sorts of things, and he was always willing to listen when I wanted to talk."

"He sounds like he was a great dad," Amity replied.

"Yeah. He.. He was an EMT with paramedic training," Luz continued. "That um... He drove an ambulance. Do you know what that is? It's kind of like the rescue griffins that take people to the healing coven. He and his partner would drive out to emergencies, give emergency care to people who get hurt or really, really sick all of a sudden, and take them to the hospital for more treatment. My Dad saved lives. He saved people. He was a hero. He was my hero."

Amity raked her fingers through Luz's hair. "He reminds me of someone."

"But then he got sick," Luz said. "Leukemia, er, blood cancer." Amity briefly flashed back to that day in the human realm, when Luz swore when talking about that country that was hoarding a cure for cancer. "He was fighting though. He was determined to get better. We even moved to Gravesfield to be closer to a hospital that specialized in this kind of thing. Things were looking up, he was having more and more good days, but then..." Luz swallowed. "Not long after we moved, he... Got worse really suddenly. I got home just as the ambulance was taking him away. I'll always remember the siren."

Amity held Luz closer. "Luz..."

"We all thought that he had a good chance. That he'd have more time... But... Mom says that his last words were for her to tell me that he loved me," Luz continued, "but... I never got to say goodbye. He... Right before he got worse, before he died, he got me a book he thought I'd like... Azura. And he was right, I loved it and... It really helped me get through those first few weeks when I just wanted to cry all the time but... I miss my Dad, Amity."

Whatever resistance Luz was putting up crumbled and she started crying freely at that point. Amity just held her tight. "It's okay. Just let it out."

And Luz did. She cried, while Amity held her and their palismen did their best to act as comfort animals. Steadily, as she cried, the bad feelings radiating off of Luz dimmed. They didn't go away, but by the time Luz was out of tears to shed there was some noticeable improvement.

"Sorry to go to pieces on you," Luz said while wiping her eyes.

"You have nothing to apologize for," Amity insisted.

"I wish you could have met him," Luz continued. "I think... No, I know he would have liked you."

They sat there, together, for a time until they were interrupted. Without warning an abomiton stumbled into the clearing. It glanced at the girls and then produced a light and siren that clearly distressed Luz as she covered her ears and closed her eyes.

Amity stood to deal with it, to send it away or something, when more slime appeared in the clearing and erupted revealing her father appearing in a burst of abomination teleportation.

"There you are!" He declared with... More emotion than she was used to hearing from him. "Mittens, you can't just... Run off like that."

"I'm sorry," Amity said even though she really wasn't, "but can we have this talk later? I'm sort of in the middle of something."

"No," he said sternly. "This... When you ran off this morning, I thought you just needed time. I came looking for you after an hour to see if you were ready to talk but... you weren't in your room. Or anywhere else in the house. Or the library. I even went to Edalyn's house but the... A disturbingly powerful house demon said no one was home. I called the twins, we searched the town, and Emira said she saw you at the Bones..." It was then that he noticed the champion belt she was wearing. "You won the Brawl... My desire to chastise your recklessness is now struggling against my paternal pride."

"Go with pride!" Luz shouted from behind them.

"...I needed a distraction," Amity insisted. "And... I've always wanted to enter and maybe bring home the belt. I... I wanted to be like you."

"...Amity, you are like me, in a lot of ways," her Dad replied. "You don't need a belt for that... But, in a lot of ways, you're also like your mother." That hurt to hear. "The way she used to be. Which, brings me back to this morning... I can't let her make you into what she is now."

"...What?"

"...Your mother loves us, in her own way... Or at least she did once," her Dad explained. "I... I have to believe that. But the way she shows it... When you ran away, it was a wake-up call. I talked with Odalia, because we needed to change things but... It became clear, over time, with how she was acting that... She didn't want to. And that's not even getting into the incident with that red fellow." Her dad mumbled something bitterly. "I managed to get her to make a fe concession, to try and... Be a better family, but recently she's gone back on them and... I overheard her talking about a 'New Business Partner.' I think she's seeing someone else already."

"...Oh," was all Amity could say.

"...And then the twins approached me in my lab one day," he continued. "About some... reading they had been doing, ever since Edalyn told us what she'd learned about the necklace your mother made you wear. About... Just how harmful Odalia's behavior was and how... Amity. I know that I haven't been the best father, and I'm sorry. I'm trying to be better."

He awkwardly extended a hand, as if to shake on it... But Amity hugged him instead. "It's a start."

Her dad hugged her back and continued. "I confronted Odalia the other day, while you were at school, and... It was awkward and we had a rather loud argument but... When I was finished making my point, Odalia conceded that it would be for the best if... We agreed that ending the marriage amicably might be the best thing for our family. We, we don't want this to disrupt the day-to-day lives you and the twins are leading, so you'll be staying with me in Blight Manor, while Odalia moves to a house in Latissa that she inherited from her parents. At this point, we're mostly talking about decoupling assets but... This shouldn't affect you any more than it has to."

"Okay," Amity acknowledged. This... Wasn't as bad as she thought or... Maybe she just had more perspective now.

"There will, however, be a slight change to your inheritance," her Dad continued.

"I don't care about that."

"Still, I just want you to know," Alador continued, "you're still your mother's sole heir, but in going over our assets I realized that we somehow completely neglected to arrange for the twins to get anything. They said they don't mind you getting everything, but I still set some of the Blight Estate's liquid assets into trust funds for them. Better late than never."

"And that's fine," Amity replied. Even a fraction of the estate would be enough to... Well, it'd be enough to make sure that she and Luz were taken care of no matter what when they were grown up.

The hug came to an end and her Dad looked back to where Luz was sitting. "Is she alright?"

"She's... Having a bad day, too," Amity explained. "It's... Really personal, but the gist of it is she was neglecting her problems to focus on mine and it sort of came to a head."

Her father hummed. "I take it that you'll be staying at Edalyn's again tonight?"

"Probably."

"Alright then." He then addressed Luz directly. "Um... Luz, right?" he began. "You've been very good for Amity, and I want you to know that you are always welcome in our home... In fact, why don't you come over tomorrow night? Paternal pride has managed to win out and I'm thinking we'll have a special dinner to celebrate Amity's victory."

"Sounds great," Luz answered.

"Alright, I'll... Mittens, before I leave you two alone, are you alright?"

"I'll be okay," Amity replied honestly.

"Alright then. I'll... See you when you get home tomorrow... Are fairy pies still your favorite?"

"Yeah, but we should probably do something else," Amity noted. "We can go over it tomorrow."

Her father left with the Abomiton and Amity returned to her seat next to Luz.

"Are you okay?" Amity asked her girlfriend.

"Yeah, I think so... Er, I will be," Luz replied. "Thanks, Amity. I... We should probably get out of the woods before it gets dark." Just then, Luz's phone rang. "Huh, I get reception this far from the portal?"

Answering, it turned out to be a video call from Camila. "Hola, mija" Luz's mother greeted. "Oh, and hola Amity."

"Hey Mom."

"Hola, Señora Noceda"

"Luz, I know I said that your Papi would understand that you can't make it but... That's not good enough for you, is it?"

"No," Luz admitted.

"I figured. But then, the thought occurred to me... Just because you're not here, that doesn't mean you can't be here." Camila then moved the phone so that the camera revealed a headstone that read 'Manny Noceda, a loving father and husband' with what Amity suspected were his dates' of death and birth based on the human calendar.

Vee was also present, in her human disguise, arranging flowers over the grave. "Is this good, Mama?"

"It's perfect, Vee."

Luz started tearing up again. "Thanks, Mom," she said with a sniff.

"Do you want some privacy?" Amity asked.

"No" Luz insisted. "Stay."

"Yes, stay. You're family, too. Sé que a Manny le hubiera encantado conocer al alma gemela de nuestra hija."