Chapter 51

Salty was, of course, more than willing to take them out to the location marked on King's map. However, his crew had left him once the ship was no longer in the employ of the Golden Guard (which made Hunter wince) Luz ended up volunteering to help with a variety of shipside activities to keep things going smoothly and so that the old sea dog wouldn't have to do it by himself.

"Hmm. I wonder if a career on a ship might be a good fit for me," she mused aloud to herself after completing a chore. She was pretty good at it and honestly, it was more fun than you'd expect.

"Sort of figured you'd be Blight's house-spouse," came a... Not nessesarily playful, but not serious or mean-toned Hunter's comment from behind her.

"Oh, Hey Hunter," Luz replied while turning to face him. "That's also an option but... Neither of us really knows what we want to do when we grow up," Luz admitted. "But um, we've still got time to figure it all out and... Well, if we win we'll have time."

"Yeah... I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Hunter began. "If... Do you know what a galdorstone is?" That's what a grimwalker's heart was made of, right?

"Nope," Luz replied. "We haven't talked about them in school and there haven't been any references to them in any of Eda's books on wild magic."

"There wouldn't be, they aren't wild magic. No um... Well, there are a lot of different theories about where they come from," Hunter began. "Some sources speculate that they might be the hearts of ancient witches or demons who attempted some kind of ascension ritual, though no one can seem to agree on what they were trying to ascend into or whether they succeeded or failed." Hunter lectured. "Some say they're gemstones produced in the bodies of powerful prehistoric beast demons like primordial dragons or Hexasaurus belosia, others claim they're formed when Titan Blood and Bile end up in a body of mineral-rich water and coalesce as the water evaporates. Some say that they're the Titan's gal stones, and one source says they were created in an occult ritual by the giraffes."

"Neat," Luz said with a smile.

"But where they come from isn't exactly important, compared to what they do. They're... A renewable source of magical power. Kind of like a palisman, but not alive. But, whereas a witch's palisman lends them power and helps them cast spells," Hunter continued, "when a witch taps the power of the galdorstone their own magic is multiplied several times over... Except illusion magic, for some reason."

"Huh? Why not?"

"No one knows," Hunter replied. "People who look down on illusions say it's because illusions aren't real and zero times anything else is zero but... I mean, Illusion magic also includes summoning and manipulating props and skilled enough illusionists can give them limited corporeality."

"Like how Gus can have his illusions take notes for him in class?" Luz asked. "...I need to ask him to teach me that trick."

"Anyway... We saw me... Being made in Belos's mind," Hunter started, "and not even he could have faked his memories so he was telling the truth, we saw everything he listed off... So my heart's a galdorstone."

Luz immediately picked up what Hunter was putting down. "I get it, on the Day of Unity you want me to carry you piggyback and you can use your galdorheart to supercharge my spells and we can curb-stomp Belos together... I think I saw something like that in an anime."

"No," Hunter corrected. "I... And it's not just the galdorstone. I... Stonesleepers and selkidomi are both powerful species of beast demons. There should be palistrom all throughout my body, enough for a half-a-dozen palismen at least... The only part of me that even resembles a normal witch... Human... Anything! Are my bones, and even then the way everything in the body is connected I can't help but think there's bleed through." Hunter sighed. "The point is that, even if I can't use it, I'm basically made of powerful magic. So... If we can't stop the draining spell..."

"We will stop the draining spell," Luz insisted. She had to believe that.

"But if we can't," Hunter insisted. "...There's no reason why we should both have to die."

"...No," Luz said as she realized where he was going with this.

"I mean I don't know how much you can absorb at once, but..."

"Hunter, no."

"And if I'm going to die anyway, this much power should be more than enough..."

"No!"

"So if the draining spell goes off I want you to—"

Luz slapped Hunter across the face. "Hunter I don't-Know-Your-Middle-Or-Last-Names! You are not a resource to exploit, you aren't a list of ingredients and spare parts to harvest, and you aren't emergency snacks. You are my friend! Eres parte de mi familia, hermano mayor. I do not want to hear anything like that from you ever again, do you understand me?"

Hunter touched his cheek where Luz's palm had made contact. "Understood."

"Good, because I'd rather die than do something like that to you." Luz's skin crawled at the thought of it. "I couldn't live with myself... You don't have to go and be self-sacrificing like that."

"I'm sorry," Hunter replied. "Just... Making plans for the worst-case scenario... I wanted to be practical."

"Are you okay?" Luz asked. "You aren't... Thinking of hurting yourself, are you?" She wasn't picking up anything like that from him but... Her ESP wasn't the most reliable when her head wasn't on straight and after last night...

"What? No!" Hunter insisted. "Just.. It's like in survival training. In a worst-case scenario, a squad lost in the wilderness might run out of supplies and be forced to make a decision on which of their own they have to eat so the rest can survive long enough to be rescued and we have lectures on how to prioritize."

"Wouldn't it be the one who starves to death first?" Luz asked. Like, the fact that they had serious discussions of that was horrifying but her confusion was distracting her.

"...Oh, that makes so much more sense," Hunter replied.

"Do I even want to know?"

"You do not."

"But are you okay?" Luz asked. "That was a... Pretty big shock and we talked about my problems but not yours."

"I'm having the mother of all existential crises right now," Hunter began. "And I would appreciate it if you kept the grimwalker thing under wraps until I'm ready to tell people, but... If I'm... Basically a clone of a human, that means... Humans don't normally have innate magic, right?"

"More or less," Luz replied.

"So, I'm not a magicless witch, I'm... There's nothing wrong with me," Hunter concluded. "I was just being judged by the wrong standards."

"Yeah!" Luz replied only to think. "...You don't... Resent me, do you? Being a human who somehow gained the magic of this place when you're someone who was born here who doesn't have any, right?"

"What? Of course not," Hunter insisted. "Besides, I saw how... I'm never going to forget your screams, Luz."

"Look, I don't blame you for that," Luz said.

"Yeah, but... Trust me, I could never go through that," Hunter continued. "Not by choice, even if I could, and the fact that you kept doing it to try and burn out your sigil... You're a brave witch, Luz. I think you've earned your magic."

"Thank you," Luz replied. "And um... I'm sorry I slapped you."

"It's fine," Hunter said. "Another upside to the horrible night we had? If I'm a copy of Caleb, and Caleb and Evelyn were the ancestors of the Clawhornes then... It means I have family out there other than Belos, so... There's that."

"You don't need blood ties to be part of the family," Luz replied.

"Yeah, but..." Hunter gestured to the ship they were on, currently in the process of meeting either King's birth family or at least people who knew of them. "I doubt that King would give up you or Eda for anything, but he still wants to know. It's kind of like that."

"Okay, yeah, that's fair." Luz then took out her phone. She might not have reception back to the human realm but the clock still worked. "Hmm. It's getting pretty late. I wonder what happened at Hexside today."

"Probably nothing major," Hunter quipped.

TLOA

Gus looked back at the witches behind him. His friends and Teammates in the Emerald Entrails, Willow, Skara, and Viney. Viney's friends Jerbo and Barcus. Amity and her siblings, the Banshees, Matt, Matt's older brother Steve Tholomule the coven scout turned monitor, the illusion teacher, Professor Hermunculus the abomination teacher, and even Principal Bump. They and everyone else on campus had just gotten done fighting off the Emperor's Coven, who'd come to the school to forcibly brand everyone with Coven sigils but, thanks to Hunter's warning, they were ready.

Gus then looked at the magical artifact in his hand, something that boosted illusion magic considerably. Then down to the witch he claimed it from as a trophy, Adrian Graye Vernworth: Head Witch of the Illusion Coven who had led the Emperor's Coven scouts on their mission.

The witch in question was currently in the fetal position, crying. Gus didn't even have him trapped in an illusion anymore.

He turned back to his fellow Hexolios and smiled. "You know, I'm feeling really good about myself right now."

TLOA

"...So, do you think this whole thing is um, what's the phrase, fishy, too?" Hunter asked.

After making it to "Titan Trapper Island" and being welcomed by the so-called Titan Trappers, a cult of demons who claim to exist to hunt the titans themselves(though admittedly none of them had ever seen a living Titan except, supposedly, their leader) which made no sense as the Titan's had been virtually extinct for long enough that the Boiling Isles had experienced a microcosm of the earth's social, evolutionary, and geological history in rough parallel with it.

King had been escorted away to be taught the ways of his people, which involved being trained in the use of a grabby scythe thingy made mostly of paper mache and bone. Hunter and Luz, meanwhile, had been escorted to a big, tall, and important-looking building with a spiral staircase with the skeleton of a massive, crocodilian-headed biped next to it and told that the leader of the Titan Trappers, someone named Bill, to see if he'd agree to mobilize the Titan Trappers to help fight Belos.

"...Yeah, a little," Luz admitted. The stories the Trappers said of the nature of Titans didn't... Okay, Luz was maybe a little suspicious of the Titan given that what he'd said in her dream regarding the Archivist had been... Misleading at best, but even her most cynical thoughts were still better than the mindless, malevolent, destroyers that the Trappers seemed to think they were.

"I don't know," Hunter said. "Something about the way they move is just a little off. Especially their tails: Too stiff."

"And they're all wearing clothes," Hooty added. Somehow, Luz had forgotten she was carrying him. She blamed it on her lack of sleep. "King hates clothes, he says that anything other than a cloak or cape or his collar feels weird on his fur. And none of them are saying anything about him not wearing clothes, either"

"Yeah, that's all weird," Luz agreed. "But, I mean... I'm not picking up any bad feelings from them..." Although part of Luz wished that Amity was here. Her empath abilities were a lot better at that than Luz's ESP. "Let's just see if Bill is willing to help us."

Climbing the staircase they eventually found themselves in some kind of throne room full of archaic but deadly-looking weapons. However, some impulsive testing on Luz's part revealed that they were flimsier than a mall katana.

"Tarak is that you!?" Shouted someone who sounded like a stereotypical crotchety old man. "I told you to stop that."

"No, sir," Hunter said while motioning to Luz to follow him. They approached and found perched upon the throne a diminutive and somewhat demented-looking demon, roughly King's size but dressed in robes and with a black candle burning with blue flames resting atop his aged skull. "I am called Hunter and this is Luz Noceda-Clawthorne—"

"Clawthorne?" The small demon, presumably Bill, asked. "Like... The lost child, King Clawthorne?"

"Yes," Luz confirmed. "He's my little brother. We just got here and—"

"Nobody tells me anything," Bill interrupted. "So, where is the little tyke?"

"Uh, he's with Tarak," Luz replied. The larger, winged Titan Trapper who had greeted them on their arrival, told them of Bill and was currently introducing King to the ways of his people. He wasn't King's Dad, but he'd quickly slipped into the role. "He told us to come speak with you... You are Bill, right?"

"Yes, yes, I'm Bill," the demon confirmed.

"Well, you see... Belos, the—"

"The upstart ruler of the Carcass Kingdom?" Bill asked. "What's the blasted corpse worshiper doing now?"

"He's going to kill everyone, sir," Hunter replied. "In less than a week there's going to be a rare eclipse and he intends to use it to cast a draining spell that will suck the life and magic out of almost the entire population of the Boiling Isles."

"Well, that's what happens when you worship a dead monster," Bill quipped.

"There are people trying to spread the word, and a rebellion opposing him, but we only have one chance to stop the draining spell," Luz explained. "We can use all the help we can get, and we wanted to know if the Titan Trapers would help us."

Bill shrugged. "Sure."

"... That's it? Just a sure?" Luz asked. "You don't... Want us to pass any trials to prove our worthiness."

"King's a Titan Trapper," Bill replied. "His enemies are our enemies. Besides, it's not like it'll be hard. We train to fight titans. What are a few witches in comparison... Not that any of the youngin's down there have ever seen a live titan."

Luz suddenly got a bad feeling about this. "Have you?"

"Once," Bill replied. "There's one titan left. The Last Son of the Boiling Isles." He gestured to a poster... Saying the same. "Do you think I used the right font on that?" He asked. "I can't help but feel there's something off about the kerning but then again my eyes aren't what they used to be."

"And you've seen this titan?" Hunter asked. "Where?"

"The creature is hidden somewhere on the body of its dead parent, really morbid if you think about it. I saw it a few years ago, I was bored and went on a scouting trip to your shores. Even the little ones are dangerous, this one nearly blew out my eardrums with its horrifying battle cry." The demon shuddered. "Oh, if I could get my hands on that little monster..."

"You'd do what?" Luz asked, suddenly getting.

Bill hopped down from his seat and beckoned for Luz and Hunter to follow him as he marched across the room to a door. "The Grand Huntsman, an ancient being who taught the first Titan Trappers how to fight the titans, is currently imprisoned. The only way to free him requires the freshly shed blood of a live titan."

Bill opened the door and led them through and Luz was immediately revolted by the first things she saw.

Skulls. Dozens of skulls, all just like King's.

Bill paid them no mind as he walked past them to a shrine built around what looked disturbingly like The Collector's mirror, except broken and, to her further horror Bill took off his own skull revealing an ordinary, if ugly, witch's face tattoed with a stylized blue sun on his forehead as he approached the mirror. "Oh," he said as he reached a gloved hand out to touch the mirror, "when the Huntsman is freed..." He laughed in a non-benign way.

Hunter nudged Luz and gave her a look that said 'Oh, crud, we need to get out of here.' Luz... This had to be some kind of mistake. Her little brother couldn't be a Titan. This was ridiculous. This was all just one big, super horrifying coincidence.

"And it'd be good for the whole world," Bill continued. "Even the baby titans are holy terrors. They have voracious appetites. They march around demanding praise and worship as if they were little monarchs and that cry... How does it go again?" He mused to himself. "Oh, right. Weh! The whole world will be better once I spill his blood, free the Huntsman, and mount his skull here among all his siblings."

...King was a titan. He was a baby titan, he was The Titan's last child, and Luz, Hunter, and Hooty were currently surrounded by the remains of his murdered brothers and sisters on an island full of people who would slaughter him like a goat the second they found out what he really was. Her blood was ice cold, this... Forget the draining spell, forget Papi getting sick, this... This was the most scared Luz had ever been.

Bill turned back to them as he tried to replace his... Was he wearing a dead child's skull as a mask? Were they all walking around wearing the remains of murder victims? Regardless, Bill tried to replace the skull only to pause. "What's eating you? Never seen a witch out of costume before?" He joked.

"Well, you see, it's just... Well..." Luz tried to lie, only for Bill to go wide-eyed.

"...King's not wearing a costume, is he?" Bill said, a wicked smirk coming to his face and an absolutely evil gleam came to his eyes as they narrowed.

It was like someone flipped a switch. All of the fear in her body became anger, more anger than she'd ever felt, as the ice water in her veins was replaced by an intense burning sensation near her heart. In less than a second, she changed and her claws embedded in the wall as she pinned Bill to it by his throat. ¡Deja en paz a mi hermanito!

"I don't know what that means!" Bill replied quickly as he began to radiate terror so palpable that Luz could taste it. A dark, primal part of Luz cherished the flavor of the demented gremlin's fear.

"I'll break it down for you then," she seethed. "You're going to stay the hell away from King. If anyone affiliated with the Titan Trappers so much as hurts his feelings," she said as she opened her mouth almost painfully wide to show off her fangs and flicked out her tongue to taste his mounting horror. That same, dark primal part of her was egging her on. "If you ever come near my little brother again, I will Eat... Your... BRAIN!"

"And I'll eat the rest of you when she's done!" Hooty shouted.

"What they said!" Hunter added awkwardly.

"Am I clear?" Luz finished.

"Crystal," Bill choked out. "Now if you would please put me down I think I need to change my trousers."

Luz dropped him and left his freaky murder shrine for the throne room where she blasted out one of his windows and flew out on Stringbean, noting only that Hunter and Flapjack were following her as she looked for King.