Chapter 57

Luz was nervous as she, Hunter, and Amity landed at the outskirts of Bonesborrogh, King riding alongside her.

The plan, as it turned out, was to corrupt the draining spell using Eda's curse. A powerful concealment stone would disguise Eda as Raine and she would take their place in the ceremony that would start the draining spell. However, this would require Eda to be branded with a Bard Coven sigil, something Eda had been morally opposed to her whole life and that would put her in direct danger if the plan fails and the spell goes off.

Eda had insisted that she was willing to make that sacrifice, noting that corrupted bard magic was all she could do anymore anyway and she could still make and use potions even without a matching sigil, but... Raine had looked Luz in the eye and made her a promise that they'd make sure Eda was okay when Luz confronted them about it.

And, well, Luz trusted Raine. Raine was nice.

That all resolved, the next order of business: While Darius's hand-picked plants had been able to sabotage abomiton production, the facts of the matter were that there were far too many functional abomitons at Belos's service. Since Luz needed something to do to occupy her time lest she go crazy from nerves, Amity was worried about her Dad after last night they'd been assigned a mission to meet up with a couple of witches in town and infiltrate the Blight Industries Factory to retrieve the master control device that could be used to shut all of the abomitons down, make sure Alador was okay, and if possible oust Odalia before making a beeline for The Head in order to execute that shutdown. King was with them, of course, because if the CATTs' plan failed then they'd need to get him to the Head ASAP to try and free the Collector, and Hunter was with them because... Well, technically he was leading the mission.

"Okay," Luz said, "Hunter you're in charge so... Who are we meeting?"

Hunter smirked. "They should be here in three... Two..."

A pair of somewhat excited but also very familiar voices rang out on cue. Luz didn't catch what they were saying but she didn't need to catch it to recognize her two best friends.

Greeting Willow and Gus took a few moments of hugging, and Gus and Hunter did this secret handshake thing they'd invented at some point.

"Luz," Willow asked, "Amity... Are you alright? Luz, you just disappeared for a week and Amity, we heard about..."

"I'm fine," Amity said. "Luz... Will be," she continued after a glance at Luz to see that it was okay to answer for her.

"What we need to worry about right now," Luz continued, "is getting into the Blight factory."

"The most efficient way in," Hunter began, "is to go in through the front door. But for that, we're going to need disguises." Hunter then took off the backpack he'd been wearing and revealed that scout uniforms were contained within it. There was even a little one for King. And, at the bottom, a recreation of Hunter's Golden Guard uniform.

"Gus, if you would?" Hunter asked once the disguises were donned.

"Right away," the young illusionist agreed and drew a small spell circle, and with a poof Stringbean, Ghost, Clover, and Emmeline were disguised as the sorts of spears carried by the Coven Scouts while Flapjack came to resemble the staff that Hunter had previously used.

"So, according to Darius, when I first... Went missing, it was someone else who noticed first and when asked about it Belos improvised that I was on a long-term undercover mission and that's why no one was looking for me. I guess he figured either I'd come back or die without my old staff," Hunter started. "Because of this, he couldn't really go back on that when he found out where I was and what I was up to. Which means..."

"As far as anyone knows," Luz put it together, "you're still the head of the Emperor's Coven."

"Exactly," Hunter confirmed. "Emperor's Coven Scouts are providing security to the factory, so I should be able to get us in easily. Blight? You know the layout of the place, so you're with me up front. Luz, you're up in front too, your job is to watch Blight's back. Gus, back of the formation, focuses on maintaining those illusions and if things go off the rails then give us cover. King, you're our secret weapon so stay in the middle of the information where it's safe. Captain, protect King."

After a chorus of agreements and the actual formation of a formation, the group entered town and made their way to Blight Manor and its attached factory.

The first major obstacle was encountered at the property line. A pair of Coven Guards standing in front of the building.

"Stand down," Hunter ordered authoritatively. It was weirdhearing him in Golden Guard mode after getting to know him as the awkward, dorky older sibling type.

"Uh, Golden Guard, sir, uh... where have you been?" one of the guards asked.

"Those details are classified," Hunter insisted. "All you need to know is that now that I'm back, my hand-picked retinue of scouts and I are taking over the Coven detail here at Blight Industries."

The other guard didn't seem to care for that "But sir, we're under strict orders to—"

"Are you questioning your superior?" Hunter asked calmly but sternly.

This was apparently quite terrifying to the guards, one of whom quickly stammered "No sir."

"Then stand down," Hunter ordered again.

The two guards did so this time and the... Luz mused to herself that her friend group needed a cool name... Luz's Angels was too egocentric. Hex Squad sounded cool, but Hunter didn't go to Hexside. Whatever, she'd bring it up when they had a minute. Anyway, the group entered the property and made their way toward the factory.

The exchange was repeated almost word for word with two scouts outside the factory but then they were in.

...There was no way these conditions were safe. There wasn't anything overtlydangerous as far as Luz could tell, but the frantic pace the workers were going by and how tired everyone looked... Well, she'd said it once and she'd say it again: crunch time was toxic and unsustainable.

"Attention!" Hunter bellowed. "Given the importance of abomiton production for security for today's event at the Head and the future of the Boiling Isles, in my capacity as head of the Emperor's Coven, I am assuming direct control of imperial operations at this facility." There was certainly a reaction. People stopped working, and scouts stood at attention. Luz tried to give Amity a look and found her girlfriend doing the same in her direction. If Luz felt the sudden spike of fear then Amity certainly did. "Now, where are Alador and Odalia Blight?"

As it turned out, Amity's dad was holed up in his personal lab while Odalia was in the house proper. Given both proximity and that securing the master control remote was one of their main objectives, they went there first.

"I said I needed to be alone!" The clearly exhausted witch shouted as they entered and secured the door behind them. He didn't actually seem to be working on anything, however. He then stood at attention when he realized that the Golden Guard was in the room.

"Yeah... About that... Blight, you're up," Hunter said and Amity immediately broke formation and took off her mask.

"Dad!" She greeted as she ran for him.

"Mittens," he replied as he pulled her into a hug. "You're alright, but... How? And..." He looked back at the rest of the group, particularly Hunter, "I'm confused."

"The Golden Guard, Hunter, is on our side," Amity replied. "So is Darius. There's a... A Rebellion, to try and stop the day of Unity... Dad, it's bad... The Draining spell, he's going to kill everyone."

"What do you need?" Amity's dad said evenly.

"We know that there's a master control remote that can shut down all the abomitons," Hunter interjected. "And we need it. Ideally, we need to shut down production, too."

"...Where are Ed and Em?" Amity asked suddenly.

"The Twins are taking shelter at Hexside," Mr. Blight replied. "I got them out of the house as soon as posisble, before Odalia changed her mind about getting them involved. As for the master control, it's in the safe deposit box in the study, but your mother has the key."

"...Not my mother," Amity said. "she's just Odalia. I... I don't remember her ever acting the way a mom is supposed to, I... when this is all said and done, the only thing I want to have to do with her is to dance on her grave when she dies."

With a deep sadness, Mr. Blight sighed. "I understand."

"We'll dance on her grave.," Luz added.

"Huh?" Amity asked.

"If you're serious about wanting to dance on her grave, we should do it together," Luz said, "because that's gonna be a big emotional thing no matter what... And we can do a couple dance, to show that you're happy without her. Like a waltz or a tango, or... Ooh! I could teach you Merengue!"

"...What's that?"

"The song and dance of my people," Luz replied.

"Then I'd love to learn," Amity agreed readily. "...Even if I'm probably not going to actually dance on Odalia's grave."

Mr. Blight cocked his head to the side like a confused dog. "Luz?"

"Hey, Mr. Blight," Luz greeted and confirmed with a wave. "Nobody here is actually a coven scout. Are you okay?"

"I've been better," he replied, "and please, call me Alador."

"Okay, so, it seems that what we need to do next is confront Odalia," Hunter said.