Chapter 84

Doom looked into a mirror, a polished silver antique, he'd had hung in his private ritual chamber. He wondered... did the girl have the power to heal scarring? The lavender-haired girl's insistence that so-called 'real' witches had access to more potent healing magics had him... Intrigued. How else did their magics differ from the sorceries available to humans?

No matter. He closed his eyes and guided himself into a meditative trance. When he next opened his eyes all the color had left the room and he found himself faced with The Bastard Triangle of England.

"What in Wkh Jrg-Ixfnlqj-Gdpq Khoo was that Vicky-Boy?" the Triangle demanded. "You were supposed to push her to her limits and then feed her a bunch of shoggoths and crap."

"I can not be held accountable for interruptions by Lensher and Squirrel Girl or the resulting changes to the plan," Doom insisted. "Regardless, our agreement was that I cause her stress and reveal the information about the Ars Geotia: If the combat with summoned demons and elderspawn was vital you should have insisted upon it... I have to wonder, Triangle, why you're so intent on interfering with Mephisto's plans?"

"Hey, if Wannabe Old Scratch is dumb enough to bust me out of the Nuthouse then he's not allowed to complain if I try to hijack his plan," the Triangle replied. "He's not even suspicious or anything... I mean, after I gave Old Eye-Face an existential crisis Big Red told me to minimize my time down there."

"Do I even want to know?" Doom asked.

"A psychic gestalt based on brain uploading, energy beings, healing magic, and advanced AI technology finding out that most of the people whose brain uploads it's made from are burning in Hell tends to react poorly," the Triangle laughed. "But honestly, it deserved it. It was so whineyin group therapy. Anyway, what are your thoughts on the kid?"

"I'm not sure how truthful she is when she says she doesn't want power," Doom declared, "but otherwise she is everything I thought she was and I will be most displeased if any harm befalls her due to your actions: I am well versedin the spells of Xgqrthx the Unpronounceable."

"...I think it's weird that you actually know how his name is pronounced," the Triangle replied. "But relax, I like the kid. She reminds me of someone. I know she said she doesn't want to be Empress but I bet she'd love it if I made sure to leave her the Corpse Kingdom as her personal playground." Doom immediately made a note to review his cosmic apocalypse protocols. "Anyway, I'll be allowed to get back to the Bad Place soon and I spent the whole morning rewriting the lyrics to Robot Hell to torment a certain Puritan."

"Wait, Triangle," Doom commanded.

"I know, I was gonna do Hell Is Forever but then I decided that the irony of the song would be lost on him without the proper context and that show won't be out for two years and Captain Widows Peak said no major anachronisms."

"No, we had a deal, and while you may be disappointed with the results I still fulfilled my end," Doom reminded him. "Now it's your turn: Tell me how I might prove my superiority over the Accursed Richards once and for all."

"So here's the thing," the Triangle declared, "We didn't shake on it so I don't owe you squat. Bye!" and with that final exclamation Doom snapped back toward lucidity.

"Now I understand just why he is called the Bastard Triangle," Doom uttered to himself. He then made a note to check his stores of reagents when he returned to his main laboratory at Castle Doom. He'd need to be sure he was stocked up on the right type of unicorn hair.

TLOA

Amity was sitting on the couch, petting Ghost, when Luz came in and flopped on the couch. Ghost, clearly sensing something was about to happen, stood from Amity's lap and with a stretch leaped around to lounge on the back of the couch.

"Did therapy not go well?" Amity asked. She wasn't picking up any bad feelings from Luz, but...

"No, it went great," Luz replied. "After reviewing what happened at the Danceathon, specifically how I reacted when we realized that Belos was there, Professor X thinks I might have some kind of Post Traumatic Stress type thing. He's not sure yet, we're gonna have to do some more work to figure that out, but if I do then that's probably what's causingthe depression. And, given how I feel when the depression acts up and..." Luz paused for a moment. "We talked a little bit about Belos since it was finding out I helped him that really made me start to feel bad, and it was definitely all the stress between that and the Day of Unity that got my head all messed up but... Professor X thinks that those traumas might have been aggravating some older, deeper issues so we ended up talking about some other stuff for most of the session... Like how I've been rejected and made fun of for as long as I can remember and... You know, it's actually kind of interesting how all this stuff is connected?" Luz said. "I kind of put together that the reason I was so ready to believe everything was my fault was because I've been treated as a problem my whole life but I never really thought that the reason it was all so devastating to find out that I'd helped Belos was because it was the first people and places to ever make me feel like I belonged that were being hurt because of him."

Amity pulled Luz into a hug. "I think you would have felt bad regardless. You're a kind person, you don't like people being hurt."

"Yeah, that's true, but... It's not about what made me feel bad, that's obvious, it's the how and why I felt that kind of bad, if that makes sense?" Luz replied. "My self-esteem was kind of garbage before I came to the Isles and just when I meet people to help me build it up that all happens? So anyway, the game plan is to try and focus more on all the little stuff for now, smaller and older traumas, so we can take away power from the newer, bigger ones that I'm not ready to deal with just yet."

"That sounds like a plan," Amity said.

"Yeah, it went great, really," Luz said with a yawn. "And honestly there was some stuff I didn't even realize I was holding in that feels great to let out but I'm honestly kind of exhausted," she finished. "Was kind of a lot, you know?"

"Yeah," Amity said in understanding. She then repositioned them on the couch so that they were lying town, Luz on top of her, and began running her fingers through Luz's hair. "If you're tied, though, cuddles and a nap will fix that right up."

"I'm not that, tired Sweet... And Ghost and Stringbean are already curled up around us," Luz deadpanned. "Okay, maybe a short nap. Just..." Some adjustments occurred until they were both comfortable. "You sure about this?"

"I know that you're still having trouble sleeping," Amity said gently. "And you remember what Dr. Strange said our first night here, about how taking care of yourself is important? If you're tired, you should rest when you can." In fact, Amity was certain in hindsight that any time her grades slipped, any A minus that should have been a plus, had less to do with her skills and more to do with being tired from being up too late studying the night before. But, Odalia insisted, and such slips were met with even more studying, work for Blight Industries, or whatever else her birth giver had come up with to make Amity prove that she was a hard worker devoted to the future of the family.

"No, I get that part," Luz said before yawning again. "But if I fall asleep here you're gonna be stuck till I wake up."

"There are literally a million and one worse things I can think of, Batata, than spending an hour or two snuggled up to you while you catch up on your beauty sleep." She then kissed Luz on her forehead.

"Okay, okay," Luz replied. "If you insist." Luz then relaxed completely, as if all the will to resist slumber had left her body all at once. "An hour or two won't hurt, and... Te amo, mi Diosa."

"Te amo, mi Titán," Amity said with as much affection as she could muster, which was, to say the least, a lot... also, she found herself wondering if there was a feminine version of Titan in Spanish and, if not, how she'd go about making one up.

Regardless, Amity felt content snuggling with Luz, and knowing that Luz was taking her own well-being seriously, and her purring at that seemed to help soothe Luz to sleep.