Chapter 86

The clanging of metal on... Kinda-sorta metal rang throughout the forest clearing. It must have been an hour and a half of sparring before Luz finally said "Okay, I give..."

Her instructor acknowledged Luz's concession with a node and a sheathing of her sword, and Luz immediately fell to the ground as her soul sword returned to her soul.

"Oh come on, I didn't push you that hard," Anne declared as she sat down next to Luz.

"You are a merciless taskmaster and all my bones feel like jelly," Luz wheezed.

"Okay, fine," Anne admitted. "But I only pushed you so hard because I think you've got potential: You're good, Luz. Little more training and you could probably defeat a squad of FBI agents with only a toy lightsaber."

"I did once defeat a puppeteer demon with a talking toy sword," Luz admitted. "...Your example is weirdly specific."

"My Dad was genuinely afraid I might accidentally kill one of them," Anne said completely straight. "Didn't even use my powers. On a check-in visit Mr. X, the head FBI guy... We're cool now, he said that Nick Fury found out somehow, and now he wants me for SHIELD when I grow up but that's not really my thing"

Luz snorted. "I can't picture you killing anyone."

"I did once set up an explosion to take out a family of cannibals," Anne replied. "Didn't lose any sleep over it. Lost sleep over the fact that Hop Pop, Sprig, and I got drugged and almost cooked alive in our sleep. Seriously, I don't know what's worse: That they were going to cook us alive or the fact that trying to cook us alive is probably the only reason I'm still alive," Anne said, somewhat distracted. "But anyway, I didn't lose any sleep over killing the... Okay, I don't think they were technically cannibals since they were a different species of frog from everyone else in the valley and also I'm not a frog, but still."

"Yikes."

"We all slept in Hop Pop's bed that night," Anne admitted. "The worst part?" Anne added. "I mentioned it to Marcy once and she mentioned how horned bullfrogs were mentioned in a bio-class we had together about a year before we went to Amphibia. But back then I just really sucked at paying attention in class. And it's not like I had a learning disorder or anything, I just didn't want to make the effort. If I had, well, could have headed off that problem."

"I kind of had the opposite problem," Luz admitted. "I tended to get a little... Over enthusiastic and cause problems. Wasn't a big deal at Hexside though. Most of the teachers were more understanding and the curriculum worked better for how I learn so... Can I ask you a question?"

"Shoot."

"What do you miss most about Amphibia?" Luz asked.

"Other than the people?" Anne asked.

"Yeah," Luz agreed as she thought back to all the people waiting back in the Isles for Luz and co to come back and save them.

"The food, believe it or not," Anne said. "It took... A lot before I was willing to live on a bug-based diet without complaint but once I got over how gross it all seemed you'd be surprised at how good it could be and... I introduced the town of Wartwood to pizza and for the life of me I haven't been able to find anythingthat tastes quite like cowapillar cheese or amphibian tomatoes to make what we came up there back here," Anne admitted.

"I get you... To be honest, I'd kill for a griffin egg right now," Luz agreed. "And appleblood... Except for that one time that I accidentally drank the wrong kind, the grownup kind stinks like a barn and hits like Iron Fist... I managed to make something similar with apple-flavored water, cranberry juice, and brown sugar but something was missing. Also, smilk, There are different kinds of dairy in the demon realm and smilk doesn't have all that much lactose so it's safe in moderation. Pizza in the demon realm is made with cheese made from smilk and well, being able to eat the same pizza as everyone else without throwing up or other problems is pretty nice."

"You know they make pills to help people digest lactose," Anne replied. "My family doesn't have the issue but a lot of people we know through the temple are lactose intolerant and most of them just take lactase supplements."

"Yeah, but it's not like a 'take it every morning' thing," Luz replied, "you gotta take them asyou're eating it and I'd probably forget. Also, they tend to market more for the common symptoms, which tend to be a problem for later, not the rarer symptoms you get in more severe cases which are more of a 'right then and there' problem, and I'm a pretty severe case."

"Fair enough," Anne admitted. "You know though, it's like... In the stories, the kids go to a magical land, have an adventure, learn the lessons they needed to grow up, leave the magic behind when they go home, and the kid applies those lessons to solve whatever problems that going to the fantasy world helped them escape from in the first place. In real life it's not that simple: Mar-Mar, Sash, and I definitely learned a lot in Amphibia and we're better for it but... Marcy still had to move and be separate from the friends we made, the people who became our families... It hurts. If like... If we'd kept our powers from the start if the Guardian had given us more than just enough for one last one-way trip... We could have been able to see each other regularly over the last two years, and visit with our friends and... At the very least it would have made the move easier on Marcy: She's happier now than she's been in a bit."

"Speaking as a connoisseur of fantasy literature," Luz began, "I see where you're coming from. I think it kinda ties back to the greater Hero's Journey narrative which is about maturing and finding your place in the world via a series of symbolic events and such but it's really easy to do badly. Honestly, part of me's scared that my situation could end like that... Not so much the power loss but... The lead we have for going back is a one-way trip and I never did find out how Belos got the portal door to work. I'm scared that once we fix everything there I'll only be able to figure out another one-way trip and then... I don't want to have to choose. I love it in the demon realm," Luz said, "the life I have there is... Everything I could have wanted, but I couldn't stand being away from Mom or Vee forever... Not to mention finally having human friends. But if I had to choose them over the demon realm, I'd be miserable. If I end up having to pick, it'd break me."

"I don't think you need to worry about that," Anne said. "I can feel it in my bones."

"I hope you're right," Luz said. "So um... I know I could just wait till the next group meeting but... How are things going with you and Sasha and Marcy, your uh new relationship."

"So far so good, but it's a little complicated," Anne said. "Sash and I have agreed that we want to try and have as many of our couple milestones with Marcy there as we can. She says she doesn't mind if we like, have dates or kiss and junk without her but we're worried that if we do too much when she's not there it'll stop being a balanced relationship and start being Sashanne but sometimes Marcy's there, you know? Also, turns out it's kind of hard to come up with a couple names for a thruple."

"Sashannarcy," Luz suggested off the cuff.

Anne immediately sat up, took out her phone, and started texting. A moment later two notification bleeps sounded off. "Sasha and Marcy like it. Anyway, we know this is gonna be tough, especially with the distance, but we're gonna try to make it work."

"Cool," Luz replied. "How'd your parents react?"

"So I sat them down and told them," Anne began, "and they got confused because they thought the three of us were already dating."

"Really?"

"Really," Anne confirmed. "Sasha's mom, too. Her dad was more neutral and Marcy's parents seem uncomfortable with the idea but they're not saying anything about it either."

"Yeah, at the Sanctum how her parents used to be came up, and how they're more hands-off now but sometimes a little too much," Luz noted.

"So, I don't know the full situation, Marcy doesn't like to talk about it," Anne began, "but... Her parents seemed to have come up with a plan for how her life should go when they started to realize just how gifted she was... Marcy's probably up there with Stark in terms of big brains, maybe even Richards, and everyone would always talk about how she had the potential to solve world hunger or fix climate change and stuff... But everyone seemed to focus on what Marcy could do and not on her well-being, you know?"

"...That is painfully familiar, but in the opposite direction," Luz said. "Amity can probably relate more directly but... We need to figure out a way to get everyone together in situations where someone didn't just almost die."

"Anyway, Mar-Mar was under a lot of pressure and the move was the last straw for her. Now her parents seem to understand that focusing on her future so much instead of how she's doing in the present was the wrong move, and it seems like they're focusing on her happiness... Marcy has said she'd actually like it if they gave her a little more structure but... This is better than before, by a lot, and... I don't know if it's that Marcy's dating girls they have a problem with or if it's the polyamoury but whatever it is so far they're keeping it to themselves," Anne shrugged. "They don't want Marcy to run away again and understand that this is making her happy... At least so far, but..."

"You don't run away from a good thing," Luz paraphrased. "Sasha mentioned that... And that there was an open offer for Marcy to crash at her mom's place if Marcy's parents got bad again."

"...Yeah. Marcy's pretty insistent that her parents were never deliberately abusive," Anne continued, "and I believe her but... I think there's a reason why she's so willing to forgive Andrias for everything he did to her. I think out of anyone on Earth or Amphibia she probably understands best where he was coming from. But, you know, if there's gonna be problems like that in the future that's a problem for future Sashannarcy to deal with, right now our priority is getting through school and handling the normal relationship drama. Though speaking of, how did your mom react when you introduced her to Amity?"

"Well, things were a bit awkward since... Well, I had a plan for coming out that I never used, and this was right when I was fixing to reveal that I'd never gone to camp, which is also when we found out about Vee, and... So Amity chose that time to reveal that she'd been using books to teach herself Spanish. She told my Mom that we were together and what I meant to her and that she loved me and then Mom pulled us both into a bear hug and demanded we tell her everything."

"Aww."

"Yeah, it was sweet," Luz agreed. "Though Amity took it a little literally, brought up the dissection incident, and now part of me is afraid that Mom's gonna try and kill Principal Bump one of these days."

"To be fair, that's a pretty normal attitude from a loving mom who don't take no guff," Anne insisted. "I'd be concerned if she didn't at least think about it."

"Yeah..." Luz admitted. "Still... You know another thing that doesn't really come up in those fantasy stories?"

"What?"

"The trauma," Luz continued. "What I went through is... exactly the kind of dark you see in some of the more mature, young adult literature, and yet those young heroes almost never get as messed up as I did." Even Azura would probably need a little trauma counseling between books, Luz was forced to admit. "Or if they do they never really linger on it...You know that one series about the boy who goes to a wizard school and it turns out the author is a trash mammal?"

"I'm aware," Anne noted.

"There are a lot of complaints that the main character is too whiney and moody and irrational in book five, especially from early on when it was a huge fando as far as I've seen but... In hindsight, I think it's pretty clear that he had PTSD from what happened in the prior book," Lux began. "Which is exacerbated by the fact that his entire support network cut contact for no good reason over the summer and then he gets back where he belongs and is abused and slandered for the whole year before having one more big trauma, then he has an outburst over everything and then we come to the next book all of these clear mental health problems are swept under the rug and never mentioned again. Somebody should write a book that, while still depicting the fantasy elements as a net positive, actually addresses the kinds of traumas that can come with them and the need for mental health care," she finished.

"You any good at writing?" Anne asked back. "This sounds like something you're passionate about and you've certainly got the experience to draw on."

"I've written a lot of fanfiction," Luz admitted. "And I kind of always wanted to be an author but an experience with conflicting artistic visions and a predatory publisher have kind of soured me on it.. Maybe I should give it another shot... Author... Sailor... Amity's house spouse... Maybe a magic researcher? There's a lot of old magic that was banned or destroyed when Belos took power that's just waiting to be rediscovered and... I don't know, long-term goals have never been something I'm good at, right now I just want to get back to the Isles and fix things so that everything can go back to normal... Maybe this is something I should bring up in therapy or at the support group," Luz finished. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Herpatologist," Anne said without hesitation. "I um... I've gained something of an appreciation for frogs after my adventure, so, you know... And Sasha's very big on becoming a therapist when she grows up... Marcy's said some stuff about how he's getting really into comic design lately but she's not so good about long-term goals either so we'll see where that goes."

"Cool," Luz said. "Any way I can feel my legs again so we should probably get out of the forest before it gets dark." Luz stood up and stretched a bit. "You want to stay for dinner?"

"Time zones, Luz," Anne said jokingly. "Dinner for me isn't for three hours and I should probably get back home soon anyway." Anne then immediately powered up into her super cool armored blue-haired anime form. "But do tell everyone I said hi."

"Will do, and tell Sasha and Marcy I said hi, too," Luz agreed.

Anne began to fly off and then stopped. "Wait, before I go... I have to ask... What exactly is smilk?"

"Spider milk," Luz replied.

"...I don't know if I should be disgusted or if I want to try that now," Anne said evenly and then she waved goodbye as she took off for real.

Luz stretched one last time and made her way home. Once there, she passed along Anne's message to most of her loved ones and then followed her nose to the kitchen where she found Vee and Amity were helping her mom.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hola, Batata" Amity greeted back. "How was sword training?"

"Great. Exhausting but great. Anne says hi," Luz said. Then she kissed Amity on the cheek before asking "Whatcha making?"

"Your mom and Vee are teaching me how to make sancocho," Amity said.

"We had to make a few substitutions to my normal recipe so everyone can eat it," her Mom added, "but this should turn out good."

"It smells good," Luz said. "Need any help?"

"No, we've got it covered," Vee said.

"Okay then," Luz replied.

There was a knock from the living room, Luz heard someone answer the door and then a moment later Hunter called out. "Luz? Camila? Doctor Strange is at the door."

That was... Odd. "I'll see what this is about," Luz declared before going to the door. "Hey Doc, what's going on?"

"Luz, um... Can I come in?" He began. "I'll need to speak to your mother too and..."

"What's going on?" Luz repeated, suddenly feeling like she accidentally drank some milk.

"It's nothing bad," Strange began, "but I've been asked to arrange a meeting between you and someone who... Isn't used to taking no for an answer."

"Is this gonna be another Doctor Doom situation?" Luz began. She was getting really tired of this stuff.

"No, nothing like that. It's just... Someone wants to meet you," Strange continued.

"Who?"

"The oldest and most powerful witch on Earth," Strange explained. "The person who wants to meet you is Agatha Harkness."