The transition was instantaneous.
One moment I along with Luz fled headfirst into the door, now we were left standing in an "unknown" location, reality lurched sideways and deposited us inside what appeared to be a makeshift tent.
My eyes adjusted quickly to the more dim lighting, I began taking full inventory of our surrounding, Eda's commerce tent. I recognized it immediately from my knowledge of this world.
"Whoooa," Luz breathed beside me, her voice filled with wonder rather than alarm.
"I thought I had a lot of weird stuff, but this is..." she said, looking around the gravel floor.
She gestured vaguely at the eclectic collection of human world trash—discarded technology, outdated fashion, the mundane junk of Earth transformed into exotic merchandise here.
The Owl Lady's operation was more sophisticated than it appeared on the surface. The portal door we'd come through, the strategic location, the carefully curated inventory—this wasn't amateur hour but then again it's simple business.
A woman's voice drifted through a gap in the tent fabric, sharp with interest. Someone examining the book—Luz's book, the one she'd been clutching when we fell through.
Luz moved first, curiosity overriding caution as she pressed her eye to the slit in the tent. I heard her sharp intake of breath, after the woman looked at her book greedily. With no further though she was grabbing the book from outside with surprising speed, her other hand finding my sleeve.
"Luke! The door—we gotta go back through the door!"
Too late. Edaline the Owl Lady wasn't careless enough to leave an interdimensional gateway unattended. The door slammed shut, the portal folding back into a briefcase like structure. I'd followed Luz anyway.
Better to end this quickly.
We ran. Or rather, Luz ran and I followed with measured urgency, allowing her panic to guide our path but suddenly she halted immediately in her foot tracks. The back of the tent opened onto a cliff edge, and the view that greeted us made even made my expression shift.
The Boiling Isles stretched before us in all of its impossible glory.
Creatures that defied evolutionary logic somehow managed to drift through skies painted in deep blue and suburban orange. The air itself felt different—warmer, yes, but also charged with something that made my pulse quicken.
My assumption. Magic.
Ambient energy saturating every molecule of this island. It made me wonder how fundamental forces operated here. Did gravity function the same way? Thermodynamics? The electromagnetic spectrum, different elements..
For now I just needed to focus. Power came from understanding systems yes, but I couldn't understand all of them in such a short time, for now the basic principles of magic is my priority.
"Well, well, well." The woman, Eda had caught up with us, and up close she was exactly as formidable as I'd expected. Wild gray hair, sharp golden eyes, and a predatory grin that suggested she knew how dangerous she was. "Looks like you two are stuck here for now. Name's Eda the Owl Lady, most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles, and you're currently trespassing in my place of business."
She gestured back toward the tent with theatrical flair. "Since you're here anyway, might as well make it worth my while. Come on, I could use a couple extra hands."
Back at her stand, Eda attempted to hawk her wares to Luz with the ease of a born saleswoman. Rubber clogs, a deodorant stick, an old television set, all of it worthless junk on Earth, all of it fascinating novelty here.
Luz's face quirked up a smile seems she notice eda had no clue how or what these earthly tools were, and thats when her eye caught the TV. "Oh! I think I can fix this—it just needs batteries."
I watched as she rummaged through the collection, found a battery pack, and brought the ancient machine flickering to life. The crowd that gathered was cartoonishy immediate and enthusiastic, witches and demons alike pressing forward to see the magical human artifact work its wonders.
"Not bad," Eda said, genuine approval in her voice. "Pretty clever for a human."
"Human?" Luz blinked, confused. "But you're—"
Eda pulled off her bonnet with a flourish, revealing distinctly pointed ears. "Witch, kid. Full-blooded."
Of course. I observed Luz processing this revelation, watching her worldview expand in real-time. This was one of the most valuable traits of hers. her adaptability, her willingness to accept the impossible. Traits worth cultivating in allie---
"By order of the Emperor's Coven, you are all under arrest!"
The guards arrived with disappointing predictability. Two of them, dressed in white uniforms that showcased their authoritarian behavior, each of them crackling with spell circles.
This really is tedious, I thought, even as I raised my hands in compliance. But, also necessary. Luz needed to understand the system she'd stumbled into—Emperor Belos's regime, the coven structure, the rigid hierarchy that choked individual magical expression. And almost more importantly, I needed to observe Eda in action. She was, after all, the strongest wild witch on the Isles, one of the few beings capable of standing against the Emperor. A useful barrier while I established myself here, and gathered my own power base.
Assuming I could use 'true' magic at all. That remained to be tested.
Eda's response to arrest was everything I'd hoped for and expected. One moment she was cornered, the next she'd vanished in a burst of magic, reappearing on her staff with Luz and me in tow. The guards never stood a chance.
"Whaaao—What—how—where are we going?!" Luz shouted over the wind.
"Away from them!" Eda cackled, clearly enjoying herself. "Welcome to the Boiling Isles, kid! This is the Demon Realm, where all your human myths came from. Magic's real, monsters are real, and yes, even giraffes are real. Bunch of freaks!"
As we continued down our flight path shaking the guards I looked back following the geography below. The Isles were an archipelago, that much was clear, with distinct regions and what looked to be varying ecosystems. it was only unfortunate how far the house was from the main city.
The Owl House rose from the coastal cliffs like something out of a fever dream.
Part cottage, tower, and part something. Zooming in the self-opening door we were greeted to a small creature perched in the doorway, tiny and imperious, was King.
"Eda! You're back! Did you bring the thing I asked for?"
"Better—I brought two humans!"
King's reaction was his immediate tragic backstory about his stolen Crown of Power, Eda's convenient solution requiring a human to pass through a magical barrier, the obvious manipulation of Luz's heroic nature. I let it play out, watching Luz's expressions shift from skepticism to determination.
She glanced at me waiting for me to answer...
"Fine," I said finally.
"I'll help you get your crown. But then you send me home. Deal?"
"Deal!" Eda's grin was sharp. "Come on, kids. We're breaking into the Conformatorium."
The Conformatorium. Prison, rehabilitation center, monument to authoritarian control—it was all of these and more. As we approached the massive structure, it actually quite looked nice from my perspective, if I were ever to run my own prison it'd be similarly built.
But power through conformity, I thought. How pedestrian.
True power came from understanding and harnessing difference, not suppressing it. Belos was strong, certainly, but his system had inherent weaknesses. Weaknesses I would eventually exploit.
(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
The Conformatorium's interior wasn't exactly as dark of a place as its exterior promised. we'd passed through a hall and stumbled appon the stone dome shaped prison, naturally it had dim lighting, but the gold and black accents made the place look to luxurious for a place prisoners are housed. King led us through the corridors with surprising confidence for someone who claimed to have lost everything.
"This way!" he whispered loudly, which defeated the purpose of whispering entirely.
We climbed higher, and that's when we started encountering the prisoners.
The first cell we passed held a witch with multiple arms. six of them, each moving independently. She was practicing spell circles with different hands simultaneously, unfortunately she stopped upon noticing king.
"Wow," Luz breathed, stopping at the barrier. "That's incredible! What are you in for?"
The witch looked up, surprise crossing her features at being addressed directly. "Mixing magic," she said bitterly. "Using multiple spell types at once. The Emperor's Coven says witches should stick to one magic track. Conformity over creativity."
I'd already known it was about deliberately weakening the population by restricting their magical education. It was clever, in a ruthless way but I ultimately saw no point besides his hatred towards demons.
Luz's face fell. "That's terrible! You're not doing anything wrong!"
"Tell that to them," the multi-armed witch said, gesturing vaguely at the guards patrolling below.
We moved on. King was getting impatient, but Luz couldn't help herself—she had to stop at nearly every cell, had to hear their stories.
A demon with too many eyes who could see multiple futures. Imprisoned for "causing anxiety about predetermined outcomes."
A tiny orange haired witch who I was sure a self insert. Her crime? "Frivolous belief in conspiracies."
And another apparently a young witch who'd been caught writing what Luz called "fanfiction" about some fruit or something.
I remained silent throughout, letting Luz engage while I observed.
"These people aren't criminals," Luz said quietly as we walked, her voice tight with anger. "They're just... different. Creative. Themselves."
"Like you," I said, watching her face.
She glanced at me, surprised I'd spoken. "Yeah. Like me. Like all of us, I guess.
Belos was indeed cold but efficient doesn't come to my thought. And ultimately unsustainable. Systems built on suppression always collapsed eventually, he should know after all.
"There!" King's excited squeak cut through. "I can feel it! My crown is near!"
He scurried ahead toward a dead end corridor, where a pedestal stood bathed in an ethereal glow. The magical force field around it shimmered like heat waves,.
"I'll go have a look." Luz told he before stepping through.
When Luz emerged with King's "Crown of Power", a cheap plastic toy from some human world restaurant.
King grabbed the crown and placed it atop his head. "The crown of powers is, this?"
"It matters to King," Eda said simply when Luz asked why. "That makes it matter to me. That's what weirdos like us do—we stick together."
I saw the moment those words hit home for Luz, at Eda's philosophy. It was interesting. Emotional bonds as strategic assets. Eda had been cultivating loyalty without Luz even realizing it.
Eda was giving a somewhat heart warming smile but that soon faded when he literally decapitated her—
Then Warden Wrath arrived.
The Warden was massive, powerful, and utterly obsessed with Eda in the most uncomfortable way possible. Only for her head to keep talking, because of course it did, I had assumed it was simply her magical biology in this realm upward considering everything.
"Run!" Eda's head shouted at us. "Get out of here!"
Luz grabbed my arm, pulling me toward the exit. I let her, but not before grabbing king, keeping pace easily.
But at the threshold, she stopped.
"Wait. We can't just leave them," she said, voice tight with emotion and determination.
Finally. I'd been wondering when she'd make the "heroic" choice.
"The prisoners," I said quietly. "If we release them, we could divide Wrath's attention."
Luz's eyes widened, then she grinned. "Yes! Come on!"
We tore through the Conformatorium like a storm, throwing open cell doors, hammering levers left and right, and freeing every inmate we could find. Witches imprisoned for mixing magic. Demons locked up for being too creative. A teenager who wrote fanfiction.
The tide of freed prisoners crashed over Warden Wrath like a wave. Eda rallied, reclaiming her advantage, and together they brought down the warden with ease.
Back at the Owl House, Eda reopened the portal.
"There you go, kid," she said to Luz. "Door's open. Your world's waiting."
Luz stared at the swirling gateway back to normalcy, back to a life where she didn't fit, where her creativity was punished and her differences mocked. Then she looked at Eda, at King, at the Owl House with all its and I suppose warmth.
"Luke c-could we--"
"I want to stay," I said. "At least until your summer camp is supposed to end."
I then turned to king and Eda "Will you teach us magic?"
Eda's grin was proud. "Sure, kid. But you work for your room and board. Both of you."
She glanced at me, I nodded once, accepting the terms. This was exactly where I needed to be.
That night, Luz settled into her sleeping space across the room from mine, King curled up beside her. I heard the soft sounds of her texting her mother, I assume it was exactly how I remember, promising that summer might not be so bad after all.
Lying in the darkness, I pressed my palm flat against my chest, feeling my heart beat. It was faster than normal it had been since I got here.
A smile curved my lips.
Yes, I thought. This will do fine, for now.
Power awaited. I just had to be patient enough, and ruthless enough to claim it. And here, in the Demon Realm, with Eda the Owl Lady as an unwitting mentor and Luz as my first companion, I would have every opportunity I needed.
The Boiling Isles had no idea what was coming.
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keep in mind I just write however many words I think the chapter needs to get the point across so if a chapters short thats why