A Raven's Chick (Private)

[Princess Goomba]

Luz hadn't known what to expect when she ran into the house after that owl, going through the door hit her with a mix of new sensations, the first being how the temperature seemingly changed. It was akin to walking into a building that had the air conditioning cranked all the way in the middle of summer, but, different, namely in that the air didn't get colder. It just felt, different, like, the atmosphere changed around her? It had given her goosebumps for sure.

Of course as she went in she quickly noticed that she didn't seem to be in a house, it looked more like she was in some kind of tent, filled to the brim with stuff. It was like she had just stumbled across a flea market. Moving towards the opening in front of her, she heard someone speaking. Moving to investigate, peeking out of the tent flap, she saw a women with long grey hair, gold eyes, wearing a red dress going through the bag, pulling things out of it, until she saw her book pulled out, which the woman than began to try and burn! Luz sprang into action immediately.

"Excuse me! Sorry that's mine thank you!" She shouted as she came up and snatched the book, quickly heading back into the tent to leave when the door she'd come in through suddenly shut on her.. And then folded up and flew away.. Then she heard that woman behind her and panicked, putting her book into her bag and pulling up the back of the tent to escape out that way. She immediately came to a ledge and saw that she was somewhere entirely new.

"Oh no no no. What's going on?" Luz said to herself, panic rising, suddenly a small pink fairy fluttered next to her, startling her a bit. "Oh, hello little fairy, are you going to tell me this is all a fantastical dream?"

To which the fairy immediately responded with. "Give me your skin!" While widely showing it's sharp fangs, moving towards her, thankfully Luz had enough sense to swat the fairy away from her, but the sudden feeling of warmth that blossomed from her crotch more than indicated how much she was freaking out. "Did I die?" Then a hand on her shoulder startled her further as the woman from before had come through and grabbed her, dragging Luz back to the front of the tent.

Luz was sat on a stool, shivering with fright at the woman in front of her, fearing her skin was going to be eaten or something. The woman got right in her face and looked at her, Luz was breathing heavily and she could see a look of disgust from the woman in front of her when the woman sniffed the air.

"Egh.. I don't sell diapers kid." The woman stated before pulling back, making Luz realized she'd wet herself, causing her to blush deeply, she wanted to defend herself, but she was also still a bit too afraid to really do anything, she just wanted to go home, apparently the look of fear on her face was very obvious because the woman followed it up with. "I don't sell pacifiers either so don't start crying."

Before Luz could say anything in her defense, a black gloved hand slammed down on the table, some sort of guard with a triangle cone head had appeared. "Eda the owl lady, you're wanted for the misuse of magic and demonic misdemeanors. You are hereby ordered to come with my to the conformatorium." The guard tried to grab Eda, but she easily pulled away. Instead the guard grabbed Luz by the hood of her outfit.

"You're coming too, for fraternizing with a criminal!" Luz tried to struggle in his grasp, making the guard turn around with her as he secured Luz more tightly by holding her around the waist under his arm. "Now come with me owl lady!" He said as he turned back around to face Eda, only to see Eda had completely vanished, flying off into the air with her stuff.

Luz dangled in the grasp of the guard, panic welling up inside of her once more as she had no hope of getting out of this now!

[theJozza]

Across the Boiling Isles in Emperor Belos' Palace, Lilith Clawthorne, head of the Emperor's Coven and sister to Eda the Owl Lady, walks along the corridors, various scouts saluting her as she goes by. Several parchments are levitating in front of her as she goes through her itinerary. Naturally as the head of the most important Coven she had plenty of responsibilities to keep the system running orderly.

"All right then, that pesky dispute between the Construction and Healing Covens is dealt with, honestly I can't believe they had the nerve to make me waste time over something so petty," Lilith says to herself as she makes one parchment vanish. "Let's see, still need to pick my team for the investigation of the break ins at the potion coven warehouses. Have to double check our new training regiment. Oh I nearly forgot I still have to write my Convention speech and...."

"Madame Lilith!" Lilith is snapped out of her thought process and turns to see one of her scouts running up to her. He stands at attention and salutes. "Madame Lilith. We just received a report from Warden Wrath's Bonesborough patrol. They had an encounter with Eda the Owl Lady, and well....she escaped...." He says with a shrug.

Lilith sighs and shakes her head. She'd been trying to get her criminal sister to join her in the Emperor's Coven for years now, but every attempt had been rebuffed. It infuriated her that Eda couldn't realize that joining her here would solve all her problems and that she could play a big role in improving the isles...that was the...only reason she wanted her here. She was just trying to be a good big sister... In any case, Lilith sighs again and turns back to her parchments.

"Yes thank you, Steve. You can just leave the report on my desk. "I'm a little busy right now so I'll read the details of how my sister made fools of Wrath's men later. Honestly, I've told that man a dozen times now that they shouldn't try to bother apprehending her without our support..." She mutters and starts to walk away.

"Oh uh, yes Ma'am," Steve salutes and starts to turn away. "Sorry for the interruption. I just thought you might like to know that this time they were at least able to capture her accomplice," Steve says, but then stops short as the sound of all Lilith's floating scrolls dropping to the ground and she spins back to face him.

"Her....what?"

-----

A short time later, Lilith is briskly walking into the Bonesborough guard station with Steve following behind her.

"Yeah they said they brought the suspect here for processing," Steve says as they pass through the waiting room, several guards saluting. "I doubt they've sent them on to the conformatorium yet."

"What's going on? Edalyn never works with anyone. Are we certain it isn't that weird pet dog thing she has?" Lilith asks over her shoulder. If there was one thing she knew about her sister it was that she was a loner. No one ever worked with her, and barely anyone interacted with her in non-transactional ways.

"Uh not according to the details they gave," Steve says, briefly checking the report as he follows her. "In fact, it says here the arresting officers thought that she might be a...human."

"A human?" Lilith pasues briefly but continues. She knew her sister made a living selling human contraband, but she'd never heard anything of of her interacting with any actual humans. What if this person was Edalyn's supplier? Perhaps a full business partner. They could know secrets about her. "This could be big, Steve," Lilith says, feeling a new surge as they reach the doors to the observation room. "Whoever this person is she could be the asset we've been waiting for to lead us to Edalyn's capture!" She says and pushes the double doors open.

On the other side are two guards looking through a one-way window into a room with their prisoner. At Lilith's entrance they both turn and hurriedly stand up at attention.

"Madame Lilith!" One says, saluting. "What are you doing here?"

"I received your report about your capture of my sister's accomplice," Lilith says walking past them to reach the window to get a look through the window. "As such I've come to personally...." Lilith stops as she gets a good look through the Window. "....is this some kind of joke?" She asks, her tone a mixture of confusion and disbelief, with a slight twinge of anger, as she gets a good look at the human seated in the tiny room. It definitely wasn't what she was expecting.

[Princess Goomba]

Luz was not having a good time. After being ditched by the one lady who had the means to get her back home, she'd been dragged off to some place, she thought they were taking her to the conformatorium place she heard the guard mention earlier, but it seemed they had to take her someplace else first? She didn't really know how she got there, between quietly crying to herself and keeping her eyes shut, she didn't know what was going on until they tossed her into a very small room with a stool to sit on.

Luz sat on it, if only because she thought she had to, though sitting just reminded her of how bad the situation was as she felt her clothes wetly stick to her skin. "Eugh.." Luz shuddered at the feeling of the cool damp cloth, knowing it was wet with her own pee. She knew she'd wet herself when that fairy had said it wanted to eat her skin, but she hadn't really dealt with it mentally until now. She felt her face flush with shame as she thought about having wet herself, feeling a bit vindicated that the reason she'd wet herself had been out of well placed fear, it didn't completely stem her shame though, she hadn't wet herself when she was awake in a long time! Close calls for sure, but never any actual accidents. She didn't dwell on her record at night either, which was far more spotty.

Looking up, she noticed there was a window, a small one. She could see the guards looking through it occasionally, letting her head sink back down, she wondered what was going to happen to her. Did she have to go on trial? Did she get a lawyer? Were humans even considered people here? All these questions and more rattled around in her brain as she sat there doing her best to ignore the wet feeling between her legs and around her waist, thankfully it had dried somewhat while she was being taken here, but that only made things feel a bit itchy.

Some time passed before Luz began to hear a commotion although just barely, something happening outside the little window, looking up she saw the guards move away from it, and suddenly there was a woman standing in front of it. She can see the woman's face, disbelief, confusion. Maybe this was her chance! Maybe this woman would understand it was a huge misunderstanding! Immediately Luz got up from her stool and went over towards the window.

"Please! I'm sorry, I don't even know that woman, I was just trying to get my book back." Luz would have pulled her book out to show, but they'd taken her bag. "And, this tiny owl was hauling it away and through this door and I followed him and I was in this tent and then I saw the other woman with all the junk and I tried to go back home but the door I came through just folded up and flew away, and then I tried to run, but this fairy wanted to eat my skin and the woman grabbed me and she brought me in front of her tent and then the guard grabbed me and brought me here." Luz finished, finally stopping to take a breath, several in fact as she panted a little and slouched over slightly, having said all of that without stopping.

[theJozza]

Lilith just stares at the girl sitting in the interrogation room. This has to be some sort of mistake. She looks like she can't be more than 14, and...are her pants wet? Just what sort of operation is Warden Wrath running here?

"Explanation now!" Lilith says to the guards crossing her arms.

"Well uh like it said in the report ma'am," One says, clearly both of them are nervous now. "When we went to try and apprehend the owl lady she was talking to this kid. We figured she had to be an accomplice or something like that so we brought her in. Then we realized she was a human so we figured she had to know more about the Owl Lady's smuggling operation!"

Lilith raises an eyebrow and looks back through the window at Luz, just in time to see her get up and start trying to give her frantic explanation. Lilith wasn't able to hear what she was saying through the glass, but she does get the gist of it, and it doesn't make her any happier. Also, the closer look lets her see her round ears, confirming her human status. Lilith also notices the stain on Luz's pants, which makes her eyes widen as she starts to think this might be even worse than she thought. After all Lilith didn't know much about humans to begin with. For all she knew this girl could be a toddler.

"So you think this hysterical and terrified girl is working with my sister?" Lilith asks, turning back to the guards.

"Uh well....it could be an act?" One says with a shrug.

"Oh for Titan's sake," Lilith grumbles shaking her head. "Well not like I wasn't going to do this anyway. I will be taking this "suspect" into my personal custody. Steve," she turns to her companion. "Go fetch a cloak or blanket or something. I don't want her to attract too much attention on our way out."

"Steve is on it!" Steve salutes and walks off while the guards exchange a confused glance.

"Uh excuse me, Madame Lilith," one says stepping forward and holding up a parchment. "We already got orders from Warden Wrath to send this human to the conformatorium. I'm afraid you'll have to first file your request with him and...."

Lilith raises an eyebrow and traces a spell circle in the air, causing the parchment to burst into flames.

"This isn't a 'request," she says, as she guard steps back watching the ashes fall. "You may inform Wrath that if he has any issues with this development he can take it up with me. Clearly we need to have a talk about the quality of the operation he's running anyway..." She scoffs and turns away, walking for the interrogation room door. Upon arriving there, she slowly opens the door and looks in. Gettting a better look at how terrified and stressed the teenage human looks, Lilith frowns and feels a surge of pity.

"This might not be the best place to talk to her," Lilith says to herself before drawing another spell circle, a sleep spell this time, which she flings at Luz.

[Princess Goomba]

Luz has no idea what's going on, all she does know is that this new woman seems rather peeved, and she can see her talking with the other guards, which is when she realized that they probably didn't hear a thing she said, after all she'd only heard the commotion a bit when their voices were raised, and as she was stood near the window she could also make out a few words when they were yelled, but it hardly gave her a clear understanding of what was going on.

At the very least something seemed to be happening? Luz had no clue if the woman was upset that they'd captured her, that they hadn't captured the other woman, or if the woman was just berating them for thinking she was important in some way. They'd probably thought she really was working with that one lady who was selling all that junk and now they've just wasted a bunch of time on her instead of going after said junk lady.

Luz is basically glued to the window, watching what's going on with all of them outside, she watches as another guard leaves, briefly wondering what that ones going to go and do. Then she see's one of the guards showing a piece of paper to the woman, and then the woman made a circle in the air, and the circle was like, there, as a color, and the paper then burst into flames.

"Woah.." Luz said to herself, eyes widening at the display of magic. Although seeing the woman so easily do that, casting a spell to burn something, made Luz just a bit more afraid. What if the woman just, toasted her? Or worse!? She began to breath a little heavier, not knowing how this was going to play out. Then the woman disappears from where she can see through the window, and suddenly the door to her small room is opening slowly.

A distinct sensation of fear grips her heart as she wonders what's going to happen. Are the guards going to take her to that conformatorium she heard them mention before, or was that woman going to do something with her? She was almost more afraid of the woman, knowing she could cast magic like that.

Luz steps back, as far as she can, back pressed against the wall as the door opens and the woman is standing in the doorway. Luz stares at her, eyes full of fear, but there's a definite curiosity in her look, being just as curious as to what the woman would do as she was fearful of what the woman could do. As the split second passed though, and before she can say anything, she see's the woman begin tracing a circle in the air, having just seen the woman do that moments ago and watching a paper alight had Luz fearing the worst, then fight or flight kicked in as she lunges towards the woman, purely on instinct. Though what ends up happening is that she just steps forwards very suddenly and then falls asleep mid-lunge, falling down onto the floor.

[theJozza]

Lilith reflexively lurches back a bit as Luz runs at her, but thankfully the sleep spell goes into effect immediately and soon Luz is on the ground snoring lightly. Lilith slowly leans forward, but upon confirming that she's asleep, Lilith relaxes and looks her over. Thankfully the girl isn't hurt or anything, though now she can confirm that her pants are soaking wet.

"Poor thing," Lilith says with a frown as she feels a new surge of what she thinks can only describe as protectiveness for this girl. She kneels down and rolls Luz onto her back, double checking that she has no injuries or damage to her clothing. Obviously the presence of a human was a potential security concern she had to consider as head of the Emperor's Coven. Also, while she was now very skeptical that this girl would know anything significant about As she's doing this, Steve comes back in.

"Excuse me, Madame Lilith...oh is she okay?" Steve asks, tilting his head a little. "Steve hates to see bad stuff happen to kids..."

"She's fine, I just used a spell to put her to sleep," Lilith replies, while seemingly starting to reflexively stroke the girl's hair.

"Oh well this is all I could find in their lost n' found," Steve says holding out a large blanket.

"That should work just fine Steve. Thank you," Lilith says with a small smile, before taking the blanket and patting his shoulder.

"Heh yeah, shoulder pats for Steve!" He cheers to himself as Lilith lifts Luz up and starts wrapping her in the blanket, well to be honest it's a bit more like swaddling. An idea that reminds Lilith of the girl's soaked pants and makes her think. "So uh, are we taking her back to the castle?" Steve asks, snapping Lilith out of her train of thought.

"Actually...no, and least not yet," Lilith replies. "In fact Steve there's an....errand I'd like you to run for me."

-----

A little while later, Lilith is seated in the living room of her home staring at the still sleeping Luz and with a covered tray on a small table in between them. She's still wrapped in the blanket, though a little looser now, and of course she's still asleep as she leans back in a large easy chair, though Lilith guesses that her spell should wear off soon.

After leaving the barracks, Lilith and Steve had split up, with him heading back to the castle to inform the rest of the coven that Lilith would be gone for the rest of the day. Though she had also asked him to grab her some supplies after making his report.

Meanwhile Lilith had gone to her personal residence on the outskirts of Bonesborough as she figured it might be a better place to introduce herself to this young lady. She would of course confirm if she knew anything about Edalyn, but if her reaction at the guard house was anything to go by she definitely needed to make sure she was calm first.

[Princess Goomba]

Luz begins waking up, her head feels foggy, like she'd just taken a 'nap' and by that she meant, having fallen asleep like, in the late afternoon and woken up too early in the morning. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes as her mind drifts, wondering if everything that just happened had been some sort of dream. It had been an interesting one for sure, but a dream regardless. As she awoke the feeling of wetness around her crotch indicated she'd wet herself while sleeping, and she probably wasn't wearing her protection either, her mother would be so upset. She did recall wetting herself during that dream, so this wasn't all that unusual.

But, that's when she began to remember the dream rather vividly as she opened her eyes completely to see that she wasn't in her room. No, she was somewhere else, and then she noticed her, the woman. The woman who had done the magic fire! Luz could feel her heart quicken as her eyes widened and she wondered where she was. This wasn't the weird little room they put her in before, this seemed more like a house of some kind? Maybe the woman had realized this was a huge misunderstanding.

"Uh.. Where am I?" Luz asked, finding the courage to use her voice as she held the blanket tighter to her body, it gave her a feeling of security despite knowing the woman in front of her could just, burn things with a circle of her finger. Hopefully this woman would listen to her and then maybe she could get back home? Although this was a cool magic place with weird creatures and people and obviously magic, but, she couldn't just stay here, she had to go back home!

Oh right. She was supposed to be at that summer camp, she wondered if they'd called her mom and told her she hadn't shown up? Or maybe not getting on the bus, they thought she wasn't coming and so her mom thought she was at the camp? It was a sort of perfect situation that would keep her mom from freaking out immediately anyway, as long as she could get back before the summer camp ended.. Although she had no idea if time here was they same as time back home, after all, it could be like she hadn't left for more than a minute. Then again it could also be like she'd been gone for years now, she was going to hope that it was the former, and not the latter.

[theJozza]

Lilith perks up as Luz starts to wake up, smiling a bit as to appear as non-threatening as possible. Of course Luz still starts to panic a bit, which Lilith realizes upon reflection was fairly unavoidable. She scoots a bit closer and takes a deep breath, still trying to look calm and friendly, but also keeping her distance to not risk overwhelming her.

"Well, my dear," Lilith starts. "To answer your first question, you're in my home. In a broader sense, you are on the Boiling Isles. A land of magic located in a separate realm to your human one. In fact, you might be interested to know that all the legends and mysteries of your realm stem from little bits of our magic leaking into your realm. You see there's a substance known as Titan's blood which is capable of....well we can discuss all of that more later," Lilith clears her throat with a tiny blush. She did have a tendency to ramble whenever she had a chance to talk about the nature or history of the Boiling Isles. However, now she really needed to stay on task and focus on what, or rather who was in front of her. "My name is Lilith Clawthorne. I can certainly understand that you feel nervous right now, given what you have experienced thus far, but I swear to you that I mean you no harm. I only wish to help you," Lilith says, laying her hand over her heart to give a more sincere look. She wasn't lying, and did genuinely want to help this girl, but she also couldn't deny her hope that maybe this young human could offer some advantage in her quest to apprehend...that is, save her sister from herself.

"In any case, perhaps something to eat would help you calm down?" Lilith says, perking up as she reaches over to the coverer dish. She opens it, revealing a plate of chocolate chip cookies. "It's one of the only human recipes I've mastered. Please help yourself," Lilith smiles, pushing it closer. During one of their raids on Eda's various "Human Treasures" stands, Lilith had ended up walking away with a bag of books that she'd taken as "evidence." One of them was filled with human recipes, and on days when she was off and/or bored, Lilith found she liked experimenting with them. The cookies in particular had become one of her favorite comfort foods. She watches the human expectantly, figuring that she can start to ask questions once she's had a bite to eat to help her calm down.