Changeling Witch

(S2) Trapped Beneath These Bones

The Inner Belos—the lich—the creature stuck its nose inside the memory, sniffing the air before moving along. Luz and Hunter let out twin sighs of relief.

Kid Belos ran further into the memory, causing Hunter to take it in—and the sight of it nearly made his heart stop.

They were in the Emperor's lab. And in the middle of that lab was something that he thought for sure that he had destroyed.

"He's got the portal?" Hunter exclaimed. "Did you know about this?"

Luz nodded. "I helped rebuild it."

Belos—modern-day Belos—walked into view, making his way towards the portal.

"I can hear you, you know," he said, an amused tone in his voice.

For a split second, Hunter thought he was talking about them... and then he heard a sinister laughing coming from above.

"Oh, well, you caught me!"

A shadow flitted across the floor, transforming into the silhouettes of witches kneeling over in pain.

"To you, who's strayed so far from home / To me, who's trapped beneath these bones!" a childlike voice sang as the shadows wove their way around the portal. "We'll play forever, me and you / When you paint the land in nine bright hues!"

The shadows transformed into the Titan, then broke apart with a screech... and reformed into someone else.

Someone wearing a shadowy cloak covered in moons, suns, and stars. Someone with a half-moon face and a leer of a grin. Someone whose cackling sent Hunter straight into Uncanny Valley territory.

He had seen so many creepy things on the Isles. He'd seen demons with proportions that shouldn't be possible, he'd seen animals with body parts where they shouldn't be, he'd seen hand dragons, for God's sake. At this point, he figured he would be accustomed to that by now.

But the sheer wrongness radiating off of this being, the shadow-puppet feel, the sense that something inside of them had snapped so long ago—it topped everything that Hunter had ever seen.

He looked over at Luz, who just gave him a shrug. No clue, she mouthed.

"What can I do for you, Collector?" Belos asked.

That's The Collector?

Oh, dear god, no wonder Philip wanted to find him so badly...

"I'm boooooooooored!" The Collector complained, flopping into the arms of a nearby statue. "Is the draining spell ready yet? I wanna play! And watch everything go all—" He broke apart again with a high-pitched scream, reforming again without a care in the world.

Belos let out a small laugh. "You'll have your fun on the Day of Unity. Be patient."

The Collector zipped back over to the portal door, dramatically covering his face. "Betrayed, beguiled / Alone, deceived! / We'll have our revenge on... uh..." He groaned. "Ugh, 'unity' is so hard to rhyme."

Hunter gestured to him. "Luz?"

"I have no idea," she hissed. "He never mentioned having a zodiac shadow gremlin living in his basement, okay—"

A version of her—one covered in scrapes and wearing a standard scout's uniform—ran into the room, going right through her. Luz shuddered slightly, hand flying to her chest.

"Papa!" her past self panted, stopping in front of the steps. "I know you didn't want me running off to Eclipse Lake, but I really, really wanted to help. And look!" She held up the cracked key, a triumphant grin on her face. "I was able to snag this little baby! Now you can—"