The Fool's Gambit

Chapter 4: Luz's First Day Back At Hexside

Luz woke up in a jail cell, "Did I fail to save them?  Was everything after fighting Belos a dream?" This was the first thought that came to Luz's mind. She hated that a part of her was relieved at the thought of the portal door still being intact after she burned it to keep it out of Belos's hands earlier this week.

She's the reason Eda got caught and lost her magic in the process, Luz was the reason why Eda's business both on the human trash side and the potion's side was failing since her she couldn't intimidate customers into respecting her anymore with her powerful magic.

Luz had tried to remedy this by taking on bounties, but that just lead to her, Eda, and King getting caught and subsequently blackmailed by the Golden Guard.

In the middle of her self-loathing, Luz noticed that this place was a lot different from the conformatorium. Everything was blue, for starters, and the other cells that lined the walls of this place were vacant.

Two little girls stood in front of her jail cell, both had pale skin, yellow eyes, and white hair. They both wore an eye patch on opposing eyes from each other. One had her hair tied into two buns on the side of her head and the other had her hair in a braid. They had identical prison warden outfits that matched this place's blue aesthetic, except that the braided one had the letters O•Y•C on her hat while the one with the buns in her hair had the letters M•R•N on hers.

And to top it all off, a long-nosed man sat at a desk in the middle of the room. His round, bloodshot, eyes bulged out of his head and he had a permanent smirk plastered on his face.

When Luz got off her bed and walked to the jail cell's bars, she noticed that her left leg was heavier than her right one. She looked down at it and saw that her leg was shackled and chained to a ball, "What the fuck?" Luz whispered as she stared at the ball and chain.

Luz also noticed that she was wearing typical prisoner attire, a long-sleeved black and white striped shirt with her pants matching the same pattern.

Luz walked up to the bars, and grabbed them, jumping back once the little girl with buns in her hair smacked the bars with her baton, sending a jolt of electricity through them.

"Ack! What the heck, you little twerp!" Luz shouted as she nursed her burned hands with her burned hands.

"Know your place, inmate. Our master wishes to speak with you," The little girl with buns in her hair scolded.

"It would be in your best interest to listen to his words very carefully," The little girl with a braid recommend.

The long-nosed man spoke, his lips moving but his teeth stayed shut, keeping his permanent smirk intact, "Trickster, you have found yourself in an interesting situation," His low gravelly voice was unsettling.

Luz knew what he was talking about, however. She had destroyed her only way home to keep it out of Belos' hands and now she was stuck here for who knows how long. The fact that her mother was probably wondering where her daughter was right now, camp had ended today and school was going to start soon after.

Luz hated the feeling of relief she felt when she knew that she wouldn't have to go back to school in the human realm, not have to deal with the bullies. Sure Boscha existed, but she never attacked anyone for who they liked or their gender identity. When compared to the bullies she had to deal with in the Human realm, Boscha was like an angry puppy when compared to the furious Cerberus that she had to contend with back in the human realm. She felt selfish, leaving her mom thinking she disappeared at a summer camp, while she lived her best life in another world.

"Where am I? Who are you? Why-" Luz was cut off by Buns smacking the bars of her cell again, "Compose yourself, Inmate!"

"Now now, Justine. These are reasonable questions, which I shall answer," The long-nose man said.