Calamitous Intervention

Market Mayhem

In the living room of the Owl House, Eda and her palisman, Owlbert, were playing a card game; the two were fiercely invested, as Anne and King watched. Eda pulled out some cards from her hands, which magically faced her as she sported a very fierce and cunning stare. Owlbert did the same, perching on the table.

"Watch closely, Anne," Eda advised the human. "Hexes Hold'em is the trickiest game on the Boiling Isles. Any proper witch knows how to play." She grabbed one card from her deck already in her hands and lifted it in the air.

Anne could only stare at the two of them, not too invested or attracted to the game. Despite this, she couldn't help but record it with her phone. Not every day do you see a witch playing a magic card game with an owl.

Eda took the card with a red demon figure on it and rested it on the table, which was already neatly populated by several other cards. Suddenly, the cards began to electrify, crackling with energy and shaking up this game quite a notch, startling the owl as he flew onto the floor right below the table for safety.

As Owlbert peeked up to see the table and cards barely, the cards had sprung to life, sprouting thin black arms and legs, equally divided into two teams. One card suddenly roared, making the other cards do the same. Owlbert's cards all charged toward Eda's side, startling King a bit, but the Owl Lady showed no fear.

"Now, when it looks like the deck is stacked against you," Eda confidently said, "that's when you break out... the wild card." She snatched another card from her deck depicting a fork-shaped tower on a red background and held it up proudly with a large grin on her face, aiming the card at the table.

Eda's wild card glowed green, radiating a curious but dangerous amount of energy, and it instantly disintegrated Owlbert's cards, reducing them to tiny flaming piles before disappearing altogether. Suddenly, a batch of fire materialized above the table before revealing the text "WINNER: EDA" spelled out in large flaming letters, before fading away just a second later.

Owlbert hopped back onto the table, the game over, and hooted at the witch as he extended his wings. Having felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, Eda cheerfully raised her fists into the air and whooped in victory. "I win!" She lowered her stance and pointed at the unbothered Owlbert, still perched on the table, playfully teasing him. "In your adorable owl face!"

The witch stood back up, slightly stretching her back, knowing she was at the top of her world right now. "I love the feeling of victory," she boasted with her eyes confidently closed, excelling at one of the most popular games to play on the Isles. "It feels... fluffy?" She opened her eyes and glanced aside in confusion, not noticing her arms had begun sprouting little black feathers—a very uncomfortable warning sign.

Anne gasped when she saw this, having already spent a full night seeing the horrors of Eda's curse. "Oh, no... Eda, your curse!" she warned.

"What's that about my curse?" Eda said, not looking too concerned, and still not knowing what she was talking about.

"Your curse is returning!" King yelled, and this brought Eda up to speed. She looked at her arms, the feathers growing ever so slightly, and her expression instantly switched from uninterested to panicked, as she yelped in fear. Whenever she felt the curse returning, she had always relied on those good old (bad-tasting) elixirs. Would she still have enough?

Eda hurried to a chest near the couch, which had always stashed her curse-tempering elixirs, and confidently opened it up, with Anne and King looking on. Her determined face quickly fell into one of disappointment, as she saw no more elixir in the chest—just empty old bottles surrounded by spiderwebs. "Oh boy, this is terrible. I'm out of elixir," she resigned as she grabbed an empty elixir from the chest and shook it, trying in vain to get anything out of it.