A True Witch (Part 1)

Sleeping and Waking Nightmare

"Everyone that was too close to the spell and had an Emperor's coven sigil was hit the hardest." Emira explained as she and Luz walked along the hospital beds, "With all the magic drained from their bodies, they fell comatose. We keep them here to monitor them and keep them away from most people. The scars show where the spell ran along their bodies."

As they got to the end of the room, Luz noticed a medical curtain surrounding a bed. Emira noticed her curious look, sighed, and opened it.

Laying in the bed was Odalia. Shoulder, chest, and face scared.

And her left arm was completely gone.

"As the spell worked through her body, she likely tried to cut off her arm to stop it. However, it seems the sigils are made so the effects are worse if you try to remove it. That combined with the trauma of cutting off a limb made her pass out before she could finish. When we found her, her whole arm was infected and we had to amputate it. This is what Alador doesn't want Mittens seeing."

Luz looked around the room, seeing all the innocent people stuck in comas because of Belos.

"Do you have any idea on how to wake them up?" She asked quietly.

"With Odalia, I assume it shouldn't be too much longer, she just needs to heal from the physical and mental trauma. As for the others, we think maybe if we can get the sigils off they'll wake up. But, we have no idea how to remove them without hurting them."

Luz thought to herself that maybe if they could find a branding glove, maybe they could modify it to remove sigils rather than give them.

"I know this is...a lot. As I said, there's a reason this room has restricted access."

"Because you don't want people to be scared?"

"That and seeing the people who are supposed to be the most powerful like this is really disheartening. For the sake of morale, Eda just tells people the coven heads are likely just somewhere we can't find. Even she barely comes back here because it hurts to see her sister and Raine like this."

Emira looked at Luz, sighed, and grabbed a small vial from a drawer and handed it to her.

"You were out all night. Just because Hunter can pull off eyebags doesn't mean you should see if you could too. Drink this and get some sleep. It is infused with sleeping nettles, so don't worry about your thoughts keeping you awake."

"Thank you. How is Hunter doing?"

"Frustrated he actually has to let people take care of him instead of helping, but overall doing okay. Now, go get some sleep."

Luz nodded and left. As she wondered, trying to retrace her steps, she got good looks a bunch of different rooms throughout the base. There was a greenhouse, a lab, what looked like a makeshift classroom with lots of books, and a few training rooms. With some help from other residents, she did manage to get back to her dormitory and went straight to her bunk.

She kicked off her shoes, tried to get comfy, and drank the potion. Just a few seconds after setting the empty vial down, she was out like a light.

Luz's eyes opened up and she was back at the owl house, the real one, not the copy the Collector made. She was in the living room on the floor, with Eda, Amity, Gus, Willow, Hunter, Vee, and her mom all looking at her, faces in shadow. She tried to get up and move towards them but was pulled down by something. When she looked behind her she saw her hands were cuffed by the same magic restricting cuffs she was chained in when she and Eda got arrested. When she looked back up at everyone, they all looked terrified of her.