A True Witch (Part 1)

Hopefully Helpful

After around an hour of Belos describing how he created the branding glove in the first place and Luz suggesting ways to reverse engineer a way to change the glove to remove the coven sigils, they both were fairly sure it would work. Luz had been tweaking it bit by bit, following Belos's instructions on how to do all the magic necessary. It was fascinating for Luz the entire time because she basically got to learn exactly how the sigils worked, what magic they used, how they were connected to the spell, their built in defense against removal, and every little detail that made them so brutal. With a ton of tweaks done, Luz and Belos were both confident it would successfully take off the sigils, but there was one problem.

They needed a test.

"You know, maybe I should have given myself an Emperor's coven sigil before we started tweaking it so I could test it on myself." Luz said, looking at the glove.

"Well you could try starting with someone you don't like. Kikimora is one of the people who is comatose, right?" Belos suggested.

"Yeah, I really hope you're joking."

"Of course. Joking. Then a stranger, perhaps?"

"Philip, we aren't testing on a living person when we don't know if it'll work. However, we don't have time to fly back to the Isles to use a body to test it."

"There could always be some cadavers here. Maybe one of your medical friends will know if there is a mortuary of sorts. It's been 7 months and there's an apocalypse, so it's unlikely there hasn't been anyone who's died."

Luz was in agreement but, even though she suggested the idea, was still disgusted that that was the plan they were going with. But, no matter how wrong it felt, it was really their best bet.

Luz grabbed the glove, put it in her backpack and, after testing out an invisibility spell on it just to be safe which thankfully worked, headed back to the tower. She swiftly walked around for a while before running into Emira.

"Hey Luz! Where you going in such a rush?" Emira asked.

"I was actually looking for you. I was just, uh, wondering about a few things about this whole place."

"Ask away. I've been here a while so I can answer just about anything."

"Has, um, has anyone...died here?" Luz asked nervously, fumbling her goal of being inconspicuous.

"Oh. Why do you ask?"

"Well on the scouting mission I saw tons of dead people and it got me curious if anyone died while here. And like, if there was a morgue or whatever the process is if people die here."

Emira looked at Luz, one eyebrow raised. Luz could feel a droplet of sweat going down the back of her neck, which confused her because she was frankly freezing, despite everyone else seeming like they thought the temperature was perfect.

Before Luz could continue that line of thought further, Emira went to answer.

"No, nobody has died here. If someone did, Eda has a procedure set up so that any found and living relatives can have a small funeral in a private area. Any belongings will be given to family and close friends and anything else will be recycled. The person will be cremated and given to their family who can decide what to do. If they have no family alive or here, the belongings will be stored for two months before being recycled in case someone comes. Also after that period their ashes will be scattered in a location meaningful to that person. So yeah, if anyone died and you weren't close, you'd never have to see the body. I bet you're probably not a fan of dead people after seeing the carnage that is Bonesborough at the moment."

"Yeah. That's why I asked." Luz said, mind racing as she tried to think of what to do, "Anyway I should probably go. I'm going to hang out with Amity and the others."