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the emperor's coven sucks

The next day, after attacking Eda for using a sleeping spell on me, we met Amity and her siblings at the library again, even though Eda didn't have books for us to return. 

"Hey, guys." Em said. "How's it going?" 

"Good! Is Amity in there?" Luz asked. 

"Yep! She should be just finishing up reading to the kids." Em said. 

"Ok! I'm gonna go get her!" Luz said, almost bolting to the kids' section. 

Em looked from me to Ed before saying, "I'll come with." 

Once she had left, Ed asked, "So! What's it like being in the Emperor's coven? That sounds awesome! I wish I was part of the Emperor's coven."

I snorted. "No, you don't."

"Why not? That sounds so cool!" 

"Yeah, at first it does. But once you're in, there's no getting out. Unless you do something ridiculously horrible. But.. I dunno what it's like for other people, but for me.. it was pretty bad. I missed out on my entire childhood. While kids were going to school and playing with their friends, I was learning how to fight and learn all the laws of the Boiling Isles. I had no friends, and there was so much pressure on me to do good; someone was always watching me. And I wasn't allowed to study the magic I wanted to study. I wanted to learn about natural and wild magic, but it was banned from the coven. So I always got reprimanded whenever I brought it up on accident or something..." I stopped. "Wow. Sorry. That was a lot. I.. didn't mean to dump that all on you." 

Ed stared at me with wide eyes. "No, I think you needed that. But... jeez, is there anything good about being in the Emperor's coven?" 

"I mean... I got magic from it.. but it's controlled magic. So not really.." 

"That's... terrible." 

We stood there in silence for a second before I said, "Also they brand you."

Ed frowned. "They what?"

"They brand you." I repeated. 

"Like- like... with the burning thingy?" He asked. 

I nodded, and took off my glove so he could see the symbol on my wrist. A triangle with wings and sword. The skin around it was permanently white, paler than the rest of my sickly skin. 

Ed's eyes widened, and for some reason, he touched it. I recoiled. 

"Does it still hurt?" He asked. 

"No, your hands are just cold." I said. 

"Did it hurt when they did it?" Ed asked, unable to look away from the symbol. 

"Yeah. That's not a day I'll be forgetting anytime soon." I said, putting my glove back on. 

"Well, Mittens wants to join the Emperor's coven.. I'm gonna have to ruin her dreams now." Ed said, his eyes wide. 

"Yeah, you might want to. Having your dreams crushed is a better fate than being a part of the Emperor's coven." I said. 

"Anyways.. I was wondering, why does Mittens hate you so much? What did you do?" He asked. 

"I... I was trying to prove myself to Belos. I had failed my past couple missions, and I needed to prove myself. Unfortunately, Amity and I were after the same thing. Titan's blood. I ended up threatening her and Luz's safety. I shouldn't have done it." I said. 

Ed raised his eyebrows. "..oh. Well... It's good that Luz is giving you a second chance. Mittens isn't so forgiving." 

"No kidding. But... the worst part is that even if I leave the Emperor's coven, I'll always be tied to them, no matter what." I looked down at my wrist and sighed. Ed was going to say something else when Luz came back. 

"Hey, we're back!" She said. Amity and her were holding hands. Luz didn't seem to notice that much, but Amity's face was completely red. 

"So, do you guys want to go, like, get something to eat?" Em asked. "Ed, we can finally get some spray paint." 

Ed didn't respond. He was just staring at my arm wide-eyed. 

"Uh.. Ed?" Amity jabbed him hard in the back of the head. 

"Wh-What? Who?" He took a second. "Sorry. I'm good." 

"Jeez, you ok?" Luz asked. She turned and glared at me. "Hunter? What did you do?"

I raised my hands in mock surrender. "Dude, I didn't do anything." 

"Whatever. Come on." Em said.

We walked into town, and got some of the weirdest looking pizza I've ever seen. We sat on the top of a building that we had to sneak onto, and we were looking down on the place. 

"I love people watching." Luz said. "Especially on the Boiling Isles. Everything's so weird." 

"Watch this." Em said. She took her half-eaten slice of pizza and threw it as far as she could. It landed on some poor guy's face, and he ran around screaming, It's raining pizza! What has the world come to?? 

"I wish it rained pizza." Luz said. 

"What if it rained soda?" Ed said. 

"In the human realm, isn't the rain not boiling?" I asked. 

Luz nodded. "It's fun to play in." 

"That sounds so cool." Amity said. 

We continued to talk as the twins threw projectile pizza at people below, but Ed kept on shooting me concerned looks. Maybe I had overshared...