Love is never easy (a sequel to time enough for love)

Cool night breeze

Eda pov

I wandered through the night market, keeping a watchful eye on the shadows, making sure nobody tried anything funny. I make my way over to Mr Elixer's stall where he sells a wide variety of illegal and dangerous potions. From mind control potions, to temporary paralysis elixers, the results of the wrong person getting their hands on this stuff could be catastrophic. But I need stronger elixer to ward off my curse and this was the only place to get it.

"Eda!" The man said excitedly. "How are we my bird cursed friend?"

"I need the good stuff alright." I said weakly as I placed a large coin bag on the stall.

The seller eyed the bag hungrily as he reached round the back of the stall and pulled out a large box of potions.
"Now these babies are strong, they can give you some rough night sleeps if you're not careful."

I was however no longer listening as I grabbed one of the large potion bottles and downed the entire thing. I sighed in relief as I felt the feathers fall off my body, the curse having been wared off for at least a while.
"Cheers buddy." I say as I take the box and make my way home."

Luz pov

I launch myself at Nick, swinging my red bat at him as he raises his guard. He parries the attack easily and my bat slams into the ground. I shift my weight so that I can carry my momentum into a forward swing, activating a fire glyph at the same time. Nick manages to roll backward out the way, throwing a knife at the same time. I use my glyphs to summon an ice wall to catch the knife. But before I can regain my balance which had been broken due to the weight of the bat, Nick closed the distance and swept me off my feet. I landed hard on my back and felt the wind get knocked out of me. I attempt to get up but Nick simply puts his foot on me.

"Okay Luz, that's good." He says as I loosen my grip on my bat, letting it roll away in defeat.

I move my head so that I can watch Amity and Lilith sparring from the ground. Unlike me, Amity was holding her own much better. She used her smaller stature as an advantage in order to dodge around Lilith's attacks and used her abomination magic to make abomination fists with spikes and landed a strong hit on Lilith, who carried herself with the momentum of the hit to put some distance between them.

"Good Amity." Lilith says as she lowered her guard, indicating the end of the sparring. "Brilliant application of your abomination magic."

"Thanks." Amity says shyly at the complement.

"Where'd you get the idea to use your magic like that?" Nick asks as me and him approach the two.

Amity looks down at the ground, her smile dropping as the memories of where she learned the technique echoed in her mind.
"Zoe taught it to me."

The atmosphere turned grim as the 4 of us remembered all the pain the girl had caused us. Her note had been eating away at me for the 2 months since she left it. She'd given us the key, she had helped us, stopping the emperor from moving on with his plan. There was still good in her, I could feel it. She needed our help, but I had no idea how to help her.

"Well wherever it came from you used it excellently." Nick said, breaking the silence that had befell our group.

"I still don't think this thing is for me." I complained as I lifted my bat. While the gift had initially filled me with excitement, the practicality of the weapon was not ideal. The bat was heavy and slow, activating the right glyph was difficult and I could never seem to keep my balance with the thing.

"Luz because of how your magic works you never know when you're gonna be without glyphs." Lilith explained as she walked over.

"You need to have another way of defending yourself." Nick added.
"It'll take some getting used to but once you learn how to use it you'll find that using your bat is easier than ever."