The Owl House: Emperors and Thorns

King's Tide

King wakes up and finds himself in the In Between Realm, overhearing a conversation between Belos and the Collector.

"But-But you said! You said you'd let me out!" the Collector whines, "I hate it here!"

"Just a little longer. We have to wait 'till after the Draining Spell." Belos told them.

King floats over to the source of the voices and watches them from behind a pillar. The Collector is trapped in a mysterious floating orb, while Belos is speaking from a small round piece of glass floating nearby.

"You better not be fibbing. You pinky-swore me."

"Patience, Collector, you can trust me." Belo says, making King scoff at this.

"Hm? Who's there?!"

...

King wakes up in Willow's lap, breathing heavily.

"It's okay, King, it's okay." Willow calms him down as she and Zora look to the others. Alador is steering the ship, Amity  is worriedly pacing back and forth, Gus is inspecting his power amplifier, and Hunter is doing various adjustments to the air ship to help steer it.

"I know how to fly a ship." Alador looks irritated with the boy.

"Then fly faster! We're barely halfway there. Luz could be in trouble!" Amity says.

"Hey! Cerise could be in trouble too!" Hunter points at her before making a suggestion, "Maybe if I took the wheel..."

"Very eager to return to Belos, eh, Golden Guard?" Alador turns to glare at him.

"At least I've never built him an army!"

"Watch your tone with me, young man." Alador lets go of the steering wheel, causing the ship to tilt and Gus to fall out of his seat.

Gus walks over, annoyed, "Hey, here's a bright idea: don't distract the pilot!"

"He started it!"

Alador, Hunter, Gus, and Amity all start yelling at each other angrily while King and Willow watch sadly from the back of the ship.

"I can't believe they're gonna face Belos alone again. And I'm powerless to help them. We can't even manage to help each other." King says sadly.

"I'll take care of this." Zora stands up and walks over to the others. She whistles loudly to get their attention, "Listen, shouting at each other is not helping! None of this helps Cece or Luz. Hunter, Amity, do you trust them?"

"Of course." Hunter and Amity say in unison.

"Well then, that's it. Luz and Cerise can handle themselves for now. We need to focus on getting there alive first." Zora opens up a box of cheeses, bread, and apples.

Everyone nods as they take a snack from the box. Gus fistbumps Hunter as an apology. Alador then gestures Hunter to steer the wheel with a sincere smile. To the side, Amity is rubbing her hands together from the cold, but Alador summons Abomination goo to cover her hands as he sits down next to her.