[discontinued] the wrong portal

School visit

Luz woke up early this time, she was tired of the berating from Hunter, she quickly slipped on her clothes and went to eat. She was enjoying her breakfast meal in the dining hall before Hunter burst in and rushed toward her, slamming his hands down on the table.

"You weren't late! Impressive, never do that again, I thought something happened to you." He put his hands on her shoulders as he said the last part. Luz chuckled and continued eating as Hunter sat down next to her with his own meal.

"We have a special assignment if you want to help with that?" He said, not looking up from his food.

"Sure. What is it?" She replied, not looking up either.

"We have to send some people between schools to give a speech on joining the emperor's coven."

"Oh, yeah, I can do that!"

"Well, we leave in ten minutes, get ready." Hunter mumbled through his meal.

"What? That soon?" Luz launched herself from the table and set off down the halls, rushing into her room, she grabbed her staff and spent the rest of the time overthinking what she would need. Hunter walked in and physically dragged her out.

They set off with another two guards after getting outside and landed at a big building, adorned with a plaque of an ouroboros, a snake eating it's own tail, Luz marvelled at it and followed Hunter inside. They navigated the halls down to an office, they were greeted by an old man with a red demon seemingly eating the top of his head.

"Hello, I'm principal Bump, thanks for doing this for our school, I believe this could bring a lot of opportunities to our students, I'll lead you to where you're doing the presentation." He led them to a large hall with a stage at the back, they were left there and given 15 minutes before the students would start rolling in. Hunter gave a rundown on how the presentation would go, he explained that the other two guards would give a show on magic use while Luz and Hunter would give a demonstration on staffs. and how to use them. The group agreed on the plan and waited.

After a while students started rolling through the doors to the hall, they were all eventually seated in rows of chairs set up in the hall, and Hunter started his part of the presentation, talking about what the Emperor's coven does, and the opportunities that come with joining it, the presentation went on as normal and when the staff use presentation came up Luz and Hunter brandished theirs, casting off extravagant spells and such in synchronisation, as Luz was casting, she caught the eye of the rude blight girl from before, the human had obviously been recognised by her as Amity was glaring at her, face bright red in embarrassment. Luz gave her a slight, smug nod from behind her mask and continued with the presentation.

After the presentation was finished, the group waited and answered questions, a few small and easy to answer ones went through, being answered in turns by Hunter and the rest of the group, a familiar voice called out, smugly asking Hunter a question.

"So, what is the Emperor's reasoning for allowing a human into the coven?" The Blight girl called out, giving a mean smile to Hunter. He looked at her suspiciously before stuttering out a response.

"I- I, erm, could you elaborate on your question?"

"You have a human working in the coven, what is the Emperor's inclination to do such a thing?" She asked again, putting on an innocent façade. Hunter finally regained his composition and gave a confident answer.

"Well, the human that the Emperor has permitted to join is a competent fighter and capable of using magic well." He said, sweating from behind his mask. Unsatisfied, Amity slouched down in her seat, staring at the ground. The rest of the presentation went by easily with some simple questions and the schoolchildren filed out. Once they were all gone, Hunter turned to Luz and pulled off his mask, giving her a glare.

"What was that about?"

"What was what about?" Luz tried to play dumb and gave a nervous smile from behind her mask, Hunter sighed and walked over, pulling off her mask.

"That girl? Amity Blight? What did you do to upset her?"

"Is she important?"

"Uh, yeah! Her parents supply the emperor!"

"Oh."

"Oh? That's it? If you ruin the deal between the Blight family and the Emperor you are in so much trouble!" Luz gulped nervously, just hoping that nothing would come of it. Luz and Hunter put their masks back on and left the school, Luz having nothing to do with her time as her shift was cancelled for the trip to Hexside, she decided to change into her normal clothes and take a walk through town.

After a quick change and a trip by staff, she was left outside of town, she turned and headed down to town, before stopping, hearing a sniffle, she turned and walked towards it, seeing willow behind a few trees, sitting on a rock with her head in her hands. Luz walked over and put her hand on Willow's shoulder.

"Are you ok?" Willow looked up at Luz and sniffled.

"I'm failing the abomination course at school!"

"Why did you take it then?" Luz asked, confused.

"I didn't want to! My parents forced me! You'll have better opportunities." She put on an imitating voice for her parents. "I just wanted to take the plant track." She whined, head sinking back into her hands.

"Well, I'm here to help you get onto the plant track then!" Luz exclaimed, giving a reassuring grin to Willow, who looked up at her in shock.

"Well, how are you going to do that?"

"I'll help you demonstrate your skill in the plan track! You do have... skill in the plant track, right?"

"Y-yeah! I can do great plant magic!" Willow jumped up as she gave Luz a bright smile. Luz told Willow to wait and quickly flew back to the castle, changing into her uniform and rushing back, Luz got back and grabbed Willow, throwing her onto the staff and speeding towards the school. After a short ride, they stopped, Willow and Luz getting off and heading to the castle. Luz knew her way to Bump's office without Willow's help and quickly knocked on the door.

"Come in." A muffled reply came. They walked in and the principal looked on from his desk, before sitting up after he saw Luz' uniform. "Greetings! Has my student here caused you any trouble?" He asked.

"No, not at all, actually we were looking into getting a change in track for this student here." Luz tried to put on a formal voice.

"Well, if we were to let a student help change track, they need to actually be capable of performing magic for that track."

"That's fine, Willow would like to switch to the plant track and I believe she has skill in that track." The old man nodded in understanding and led them outside to a small courtyard, motioning Willow to show her use of plant magic, Willow looked at him nervously, and froze up. Luz walked over and gave Willow a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder and a smile from behind her mask.

Willow smiled back and knelt down, placing her hands flat on the ground, Luz stepped back as a twirling amalgamation of flowers and vines, twisting into a tall archway. The principal hummed in satisfaction and twirled his finger, Willow's uniform changed from purple to a dark shade of green. Willow squealed in delight and ran over, embracing Luz in a hug. The principal turned and walked away, retreating into his office. Luz lifted her mask and gave the shorter girl a warm smile, swinging her leg onto her staff and leaving for the castle.