Rectification

Chapter 1

The tree was beautiful this time of year.

The leaves, which were usually a delicate, pale pink, were fading to a faint lavender as autumn approached the Boiling Isles, and as Amity watched their frail outlines, a few detached themselves from their branch and spiraled slowly to the ground. The grass around the bottom of the trunk was already littered with the purple leaves, and the dusk sunlight caught them through the branches of the tree and made the color even more radiant.

The whole thing was very romantic, Amity thought. That is, if she had anyone to be romantic here with.

But I never told her. And now it's too late.

She could still see the portal in her mind's eye. No, not just the portal- she could see Luz too, and the strangely regretful yet relieved expression Luz had worn as she'd disappeared behind the wall of blinding white light. She could see Eda and Lilith out of her peripheral vision, both surprisingly wiping tears out of their eyes. Willow and Gus had been there too, both barely keeping their composure. Even Amity's siblings had joined in the goodbyes, and even they had seemed sad.

But Amity knew none of them were even close to being as devastated as she was.

In a burst of annoyance, she distractedly kicked a tree branch that lay at her feet. "Now she's gonna go back to being a normal human, and she'll forget all about me," she muttered to herself. "She'll probably find another girl who's prettier than I am that she'll like more than she could have ever liked me. 'Amity Blight? Who's Amity Blight? Never heard of her,'" she mimicked.

She let out a long exhale and felt her shoulders slump. She couldn't force herself to be mad at Luz. Luz had done what Luz had needed to do.

She's got a life outside of me.

But for five months, Luz had been Amity's world.

After Emperor Belos had destroyed the portal to the human realm, Luz had broken the news to Amity that her return home was delayed indefinitely. It had been hard for Amity to not be overjoyed. She knew she shouldn't have been- that Luz had a life, a family, back home- but the prospect of spending possibly forever with the girl she might have been crushing on just a little bit made her so happy she thought her excitement would blow a hole through the roof. She began daydreaming up ways to confess her feelings for Luz- it wouldn't be so pointless if Luz wasn't going to leave.

But Luz's magic grew stronger as she spent more time training. Even Eda and Lillith quickly got the hang of their new way of doing magic, and soon they were as powerful as they'd been before the Petrification. With more strength, however, came new discoveries, and with new discoveries came new magic, and that had all culminated the day Eda had found a way to create a portal to Luz's realm by herself.

The three days after that discovery had flown by fast as a griffon. None of it had felt real- Luz? Leaving? Nah, this is just some weird dream- so Amity had gone about her business as normal, ignoring the packed bags that began to pile up in Luz's room whenever she visited. She went about things as normal, that is, until just an hour ago, when she'd been forced to say goodbye and the reality of it all hit her like some sort of freakishly strong spell. Luz was going away, and she was not coming back.

And now Amity was here.

She didn't know why she'd chosen to come here. Any other place would probably have hurt less. Of course, it wasn't like there was a single location on the Boiling Isles that didn't remind her of Luz, but the Grom tree was probably the worst of all, since she and Luz had created it together. Regardless, as soon as she'd left the Owl House, she found her steps taking her through the woods, up the cliff, and down memory lane. Maybe a corner of her subconscious couldn't handle the memory of Luz's departure, so she wanted to surround herself with good memories instead of bad.