The angel of the owl house

Eda watched her kids with a worried expression; they both worked hard and had enthusiasm, but it seemed that their hard work only refined and improved their skills with what they already had; it didn't help them learn anything new! She remembered how frustrating and bored learning like that made her as a kid, so Eda could sympathise.

Amity also noticed how down Luz was getting. The girl always had a bright smile and words of encouragement ready for Amity, cheering her on with every successfully cast ice or fire spell, seeming genuinely thrilled for her. She'd been the same when Amity had gotten a Palismen and she hadn't, never once showing signs of being jealous of her. In fact, the only negative emotions Luz seemed to let herself show around Amity is disappointment in herself. It seemed so unfair for her to be working so hard but not have anything to show for it…

Making up her mind, Amity walked over to an isolated part of the ruins, where Luz was practicing her magic. The young angel had managed to use light to melt some snow inside a ruined fountain, filling it again, and was now growing algae inside it with her plant magic.

"Hey Luz. How is it going?" Amity asked.

"Not very well." Luz sighed, "I thought if I tried using one element like it was another, then something might click… using light to melt things like fire, or growing aquatic plants to get used to working with water… but nothing's working."

She turned and sat on the edge of the fountain, forcing a cheerful smile on her face; "Still, it's not a total loss! I think I've finally figured out why I have so much trouble learning normal witch spells!"

"Oh? What's the problem?" Amity asked, sitting beside her.

Luz looked up at the sky and said; "I think angels use magic in the same way as ancient witches did; by using the elemental components. The reason I'm so bad at most spells is because I'm trying to cast them like a modern witch, using raw magic instead of elemental magic. But I don't have a Bile Sac or spell phlegm like a modern witch, so I can't properly refine it, so my spells come out weak. But if I find a glyph and bond with it, they let me refine my raw magic into elemental magic…"

"And so you can cast magic that uses that element!" Amity gasped, "So you're able to use healing magic because you've got two of the three elements needed for it, and one of the two elements needed to cast illusion magic too! That's also why you can use bardic magic so strongly; light is one of the elements of bardic magic too!"

"Yup! But I'm still missing at least one element from each school of magic I know. Imagine what my healing or plant magic would be like if I mastered ice! Or the illusions and songs I could perform if I figured out wind!" Luz smiled wistfully.

"You'd be amazing! But I don't understand; if angels naturally use elemental magic like you think, then why can't you use elements without the glyphs?" Amity asked.

Luz shrugged with a pained expression; "I don't know… but I think it's got something to do with why my magic was stunted before coming to the Demon Realm. Mami said I was just a late bloomer, and all angels eventually awakened their magic whether they were half-human or not, but I think there's something else going on…" she looked down at her hands; "I don't think the magic of the Demon Realm just kickstarted my magic… I think it changed it. Now my magic is somewhere between an angel and a witch… or demon."

Amity took Luz's hand, trying to hold in her blush as she did so, "Luz, you know that doesn't make you any less of an angel, or a great person, right? So what if your magic is a little different; you're still an amazing person who helps everyone around you!"

Luz blushed and squeezed Amity's hand; "Thank you, Amity. You, Willow, and Gus are the best friends I could ever ask for. I'm just worried what my Mami will say if I turn out to be right. Demons are supposed to be the polar opposite of angels; even human myths and legends say that. Having power halfway between the two could be bad."

"Do you think there has ever been half angel, half demons before?" Amity asked. "Angels have definitely been to the Demon Realm before, like that Cassiel woman you told me about, or whatever angels are in that diary you found. Do you think it's possible?"

Luz nodded slowly, her expression becoming serious; "Mami did tell me one legend… of a type of creature born to an angel and a demon. It was called a Nephilim. I don't know anything else about them though; just their name and that they were supposedly cursed beings. I was still pretty small at the time, so Mami didn't want to tell me more in case I got scared."

Amity bit her lip; she could understand why Luz was so worried about her magic being like a demon's, if creatures with both angelic and demonic power were considered cursed in her culture then it probably scared her to think she had something in common with them. Shaking that thought away, Amity decided to focus on why she'd originally come over to speak to Luz; she had an idea to cheer her up.

"Well putting aside that stuff for now, I had an idea. Why don't you practice some magic using this?" Amity said, offering the training wand. She'd just put a new energy crystal inside it, so its charge was full and ready to go. "I don't know if it'll work for you, but at least it'll let you get some practice."

Luz smiled brightly and gratefully took the wand; "Thank you so much, Amity! But what about you? Don't you need this?"

Amity shook her head and drew a spell circle, causing the snow at their feet to rise up in the form of a snowy abomination… or at least an elaborate snowman that looked like an abomination.

"I still can't cast that fireball spell without the wand, but I can manage some ice spells. I guess it's because ice is an element used in abomination magic, so I'm used to manipulating my magic in the right way." Amity explained. "I figure this way, we can practice together."

Luz and Amity blushed, still holding hands, until Luz reluctantly let go and got to her feet, smiling determinedly; "Let's give it a try!"

Amity made her snowman abomination walk further into the ruins, then hid behind a wall as Luz focused on the element of fire. Mimicking what Amity had done earlier, Luz created a spell circle with the wand and created a fireball. She gasped with delight as she finally succeeded in using a new spell (though she noticed her flames were golden like Eda's, as opposed to pink like Amity's), then giggled as her fireball blasted towards the snowy abomination, exploding like a firework and destroying the abomination completely.

"This thing is amazing! I'm surprised more people don't use them!" Luz cheered.

"It's because they rely on energy crystals to refuel them." Amity said, coming out from her shelter and showing Luz the energy bar on the side of the wand's handle, which had depleted by about a third. "Looks like you overpowered that last spell. Try to make the circle a little smaller."

Luz nodded and waited for Amity to make another target (which was a snowy replica of Arboriel this time), then cast another fireball, making sure to keep the circle smaller this time. She succeeded in punching a hole through the snowman's torso, and the wand's energy only depleted a little bit, making the girl grin.

"So cool… Still, it's nothing like the Bat Queen. She makes this thing look like a toothpick!" Luz said, preparing more fireballs to finish demolishing the Snow-Mandragora.

"Ghost feels like that to me too. Training wands were modelled on staves. Though a Palismen recovers energy like most other living things, so they don't need energy crystals." Amity explained, watching with a grin as Luz cheerfully destroyed the target.

For the next little while, Luz continued to practice with the fireball spell, and eventually branched out into other flame based spells, while Amity made more and more targets for her to destroy. She even began making snow sculptures of herself, Eda, the twins, King, and their palismen, so Luz could practice her aim and control over her fire, melting the intended targets only. It was good training, though Luz was no closer to casting new magic without the wand, and they burned through the entire supply of energy crystals Amity had brought along for it.

"I guess that's all for today." Luz said, trying not to sound disappointed as the training wand beeped at her.

"Edric and Emira may have packed more, but it's nearly dinner time anyway; we should get back to the others." Amity said.

"Yeah, sure." Luz nodded, handing back the wand.

The two girls then made their way back to the rest of the campsite, where Eda had erected a new tent near the Blights' one. Their tent looked like something almost organic, with large bone-like spikes sticking out of the top. They arrived just in time to find Eda stirring a pot over a fire, while cackling as she watched Emira and Russ chase Edric around the campsite, trying to take back some kind of bat creature that he'd caught and decided to keep as a pet. King was also watching from his perch on one of the logs placed around the fire, though he had noticeably less energy than usual. Luz took a seat beside him and gave him a little hug, which he appreciated, while Amity went to help her sister catch Edric before he could get himself bitten.

Naturally, the Blights came to sit around the fire a short time later, the bat creature long gone and Emira frowning as she healed a bite on Edric's hand.

"Good work today kids!" Eda complimented, ladling some kind of thick, meaty stew into bowls and handing them out. "You've earned a taste of my secret ingredient stew!"

"Ooh, what's the secret ingredient?" Edric asked, gratefully taking a bowl.

Eda gave him a deadpan look; "Do you not grasp the "secret" part of that?"

"Hey, I got bit by a Muddle Bat! I'm allowed to be dumb!" Edric whined.

Amity rolled her eyes; "You were dumb before it bit you…" she snarked, before taking a bite of stew. "Mmm, this is really good!"

"Of course its good! It's got meat!" King cheered, scarfing down his own bowl at record speeds. The rest of the kids followed suit, feeling ravenously hungry after their intense afternoon of training. As they ate, the twins bragged about the amazing knew magic they'd learned, and how incorporating wind magic into their illusions made them a lot more powerful, just like Eda had explained.

Amity also happily reported her success with ice magic, but when Eda turned to Luz and King, both kids looked dejectedly into their bowls.

"I can draw the light and plant glyphs super fast now, but that's it…" King mumbled, almost absent-mindedly drawing the two glyphs using his swaying feet.

"I did some fire magic, but I needed Amity's training wand to do it… I've made no progress on my own." Luz said, avoiding looking Eda in the eye. As her apprentice, it felt a bit like she wasn't living up to her mentor when she showed so little progress.

Eda gave them an understanding smile; "Hey now, you've been working hard. Even if you can't see results yet, I guarantee you've improved today. Don't be so hard on yourselves!"

"I know. It's just frustrating…" Luz sighed.

"Yeah… I want to be more powerful, and more useful." King said.

Amity frowned, seeing the limited joy she'd been able to bring to Luz melt away as her self-deprecation returned. And while she wasn't close with King, she still sympathised with his feelings of inadequacy.

The twins spent the rest of the meal, and the entire evening, doing their own bit to lift Luz and King's spirits, making illusions to amuse and entertain, while Orthie and Russ played with them. Edric and Orthie were definitely the goofball duo, while Emira and Russ were the straight men of their little comedy routine. They managed to get quite a few laughs out of the residents of the Owl House, and even Amity got in on the fun by bossing her siblings around while Ghost did the same with the Palismen. It was a fun evening, and the Blights began to feel like this was what families were meant to be. Luz and King enjoyed the twins' dumb humour, and Eda never once tried to scold them or correct them about something they were doing wrong. They didn't need to be "Representatives of Blight Industries"; they could just be kids.

That realisation never left Amity's mind, not even when it began getting late and they all retired to their tents to sleep. She lay in her sleeping back, staring up at the canopy, and think about the day she'd just had. She'd spent the whole day with nothing but positive reinforcement from an adult, learning new magic, and hanging out with Luz, whose every action seemed to worm her deeper and deeper into Amity's heart. But the sight of Luz's disappointed and dejected face haunted her mind and kept her from sleep. Her plan with the wand had helped, but it had been a stopgap measure, a fun distraction that ultimately just reinforced Luz's feelings of disappointment once the fun was over. Amity needed to do something different.

"Helping solve people's problems is hard." she thought, now understanding why Luz had so much trouble with it back in the Human Realm. The issue was that Amity couldn't solve the actual problem; she couldn't overcome whatever troubles Luz was having with her magic, so her only solution was to take Luz's mind off it. But how could she do that?

Amity racked her brain for things Luz liked and which she had some experience with. Other than learning magic, the only thing she could think of was the Good Witch Azura. Maybe they could talk about it? Or draw together? Or even act out some scenes?

Groaning and unable to sleep as her thoughts raced, Amity put her warm clothes back on and went outside to stand in the snow, while Ghost silently followed her. It was a mostly clear night, with a few scattered clouds lightly sprinkling snow down on their campsite, while the moon hung large and full in the night sky, clearly illuminating the Knee, making the snow almost glow. Amity raised her face to the sky and closed her eyes, letting some snowflakes land on her, cooling her down a bit and refreshing her.

Unbidden, something flashed into Amity's mind; the time they had been trapped in the old Fibul ruins together, exploring them just like one of the magical adventures Azura went on. It had been there that they'd first begun to bond as friends, and also where Luz had unlocked a new glyph! Amity's eyes flew open and she looked over to the Caplacier ruins; she'd heard stories about them and had wanted to explore them for years, but hadn't wanted to be distracted from her training. But now, a distraction was just what she was looking for!

Smiling as her plan formed inside her head, Amity hurried over to Luz's tent and peered inside, finding Luz still awake in her own sleeping bag, whispering quietly to King, who was curled up on her chest. Eda was snoring away in the background, so Amity smiled and snuck in to prod Luz.

Luz and King both sat up, surprised to see the girl. "Amity? What's up? Is something wrong?"

"No, I've just had a great idea! Come out here." Amity whispered with a smile. She then thought about it and added; "You too, King!"

After all, cheering up King would go a long way to cheering up Luz too!

Amity left their tent and waited outside in the snow for Luz to change, then smiled as the angel emerged from the tent with King in her arms.

"Okay, we're here. What did you want, Amity?" Luz asked curiously.

Amity grinned; "I was thinking; remember when we fell into the Fibul Academy Ruins? It was like an adventure from the Good Witch Azura, right?

Luz nodded, wondering where Amity was going with this; "I remember. It was pretty fun, even with the Mandragora."

"And you said earlier that King wants to go on an adventure since he missed the last one in the Bat Queen's forest."

"I do crave peril and strife." King agreed.

"Well then, I thought of something that could help you both! Let's go on an expedition to the Caplacier Temple Ruins!" Amity declared.

Immediately, King's eyes grew bright with excitement. Exploring an ancient snowy temple filled with who knows what kind of traps and trials in a hostile environment in the middle of the night? That sounded like a great adventure to him!

Luz smiled as well; "Ooh, an adventure into ancient, icy ruins… it does sound interesting! And if this temple was built in ancient times when witches relied on wild magic, then maybe I'll find some secret to help me connect with the isles and unlock some new magic!"

Amity blinked; she hadn't considered that, but she'd roll with it! "Right? Shall we go then? If we want to explore and still get some sleep tonight, we'll need to leave now."

"Let's do it!" Luz and King said together.

The three then headed off to the ruins of Caplacier, leaving behind a note for Eda and the twins in case they awoke to find them gone. Exploring the surface ruins at night was eerie, especially as the snow blanketing the place seemed to glow in the moonlight, and all three kept their eyes and ears peeled for any signs of danger, such as the wild Slitherbeasts that lived on the Knee.

Amity, having read about the Caplacier Temple Ruins, knew that the aboveground portion of the building was long gone, but there was still an underground section that was rather expansive. She also knew roughly where in the ruins the entrance to the underground portion was; smack in the very middle and partially concealed by the snow. She led Luz and King to the fountain Luz had been practicing near earlier, and revealed that the fountain was actually a part of the old temple's courtyard, and the entrance they were after was just a few paces north.

"It should be just here." Amity said, gesturing to the blanket of snow in front of them.

"I don't see anything." Luz frowned, before summoning her wings and flapping them hard, blowing away some of the light and powdery snow. This revealed the stone floor of the courtyard, as well as a staircase leading underground with a thick sheet of ice over the top, blocking the entrance.

"Whoa… how did the ice form like this? It couldn't have been natural! Most of it is just floating over the entrance!" Luz exclaimed, kneeling down to tap it with her knuckle.

"The Caplacier Temple was one dedicated to water and ice, so I guess the old defences freeze the entrances shut. Other explorers have been down there, but the entrance always freezes over again." Amity explained, reciting an old book from memory. She then drew her training wand, which had been recharged with a back up energy crystal that Emira had brought along. "I'll clear it." Amity said, casting pink flames down on the ice to melt it.

It melted easily, but as soon as the flames died down, the ice began to creep back out from the edges of the staircase, forcing King and the girls to hurry down before the way was sealed again. "Not a fan of being sealed in, but I guess we can get out again without too much trouble." Luz commented.

They descended down the stairs, Luz and King summoning little light orbs to illuminate the darkness of the underground as they went. They gasped at what they saw; the temple's underground section looked a bit older than the rest of the ruins, and was carved from a blue-ish grey stone, with intricate detailing on every wall and pillar. The temple underground was also oddly simple; it was a long, wide hallway with pillars at regular intervals, and large stone sarcophagi along the walls. King hurried forward to get a good look at one of them, accidentally triggering a pressure plate as he went. A spray of icicles shot from a serpent-like sculpture on a nearby pillar, and would have skewered King if he were just a bit taller.

"Weh!?" he cried in surprise, running back to Luz's side; "This place really is full of traps! Was this a dungeon!?" he said, half terrified and half excited.

"It looks more like a tomb, or catacombs to me." Luz replied, creeping forward with Amity as both girls carefully watched their step.

"According to my history book on this place, those sarcophagi house the bodies and Palismen of the High Priests of the temple." Amity said as Luz got close to one.

The angel girl frowned as she found the lid had been disturbed, allowing her to peer inside. Her frown grew as she saw that it was empty. "Was this one not filled before the temple was abandoned?"

King looked around, noticing all the sarcophagi looked to have been disturbed. "I think those past explorers ransacked the place."

Amity nodded; "Emperor Belos declared this temple to be heresy against the Titan. It was already destroyed long before he came along, but he supposedly had the bodies removed for some reason. The Palismen that had gone dormant and been buried with their partners were taken too…"

All three shuddered; no doubt those poor creatures had been devoured by Belos. Luz wondered if that was the reason Belos had even bothered with the place.

"Ominous…" King muttered, looking further down the chamber. There were three doors at the very end; one to the left, one to the right, and one leading straight ahead. Between the three doors was a strange looking dais, resembling three snakes twisted together, and each one of the snake's heads was pointed to one of the doors.

"What's with that?" King asked.

"Those are the paths to the trial chambers." Amity said.

"Trial chambers?" Luz and King gasped excitedly.

"Yes. Archaeologists and explorers believe that it was some kind of initiation rite for the ancient witches who became priests at this temple. An Initiate would have to go into each of the three chambers and pass a trial, recovering some kind of token at the end. They'd then have to place the tokens in the snakes' mouths to open the way to the ritual chamber below us." Amity said, kneeling to examine the snake dais.

"So, should we try to get in?" Luz asked.

"Yeah! You can blast us a way down there with your light beams, right Luz?" King suggested.

Amity shook her head before the girl could even try; "The stone down here is completely indestructible. Look around; this place is thousands of years old, but nothing is worn or broken."

King pouted at that, then shrugged; "Fine, doing the trials will be more fun and adventurous anyway! I call the middle one!" he declared, jumping off of Luz's shoulders again and rushing through the central doorway. Luz yelled after him and prepared to follow, but a stone door slammed shut and sealed the doorway as soon as King passed through.

"No! King!" Luz cried, pounding on the stone.

"Luz, it's okay. The trials were meant for young initiates, so a kid could reasonably clear them." Amity soothed; "King will be fine, and the door will open when he's done with his trial. Plus, there are rumours that kids from St. Epiderm regularly come here to test themselves, and since there aren't a bunch of missing people reports centred on this place, we can assume they all got out alive."

Luz stepped back from the door and nodded shakily. She had no choice but to put her faith in King that he'll be able to get out on his own. She went over to Amity and held her hand for some comfort, making the mint-haired girl blush. Amity enjoyed the contact, but it didn't last for more than a minute as the stone door suddenly opened again and King came walking back out, looking half triumphant and half annoyed.

"King! Are you okay!?" Luz asked urgently, hurrying over to check him over.

"I'm fine. That trial was nothing! They should call me the King of Trials!" King boasted, lifting a claw to reveal his prize; a blue crystal orb filled with water, with a white snake figurine sealed in the middle of it.

Luz chuckled and hugged him tightly; "You're the King of my heart, you little cutie!" she said softly, making King preen and lean into the hug.

Amity watched the sweet sight with a smile, then asked; "What was the trial, King? The book I read didn't detail them. The Author said something about; "Letting future generations discover it for themselves".

King looked up at her and said; "It was weird. There was a bunch of snake pillars like the one that shot icicles at me, and they had blue eyeballs on them. As soon as I walked in the room, they shot these blue beams wherever they were looking. All I had to do was walk to the other side of the room without tripping one. It was really easy; they weren't expecting someone as small as me."

"I guess that makes sense, since the trap from earlier went over your head." Luz said, "So you got that orb from the end of the room?"

"Yeah, in a snake's mouth, like the ones that make up that thing." he pointed to the dais. "When I took it out, the beams vanished. Oh, and I let my collar touch one to see what would happen." King pointed to his collar, where the tag was completely frozen solid.

"Huh, I guess it makes sense for an Ice Temple to have freezing traps… Good job, King!" Amity complimented, making King preen again.

The two girls then looked to one another; "Well one trial down, two to go. Should we split up and do the last two, Amity?" Luz asked.

"Sure, that'll save time. You and King take the left door, Ghost and I can handle the right one." Amity replied.

The trio of explorers nodded and walked through their assigned doors, which immediately slammed shut behind them. Luz used a light ball to illuminate her path to the trial chamber, which was thankfully straightforward, and when she arrived she found a chamber built in a similar style to the rest of the temple, only with a massive pool of water dividing it in half. On the far side of the water was an obvious pedestal shaped like a snake, with another of the trial orbs in its mouth. A series of snake heads were also carved into the walls over the pool of water, from which fresh water was constantly pouring out. Luz and King approached the edge of the pool, and as soon as they did, they felt a sudden wave of warmth as the water began rapidly boiling, filling the air with steam. Then the eyes of the snake heads on the walls began to glow blue and fire little bolts of ice magic at the water, forming ice blocks on the water that began to rapidly melt.

"So I'm guessing we're supposed to cross this pool using these ice blocks. We've got to be quick to get from block to block before they melt… I wonder how hot this stuff actually is…" Luz commented, kneeling down beside it, feeling like she was staring into a sauna with all the steam.

King, having a bright idea, dipped his frozen collar tag into the boiling water, where upon it instantly melted free, but the water also stopped boiling. In fact, it cooled down so quickly that Luz was able to dip her pinky into it, finding it to actually be quite chilly.

"No water cools that fast. It must be a spell of some kind. So the water stops boiling as soon as someone falls in…" Luz mused, "I guess Amity did say these trials were for young initiates, and no one's died here."

"I bet those ice beams in the other room would have shut off if someone had gotten completely frozen." King said. "Should we just swim across?"

"No good. Look." Luz said, pointing to the pedestal. The snake had closed its mouth, making the orb unreachable. She pulled her finger out of the water and it immediately began boiling again, the ice blocks started being made again, and the snake pedestal opened its mouth; "We need to cross without touching the water. I wonder…"

Leaving King on the ground, Luz summoned her wings and took flight, carefully flying over the pool. The water kept boiling and the ice blocks kept forming, so Luz just flew to the other side of the pool and landed beside the pedestal. From there she was able to effortlessly pluck the trial orb from the snake statue's mouth and fly back over to King, who cheered at her success.

"I guess they weren't expecting an initiate who could fly either!" Luz grinned, giving the second orb to King.

"Ha ha! This stupid temple is no match for us! If this was ancient times, we'd be high priests of this place within a week!" King boasted.

Luz giggled and rolled her eyes; "Whatever you say, little brother."

King's eyes glittered with happiness, and he used a plant glyph to launch himself onto Luz's shoulders without having to use his occupied hands. He nuzzled against her and said; "Onward to the main chamber, big sister!"

Luz's squeal of delight echoed through the temple.

Meanwhile, Amity had walked down a similar pathway to a similar chamber, with Ghost in her staff form clenched tightly in her hands, and a pink-hued light spell illuminating the way. The final trial chamber she arrived in was laid out in a similar way to the one Luz had gone too; with a room divided by a large expanse, though this one was filled with powdery snow, and a single thin stone walkway went straight down the middle of the divide, allowing anyone to cross and get to the pedestal on the other side, where the Trial Orb awaited them. However, the walls along the sides of the divide were covered in softly glowing blue eyeballs, which followed Amity wherever she moved.

"Well this is ominous… Do I just need to cross the bridge?" Amity wondered aloud. She approached it and the glow of the eyes on the wall grew a bit brighter, making her nervous. Cautiously, Amity removed one of her gloves and tossed it out onto the bridge, and immediately, it was frozen solid by dozens of beams of ice, as all eyes shot at it with perfect accuracy.

"Okay, not that simple. Is the snow safe?" Amity wondered, kneeling beside it and touching the powdery snow. Her hand went through it like it was fine dust, and she felt the bottom of the divide, which was only actually about a foot deep, making the "bridge" more like a very long step. The eye beams didn't fire at her, making her wonder if this was some kind of "The Obvious Path is not the correct one" kind of trial, but then she looked up and saw that the eyes on the walls had closed, as had the pedestal's mouth. She pulled her hand back and they all opened again.

"So the snow is safe, but I can't beat the trial if I step off the bridge… I guess I need to block the beams some how." she mused. She walked back over to the start of the bridge then cast a simple barrier spell around herself and took a tentative step forward. The eye beams immediately pelted her, and her barrier began to freeze and crack. Amity yelped and just barely managed to leap back before her barrier shattered.

"Okay, the beams can freeze magic too! Good to know!" she panted, "But then how do I cross…?"

She considered flying across with Ghost, but the eyeballs had shot at her glove before it had hit the ground, so they'd probably hit anything attempting to cross that way. There were no obvious buttons or switches on the walls, and no pressure pads she could find either, so there had to be some trick to getting across.

"Okay, think Amity. This is a trial to test an initiate trying to become a Priest or Priestess of Ice, so it's got to test something along those lines. What did Eda say about the element of Ice…?"

"Ice is also the element of Water; the two are basically considered the same magically. They represent fluidity, change, and transition, as well as protection."

Amity hummed; "Ice and water… do I have to melt the snow? If touching the snow is what cancels the trial, can I pass if I melt it first?"

With only one way to find out, Amity used her training wand to blast fire at some of the snow, melting it. She then quickly tossed her other glove onto the newly uncovered stone floor, only to scowl as the eyes once again closed along with the Pedestal.

"I guess that's not the solution then. I should have known fire wouldn't solve an ice trial." Amity muttered, using Ghost to levitate her gloves and return them to her. She used a quick burst of flame to melt and dry her frozen one, then turned her attention back to the trial.

"Fire isn't the solution, and the only path I can take is the bridge… I'm still missing something."

She tapped her chin as she thought about it. "Ice and Water are the element of fluidity, change, transition, and protection… but aren't change and transition basically the same thing? One thing becoming another? Come to think of it, Eda said the other elements each represented three things… Wait, three things? Three representations, three trials! That's it!"

Amity grinned; "Each trial is to test an initiate's understanding of one of the three facets of the element! King's trial was about avoiding those moving beams, so it was probably about fluidity, since you'd need to move fluidly through it! So this trial has to be about Change or Protection! So do I need to change something or just find a way to protect myself from the beams?"

She wracked her brain, and Ghost returned to her animal form to meow up at Amity. "I don't think change is the right thing to focus on here, but my barrier spell broke before I could get across. Was it just not strong enough?"

Ghost meowed again, her clear blue eyes looking towards the snow, which had somehow regenerated from where it had melted. Amity saw this and tentatively used some of the ice magic she'd been taught to raise a bit of it the snow into the form of an abomination. She braced herself, but the eyes remained open and focused on her, ignoring the snowy construct.

Everything clicked into place; "Of course! I can't just focus on protection, but on using the protective power of ice itself! The snow isn't an obstacle, it's the material I need to pass!"

Ghost meowed triumphantly and returned to staff form, allowing Amity to use her to lift the snow in the divide and form it into a large dome around her, with a small gap for her to see through. She then began walking across the bridge, and not a single eyeball shot a beam at her, instead just following her movements until she got to the other side of the room. Once Amity was beside the pedestal, she dropped her icy barrier and quickly grabbed the Trial Orb.

In an instant, the eyeballs all closed, and the Trial Orb remained in Amity's hands, glowing softly. She cheered "I did it! I passed the trial!"

Ghost, once again in cat form, meowed happily as Amity pet her; "Thanks for the encouragement, Ghost! Now let's get back to Luz!"

Amity and Ghost took their prize and headed back to the central chamber, where she found Luz and King waiting for her, holding a second Trial Orb to show their success.

"You got yours too! Great! Did I keep you waiting long?" Amity asked.

"Only a couple of minutes. Our trial was easy; we basically just used a shortcut." Luz said, before recounting the events of the trial. Amity listened eagerly, then explained her own trial, as well as her theory about how they worked.

"That makes sense! If King's trial was about moving with Fluidity, and yours was about using Ice's power of Protection, then mine must have been about Change and Transition! We were supposed to use the transition from water to ice to get across before it changed back into water. It's a shame we kind of cheesed it…" Luz said, kind of tempted to go back and see if she could do it the proper way.

Amity and King (who had no idea what "cheesed it" meant) just shrugged; "We're not actually trying to become priests, so it's no big deal if we don't pass the trials in the intended way." Amity said, "Now let's go down into the ritual chamber!"

Luz and King nodded, and approached the dais alongside Amity. They placed their Trial Orbs into the mouths of the three snakes, then stepped back quickly as the temple began to rumble. Two of the snakes making up the dais seemed to come to life and sliver down to the ground, where they formed a circle as each one bit the other's tail. They then began expanding the circle, causing a large hole to appear in the ground with the last snake at its centre. This last snake then came to life too, and slithered down the hole, growing larger and transforming into a spiral staircase as it went. The trio of explorers gasped and did their best to stay standing through the shaking, and once the temple finally stopped moving, they peered down into the impossibly deep hole.

"That's an elaborate entrance! Let me fly down first to make sure it's safe." Luz said.

Neither King nor Amity argued, so Luz flapped her wings and fluttered down into the hole. There was silence for several seconds, then Luz's voice echoed up; "It's safe! Come on down!"

Amity picked up King and carried him down the winding staircase. It took almost a full minute of walking to get down to the bottom, and they found Luz leaning on a doorway that led out of the staircase, patiently waiting for them. The three then walked down the long hall through the door, as snake themed torches lit up as they passed them, each one burning with a pale blue flame. Acting on a hunch, Luz put her hand near one of the flames and found that it was cold.

"Ice flames! That is so cool!" Luz gushed.

"Literally!" King grinned.

The hallway ended in a short flight of stairs that took them up into the final chamber of the ruins, which took the form of a massive circular room. It wasn't quite as big as the sarcophagus room up above, but it certainly felt more intimidating! The floor itself was a single flat circle with intricate symbols carved into it, while the walls looked to be part of a single massive statue; that of a colossal snake. The snake was carved from some kind of pale blue marble and was coiled around, forming the walls of the room, while the ceiling above was the same blue stone as the floor and the rest of the temple. The tail of the snake was behind the trio as they entered, and the head of the snake was directly in front of them, in the centre of the room. It was monstrously big, and held a black cube the size of a small apartment in its mouth. Aside from the snake statue and the black box, the room contained only a series of snake themed braziers that formed a circle around the snake head, and a stone altar in front of it. When they entered the room, the braziers lit up with the same blue flame as the torches in the hallway.

"Whoa… Look at this place!" Luz exclaimed.

"It's amazing… to think that wild witches from thousands of years ago could build something like this! And it's all indestructible! Even with modern magic, we can't make something so sturdy!" Amity gasped, eyes wide with delight as she took everything in.

King was equally amazed, but after the trials, he was more interested in a prize! "So what do we do now? We beat the trials and got down here; is there some kind of treasure?"

"I'm not sure." Amity said, "The book said that this chamber was for important ceremonies, like the initiation ceremony. It didn't mention anything about artefacts or treasures. Besides, if other students have come here before, they probably took anything that the original explorers didn't."

"Aw, no prize then?" King pouted.

"The adventure is the prize in situations like this." Luz grinned. "Thanks for bringing us down here, Amity. It's been fun exploring with you! It feels like we're Azura and Hecate in the ruins of Gygax from Book 3!"

Amity giggled; "I guess it is a bit like that. You're welcome Luz. But we do have one more thing to check out. The Black Tomb of Caplacier!"

That intrigued King, and Luz smiled as she remembered Eda mention that earlier. She looked over to the snake mouth and the big black cube inside it. "I'm guessing that's the tomb?"

"That's right." Amity nodded, walking up to it, "It's one of the big mysteries of the Knee, and the Boiling Isles! No one has ever been able to open it. Not even the Emperor or the explorers who came here before! It can't be moved or damaged, and magic is dispelled when it touches it. Watch." Amity explained, shooting a weak fireball from the training wand at the cube. The flames blinked out of existence the instant it came into contact with the black material."

"Ooh! Luz, let's figure out how to open it! If we get inside, there's got to be a great treasure!" King said excitedly, hurrying over to it.

"I don't know, King. If no one else has been able to figure it out, then how could we? Besides, this is a tomb, right? I don't like the idea of being a grave robber!" Luz protested.

King wilted, forgetting for a moment that his angel sister would be a lot less likely to steal stuff than Eda. Still, he at least wanted to try and see inside the cube! If they were the first to succeed, that would be enough of a prize to satisfy him!

"Can we at least try to open it? We don't have to take anything if we do." he begged, giving his best puppy dog eyes.

Luz was powerless to resist; "Oh okay! But only for another hour, otherwise none of us will get any sleep tonight."

King cheered and Amity giggled at the pair, before joining them as they began to examine the cube. It was a perfect cube, right down to the millimetre, and its visible faces were all made from a smooth black material akin to glass, which Amity theorised was some kind of magic obsidian. There were no obvious seams or cracks, so it appeared to have been hewn from one single piece, or somehow formed with magic. There was also no carvings of any kind on it, giving absolutely no clues as to how to make it open. Come to think of it, there wasn't even any evidence that suggested it DID open!

"Amity, how do we know this thing can be opened? What if its just some solid piece?" Luz asked.

"The records of the expedition in the book I read." Amity answered, "One of the original explorers was able to make it react. Watch."

She moved to the front face of the cube, the one that faced towards the altar, and used her finger to draw a spell circle directly onto its surface. As with the flame before, the circle disappeared, but then a ring of white appeared just to the right of where Amity had drawn her spell circle. Amity put her palm inside this ring, and it turned red, then a matching line of light emerged from it and formed a larger red ring of light that took up most of the front face of the cube. The section of the cube inside this ring then sunk into the rest slightly and rotated, before coming to a stop.

but then a ring of white appeared just to the right of where Amity had drawn her spell circle. Amity put her palm inside this ring, and it turned red, then a matching line of light emerged from it and formed a larger red ring of light that took up most of the front face of the cube. The section of the cube inside this ring then sunk into the rest slightly and rotated, before coming to a stop.

"Whoa… How did you do that?" King asked.

"I'm not sure how, but the tomb reacts to people touching it with magic. Magic on its own disappears, but doing it like this causes this to happen." Amity explained, "But this isn't enough. It's only part of the puzzle, and no one has figured out the other pieces yet."

She removed her hand from the cube and the red lines and ring disappeared, and the sunken section rotated back into place and popped out again. "It also doesn't work on any other faces of the cube." Amity added, demonstrating on one of the other sides to prove it.

Luz hummed; it was like a puzzle in a video game! She was usually pretty good at those, so she began trying to figure it out. "Let me give it a try." she said.

She drew a spell circle on the cube just like Amity had, but unlike last time, the white ring that appeared afterwards was closer to the left side of the cube's face, as opposed to the right. Amity blinked; "That's different from what I read!"

Luz excitedly put her palm inside the ring, and this time the ring turned yellow. A yellow line emerged from it and moved up to the centre of the cube's face, forming a larger yellow ring, which was still noticeably smaller than the red one had been. The space inside the ring moved in and rotated just like it had for Amity.

"It's different from when Amity did it!" Luz grinned. "Amity, you do yours at the same time!"

Amity immediately obeyed, making the white ring appear on the right side again, and creating a red circle. The space inside it rotated, including the yellow ring Luz had made, and then sank in further, making the part that Luz had sunken in go even deeper into the cube.

"We did it! We unlocked another layer!" Amity cheered. "It must be because you're an angel, Luz! Your magic has a different reaction than a witch's!"

"But we're still missing one." King pointed out, getting more excited himself; "It looks like there's enough space between the red and yellow rings for a third one!"

"You try too, King!" Luz told him eagerly.

"But I can't draw spell circles!"

"Then slap a glyph on it. It couldn't hurt!" the angel suggested.

King shrugged; it was worth a shot! He quickly drew a light glyph on a piece of paper and slapped it onto the cube, holding his breath. He, Luz, and Amity all cheered loudly as a third white ring appeared directly between Luz's and Amity's hands.

Without waiting to be told, King uses a plant glyph to make a small mound of vines to lift him high enough, then put his paw against the cube inside the ring. The ring turned blue, and like the others, a line of the same colour spread upward, passing through the large red circle and forming a blue one. The space inside this blue circle (including the yellow circle) then sank in and rotated in the opposite direction to the other two, like the dial on a locker or safe, and once it was in place, there was a loud click. The rings of colour all turned white, then the entire cube turned from black to white, and the lines on it from white to black.

Luz, King, and Amity felt a static shock pass through their hands, causing all three to recoil, as the sunken sections of the cube then sprang back out without rotating again. The cube then began to glow brightly, and disintegrate into nothingness. When the Black Tomb was completely gone, all that remained was the contents; a blue crystal orb with a soft purple aura around it.

"W-We did it!" Amity cried with joy, "We solved the tomb!"

"I can't believe it! This is great!" Luz cheered, "But how did we do it? Did the other expeditions just not have enough people?"

Amity shook her head; "No, it's not the number of people, but the types! I think having a witch, a demon, and an angel all touching it at the same time was what opened it." she theorised. The records had said all the members of the first and only official expedition to the Caplacier Temple Ruins had been witches, so it would make sense that no one had realised that a demon would unlock another layer. Plus, without an angel like Luz, the third layer wouldn't have unlocked even if unofficial expeditions like the kids from St. Epiderm had brought both witches and demons.

"Does this mean that angels helped build this place? If that's true, it must predate even the Savage Ages! Either that or not everyone feared us after all." Luz said.

"Who cares about all that right now!?" King yelled, "This place wasn't a tomb after all, so let's see what the treasure is!"

He ran over to the glowing crystal orb, with Luz and Amity right behind him. They surrounded the orb and examined it closely without touching it.

"This might sound crazy, but I think this is an Oracle's Crystal Ball. I know a bit of oracle magic, and this feels just like it." Amity said, peering closely at it.

Luz immediately backed up a step; "I better keep my distance then. Oracle magic and I do not mix."

King clambered up Amity's body to get a closer look at the ball; "If it was sealed up like that, there has to be a really powerful spirit inside! Amity, summon it out! I want to see!"

"No way! If it is an Oracle's Crystal Ball, then it might have been sealed up for a good reason! The spirit inside could be dangerous! Let's take it to Eda; she's the strongest witch around so if anyone can handle it, it's her." Amity said, pulling King away from the ball. "Luz, it's probably safest if you carry it. Then if a spirit is inside it, you'll probably keep it from coming out."

"Good idea." Luz said, petting King's pouting head. She gently took the orb, and the moment she touched it, it stopped floating and fell into her hands. It was uncommonly warm, especially given how cold it was in the temple and how cold Oracle Crystal Balls usually were.

Suddenly, Luz felt something strange overcome her. It felt like a phantom hand was brushing against her body, specifically over her sternum, where the light glyph was engraved. A wave of heat spread through Luz's body, and her wings suddenly appeared on their own without her summoning them. Her concealment stone also begun to spark with magical energy, and then flew off on its own, barely being caught by Ghost before it hit the ground. Without her stone, Luz took on her full angelic form, and her wings spread out wide on their own, almost as if her body was convulsing due to electricity.

"Luz!" King cried.

"W-What's happening!? Is it the orb!?" Amity yelled. She tried to snatch it away from Luz, but a powerful burst of static sent her and King staggering back, while Luz groaned loudly.

"I-It feels like its pulling something out of me!" Luz panted. Her wings began to glow white, and the two glyphs on her body began to glow in their signature colours, as did the lines that spread between them and her wings. Then particles of pure white magic began to float out of her wings and into the crystal ball, which began to lighten from blue to white as it absorbed it. Once the ball was completely white and pearlescent, a large crack split it in half and the fragments fell to the ground while a wave of magic shoved Luz back a step.

The angel girl collapsed to the ground, panting hard, and Amity and King quickly ran to her side, ignoring the broken crystal ball.

"Luz! Are you okay!?" Amity yelled, "Speak to us!"

"M-My magic… it drained every bit of magic energy in my body!" Luz gasped out, struggling to catch her breath. She'd never used enough magic to suffer from exhaustion like this, so it was a new and unpleasant experience.

"Is there anything we can do to help you?" King asked.

"Need to make more magic… need energy near my wings. Anything will do!" Luz replied, her eyes struggling to stay open. Her heart was beating wildly, and aching like never before. Angel magic was stored in the heart and spread through the body via the blood, so having it all sucked out of her made Luz feel like she was having a heart attack!

King immediately began making small light glyphs to provide her with some light energy, while Amity used up the last of the charge on her training wand to create some fire for heat energy. Luz's wings quickly began absorbing this energy and converting it into new magic, settling her heartbeat. It wasn't enough to rejuvenate her completely or erase her exhaustion, but at least it made it easier for her to breath.

With Luz slowly recovering, the trio turned their attention back to the broken crystal ball. The two halves of it were still glowing faintly, and tiny tendrils of ghostly energy were emerging from each half and then flowing into the other half. Eventually more cracks appeared, and the orb shattered entirely, being reduced to powdered blue crystal. The glow faded, and from the pile of powdered crystal, a ball of white and gold flame rose up, then rapidly expanded until it took on the shape of a person.

The person was clearly a spirit; they were partially transparent and the outline of their body flickered a bit, almost like fire, but they was unlike any spirit the trio had ever seen. Normal spirits used in oracle magic looked tended to look like identical, emaciated ghouls with empty eye sockets, no lower bodies, and bandages covering them. However this spirit looked like a normal person.

They appeared to be male; and was six feet tall, with a muscular build. His face was handsome and clean shaven with finely carved features, almost more beautiful than traditionally handsome, and his eyes were a golden amber. His hair was also golden coloured, and about as long as Luz's. It was straight but kept in a slightly tussled style, leaving his pointed ears clearly visible. His skin was a light golden colour, slightly lighter in tone to Luz's tan complexion, but also a tad darker than Amity's paleness, being about halfway between the two. His clothing consisted solely of baggy white pants with tight golden bands around his ankles, which matched the gold bands on his wrists, and he wore some kind of skirt-like lower body cape over the top of his pants, while his upper body remained completely bare. All of this was a surprise to Luz, King, and Amity, but it was a different feature that really shocked them.

Ten shining white wings spread out from his back, marking his identity.

"A-An angel!?" Amity gasped.

"N-Not just any angel! Ten wings! The most powerful angels I know about are the Seraphim, and they only have eight! An angel with more than that hasn't existed for tens of thousands of years!" Luz whispered urgently.

The Angel Spirit looked to Luz, and a small smile spread across his face. Luz didn't know the full story, but she had a feeling she'd just uncovered something far more than an old treasure. Standing before her was a legend in the flesh.