Chapter Text
Vee watched the four witchlings, who were all sitting in the living room. It was an all in all rather depressing sight. She really wanted to help, wanted to do something for them, but she was not quite sure what.
Carmilla and Luz had gone. The girl had wanted to go to her father’s grave and Vee did understand that the two needed some alone time. This, however, left Vee with four witchlings, who were traumatized and sad and watching Netflix without much interest.
She opened the fridge and found some leftover ice-cream. Not much, but it would be barely enough for the four. So, she wiped up some cream, got some chocolate sauce and sprinkles, putting all of it in four separate bowls and bringing those over to the living room.
“I made something for you,” she announced.
The girl with the purple hair – Amity – was the only one to look up. “What is it?”
“A human treat,” Vee explained. “Ice-cream. And I even put some sprinkles on top.” She smiled at them, though this might have not been the reassuring gesture she had hoped it to be.
Even though Amity flinched, she took a bowl, before bopping the other girl to her side. Quickly, the bowls were each in the hand of a witchling. They ate, though it did not seem to lighten their spirits as much as Vee had hoped.
“This is good,” the other girl – Willow – said. “Thank you, Vee.”
Vee smiled. She was not sure what to tell them. Of course, the things they had told her about the Boiling Isles sounded terrible. It was just, that Vee had never wanted to go back. The Boiling Isles had been unsafe for her kind for so long…
What to say? What to say? Then she remembered the story that had been all over the news for the last few days. “There had been some other kids, who went to another dimension,” she told them. “They also ended up back here, but they went back to that dimension to fight an evil power… or something.” Those other girls had not been very clear about the details before they had left again. But she had seen the pictures of the big fight in Los Angeles. It had been televised a lot.
The witchlings all turned to her. “How?”
Vee shrugged. “I don’t know, but…” She hesitated. “If you hand me the remote, I can show you.” The clips were all over YouTube as well.
Quickly enough she had found a video with that giant flying fortress coming through the big, big portal in the sky over the metropole.
“Are those frogs?” the smallest witchling – Gus – asked.
“Those appear to be frogs, yes,” Vee confirmed. “So far it is not quite clear, what has been going on, though.”
The witchlings looked at the TV, where those two giant herons were picking up cars and what not.
“So, there are even more worlds?” the last one – Hunter – asked.
“I don’t know,” Vee said. “But it appears that way.”
“Then maybe there is a way back to the Boiling Isles.” Amity stared at the screen. “We just need to find a way to this… this… Los Angeles and ask the people there.”
Vee frowned. She had been in this world long enough to know one thing: Los Angeles was pretty far away from Gravesfield and it was not easy to get there. And there was one other problem. “Well, it would be pretty hard for you, you know? You barely know anything about the human realm.”
This triggered something inside Gus. He looked at her, as if she had just insulted him. “I do in fact know quite a lot about the human realm!” he announced. “I am the head of the human appreciation club!”
Vee looked at the others. “What is a human appreciation club?”
“It’s a thing in Hexide,” Willow explained. “Where the human fans meet.”
Gus just nodded, but Vee was unimpressed. She pointed at the TV. “How does this work?”
The four exchanged glances. “Magic.”
Vee opened up a video of a plane taking off. “What is that?”
“A weird magic project,” Hunter guessed.
“Has Luz not told you, that there is no magic in this world?” Vee asked.
Gus looked at her. “No normal magic, but a strange human magic,” he said. “Humans have in fact their own kind of magic.”
Vee sighed. Well, this was to be expected. She had not known a thing about the human realm either, when she had arrived here. Witches and demons tended to be very ignorant of the human realm or any other. Most even thought about the human realm of barely more then a myth. Sure, people had heard stories about humans – but how many had ever seen one. (Well, yes, apparently Emperor Belos had been a human all the time, but people had not known it, had they?) “Come with me.”
The witchlings did not look convinced that they wanted to. However, Amity and then Willow got up. “Where to?”
“Just follow me,” Vee said. She had to show them, how little they knew. Otherwise, next thing she knew, those four would be up causing problems for Carmilla. She did not want that. Sure, she understood they wanted to go back, wanted to save the Boiling Isles, but racing over to Los Angeles was not the way.
Thus, she led them to Carmilla’s little office and pointed at the printer. “What is that?”
“A paper flattener,” Gus said.
She got out a paper clip. “And this?”
“I know that one.” Gus looked at her with a disdainful gaze. “It’s a musical instrument.” He took the paper clip and plucked it, making it give off a tiny noise.
Vee let them back to the entrance of the house, pointing at the umbrella. “And this?”
This time it was Hunter, who got the umbrella and tried to play around with it. He managed to open it and let it fall in surprise. “It’s some kind of weapon,” he deduced.
Vee shook her head. “To explain: The humans have found out about a thing called electricity. With that the TV works. They can also send signals through the air with the help of it, which they use to get information to all sorts of devices. They have also built flying machines called planes. The ‘paper flattener’ is used to print out text and pictures. That ‘musical instrument’ is called a paper clip and is used to holp printed out paper together. And that ‘weapon’ is called an umbrella and is used to hold of rain.”
“Duh,” Amity said. “I knew that.”
Vee decided to not comment on it. Maybe she actually knew. She was Luz’ girlfriend after all.
“The point is: You know next to nothing about this world. You cannot simply travel across half the country in the vague hope that there might be a way to open a portal in Los Angeles.”
“And if you teach us?” Willow asked.
“What?”
“You could teach us about the human realm,” Hunter said. “From the viewpoint of someone, who also had to learn about it.”
Vee sighed. She looked out the window, where it was a nice sunny day with only a few clouds in the sky. “I would love to, but…”
“But?”
“I can’t go out there like this,” she said. “And I don’t have enough magic to transform.”
To her surprise Gus took of his necklace, which had a small pendant in the form of a mirror. “What about this?”
She took it and eyed it. Yes, she could feel magic from this thing. Quite a bit of magic actually. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
Admittedly, she had hungered for magic in quite a while. So, she did no longer hesitate. Absorbing the magic from the pendant, she felt somewhat saturated. Yes, this was actually quite good. She closed her eyes and transformed. Without even thinking she took the form of Luz again. After having worn it for so long, it came quite easily to her. She looked at the others. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll show you, what I’ve learned.”