It was finally time for the annual covention. The large building housing the event was filled to the brim with witches and demons that were either looking forward to joining a coven or coven members who were there to show the perks of joining. And it was a convenient time, too. Because Luz, alongside Eda, King, Willow, and Gus, entered the building and absorbed the sight. Several booths were set up inside, each with a sign for one coven or another. From the ceiling were hanging nine colorful banners representing the main ones.
"Whoa...Was I even alive before now?" Luz asked with wide eyes. Gus gestured to the nine banners above the booths.
"Those are the main nine covens, but there are hundreds of other ones you can join," he explained as they walked past the booths.
As they walked away, another person entered the building. Sturm walked through the doors and watched the group walk around the booths. He was confused about Luz's presence. He saw no reason for her to be here; that girl couldn't even control magic. Either way, seeing her there was just a coincidence. He had better things to do than to observe her. He entered a theater and sat at the highest point of the upper stand to watch the arena, which had a stage underneath a banner with the Emperor's Coven symbol.
The lights started to dim down, signaling the beginning of the presentation.
Music started to play as Principal Bump of Hexside appeared from a green pillar of energy. The spotlight shone on him as the crowd applauded and cheered. He then made a small magic circle that conjured a microphone with bat wings.
"Hello, Bonesborough! Students ask me all the time, 'Principal Bump, what's the height of magical achievement?'"
"Is it this?!" said one of the students before doing his own spell that grew his head to freakishly large proportions. However, his neck couldn't support the weight of it and tilted over, crushing another student.
"Wow. I failed you as a principal," Bump said, wincing at what he saw. He then grabbed the mic and continued. "It's being selected to join the best of the best. And there are none better than the jewel of the coven system and the enforcers of his will, the Emperor's Coven."
As he said this, three scouts of the Emperor's Coven emerged from the floor in front of Bump. The crowd cheered and clapped for them, amazed by their entrance.
"Feast your eyes on this elite force; each member handpicked to help usher in a new age of controlled magic," Bump said, and the crowd watched as the three coven members held up their fingers and drew their own spell circles, shooting their separate types of magic in the air, combining into a giant firework. "Members of the Emperor's Coven have access to all—yes, all forms of magic. Ooh. Aah." The crowd imitated Bump's 'ooh' and 'aah' for some strange reason, but it worked, regardless. "But...only the best can ascend these ranks. Some day that could be one of you!"
He pointed at someone in the crowd. Sturm's red eyes widened, thinking Bump was pointing at him. Unfortunately, that brief moment of feeling appreciated was ruined when he followed his finger and saw that he was gesturing to none other than Amity Blight, the girl who prevented him from reaching his potential. When Bump pointed at her, she squealed excitedly at his words.
When Sturm saw this, he glared intensely at her and growled furiously as electricity briefly crackled around him. If not for the dozens of people to bear witness, he would've done plenty of unspeakable things to Amity out of sheer annoyance and anger. She was put on a pedestal she did not deserve, and he hated her for it. She was weak compared to him. She was a brat. He knew this, but no one else was aware of it. She stood in the way of his goals, and he was forced to let it all slide. This could not stand.
But he couldn't do anything about it.
As Sturm continued to brood, the three coven soldiers grabbed the corners of their capes and, in unison, raised them up, causing them to magically disappear as Bump continued on with the introductions.
"And now, I'm pleased to introduce the esteemed leader of this coven and this year's mystery guest. You know her! You love her! Lilith!"
After Lilith introduced herself and the presentation ended, Sturm left the auditorium, visibly frustrated. His hopes of joining the Emperor's Coven were dwindling by the day, and he saw no opportunity to make things better for himself.
"This is a joke," he murmured. "My potential is worth being seen! And because of that she-devil, I'm stuck in this dismal position till I die... Might as well join the Miserable Coven while I'm at it."
Sturm continued to sulk while strolling among the booths, with the occasional witch or demon trying to get his attention, but he refused to acknowledge them.
"Excuse me, young man," said a witch who was obviously older than him. "Are you interested in joining the Undeserved Punishment Coven?"
Instead of replying or looking at the witch, Sturm extended his gloved hand in the witch's direction and channeled a painful surge of electricity, literally shocking him. When he was done, the witch fell to the floor unconscious as Sturm continued to roam.
He wandered around until he heard a familiar voice.
"Just like The Good Witch Azura said when facing down her rival Hecate at the Bog of Immediate Regret... I challenge you to a Witch's Duel!"
That was Luz's voice, and it was followed by several gasps. Curious, he used his powers to zoom nearby and see that Luz was pointing at Amity. When he saw the person she was challenging, he looked on, surprised.
Sturm had always dreamed of challenging Amity to a fight but was never able to, not because he could not beat her, but because he was aware of the repercussions of dealing with her parents. That girl sure had some real nerve to challenge a witch.
Sturm decided to stay hidden and watch the whole thing.
Amity's face grew a smug expression as she stepped toward Luz. The human kept her glare as the green-haired witch got in her face.
"I accept," Amity said, then took a step back. "Let's set the terms for this duel, shall we?"
"One, if I win, you apologize to King for squashing his cupcake," Luz said, pointing at King as he picked up what was left of his treat.
"Good night, sweet child..." he mournfully said. Luz thought for a moment before looking back at Amity.
"Two, you'll admit that humans can be witches, too."
"Fine by me. But when I win, not only do you have to tell the whole covention you are not a witch, you have to stop training. Forever!"
"Do it, Luz! For my honor!" King shouted as Luz became unsure of this. Looking back at Amity, Luz's doubtful expression turned to a look of determination.
"Fine. Let's shake on it," Luz said, holding out her hand to Amity to shake on their deal. However, Amity created a spell circle around her hand before grabbing it. The human girl looked down at her hand to see what was happening.
"The everlasting oath is sealed," Amity smirked as she let go of Luz's hand.
Luz pulled her hand back and stared at the magic circle, watching as it faded.
"That's probably fine," Luz said flatly, beginning to realize what she had gotten herself into.
"Meet back inside the theater in one hour," Amity said. With that, she turned and walked off with a flick of her hair. "Let's see what kind of witch you are."
As Sturm watched Amity walk away, he felt somewhat embarrassed for Luz. She had no powers whatsoever, and as much as he hated Amity, he admitted that Luz had no chance against her.
"You're bold, girl, but this is what happens when you forget to think," he said quietly before walking off.
It was quite a while before the duel could begin, so he could do nothing but bide his time. At first, he told himself he didn't need to check on the two combatants, but after a while, he decided to take a quick look. He already assumed how Luz would do, so he checked on Amity. She was standing near Lilith and was summoning an abomination.
"Abomination. Rise."
A circle of magic formed on the floor, and an abomination rose from it. This one was smaller than what she created that day in school and the ones that attacked Luz and Willow. The creature took off its head and threw it at a wizard from the Bakers Coven, hitting him in the head and knocking him out. Standing nearby, Tiny Nose grabbed the poor man and threw him aside before screaming from the power glyph.
"Hmph. Pathetic," Sturm scoffed. He turned around and cracked his knuckles before forming a spell circle. "Abomination. Rise."
As soon as he uttered those words, a taller abomination appeared before him and moaned. As Sturm observed his creation, he felt a discomfort in his gloved palm. He clenched his hurting fist to make the slight pain more tolerable and returned to his business. Getting an idea, he gave the creature a command.
"Abomination. Shift."
After a second, the abomination quivered and began to change its shape. Its body contorted, twisted, and boiled until it took Amity's shape. Feeling the need to relieve some stress, Sturm clenched his fists and unleashed a vicious right hook to the abomination's head, obliterating it. The sludge flew all over the floor, with some of it drenching Sturm's fist, but it hardly mattered. Sturm watched how the abomination's headless body collapsed and dissolved.
Sturm then sighed, relieved that he finally alleviated some pent-up rage. He then walked off, waiting for the duel to begin.
An hour had passed, and it was time for the duel. Going back inside the theater, Sturm took the same seat as before and watched the two opponents getting ready to face each other. Luz stood with Eda as Lilith and Amity stood across from them. Everyone in the covention assembled to watch the two apprentices duke it out. Amity looked smugly at Luz as the human girl looked back at her with anxiety and uncertainty.
"Beloved citizens, the Emperor's Coven proudly presents an impromptu demonstration of the sort of witch we seek every year. Introducing Amity Blight," Lilith announced to the crowd, presenting the green-haired girl to the people.
Amity gave a smug look as the crowd and all of her classmates cheered for her. However, through all the noise and cheering, Sturm booed her and made several obscene gestures at her, but no one could hear him over the sounds of their own excitement. Lilith continued as Eda stepped out of the way and proudly presented a very nervous Luz.
"Versus...some human girl."
The crowd started to mutter.
"A human?/Humans can't do magic!/"She's not Amity."
Sturm turned his gaze to Luz and saw her talk to Eda. The infamous Owl Lady said something to the girl, but he couldn't hear her. Sturm figured that she was explaining something to her, but, at the time, it didn't hold his attention.
Finally, Luz turned back to Amity. This was it. There was no going back from this. The bell screamed for the match to start. Both combatants walked toward the center of the arena and stopped in front of each other. Amity cracked her knuckles, and Luz gave a nervous wave.
Amity started the fight by drawing a large circle on the ground in front of her before raising her hands in the air.
"Abomination. Rise."
What came out was something Luz wasn't ready for, and her eyes widened as a giant abomination squeezed itself out of the circle. It was taller than an elephant. As it towered over Luz, the human girl gasped in shock. Sturm was surprised as well. He had never seen Amity summon such an enormous abomination. Part of him said that maybe he had underestimated Amity, and her magic was stronger than he thought.
"Whoa," Amity said, just as surprised as Luz and Sturm. But then she smirked and turned to the girl. "Show me what you got, human!"
"I'M NOT GOOD UNDER PRESSURE!" Luz screamed, running the other way as the abomination stepped forward, attempting to crush the girl.
The monster then groaned while twisting off its head before throwing it at Luz while she ran. The head landed just behind Luz and missed, but just barely. Luz continued to run until she reached the edge of the arena. Luz was backed against the wall by the advancing abomination, whose head had begun to regrow. She sank to the ground in fear, whimpering, and grew nervous. She braced as the abomination took one more step forward.
But then something happened.
The abomination looked down as a towering jet of fire erupted from the mound, setting its foot ablaze and making it stumble back. Sturm and the rest of the spectators were surprised. The other witches and demons knew that no human should be able to do it, yet it happened before their eyes.
Amity was taken aback by the fire column and immediately knew something was wrong.
"How did you do that?" she asked angrily.
"I, uh... Magic?" Luz responded, doing jazz hands.
The abomination managed to put out the flames, and it became a steaming figure. It advanced toward Luz again, and something else burst out of the ground. Suddenly, a powerful current of air burst out, and it was strong enough to launch the abomination along with Amity high into the air, screaming. The abomination grunted as it landed on its back, and Amity landed on her knees.
"I-I saw you that time! You didn't use your hands! What are you getting at?" Amity demanded, pointing at Luz.
"Not dying!"
The abomination got back up with a groan, then stomped toward Luz again as she screamed and ran.
Sturm had to admit it...while it was fun to watch Amity get thrown around like that, he was still confused by how Luz could fight back with magic. Maybe...just maybe... As he tried to conjure up an explanation, he saw King, now dressed in a bunch of coven shirts, scarves, bracelets, and hats stacked on top of each other. He was climbing down the row of benches to get a closer look.
"This I gotta see!" he said, and as he got down, he noticed a pig-faced student from the Construction Track waving a foam hand with Amity's name on it.
"Go, Amity!" cheered one of Amity's fans.
"Hey! You root for Luz or nobody!" King exclaimed, preparing to march over. But before he could, King suddenly slipped on one of his scarves again and started tumbling down, with some of his 'offerings' falling off as he went.
While watching King fall, Sturm's gaze turned to the duel and saw Luz run from the abomination, which set off an explosion while stepping. Now ticked off, Amity began advancing on Luz herself.
"How are you doing that?" she demanded, now wanting answers and walking towards her opponent.
"No, Amity, don't step any closer!" she said suddenly.
"Why, Luz? What happens if I step closer?"
Before Luz could respond, they heard King scream and he fell flat on his back between the two combatants, suddenly, a cluster of spikes burst from the ground, forcing Luz and Amity back several steps. King was still alive, but his clothes were punctured by the spikes and kept up.
"Mmm? I'm okay!" King said, realizing that he was unharmed.
"Spikes?!" Luz turned to Eda, appalled that there were deadly traps in the arena. Eda simply responded by smiling and giving her two thumbs up.
"I knew it! You were cheating!" Amity yelled angrily, pointing at Luz as Lilith came to her side.
"Amity, no!" Luz tried to defend herself or come up with some kind of excuse, but nothing could come out, no matter how hard she tried. Lilith kneeled near the spike cluster and touched one of them, making it crumble to dust. With a satisfied smile, Lilith got back up and smirked at her sister.
"Oh, Eda. I do believe this means you lose!"
"It wasn't my idea to cheat," Luz said. "And when I found out, I tried to stop it, but-"
"Who could believe anything you say?" Amity interjected angrily. She was done with Luz's stunts and dismissed her. She turned and started marching away from the human and the Owl Lady. But as she watched the snobby girl walk away, Eda noticed something on the back of Amity's neck.
"Wait just a sec, Miss Protégé," Eda said, walking up to Amity and lifting up her hair.
"Hey! What are you-" Amity stammered before she felt something getting peeled off the back of her neck.
In a few seconds, the gigantic abomination shrunk until it was about the height of Amity's knee, though it crumbled completely when its head fell and crushed it to mush. Eda then held up whatever she peeled off from Amity for her and everyone to see.
"A power glyph from the Construction Coven!" Eda said to everyone. Everyone gasped at this revelation, shocked and appalled that Amity, Lilith's best protege, had used a shifty move to gain the upper hand.
While everyone was saddened by what Amity had done, Sturm reacted differently. At first, he couldn't believe it. Then it made sense. The size of the abomination...the circle was too small! And Amity's look of surprise...it all clicked. A big smile crept on Sturm's lips. He tried his hardest to control his laughter, but then it all came loose. He laughed so hard he slapped his knee.
"Ahahaha! I've waited so long for something like this to happen!" Sturm thought.
Everyone in the auditorium was in total shock. But then their eyes fell on the elephant in the room: Lilith, the head of the Emperor's Coven, the woman everyone saw as an agent of order, used her own star student to cheat.
"Ah-ha! Yes, yes, yes-yes-yes!" Eda cheered as she started doing a victory dance before turning and mocking her sister. "You cheated. Perfect, prissy Lilith cheated. Hot dang, I love coventions!"
"I only did that because I knew you would cheat!" Lilith said, trying to defend herself.
"Still cheated! Welcome down to my level!" Eda said mockingly.
But while Eda was celebrating her sister's embarrassment, Amity was still shocked by this revelation. The green-haired witch looked around and saw everyone's faces. Their shock, sadness, and disappointment in her. But then her gaze landed at the very top. She saw Sturm smirking at her. The boy she tried to keep below her now had dreamed of this moment for years and realized that this was only the beginning.
"But... I didn't know!" she said, visibly afraid.
Luz looked at the green-haired witch and felt sorry for her, realizing Lilith used her in her petty rivalry.
"Amity, wait," Luz walked up to her. Amity glanced at her before running out of the theater. She was about to chase after her, but King drew her attention.
"Luz! Help me!" he yelled. Luz turned around and saw that King was still caught in the spike trap.
Luz walked back to him and grabbed him by the arms before pulling him down. She managed to free the tiny demon, but all the shirts and clothes were ripped in the process.
"My offerings!" he cried.
"You'll get more offerings, King," Luz said, patting King's head before running after Amity.
"Hey, wait for me!" King followed Luz. Meanwhile, Eda was still dancing, and Lilith was getting fed up with her.
"Knock it off. You're making a scene!"
"You cheated!" Eda pointed at her with a big grin. "Hey, where's the Rhyming Coven? What rhymes with 'cheated?'"
"Stop acting like a child!"
"You were defeated! Don't get heated! Get your stank face treated!"
"Rhyme one more thing... I dare you!" Lilith growled, almost reaching her breaking point.
"Oh, it's okay, I'm done," Eda said, waving her hand...but then grinned. "Because my rhymes are depleted!"
"That's it!" Lilith screamed, summoning her staff. She spun it around and produced a blue energy ring before firing her magic at Eda.
Eda was knocked back by the blast into the arena's podium in an explosion, shocking everyone in the theater. When the dust cleared, Eda had her back against the wall. And despite the hit she took, the Owl Lady opened her eyes and smirked.
"There she is!" she said, summoning her staff. Just like Lilith, she spun it around to make a ring of yellow energy.
But she missed one twirl and dropped her staff.
Quickly picking it up, she fired her magic at Lilith. Lilith fired back, and the two opposing spells collided in the middle.
"Witch's duel!" Amity's fan shouted as the two sisters battled one another.
Sturm got up and began to leave the auditorium. As much as he loved to see the sisters at each others' throats, he wasn't here for that anymore. With a giant smirk, he left and set out to find Amity.
Sturm exited the Auditorium and began to look around. Around him were only a few witches and demons still at the booths who had better things to do than watching two girls having a petty fight. He scanned the area to look for Amity, part of him hoped to find her first and rub this embarrassing moment in her face.
However, after a brief moment, he heard her voice behind a corner, along with Luz's. Sturm was disappointed at first but knew their conversation wouldn't last long. Instead of dropping into the conversation and starting to talk trash, he preferred to wait for the right moment to 'talk' to her.
He tried to eavesdrop on their conversation but only got the last part.
"Humans have no magical ability. But I doubt that'll stop you."
She left Luz behind and made a few turns among the booths. After one more turn, she stopped moving and was surprised to see Sturm standing before her. What bothered her the most was the way he looked at her. She was already used to him glaring at her hatefully, but now he smiled smugly. It was far from a good sign.
"Wow. I gotta admit, that was quite a performance back there, Mittens."
"Shut up!" Amity snapped. "You know I hate it when you call me that!"
"Yeah. I do! That's what makes it funny. Hehe."
"What do you want, Sturm?"
"Oh, you already know what I want the most," he said, stepping closer to Amity. She quickly put two and two together and maintained her glare, refusing to show fear.
"I am not going to abandon my future."
"Come on. You already proved to everyone that you don't deserve to be Hexside's top student, let alone join the Emperor's Coven," Sturm chortled. "I mean, cheating to win a petty fight against a powerless girl? And you're supposed to be Lilith's best protégé. If that's not pathetic, I don't know what it is."
"It wasn't my idea! I didn't know she put that glyph on me!"
"Uh-huh, sure you didn't," Sturm nodded sarcastically. "And you proved my point that I should be top student. I am the one fit to join the Emperor's Coven. You got to the top because you and your parents limited my potential. But who knows...maybe they'll change their mind and support me when I tell them their golden child cheated to beat someone weaker than her."
"You wouldn't dare!" Amity raised her voice.
"Wouldn't I?" Sturm raised his eyebrow, refusing to break eye contact. "Or else what would happen? A fraud like you is no danger to me. If you don't want me to snitch, you might wanna give me the star badge and start considering a different career. Either way, I win."
Amity was about to argue with him, but she couldn't find the words. He'd sandbagged her right into the corner with this blackmail, but she didn't want to answer him. Sturm took note of her silence and realized he'd won. Satisfied, he turned around but still looked at the young witch from the corner of his eye.
"Heh. I see you need some time to think this over," Sturm said. "As much as I would love to rub the whole fiasco in your face, I have some work to do today. I'll see you at home, Mittens."
And with that said, Sturm zoomed out of sight, leaving a blur and a gust of wind behind before Amity could yell at him not to call her 'Mittens.' But he was already gone, and she was left alone with her thoughts and anxiety that her future was now in Sturm's hands.