"What? Do I need to break the cage first?" Luz muttered, this time creating a light sword from her hand. She tried to slice the magic bars, but her light sword suddenly flickered and the parts that touched the bars disappeared.
"Luz, this is a Null-Magic cage. It won't allow anything magical to pass through it unless that magic is specifically tuned to the same magical resonance as the cage." Eda said.
"Then we'll try something non-magical!" Luz declared, looking around the chamber. She picked up a rusty cleaver that was hanging on the wall with several other old torture devices, and swung it at one of the magic bars. However the bars weren't physical and so the cleaver passed through it without disrupting it at all. "No! So only magic can touch the bars!?"
"It's like the barrier up in the contraband room, only instead of blocking witch and demon magic, it blocks ALL magic. Dang expensive… and basically inescapable. Even if you could pass through the bars yourself, I can't. I've lost my magic to the curse, but the curse itself is still magic. I'm stuck." Eda frowned.
"B-But then what do we do!?" King cried.
"You leave." Eda replied; "Look kids, I'm grateful you care so much, but there's nothing you can do. Find Raine and the CATTs and get out of here before you're caught! Belos has got to be expecting you!"
Luz shook her head frantically; "N-No! I can't do that!" she cried, trying to break the cage by growing vines to try and squeeze the bars. The vines withered when trying to pass through the bars, much to Luz's distress; "This is all my fault! You got captured because you needed to save me!"
"That's not true, Luz!" Eda shook her head as Luz tried using ice to freeze the magic bars. "Listen to me, both of you. I'm here because of my own actions. I went against Belos and his law, knowing the consequences. I could get away with it when I had magic, but thanks to the curse, that time has passed."
"No it hasn't!" King stomped his foot, "We've got the mirror! We can cure you! Show her, Luz!"
The young angel immediately pulled out the completed Panacea Mirror. Eda looked at it longingly, but her bestial reflection in its surface made her frown. "Kids, I-"
"No, Eda! Please let us help you!" Luz cut her off, pointing the mirror at Eda as she began pouring magic into it to activate its power. The mirror glowed with a silver light, then shot a beam of silver magic from its surface to Eda. However the Null-Magic cage was still in effect, and the magic was blocked from reaching her, causing the spell to fail and the mirror to deactivate again. It was still whole and in one piece, so it hadn't been wasted, but it also hadn't worked.
"No! We need to find a way to get rid of the cage! M-Maybe we can experiment with our spells and glyphs until we find the right magical resonance?" Luz said frantically.
"It's worth a try!" King nodded.
However Eda shook her head; magical resonance was rarely talked about since it wasn't something that could be manipulated and only terribly complex forms of security magic used it. It was basically like a magic-user's fingerprint. Eda didn't know about angels, but witches and demons certainly couldn't change theirs.
She said as much to Luz and King, who looked at each other desperately; "We've still got to-"
"No." Eda cut off King's desperate words, "Luz, King, that's enough. I'm sorry things had to end this way, but I'm ready to accept this. I don't regret the life I've led; I lived freely and I got to meet the two of you. We even got to be something like a family, for a while at least." the Owl Lady smiled at her kids, before sighing sadly; "But I can't protect you. If you stay, you'll be caught and I'd rather turn to stone then see either of you in Belos' clutches."
Luz and King stared at her with tear-filled eyes and grief-stricken faces. It broke Eda's heart to see them like this, but she was doing this for their sake. It also killed her to see the healing coven patch on Luz's forehead, covering the wound Eda herself had given her in that moment of weakness.
Stuffing that feeling down, Eda did what she had to do; "Luz, do you have the portal key?"
The girl nodded, pulling the key out from her shirt. She pressed on the eye and summoned the portal door, which opened on its own. Eda smiled upon seeing it; "Luz, take King and go through it. Hide in the Human Realm until the heat dies down; Belos needs you AND the portal, so keeping it from him while keeping yourself safe is the best thing you can do."
"But Eda… t-there has to still be something we can do!" Luz cried.
"Yeah! We have a lot of stuff we still need to say! We haven't even gotten to thank you for these awesome gifts!" King nodded, voice thick with desperation as he pointed at his neckerchief and Luz's cloak.
Before Eda could answer, a loud siren went off, startling them all and making Luz fear they'd triggered an alarm. However as a red light filled the room, it was revealed to be the siren announcing the petrification was due to begin. A door on the ceiling, shaped like a toothy maw, opened up and Eda's cage began rising up towards it.
"EDA!" Luz and King cried.
"I'm sorry. Goodbye Luz, King. I love you both." Eda said tearfully, before she and her cage disappeared through the ceiling door.
Luz feel to her knees as King weakly asked; "W-What do we do now?"
"Plan B failed, and Plan C won't be any good once Eda's at the petrification. We'll need to go straight to Plan D!" Luz said, wiping her eyes of the tears that had built there. "I refuse to run away when Eda can still be saved!"
"I'm glad to hear that."
Luz and King gasped and spun around, seeing none other than Lilith walking into the room. "I had a feeling you would show up here at some point, Luz. I just didn't think you'd beat me here. I'm too late to get to Eda, but at least now I've found you." she said with some relief on her face.
Seeing Lilith standing there, happy to see them and seemingly so unconcerned with her sister's impending fate, made something dark grow in the chests of Luz and King. Something deep and burning… something hateful.
"You…!" King snarled, his fur beginning to puff up as he fell on all fours. "You hurt our Mom!"
King's eyes began to glow purple, and his body seemed to grow as his muscles swelled and he took on a more wolf-like posture. Even the fangs and horns on his skull appeared to grow longer and sharper. "You let Belos torture my sister!" he bellowed, his voice now carrying an unnatural echo. He looked almost feral in his rage, making Lilith step back in fear. The witch looked to Luz for help, but found Luz in a similar state.
Luz's physical change was much less prominent than King's; her wings were merely spread and her feathers were flaring out, making them look wilder. Her eyes were also glowing, taking on a white hue that was oddly ominous despite the bright colour. Neither Angels nor Titans could normally suffer Bile Overloads as they didn't have Bile Sacs, but their magic was still tied to their emotions and as they raged, so too did their magic. Their eyes glowed due to their tempers making it hard to keep their magic in check, and while both Luz and King were in full control of themselves unlike during an overload, that didn't help Lilith when both wanted to take her out.
"You betrayed us! You put Eda in chains!" Luz growled, "And now, we're going to take you down!"
Lilith tried to put her arms up in surrender, but King roared at her, sending a sonic blast at her that resulted in the Head Witch being blasted straight through the portal door. Lilith landed with a groan, and found herself in the woods of Gravesfield, in the Human Realm. She briefly gasped in amazement as she saw the green grass and trees, and the pure blue skies, but her attention was soon drawn by a blast of light coming her way. She was barely able to block it with a blue barrier conjured with her staff, and paled as she saw Luz and King step out of the portal too.
"You won't escape us!" Luz snarled, reaching out with her hand and causing vines to grow from beneath Lilith to try and bind her.
Lilith managed to leap out of the way before the vines could fully emerge from the ground, but she was promptly knocked out the sky by a chunk of ice launched at her stomach by King and one of his drawn ice glyphs. She hit the ground hard, then gasped out; "Wait! I just want to talk!"
King growled; "Talk to the glyphs, Witch!"
He then thrust his front claws out with fire glyphs in each one, but unlike the ice glyph a moment ago, the paper just disintegrated without producing an effect. This surprised King, who stared dumbfounded at his hands, giving Lilith a chance to get back on her feet and leap at Luz. The unexpected move caught Luz by surprise, especially as she was also distracted by the fire glyph not working. Lilith knocked the girl to the ground and straddled her while using her superior strength to hold Luz's hands together above her head.
"Get off her!" King demanded, using a plant glyph this time. Just as he wanted, tree roots shot from the ground where he'd slammed it and raced towards Lilith, who slammed Corvanc's staff against the ground to create a wave of blue flame that destroyed the roots and made King dive out of the way. Seeing this, Luz whistled sharply and Owlbert, whose staff was dropped when Lilith rushed her, suddenly transformed back into owl form and began pecking and clawing at Lilith's head, forcing the woman to let go of Luz's hands so she could try and get the Palisman off her. With her hands free, Luz slapped Lilith hard across the face, knocking her off of her.
Luz then got back to her feet and combined her light and ice magic; "Aurora Beam!" she cried, sending the freezing light at Lilith. Lilith barely avoided it and tried to spin her staff to make a spell circle, but King leapt at her and wrapped his jaws around the base of her staff while using his claws and plant glyphs to root him to the ground, ensuring Lilith couldn't shake him off.
Seeing another Aurora Beam heading her way, Lilith was forced to let go of Corvanc and conjure a barrier on her own. Corvanc transformed back into Palisman form to free himself from King, but he was immediately dive-bombed by Owlbert to keep him away from Lilith. It was now two vs one and Lilith had lost her staff.
"Please, I know you're both angry with me, but I need you to listen to me!" Lilith begged.
"The last time I listened to you, I ended up tortured and forced to almost kill Eda! I won't make that mistake again, Lilith!" Luz spat as she and King flanked the witch.
Lilith recoiled, not knowing if the truthful accusation hurt worse, or the fact Luz was no longer calling her Tia Lily. She didn't get to think about it for long, as King used a light glyph to produce a bright flash and blind her, while Luz flew forward at high speed to knock her to the ground. Lilith hit the ground but immediately rolled and cast a quick spell to remove the blurriness from her eyes after King's bright flash.
"Ugh, I deserved that, and everything else you've done to me. But I'm trying to do the right thing!" Lilith argued, drawing a pair of spell circles. Once produced an abomination that charged at King, while the other shot spectral silver chains at Luz to restrain her. King destroyed the abomination with a sonic roar, while Luz blocked the chains with an ice barrier. Lilith began preparing another spell, so Luz acted fast.
"King! Hit this with your roar!" she yelled, casting a simple ice spell in order to shoot a large chunk of ice at him.
King obediently hit it with a sonic roar, shattering it into thousands of tiny little ice pellets. Luz, trying out a new trick with the ice glyph, then took control of all of them and sent them pelting towards Lilith.
"Hail Storm!" she cried.
Lilith's attempts to make a spell circle were interrupted by the painful hail, but Luz wasn't done yet. She snapped her fingers and melted the hail into water, and had it coat Lilith completely. Lilith tried to break free, but King then hit her with another sonic roar, which reverberated through the water coating her and stunned her.
The witch fell to her knees and Luz immediately froze the water shell again, while King used some vines to grab Corvanc and restrain him during his short aerial dogfight with Owlbert. Frozen up to her neck and with her Palisman immobilised and unable to help, Lilith could do nothing but watch helplessly as her sister's enraged children approached, King snarling like a beast while Luz created a light sword from her hand and raised it high.
"All of this is your fault! Belos branded me like a slave, tortured me, tried to turn me against Eda, turned me into a monster to kill her, then ordered her petrified when I refused, and you stood by and let all of it happen!" Luz screamed, tears beginning to stream down her face. They were tears of both fury and sorrow, as all her emotions towards Lilith boiled over.
The Head Witch looked up at Luz, then averted her eyes out of shame. "Luz, I'm so sorry."
"Sorry isn't good enough!" Luz cried, "Eda loved you like a sister even after all the times you tried to capture her! Amity looked up to you even after you screwed up at the Covention and the Bat Queen's Forest! I loved you like an aunt, even after you took me in front of the Emperor! But you threw all of that away to be the dog of a tyrant!"
Lilith lowered her head; "I know… the things I've done. The people I've hurt… I deluded myself over and over into thinking I could fix my mistakes. Even after the Emperor showed me his true colours, I thought I could still convince him. But I failed. All I succeeded in was destroying my already fragile family…"
King growled; "Eda could die because of you! You're the one who should suffer!"
"I know." Lilith said, beginning to cry; "Everything I did was for nothing. I made the wrong choice and picked the wrong side. I turned on my own sister, niece, and nephew… I deserve my fate. Go ahead, Luz; after the suffering I caused, if anyone deserves to take my head, it's you."
Luz let out a loud cry and brought down the sword of light. Lilith closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, while the shock of what he was seeing snapped King out of his rage. He reached for Luz and tried to call out to her, but he couldn't get the words out fast enough. The light sword slashed down, and carved a burning line through the ground an inch in front of Lilith's bowed head.
Lilith's eyes flew open as she saw Luz's light magic dissipate, then turned to the girl with shock. Luz's face was twisted into the most despair-filled expression she'd ever seen, and like King, her eyes had stopped glowing and her ruffled wings returned to their natural appearance. The girl fell to her knees in front of Lilith.
"Why, Lilith? Why couldn't you have talked to us? Trusted us? Why did you have to pick Belos over your own family!?" Luz sobbed, "And why, after everything you've done to us… why can't I hate you? Why do I still want to see you as family?"
Lilith looked utterly devastated, while King, now completely back to his normal self, hugged his sister. He hadn't ever gotten as close to Lilith as Luz had, since he hadn't been pretending to be her nephew at the time, so he didn't feel the same desire to remain a family. However he couldn't just ignore his big sister's tears, just as she hadn't ignored his tears back on his island. Swallowing down his anger and hatred as much as possible, King glared at Lilith.
"All of this started because you cursed Eda. Tell us why." he demanded.
"O-Of course… you both deserve to know." Lilith said softly, taking a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for the painful memories. "When Edalyn and I were younger, we were the best of friends. Believe it or not, but Eda actually looked up to me, and I tried to look after her and be a good older sister. I even managed to develop a spell to share her pain and injuries whenever she fell and hurt herself; I wasn't so good at healing magic, but I could help her by taking half her pain for myself. We were inseparable, to the point Eda even joined the Potions Track at Hexside after I ended up there."
The woman gave a wistful smile at the memories, even as her eyes were filled with regrets; "When we got older, we began aiming for the Emperor's Coven. It was my dream; to work alongside the strongest witch on the isles, and make the world a better place. Eda wanted to be with me, no matter what. But there was a problem… The Covens came to Hexside for a field day, which doubled as a recruitment event for the main ten covens. Eda and I tried to sign up for the Emperor's Coven, but they insisted they only had one spot left. They were exclusive and only took the best, so they limited how many recruits they took in each year. Since Eda and I both wanted to join, the Delegate from the Emperor's Coven decreed that we would duel the next day, and the winner would take the spot."
Luz and King's eyes widened; "Eda fought you to join the coven!?" the former exclaimed.
Lilith shook her head; "We never actually fought. I was convinced I would lose; Eda had natural talent that outstripped me, but she also worked twice as hard. She had a way with magic that I just couldn't match. I was ashamed of myself, and jealous of my younger sister. But Emperor Belos always said; "To be great, you have to make sacrifices." I asked myself what he would do, and made the biggest mistake of my life… But then again, following his example has always been a mistake for me."
"You cursed her so you'd win the duel…!" King growled.
"I did." Lilith confessed, "I snuck out that night and went to the Night Market. I wanted a way to seal or drain her powers, so I searched for and found a curse, sealed in a scroll, that would do just that. The seller had no idea how it worked or how long it would last. He only knew vaguely that it drained a witch's magic because his ancestor had gotten it appraised by an expert, but many of the details were lost. In my arrogance, I was sure I could appraise it myself. I found that it really would drain her magic, but the curse also had very little magic of its own. I-I thought that meant it wouldn't last very long… a day at most. So I bought it and returned home, then cursed my own, beloved baby sister in her sleep."
Luz grimaced; "So the curse stopped Eda from fighting? That must be the duel Eda mentioned back at the Covention! The one she surrendered before it began! She couldn't fight without magic."
The elder Clawthorne shook her head, and her voice cracked a bit as she said; "Eda didn't even know about the curse until the duel came. It began, but before I could fire even a single spell, Eda declared her surrender. She said "I refuse to battle my sister"… then gave me the win. But as she walked away, the curse finally reared its head. She transformed into the Owl Beast for the first time, and the Emperor's Coven and the watching crowd drove her off with stones and insults, while I stood there like a fool and did nothing. I'd made my sacrifice for the Emperor, and I received my reward and joined his coven. Meanwhile Eda suffered for my sins; she dropped out of Hexside and ran away from home, and for years, I rose through the ranks of the coven to become its head. And that's how we ended up where we are; me as the Head Witch of the Emperor's Coven, and Eda as the Boiling Isles' most wanted Wild Witch."
Luz and King stared at her, struggling to process everything. The event that defined their mother figure's life was a misguided act of sabotage by her own sister. On the one hand, she'd truly only meant for it to last a day and it had all been a tragic mistake, but on the other hand, she'd still done something awful to hurt her own sister for petty reasons. Bitter understanding filled them both, and while King felt angry, Luz felt miserable.
"You hurt Eda so much, for so small a reason." she said quietly, not trusting her voice not to break if she spoke louder.
Lilith bowed her head once more; "I know. I've been pursuing Edalyn all these years because if she joined the Emperor's Coven, the Emperor promised me he would heal her curse. But he lied to me, just like he lied when he told me she was corrupting you. But you aren't corrupt at all, are you? No one truly corrupted would spare the life of someone who hurt them so badly."
Luz frowned; "Belos has lied about everything. I don't know what he really wants, but he isn't who he says he is, I know that much." she stood up and wiped her eyes, then looked sternly down at Lilith; "What do you want to do now, Lilith?"
"I want to save my sister. And I know how. I can tell you, or even show you if you'd like." Lilith replied. "The cage Eda was in would have risen up into a part of the courtyard, ready for something called "The Penitent's Walk" in which the condemned would need to walk through the crowd to the scaffold for their petrification. Obviously that won't work with her in a cage, so it would instead be dragged into the scaffold where another lift would take her to the top. I happen to know of a second lift platform beneath the scaffold, which connects to a chamber here in the dungeons, where the Petrification Statue is located. It's supposed to be for emergency maintenance, but you can use it to get straight to the scaffold."
Luz's eyes widened; "We could use that to get to Eda before the Petrification begins! If we get there fast enough, we could even destroy the Petrification Stature before it rises up!"
"It could also be a trap." King frowned, "Luz, do you think we can honestly trust Lilith here?"
"No." Luz shook her head; "As much as I want to trust her, I can't gamble Eda's life on it. But it's the best option we've got right now."
King shifted in discomfort, but Luz was right; they didn't have the time to run back out to the courtyard, especially without giving themselves away and being swarmed by scouts and guards. "Alright… but then what do we do with Lilith?"
Luz answered that by thawing Lilith out of the ice and pulling her to her feet, then binding her hands behind her back with some vines. "You're coming with us. Any funny business and I'll knock you out and leave you for the Emperor to find. Help us though, and your fate will be the same as Eda's."
Lilith nodded; "I will do all I can. I owe you more than I can ever repay, but I will try to all the same."
King accepted that and clambered back onto Luz's back so she could put her scout mask and cloak back on and restore her illusion disguise, while also using an illusion to hide the vines binding Lilith's hands. Owlbert returned to his staff form so Luz could disguise him as a spear, while Corvanc just nestled onto Lilith's shoulder; silently gazing at Luz as his eyes seemed to promise he wouldn't try to save his partner from the fate she'd agreed to. With that, they headed back through the portal, Luz giving one last wistful look behind her to the world she'd grown up in.
Luz fully intended to return to the Human Realm when this was all over; camp was due to end in one more week, and she would come back and tell her Mami the truth. She'd bring Eda and her friends with her too, and with any luck, her Mami would understand and accept the new place Luz had carved for herself in the Demon Realm. But that could wait; Eda needed to be saved first.
She stepped back through the portal and closed it, then sent it away while putting the key back inside her shirt.
"Lead the way, Lilith." Luz ordered. The Head Witch nodded and began showing them the way, as Luz offered a silent prayer.
"Eda, guys, please be okay!"
[Meanwhile]
Amity, Willow, Gus, and Rasiel stood in the crowd in the courtyard, waiting anxiously. They'd each done their part to thin the Emperor's numbers; using false reports of suspicious individuals to lure them away so the CATTs could take care of them, and they'd been so effective that most of the scouts and guards still in the courtyard were actually CATTs members in disguise. However there were still hundreds of real scouts and guards within the Conformatorium itself, as well as surrounding it and guarding the roads to and from it, so things would still devolve into chaos if Plan D needed to happen. A little while ago, they'd also watched as five coven scouts rushed past them and up onto the scaffold, where they still stood waiting for something. Amity had seen Skara try to distract them with another fake report before they could reach the scaffold, but they'd completely ignored her, worrying the Hexside kids.
"Is everyone in position, Amity?" Rasiel asked. He had no scroll of his own, so he was sticking close to Amity so he could stay in the loop.
Amity nodded; "Yeah. Jerbo, Viney, and Barcus are on the east side of the crowd, the twins and Skara are on the south side, Matt, Bo, and the HAS are on the north side, and Boscha and the Banshees are in the middle. With us here on the west side, we're perfectly positioned to get in the way and disrupt the Emperor's Coven when the fighting starts."
While the kids had all been forbidden to fight alongside the CATTs to avoid being labelled criminals, they could still get in the way of the coven without getting in trouble! After all, they'd all look like scared school kids stuck in the chaos. However all of them were worried; they hadn't heard anything from Luz or any of the team that went inside the Conformatorium. There were no signs of a riot within the prison, so Plan C hadn't been started, but the lack of word was making them nervous.
Then, to their horror, a small squad of scouts from inside the Conformatorium emerged and began ordering the crowd to split down the middle, forming a wide path between the central building and the scaffold. The scouts then flanked this path as a group of drummers marched out, ominously playing their drums as a pair of giant purple demon worms came slithering out from the central building, dragging along a large cage. Amity and the others gasped as they saw Eda, stuck as the Owl Beast, inside of it.
"I-Is that an illusion that Luz made, or the real Eda!?" Willow whispered urgently.
Gus drew a spell circle that made his eyes glow blue, then gulped; "That's no illusion. Luz and the others must not have gotten to her in time."
The small group watched with pits in their stomachs as Eda was dragged towards the scaffold. It wasn't much of a penitent's walk, since she wasn't walking and the crowd wasn't jeering or throwing things at her. Instead it was eerily quiet, with only the grim drumming and the sound of Eda's cage scrapping across the ground to fill the air. It was proof that people weren't exactly happy about this petrification, but couldn't stand up to the Emperor's will.
Throughout the courtyard, the disguised CATTs began to get antsy; with Eda now out in the open, Plan D was the only option left to them, but they still needed to wait for either the signal from Luz or Raine, or the appearance of the Petrification Statue. They all waited, preparing for battle, and tension filled the courtyard.
Eda looked around at the crowd and spotted several familiar faces, growing paler as she saw Amity and the rest of the kids alongside Rasiel. She didn't dare call out to them though, so stayed silent as she was dragged all the way to the scaffold and then around the back of it. She was detached from the worms dragging her cage, then scouts shoved her onto the lift inside the scaffold. Kikimora was waiting there for her, but didn't say a word before sending the lift up to the top. A minute later and Eda emerged into the open air atop the scaffold just as the sky began to turn red with the setting sun.
Sundown had come, and Eda looked around at what she believed would be her final view as a living person.
Down below, the crowd began to murmur as the various news crews made their reports to their audiences.
Perry Porter was one of these; "Well folks, Eda the Owl Lady has appeared on stage, which means the petrification process is about to begin." he reported grimly.
Kikimora stepped forward so the entire crowd could see her, then gave an announcement; "People of the Boiling Isles, we are gathered here today to witness the petrification of Edalyn Clawthorne, for crimes against the Empire and its people. However she will not face her fate alone!"
She snapped her fingers and the five scouts from earlier stepped forward, and the illusion covering them dropped, revealing that the scout in the centre was actual Raine Whispers, gagged and tied up while being forced to move by the other four. A gasp came over the crowd and Eda and the CATTs all looked at them with shock and horror.
"Raine!" Eda cried as the scouts dragged the bard over to the cage.
"Hey Eda. Looks like I got caught…" Raine said with a weary smile as the gag was removed from their mouth, "Still, at least this way our fates will be the same, no matter what happens."
Kikimora walked over to a series of levers off to the side and pulled on one to cause some of the magic bars of Eda's cage to lower, allowing the scouts to throw Raine in. Eda tried to claw at the scouts, but the chains held her down, forcing her to just snarl and snap at them, making them retreat quickly once Raine was imprisoned.
Kikimora then pulled the lever again to restore the bars and announced; "Emperor Belos has already handed down a sentence of petrification for Raine Whispers' role in the crime of kidnapping and corrupting the angel known as Luz Noceda. Their punishment will be carried out alongside their co-conspirator; the Owl Lady!"
There was an uproar from the audience, as Luz's friends panicked and the CATTs prepared to start the riot early. Raine's capture could explain why Plan B had failed, but the fact Luz and the others still hadn't been seen could imply that they'd evaded capture too. Amity pulled out her scroll again and began rapidly typing a message to Luz, hoping with all she had that her girlfriend was still free.
The uproar in the crowd grew louder as Kikimora pulled another lever, this time causing the Petrification Statue to rise up from underground to the stop of the scaffold. It was a sinister looking device; it consisted of four large stone witches with anguished faces and hands clasped in prayer, with a green orb between their heads. The statues were resting on a large brass platform, and were flanked by two glowing green tubes that sparked with green energy as the statue began to activate. Eda and Raine gulped at the sight of it, but the statue's appearance was also the signal for the CATTs to begin Plan D.
"COVENS AGAINST THE THRONE, ATTACK! FREE RAINE AND EDA!" screamed one of the undisguised members.