2026 Vee Fanzine

Welcome to the third edition of the Vee fanzine! This is an annual, free, digital-release fanzine that accepts all interested contributors focused on Vee from The Owl House. The fanworks here were made by fans just like you, and if you like any of the works, make sure to head to the credits to compliment the authors! It makes me extremely happy that this zine has run for three years now, thanks to our contributors and the readers. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, to everyone here, as a contributor and as a reader. This zine has an amazing community, and I'm so proud of the product we've put together. Enjoy all the Vee fanworks!!!

If you missed out contributing to this zine, we'll be back next year! Keep an eye on the webpage or the zine Tumblr account around March to April 2026 for information on contributing to next year's edition :)

~ Ceph

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Five tried to hold it together as she was escorted to her doom.

She wasn’t going to run. She wasn’t going to cry. She wasn’t going to beg. She couldn’t do any of that, trapped in a mire of old curdled fears as she was, but even if she could, it wouldn’t work. It was too late. The only coherent thought that could break through the dull gray haze of fear and shame as her guards led her down the hallway was: I should have known it would end like this.

It had been a good run while it lasted. Not everything that Five had dreamed of, not perfect by any means, but compared to life before, it had been paradise. Together, the four of them had it better than anything she could have hoped for in the darkness with a number for a name. They were guaranteed a tiny, precious bit of safety, and just so long as they didn’t seek out trouble, trouble wouldn’t find them, and she would never have to go back.

That was why she had resisted the longest when the talk about revenge began.

She had argued that the best they could do was move on, but the others had insisted that there had to be a reckoning, a judgement, an ending, and they needed to exploit the opportunity while it was there. She had tried to say that retribution wouldn’t make it not have happened, and that there were too many risks, and that freedom was enough, but she couldn’t protest too much. Beneath it all, where it was safe, Five had been angry too. She could remember the panic, and the sudden quiet, and a desperate dive into the water…

But the plan hadn’t worked. She had been caught, and the others were on borrowed time. Their fates were sealed.

One of her captors opened the door and ushered her inside. Five took up her place quietly and with as few motions as possible, curling in on herself as she stood before the throne of judgement.

She stood and nodded her assent as the charges were read. It didn’t matter how or even if she replied. She didn’t know why they were bothering with these formalities; everyone knew what was going to happen afterwards- and here it came, the shuffling of papers and throat-clearing that meant the final question was nigh, the last step before the end. Keep holding strong. Maybe the others can still escape if we buy them time. I won’t let them break me I won’t let them break me I won’t let them-

“-if they knew it would scare you like that. Luz? Are you listening?”

Harrison Buell, longtime head counselor of Reality Check summer camp and used to this kind of behavior from campers that found themselves in his office, met the latest unfortunate’s timorous gaze with his own serious and steady one and tried again. “Luz. Is it true that someone locked you in the boathouse that day?”

Five- no, that’s not my name, not anymore, stop it- had to take a moment to reorient her brain. “Um. Yes. I think so. The door might have just been stuck? But there were people out there that wouldn’t help me get it open, a-and they laughed about it and left. It was hard to tell who it was. I don’t know if it was on purpose…” She trailed off, unable to commit to that particular half-truth. Nobody else was buying it, either.

“Mm. You’re supposed to report that kind of thing to us. We have protocols for dealing with it.” The head counselor flipped through some notes on his desk, resting his chin in one hand and running a thumb over his bristly martial mustache as he read. “Speaking of which, now that she has remembered to tell me, Bea says there’s been some kind of… prank war between Luz’s cabin and another, is that right? Does that mean we know who locked Luz in there?”

Behind her, the counselor in question gave an uneasy cough and nodded. “They’re the only suspects. It was all harmless stuff until that point. You know the kind of thing: ketchup packets on seats, shoes full of leaves, unscrewed salt shakers; things they would laugh about. We were keeping an eye on it to step in when someone crossed a line, and Cabin Four crossed several by escalating that far, even if they didn’t know about Luz’s claustrophobia.”

“But they never apologized, did they?” It was a statement, not a question. “Bea, Weston; you’ve been with us as counselors for two summers; both of you know what you’re supposed to do. Why was this allowed to go this far?”

This time, the other counselor replied, a good deal more nervously than the first. “Well, we- uh- we started the process. I saw Luz dripping lakewater on her way back to her cabin, then Bea talked to the Cabin Four campers to try to get more of the story, and we were going to mediate that night! But. This was all maybe an hour before the… incident with Cabin Eight…”

Mr. Buell sighed. “And it was all hands on deck for almost two whole days after the fire alarm went off; of course. I should have known we weren’t done with all the fallout from that. Weston, you can go; I’ll find you if I need you again. Bea, you’re with me as a witness. We’re going to pay a visit to Cabin Seven.”

“Please don’t send me home,” whispered someone whose name was not Five, and who was now in touch with reality enough to know that the man they were speaking to only held the title of warden in Masha’s jokes. That’s the worst they can do to you here. Hold on tight. Don’t panic. Count the room. Two windows, three people, one door. Thirteen stripes on the little flag on the cup by the computer, seven red and six white. One blue rectangle, with four straight sides and a field of stars. How many stars? Six columns of five, five columns of four…

“Kid, if what I think is happening is happening, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Mr. Buell sighed, running a hand over his face. “I swear, you’d think nearly two decades running this place would be enough to see every kind of wild coming-of-age adventure, but every few summers, someone gets creative…”

Trudging along behind the camp staff, the basilisk formerly known as Five looked despondently down at her borrowed feet. It had been a while since she had called herself anything but Vee or Luz, and it hadn’t been fun to go back. She had been vigilant about that even before she escaped to the Human Realm: slipups were not only deeply unpleasant, but potentially dangerous too. If she went back to the lab in her head and couldn’t pull herself into the present again fast enough, she was in danger of instinct taking over. Earlier in the summer, when that rake had fallen and trapped her in the toolshed by the garden, she had just frozen, but she had gotten close to shifting out of pure panic in the boathouse. What would have happened in Mr. Buell’s office if she had tried to-

Nope. Not thinking about that. The numbers stamped on the ring in my tail don’t mean anything anymore. I can be whoever I need to be now, and I’m learning how to do just that. It’s already getting easier. It’ll be as natural as breathing by the time I’m done with camp.

…unless, of course, this massive disaster caused Camila Noceda to come back early to pick up her “daughter,” who was still learning how to pass as a person, let alone one individual of a specific species. She had only been bipedal full-time for a month. Vee let out a defeated, anxious little noise.

Norman, who had been captured alongside her and questioned just before, nudged her arm. “You okay, Luz? I was hoping Buell would get it all out of his system with me, but it didn’t seem like his heart was in the yelling today. I hope he wasn’t saving it up for you.”

“No,” Vee said, fidgeting with the hem of her shirt. “Not really. He didn’t even raise his voice. He seemed… kind of tired, actually.”

“Hm.” Norman nodded thoughtfully as he considered this new information. “That could be it. It could be that he was being thoughtful and didn’t want to scare you. He’s not as much of a jerk as Masha thinks he is. Or maybe he’s just going to let it all out when he’s got all of us together. Hard to say.”

“…what are they going to do to us?”

Norman shrugged. His shrugs could be surprisingly expressive. This one was mostly resignation, shading to apathy, with a very small bit of conditional regret thrown in for flavor. “Dunno, but I wouldn’t worry too much. If Buell is staying calm, I would guess he’s more concerned than angry. Nobody got hurt and we didn’t break anything. That’s good for our chances of getting out of this okay. I’ll bet you anything they’re imagining something worse than it is.”

“You think so?”

“Oh, yeah. I didn’t tell the counselors about the design we came up with, so they probably think we’re just eyeballing the whole thing. I didn’t tell them anything, actually. They didn’t ask me much.” He scratched the faint fuzz on his chin. “Seems like they figured it out already. I would complain about them jumping to conclusions with no evidence, but…” This shrug was more straightforward than the last, and it spoke of honorable surrender in the face of overwhelming odds. “Still, just because it’s right doesn’t mean it’s not a crazy thing to assume.”

Vee twisted the shirt harder. “I didn’t tell them about the- the project, but they asked me about the boathouse. I told the truth. Sorry.”

Norman waved the apologies away. “Don’t worry about it. That might have helped, even. It makes us look more reasonable.”

Vee wished she could share his confidence. She usually trusted Norman’s judgement in these things- he loved to wind up authority figures and could always work out exactly how far he could push before it became a real problem, to the wonder and/or horror of his cabinmates- but he might have overestimated this time. The part of her that had been pretending to be Luz for a few weeks was still being argued with her memories of being Five. What they had been doing had been a little too much like something from those last days in the cages. There was more than one reason why she hadn’t ever gone down to work on the project herself. It made getting caught, already terrible enough, that much worse.

Once they arrived at the cabin itself, Vee was at least spared the agony of a long wait when the door was opened by a dirt-streaked Masha. They froze at the sight of two staff members and their prisoners.

Mr. Buell stepped towards the cabin door. “Good morning, Masha.” The sunlight glinted off of his scalp in a way that Vee, in her present state, could only interpret as menacing. “Luz and Norman here-” He nodded towards the prisoners, who shrank and saluted lazily, respectively. “-couldn’t remember what they were doing with five-gallon buckets making piles of dirt and rocks out in the woods, so I thought we would ask their cabinmates. Do you know what they were doing out there?”

“I couldn’t say for sure,” Masha said, slowly moving to hide their own bucket behind their back. “Some kind of workout? Rock collecting? Building a pyramid? It’s not really my business.” Their eyes darted around, searching for escape routes and finding none.

Bea shook her head. “Masha, there’s a bunch of little rubble piles out there in the treeline, you are covered in dirt, and there are two shovels, ten flashlights, a box of nails, eight buckets, and an entire wheelbarrow missing from the groundskeeping supply shed. Where is Parker? ”

Masha took a moment to consider their reply. Vee could see the gears turning in their head as they tried to work out what would mitigate the damage most: another deflection? An outright lie? Maybe an attempt to shift the blame to another cabin? At last, they accepted their fate: there was no way out but through.

“I swear I have no idea where the wheelbarrow went. It was already gone when we got in.”

Vee felt guilty for thinking so, but she probably wouldn’t have been able to hold it together for this long if Masha hadn’t been caught too. Norman stood like a mountain before the storm, and if Parker had been caught first, she would have been fighting it like a tea clipper rounding Cape Horn, but Masha? Masha danced around in the gale and laughed at the lightning. Even on the brink of disaster with no chances left, they wouldn’t take it lying down. What they were doing could, in fact, be described as truthing up. The sheer audacity of it all was a wonder to behold.

“It’s all thanks to what we’ve learned here at Reality Check,” they explained to the bewildered counselors. “You know, about teamwork, and perseverance, and personal responsibility, and resourcefulness…”

“It’s… just so neat in here,” Bea murmured, walking between the bunks. “Hospital corners on the sheets, no dirty laundry lying around, no stacks of tools, no evidence. We might not have noticed at all if we hadn’t caught Luz and Norman dumping spoil this morning. There’s barely any dirt on the floor.”

Masha beamed. “Thank you for noticing! There’s plenty of clearance where the ground slopes under the cabin; we keep the tools there. We’ve been timing the cleanups and the big pushes with laundry days, too. Nobody notices how much we’re washing if we all go at different times.”

“And yet I can’t help but notice that the floorboards are missing from the closet,” Mr. Buell added in a voice that was equal parts frustrated and fascinated. “You opened up the floor and dug a tunnel towards Cabin Four in your free time, but you care that the cabin is tidy?”

Masha nodded seriously. “Of course. You should only break one rule at a time,” they stated firmly. “Everyone knows that. And there was already a movable panel there to get to the pipes and the wiring; we just put it under Luz’s bunk. Nobody would have picked anything up on a room check unless they knew what to look for.”

Bea peered into the closet. “Mr. Buell, come look at this. There’s a trench around the opening to divert rainwater. I can even see a- woah, there’s light down there?”

“That would be the flashlights,” Norman said. “We were gonna get some string lights and extension cords and run them along the supports, but you almost caught us the first time we got into the supply sheds, so we decided to play it safe.”

“‘Safe.’ You decided to ‘play it safe.’” Mr. Buell closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Good Lord. You call this safe? It could have collapsed on you!”

“Of course it couldn’t,” Masha said, in tones of injured pride. “It would go against everything we’ve learned at your camp if we built a bad tunnel. We were actually going to open a second shaft in the treeline for air before turning towards our target. Then we could have taken things in and out without having to go through the cabin while we made it the rest of the way, and we wouldn’t have to run underneath any other buildings. It would have given us an ironclad alibi for anything we wanted for the rest of the summer. I could have forced them into some kind of punitive prank peace treaty if we had a few more weeks to work on this.”

“This is why we make your parents sign those waivers,” Mr. Buell muttered under his breath. No one else but Vee seemed to have heard him. “As… impressive… as this is, we can’t just ignore what you’ve been doing,” he said at his normal volume. “A heavy rainstorm or a buried power line could have caused a disaster here. Come with me, Masha. I’ll leave your cabinmates with Bea for now. We have a lot to discuss.”

Vee, who had up to that point been hanging on by the paper-thin lifeline of Masha’s irreverent defiance, felt her grip shift. Wait. He thinks they-

As if to confirm Vee’s suspicions, Masha’s eyes darted to hers as they held out their upturned wrists towards the head counselor. “Looks like this is the end of the line. I should have known I wouldn’t get away with it forever. Take me away, boys.”

No! They’re going to say it was all their idea? That’s not supposed to happen!

Vee had been too busy with visions of group doom to consider that Masha had been planning to go for that play. She couldn’t let it stand. Masha had almost as much as Vee riding on not getting sent home from camp, maybe more. If they didn’t complete the Reality Check program, they might not get to transfer to the school they wanted to attend after all the trouble they had been through to get away from the old one, and if they had to go back… it was unthinkable. No one should have to go back. They couldn’t just throw themself under the transport worm like that! Cabin Seven needed all of its campers! Plus, if Masha goes home before the end of the summer, I won’t get a chance to see if-

“I did the calculations!” she blurted out. “I worked out how much support we would need and doubled it! I picked the path and calculated how deep we should go and I asked for someone to steal a compass so I could do the math to make sure we’re on target! We never would have started digging the tunnel if it wasn’t for me!”

Vee shrank a little under the stares: shock from Bea, something unreadable from Masha, a grin and thumbs-up combo from Norman, and something that might have been grudging respect from Mr. Buell. “Sorry,” she croaked, releasing her hair from the tight grip she had put it in during that short speech and silently willing her heart to slow down. “I- that was too loud. Sorry.”

Thankfully, Norman stepped in next. “I broke into the supply shed on my own,” he declared. “Actually, ‘broke’ is a strong word. You know the lock doesn’t actually work, right? You can pop the door open with, like, any medium-length stick and slam it shut and nobody can tell. I wouldn’t call myself a shed expert or anything, but that thing is not a good shed. I think we’ve used half of the camp’s supply of wood glue, but the tunnel is holding, so. Your call on whether that’s worth it. I could buy you some padlocks from the hardware store to make up for-”

“Why?” Bea asked, throwing her hands up in the air. “Why did you kids do any of this?”

Masha looked at her like she had just asked why they were breathing. “What were we supposed to do, tell a responsible adult about bullying? When has that ever worked?”

Before Bea could reply, something went thump under the cabin, and a voice from the closet drifted up into the room. “Masha! I finally got that big rock loose, help me pull it out! What’s Luz yelling about up there?”

Everyone watched silently as the head counselor strode over to the closet and leaned in, looking down into the shaft. “Hello, Parker.”

“Oh. Hey there, Mr. Buell. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for-”

“Twenty days. Cooler.”

“Aw, balls.”

By the time someone had explained the reference to Vee, it was clear that the fate that awaited them was at least slightly better than solitary confinement. For a variety of reasons, the first of which Masha said must have been mortal terror of lawsuits, they had been offered a plea deal: Instead of getting kicked out of the camp and suffering the various consequences that would bring, Mr. Buell would confiscate the toolbox Parker had smuggled in until the end of the summer, Cabin Seven would complete a list of the dirtiest, grimiest, most labor-intensive chores that the staff could legally give them, and everyone involved would swear to never mention the tunnel to anyone. Not even Masha had been willing to risk negotiating.

Norman prodded his hairnet. “Man, this is weird.”

“Thinking about a haircut?” Masha asked, handing him a bottle of dish soap. “Or a different style, maybe?”

“Nah. I mean, maybe? It’s just that this thing makes me look like a mushroom.”

From her station at the sink, Parker shook her head vigorously. “I’m getting rid of my hair as soon as camp is over. Luz has the right idea, but I want it even shorter than hers. If the warden hadn’t confiscated my good scissors I would have done it before we started.” She attacked the pot with a scrub brush and all of her pent-up irritation. “This ponytail touching my neck all the damn time is going to make me insane. I might shave myself bald. No more hair. We can draw things on my head.”

Vee stacked another clean plate onto the cart as the assembly line worked away at the mess. This was pretty bad, as camp punishments went. On the other hand, as all punishments Vee had ever experienced went, it was hardly a punishment at all. It didn’t even hurt! Even so, she couldn’t quite kick the guilt. It gnawed at her. Masha had risked getting kicked out and losing a badly-needed opportunity over all of this. Why? Was that something she had been expected to do too? Did she bear some responsibility for landing everyone in this mess? Was that going to jump out at her later?

Outside Vee’s careful private calculus of debts owed, the dishwashing continued. “You know, it sucks that we got caught, but wow, what a rush,” Parker laughed, her voice echoing in the stainless-steel depths of the pot she was scrubbing. “More than twenty feet of shored-up tunnel, tall enough to crawl through on your knees and with no signs of subsidence. They’ll be telling horror stories about it to new counselors for years. I’ve always wanted to become a cautionary tale.”

“Is that a… usual thing that people want?” Vee asked absently, holding out a hand for the next dish.

“Nope,” Norman said. “Parker’s just a freak.” He passed her a well-scrubbed bowl. “Actually, you know what? A full-size cautionary tale sounds like too much work, but I could absolutely play the heel in one of those ‘weed makes your head explode’ PSAs. I have the slouching and skateboarding skills down.”

“Ooh! Have any of you seen those old fundagelical tract things where Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons turns you into a dark wizard for real?” Parker asked. “We could totally be a group of dangerous Satanic atheist teen menaces.”

Masha nodded thoughtfully. “I would spring for ‘urban legend,’ personally. I’ll consider all of this-” they gestured at themself and the world in general. “-worth it if one day people think I can put curses on them.”

“I have no idea what any of you are talking about,” Vee admitted, feeling some pressure to contribute. She went for the reliable (if not exactly comfortable) option: it wasn’t like she hadn’t considered it before. Technically, she had done it before, although she was confident that she and the other basilisks had been careful enough to not become the subjects of stories back on the Isles in the spring. “I could probably be a cryptid, though. Some of those stories sound doable. Live in the woods, skitter around in the dark, run away from cameras…”

“Yes, I can see it now,” Masha said, putting on a dramatic campfire-tale voice. “Her name was Luz Noceda, but now they call her the Western Connecticut Nightlearner! She prowls the forest, looking at frogs and scratching equations into tree bark. On nights when the moon is dark, she creeps into towns and reads unsuspecting textbooks cover to cover…”

Their work in the kitchen went by relatively quickly after that. Even as tired as they were, the task was more dull than difficult, and most importantly of all, it was inside, away from the bugs and the heat. With the whole group sharing the load and splitting up the boredom they were done in no time at all, and all of them, including Vee, were in better spirits as they finished. The day’s labors were almost over, after all. Vee was almost ready to pack away her concerns for another day when their final trial was revealed.

Masha leaned against the counter and looked at the ceiling with a tired sigh. “Goddess, I’m glad we scrubbed down the outhouses first. I don’t know what I would do if we had to clean toilets next.”

Parker unholstered the sprayer from the kitchen sink and blasted the suds out of a large bowl. “Is there actually anything left? I can’t think of any gross chores they haven’t made us do.”

Masha shifted, digging in a pocket for the list of tasks they had been given. “We finished everything by the cabins already, so I think we might be done after we mop. Let me check…” They skimmed through the list, and the color drained from their face. “Oh, shit. They want us to clean the outdoor stuff too. All of the outdoor stuff.”

“That’s not so bad,” Norman said. “Grills aren’t hard to clean, even if they’re big. You just-” He stopped as the implication hit him. “No. Not the smoker too?”

Masha nodded grimly. “The smoker too.”

A horrified silence descended upon the kitchen. Parker shut off the water. “I heard about this from the Cabin Ten campers during the hike,” she said, a note of unusual trepidation creeping into her voice. “It hasn’t been used in three years, and they didn’t clean it out at the end of that summer. Mrs. Colgren wants to bring back the end-of-the-year barbecue, so someone is going to have to clean it…”

“…and we messed up bad enough to be volunteered for the job,” Masha finished.

They all looked out the window at the smoker. It was a hulking edifice of black-painted metal and weathered cinderblocks, a dark temple where offerings were made to some mad god of fire. In the last days of camp, its high priestess would direct the chosen acolytes to begin their labors among the lesser altars in the predawn darkness to prepare the sacrifices that would bring it to life. Smoke would pour from its chimneys and the rituals would continue throughout the day, until at last the great doors were opened for the final time and the contents were withdrawn, to be anointed with spiced unguents according to ancient rites learned on the sunbaked riverbanks of pyramid-shadowed Memphis. The firebox had long sat empty, but the heat shimmering in the air around the smoker’s onyx bulk betrayed any illusion of cold. Anyone foolish enough to stand in front of the doors as they were opened would be hit with a solid wave of blast-furnace air haunted by the fat-drenched ghosts of cookouts past.

Vee could see her opportunity. She didn’t like it, but she could see it. “I can go-”

She barely got to start the sentence before Norman interrupted her. “Nope. You are not volunteering to clean the scary-ass walk-in meat closet, Luz.”

“But- I was-” Vee slumped forward in defeat. “…how did you know?”

“You were making your Bad Idea Face,” Norman explained. “It’s not subtle; I could see that coming a mile off. I don’t know why you would do that, though.”

“I… Look, it’s my fault it went this far,” Vee said wretchedly, twisting a finger on her long yellow latex gloves as she spoke. “Sort of. I don’t know. I have to offer, right? I got caught this morning, and if I hadn’t walked into the most obvious trick ever and gotten locked in the boathouse, we wouldn’t have-”

Norman snorted. “What? First of all, give me some credit; we got caught. Second, you’re, like, pure of heart or whatever, and Cabin Four was taking advantage. That’s the opposite of your fault. We were all more angry about it than you were. If anything, you saved us from anything worse by supporting the tunnel plan,” he added, fiddling with his hairnet again to no avail. “Like I said, we didn’t break anything and nobody got hurt. You didn’t even come up with the idea, Luz.”

“That was me!” Parker cheerfully confessed as she rummaged through a cabinet, searching for more cleaning supplies. “I really wanted to dig a tunnel and this was a perfect excuse. We all went in knowing we would share the responsibility if we got caught.”

Masha nodded. “It would take you until sunset to finish cleaning everything on your own, Luz. We’re in this together! Nobody has to suffer on their own; that’s the whole point.”

“If I’m not supposed to do that, why did you try to take the blame for the whole thing?” Vee countered, still mentally wobbling a bit from the revelation that she made a recognizable Bad Idea Face and was like, pure of heart or whatever. “Don’t try to deny it, Masha. You were trying to make Mr. Buell think it was all your idea! You said that you needed to finish Reality Check to transfer to Gravesfield High, right? That’s why I confessed to everything! If you had gotten sent home, you would have had to go back to Pennsylvania, and then I wouldn’t get to spend… To see… Uh. You didn’t need to do that, I guess,” she finished lamely, trailing off as conscious thought caught up with her. “Um. Also, thank you. Yes.”

Masha opened their mouth, closed it, thought some more, and finally chose a response. “…yeah, you’re right. Maybe I was doing that, and maybe it was a bad idea, but I’m not the only one who needs to be here, right? You looked like you were about to collapse from anxiety the whole time, Luz. I had to do something. I just didn’t want y- want anyone else to get kicked out.” They shuffled not-entirely-awkwardly, looking away from Vee in a way that almost passed for nonchalant. “Oh, and thank you, too. Sorry for being dumb about it.”

A period of silence, strangely warm for reasons that had nothing to do with the weather, followed. It ended when Norman muttered something that Vee would much, much later realize had probably been “just kiss already,” adjusted his hairnet for a final time, and stood up from where he had been leaning. “Okay, now that everyone’s heroic but unnecessary sacrifices have been thwarted: let’s clean up the barbecue zone. All of us. I can’t slack off if it’s one of you guys making up the difference.”

“We need to keep our momentum,” Parker agreed. “This is the last thing on the list. If we take turns inside and cycle for water breaks, we might even be able to break some records.” She slammed a fist into her palm. “That burned-on grease won’t know what hit it.”

Tragically, there was no official record with which to compare their cleaning time, but the four campers finished their penance well before sunset.

Despite everyone honoring their promises to keep quiet, word soon got around that Cabin Seven had done something so bad that they had been sentenced to hard labor all day and barred from discussing what it was that had gotten them in all that trouble. The farther the story spread, the greater the severity of the unknown crime became. A formal peace wouldn’t happen until the end of camp, but Vee and her friends would find a hasty (but not insincere) apology letter for the boathouse incident stuck to the door of their cabin after finishing their labors. The unofficial prank armistice lasted for the rest of the summer. Cabin Four didn’t want to find out what kind of diabolical revenge their enemies had almost pulled off.

Considering that they had just spent interminable eons in the baking afternoon heat scraping encrusted grime and shoveling greasy ashes, the inmates of Cabin Seven were all too happy to declare victory. They decided to celebrate with a semi-unauthorized trip to the lake: it was hot, they weren’t technically disallowed from going at the moment, and Vee, riding a wave of unusual confidence, wanted to swim on her own terms. Masha had been reluctant to come along for reasons Vee hadn’t entirely understood, but in the end, in the face of relentless encouragement, they had promised to join the others in the water.

As she walked to the beach behind Parker and Norman, Vee looked back upon the day and found that it was (in a cosmic sense, anyway) good. This particular adventure had gotten very much out of hand, and it had ended in far more trouble than anything else that had happened to Vee that summer, but now it was over, and that was reinforcing lessons that she still had a hard time believing. Reality Check, meant for teenagers who needed to learn how the real world worked, was doing its job for her in ways it had never done for any camper before. She could learn about this new realm she had fled into a little over a month ago in a place where she was expected to be a little strange. Rotating through activities with her fellow campers, Vee had picked up bits and pieces of information that, when taken all together, would allow her to pass for human. She was still adjusting, as that morning’s descent into salt-and-metal-scented memory proved, but even while being in the most trouble she could realistically get herself into with the counselors, Vee was safe.

But that wasn’t all. Somehow, through some miracle, Vee had accomplished what Camila Noceda had urged her “daughter” to do on the way to camp: she had made friends. She had taken the time to get to know them, and they had returned the favor, or at least had returned it as far as they could with someone who wouldn’t give them any details about her life before camp. She liked them and they liked her. They were concerned about her wellbeing. They cared about her enough to embark on a mission of subterranean vengeance, and somewhere along the way, she had picked up the courage to stand firm with them against the wrath of authority when the plan failed.

A normal life. Maybe not a perfect one, like nothing had ever happened, but the cages only existed in memories now. Maybe not forever, and she did have some complicated feelings about the real Luz Noceda that she would have to reckon with someday, but whether or not she would have to become the Western Connecticut Nightlearner for real was a problem for the future. Instead, Vee tried to focus on the present: there was nothing to fear there.

Another Human Realm problem had been navigated through the combined powers of friendship and elbow grease, the latter of which was apparently just an expression about physical labor and not something you could buy by the bottle at a hardware store. Luz’s swimsuit was a nice color. It wasn’t so hot outside anymore. Norman and Parker were having a ferocious duel in the shallows, Norman was imploring her to come out and help me, she’s gonna kill me, Luz, I need backup, and Parker, despite currently holding a struggling Norman over her head and getting ready to throw him, was insisting that since her opponent was taller, Luz should help her, and-

And there was Masha coming out of the treeline, dramatically discarding their towel and the remnants of their apprehension and declaring that they and Luz would team up against the others, and the day got that much better.

The inmates of Cabin Seven spent the rest of the evening changing places on each other’s shoulders as the battles wove around the shallows. When the sun began to set, they left the little pebbly beach tired, happy, and ready for another week of whatever Reality Check could throw at them. On the way back to the cabin to pick up supplies for a trip to the spider-haunted showers, listening to the hum of cicadas as they walked through a world caught between sunset and starlight, Vee’s knuckles brushed against Masha’s a few times.

That kind of thing had been causing Vee to experience a new and different kind of fear, but she was surprised to find that she sort of liked it.

The school bell rang out, finally releasing its captive students from their last classes of the day. Students flooded the halls, going all sorts of directions. Most went to the bus pickup, some went toward the parking lot, and others sought out various places still within the school building. Club rooms, lockers, friends congregating on their way out into the broader world. The end of the school day carried with it innumerable beginnings.

For most people, anyways.

A freshman approached her locker. Opened it, grabbed some things, put some other things away; it was perfectly typical, for a time. But soon, her hands slowed, and her gaze lingered on a small photo from the summer. With the reminder, she found herself changing course. She grabbed the photo, stuffed it into her bag, and then did the same with the textbooks she’d just put in there. Within a minute, her locker was empty.

A pair of footsteps, familiar for months longer than any lockers or textbooks or even photographs, approached from the other side of the locker’s open door.

“Hey Luz!” they started. “The others got drafted into some club thing, so it’s just you and me this time.”

Their talent, for delivering devastation with just a few chipper words, could earn medals. She had hoped to talk to all of them, or at least to have the others as a buffer for what she had to tell Masha, but of course, today wasn’t going to be that easy.

It never was.

“That’s fine,” she said instead, closing her locker. “My mom’s actually coming to pick me up. Could you… wait with me?”

One eyebrow lifted, and confusion stilled their tongue. Not for too long, though; just long enough to worry. “…Sure, I guess.”

The walk to the parking lot was quiet. Not silent, as she might’ve liked, but quiet. They noticed her overfull bag, always a keen eye for details, but accepted her excuse about homework without question.

Keen, but gullible.

A small crowd of students stood before a long, winding line of cars. Camila’s wasn’t anywhere in sight, possibly still at the clinic. It didn’t take much convincing to back away from the crowd, and settle instead on the building’s front stairs.

They talked. About nothing, for a while, just whatever came to mind. Gossip, classes, something she just had to look up when she got home, et cetera. The line of cars kept inching forward, the crowd before them thinning.

Halfway through the latest news about their ongoing job search, she scooted closer, and pressed her shoulder to theirs. Their complaints tapered off into nothing, so she basked in their presence alone.

She hummed. “Sounds like you’re figuring it out, at least.”

“I guess. You getting comfy there?”

“For now,” she said, tipping her head onto their shoulder.

They didn’t seem to have a good comeback for that.

She let the matter sit for another minute or so, before she started to dig up her words, the very reason she asked them to be with her, there and then. “I borrowed something a while ago. Before we met, actually. But this weekend, I’ve gotta give it back.”

“What was it?” Always with the hard questions.

She returned in kind, “It’s… well. It’s gonna change some things. A lot of things. And it’s gonna be really, really weird, and confusing, and hard without it.” An answer as ominous as it was opaque.

“Uhhhh-huh.” In the distance, a familiar car finally made it into the line. “Think that’s your mom. Guess we gotta get up soon, huh?”

Her eyes felt hot. She blinked the sensation away as best she could, and took a long yet shallow breath. The line inched forward.

“I’ll miss you guys.” She hoped they didn’t hear the waver in her voice.

“What? Girl, it’s just the weekend, we can talk in like, an hour, probably.” They shifted as if to face her, but she stubbornly kept her face from their view, the ground suddenly much more interesting than her friend.

“Yeah. Maybe.” The line inched forward.

They raised their eyebrow again, and preemptively cringed. “Is everything… okay?”

“…No. Not really. But there’s nothing I can do about it anymore.” She didn’t even recognize her own lie. The only thing stopping her was cowardice, as solid and immovable as the concrete she was sitting on.

“Oh. That’s…” their gaze fled to the afternoon sky. “…That sucks.”

The line inched forward. Silence. She scooted even closer, and buried her face in their shoulder, hunched over their arm.

The line inched forward. Masha laid their head atop hers, mind whirling with questions they knew she wouldn’t answer.

The line inched forward.

The line inched forward. Camila’s car was at the edge of the pickup zone.

She took a deep breath, only a little shuddering, and pried herself off of her friend. She was in no hurry to get her feet under her and leave, but she couldn’t stall forever, no matter how much she wanted to.

They looked up at her dumbly as she stood and stretched, a silhouette of blinding light against the afternoon sun. She took half a step forward, then turned back. It was impossible to read her expression, shrouded as it was in her own shadow, but they could just about make out her gesture, offering them a hand up. Hesitantly, they took it.

With the height difference settled, they could finally see her face. Her nose flared as she drew in a shaky breath, and they realized too late that she was still holding their hand. Before they could react, she’d already pulled them into a signature Noceda Rib-Breaker, burying her face in their chest.

They cringed at first. Then, slowly, carefully, their hands settled onto her back.

“I’m gonna miss you,” she muttered, quiet, into their shirt.

Their worry deepened. Their defenses went up to compensate. “Dork. I’ll see you on Monday,” they hoped, on the verge of begging.

She broke the embrace, now a double-handhold, and attempted to meet their gaze directly. Her eyes slid off their face. “…Of course. You’ll see me on Monday.”

If it was a relief, their body didn’t recognize it. She released one of their hands, then the other, and turned to walk away.

They still felt the ghost of her warmth across their abdomen, as she opened the door to her mom’s car. They watched her sit, and buckle, and adjust the straps, all while they stood there like an idiot, too far and too lost to say goodbye. They were only spurred to act by the car finally starting to pull forward.

They jogged up to the curb, where the car would soon pass, but couldn’t find a game plan better than waving. Still, Camila must have noticed them, since Luz’s window began to open, shocking her out of a melancholic slump.

She was passing them by, agonizingly slow. They couldn’t think of anything to say, so settled on next-to-nothing. “See ya later, Luz.”

Her lips visibly wobbled. Her mom looked concerned, and slowed the car further, as little as it would do, now that they’d already passed eachother.

“Yeah,” her voice cracked, “Bye Mash’.”

She pulled away, still looking back at them from the mirror.

Their waist was cold. Their guts squirmed, and their mind raced, and they knew their face was doing something awful that they just couldn’t see.

Their heart hurt more than it had any right to, what with the whole weekend still ahead of them.

But she was gone.

Human skin was weird. No scales, no spots, wrong texture, wrong temperature, the clothes that covered much of it… (Not to mention the spindly legs that split her solid tail in two.)

She forced herself to stay still as the human raised her arm, but her touch was gentle as she cradled Number Five’s head and lightly squeezed her shoulder.

For a beat, Number Five stared as the human offered her hand along with control over something called a playlist. (Control over anything would be something of a first.)

Human skin was weird, but sometimes it felt warm and welcoming.

“Would you like to go to the store with me? We’re out of eggs.” It was a casual question but Camila’s voice sounded too casual; ever since the truth came out two days ago, she was valiantly acting like everything was fine, actually, and that it was perfectly normal that she had a basilisk houseguest.

“I should probably change,” Vee finally answered, gesturing at her scales.

“Yes. Right. Um. Do you need privacy, or…?”

Olive scales became warm brown as teal hair turned brown black — straight and sleek.

Camila smiled at Vee, but with a quiet ache in her eyes.

Vee was one of three Luzes who greeted Camila in the kitchen on the morning of April Fools’ Day. (As soon as Gus had learned about the human holiday, he began concocting the simple, harmless prank — with Luz’s enthusiastic approval.)

Gus was eliminated first. He couldn’t quite make all of Luz’s usual fidgets and tics look natural, arousing Camila’s immediate suspicion. The blank look on his face after her rapid-fire Spanish confirmed it.

Language of interrogation wasn’t enough to trip up Vee, but her ticklish spots didn’t perfectly match Luz’s and Camila knew right where to attack.

“Got you, mija.”

Panic transformed into relief as Vee realized just who had yanked her into an unused classroom.

“Help! I just got detention but I have a test at Hexside and—”

“I got you.”

Vee swapped her backpack and her face for her sister’s, and Luz hid under sunglasses and a hoodie.

“I owe you,” Luz mouthed before sneaking off, and Vee trusted her to (eventually) settle her debt. After all, she knew where she slept — they’d been sharing a room for over two years.

“There you are, Ms. Noceda,” Mr. Willoughby greeted her oilily at detention, and he wasn’t exactly wrong.

A perk of being the shapeshifting younger sister of someone of drinking age was being able to borrow her ID.

The bouncer glanced at Luz’s license and face before letting Vee pass. Once safely inside, she meandered through the dancing and laughing crowd, making her way towards the bathroom. Some minutes later, she emerged from a stall wearing the human face she’d made her own.

“Green Demon, please,” she ordered at the bar. Electric green drink in hand, she pushed her way towards the stage — and a beaming Masha who was prepping for their set.

“Glad you could make it.”

Vee at this point wasn’t too concerned about the once strange to her human realm food, she had been living in the human realm for nearly two years now so one day in the cafeteria when Masha offered a few cookies their mom had been experimenting with she was more than willing to try it… she just wasn’t expecting the side effect.

Vee stumbled into the school restroom feeling like she needed to puke, she stares at her chosen human face as another wave of disorientation hits her sending her bracing against the sink.

This was a mistake, whatever she’s feeling it’s not normal, she should find Luz before she feels too nauseous to even move, she’ll be able to get her home and to a healer.

Suddenly like a light switch is flicked the nausea disappears and with it nearly two years of memories vanish from her head.

Number Five, Vee was confused, how did she get here?

She turned to look around and realized she was staring at herself in a mirror.

Vee blanched, that wasn’t Luz’s face, the paper thin disguise keeping her safe from all the humans that’d surely want her dead if she was found out.

No the face that greets her may look somewhat human but far too much like her monstrous true face, piercing yellow eyes, and fuzzy ears barely hiding in her hair.

Vee takes up her Luz disguise again paying close attention to detail, whatever lapse caused her to break her number one survival rule wouldn’t get her found out and killed.

Camila’s probably worried sick about Luz, that means she’s worried about me, Nope! Not gonna unpack that!

Vee moved to leave the restroom and immediately wanted to go back in, the hallway was bustling with kids around her age moving with purpose to who knows where.

Vee stood there unmoving, what does she do, she’s probably meant to be here so why can’t she remember!

A familiar face in the crowd catches her eye, it’s Jess! Her cabin mate from back at camp.

The glasses wearing redhead stops to greet her “hey Luz what’s up?”

Shoot what do I say?! “Uuuhhh” I manage to whimper out “nothing much.” There! a nice, easy non commital answer.

Jess looks me up and down then tilts her head studying my disguise, she leans in, too close for comfort, whispering in my ear “vee?”

Panic shoots through her veins, her feet are moving before she can even puzzle out how Jess figured out she wasn’t Luz.

Vee had no memory of this place but she had learned from camp what an exit sign looks like.

She sprints past peers, dodging and weaving through the chaotic mass, just as she saw daylight she was caught.

“Ms. Noceda no running in the halls” called an adult human with a stern face “and where are you going, lunch is over.” he states

Vee was a tantalizing few away feet from freedom, she could see it, if she could get into the woods she’d be able to shed Luz like snake skin, become someone new and survive like she’s always done.

The stern man’s gaze bore into her “no loitering, shouldn’t you be in class by now?”

His serious expression and clear authority struck into her, she had to listen or there’d be consequences… and he called her Noceda so clearly not everyone knows that she’s not really Luz.

Vee ducked her head low “ok sir I’ll head right there” Vee said trying to put the warden at ease

“You do that” he replied his gaze unwavering as she retreated back into the depths of the building.

Around the corner and out of sight, the crowd was thinning out but so was her cover, she could try to make a break for the exit again but clearly she would stand out if she did.

On the other hand Jess, someone she considers, considered a friend knew her name… how did she know my name actually? Did I even hear her correctly In that noisy hallway? I haven’t even spoken the name Vee aloud since…

As she aimlessly walked the hallways she spots through the door a classroom plastered with hung up drawings, paintings and shelves of statuettes.

“Ah you’re back quick” the person at the head of the class addressed her “sit back down.”

Vee tries to hide her once again rising panic as she is beckoned inside, she spots her other cabin mate Masha with an empty seat beside them.

Does she risk it, that Masha might also know and expose her as the imposter she is?

~~Would they do that?~~

She needs at least a bit of familiarity or else she’s gonna freak out, that and the gaze of yet another warden disallows any disobedience.

She stiltedly makes her way to sit next to Masha

Masha is deep in focus on drawing something, it’s still too early to tell what, they glance up as she sits down next to them

Masha returns their gaze back to their work for just a moment before their head snaps to Vee starling her.

A slight frown tugs at their face “how you feeling? You ran to the bathroom pretty quickly during lunch.” They say in a low whisper as the warden or more likely teacher prattled on

She feels fine aside from having no idea how she got here or any memory of going to the bathroom to begin with. The safest response is to just leave it “I’m ok”

Masha’s frown remains, they turn their gaze downwards as a light peaks out from under the desk, Masha texting someone, she can’t make out the words.

Masha looks back to me “I hope the cookies I brought weren’t to blame” they continued to whisper “my mom’s been trying out stuff like pepper and Forgot-Me-Nots in her cookie recipes

Forgot-Me-Nots? What’s a Forget-Me-Not? Is that why I can’t remember?

“I’ve let Luz know you’re here, what’s this about Vee?” Masha said calmly and quietly like they didn’t just take away another safe haven, when did Luz even get back?!

Vee jolted, brain paralyzed between the idea of running but making a scene or staying within reach of Masha.

Masha’s face isn’t snarled into fear or anger, no only concern graces her friend’s face, concern and… age? It’s subtle but Masha is just a bit older now

Masha reaches a hand to hers “please tell me what’s wrong” she pulls away from the touch

Should she tell them? The truth has felt like a death sentence hanging around her neck for so long now.

It may be wishful thinking but maybe this one human can be trusted.

“I don’t remember how I got here.” Vee admits a tear threatening to break free

Masha looked puzzled “like? To school or…” they pursed their lips “wait what do you remember?”

What did she remember? Camila bringing her to her new home, to the life she’s stolen, every little mistake bringing her one step closer to everyone turning on her.

“I remember coming home from camp a few weeks ago.” Vee actually says

Shock shows on Masha’s face before settling into that same frown “that.. that was a long time ago, back when you were pretending to be Luz, shoot” Masha said fiddling with their phone again

Back when I was pretending to be Luz? So I wasn’t supposed to look like Luz anymore… oh no, I messed up.

Masha holds their phone towards me under the desk “this is what Luz looks like now” a photo was displayed of a Luz older with a scar running down her eyebrow

No wonder Masha and Jess gave her such strange looks, how has nobody else noticed?!

“You gonna be okay until the end of class?” Masha asks

“Yeah” I give a slight nod appearing far more confident than I am

Masha goes back to their drawing only a few glances flashing towards me as they worked

I need to think

What do I know now that I didn’t before?

Masha and Jess know me as Vee, and that me looking like Luz is surprising but not unheard of, they both know that I can shapeshift, as crazy as that is… Jess might have just been concerned as well… ~~why are they still friends with me?~~

Also Masha is in contact with Luz and… and what… wait Luz was Here! Like right here a few minutes before I showed up, that’s what the teacher said.

“Masha, what’s Luz doing right now?” I whisper

“Since you’re taking her place right now probably headed home so people don’t see two of her, I let her know you were having weird memory problems so I bet she’s already talking with Eda about it.”

So there’s normally only one Luz, then wait that face in the mirror the one that looks like me, is that her? Her new human face too the world.

The conclusions she’s drawing can’t possibly be true, it seems to line up but it would require Luz somehow not hating her for stealing her life and more people finding out what is hiding beneath her skin without being revolted.

And where does she sleep at night? I don’t have any parents so I can’t be living with them, do I have a job? Do I live on the streets of Gravesfield, it wouldn’t be the first time…

Vee runs a hand over her/Luz’s face taking the opportunity to fix the details

She looks over at Masha’s drawing again, it’s started to have a more recognizable shape, recognizable in that it’s her, it’s a drawing of Vee in motion slithering along the page.

Masha notices my stare and blushes.
It’s cute
Looking away Vee returns to the thoughts swirling in her head

Luz probably not hating her, a new identity but her friends still know it’s her.

Oh Titan! Luz might not hate her but Camila definitely does.

Does she even know who was living under her roof? What kinda of creature was pretending to be her daughter.

No if she knew she, she… no it’s stupid, who could love a basilisk let alone a selfish one like her.

Masha’s hand once again on her own surprised her “you ok?” They quietly asked, this time she didn’t pull away

Vee shook her head

“Okay we have five minutes so I think it’s time to pack up!” Called the teacher

The murmur of students returned with a roar followed by the squeak of chairs.

Vee stares for what feels like just a moment, off into space, Masha’s hand squeezing her’s the only thing keeping her grounded.

The bell rings as students file out, Vee just sitting there like a dead tree… until a shadow darkens the doorway

Camila Noceda stands there as students pass her by, a dower look on her face.

“Ah Camila it’s been a while” greeted the teacher

“Hello Mr Bowie, I’m actually here for my daughter” she says

Oh no, she’s here for Luz, she’s gonna-

“Hey you’re going to be okay” Masha assures with such confidence that I feel like I can almost believe them.

“I’ll just call the office” Vee faintly hears the teacher say

Masha stands up still holding her hand “Camila will take you home and then you can relax and figure everything out.”

Holding their hand I stood up to be lead into the jaws of death.

“Okay” she heard the teacher “you’re good to go, I hope you’re feeling better by Monday.” Mr Bowie says to me

Masha gently guides her over to Camila Noceda “I’ll see you later” they seem to promise

“Mija” Vee is engulfed in a hug as soon as Masha lets go “I was worried about you.”

It felt nice, the soft warmth dulling the confusion swirling in her head
“Let’s head home” she said to the facade of her daughter

Vee was lead by the hand this time by Camila.

This woman doesn’t deserve to be lied to by me again,not anymore, her misplaced love stings more knowing her real daughter is simply waiting for Vee to go away again.

In the hallways the returned tide of students was like a hammer to Vee’s dwindling sanity.

Sunlight brought her solace but not hope, the doors to the school swung open as she saw parked up front the familiar purple car Camila drove.

Camila held open the passenger door for her, at this point she knew what to do buckling herself as Camila started up the car.

Suddenly a face pops up in the back seat “Vee! Oh Titan I am so glad you’re okay!” Luz said way too loud in my ear

“Mija buckle up and give your sister some space” Camila admonished

“Oh right sorry mama” Luz said the real actual Luz! as she buckled herself in as we got moving

“I don’t understand what’s happening” Vee said looking between Luz and Camila

“You’re getting out of school because of the whole amnesia thing.” Luz said with far too much excitement

I’m almost afraid to ask “what’s amnesia?”

Camila answered “it’s a term for memory loss, don’t worry too much, Eda’s pretty sure she knows what caused it and hopefully she’ll be able to help.”

Wait Eda, Masha mentioned that name too…. “The Owl Lady!?” Vee shouted “actually Luz what did happen, because I just assumed Eda ate you or something after I went through the portal.”

Luz laughed awkwardly “no Eda doesn’t really eat people _{most of the time}”

“What was that Mija?” Camila asked from the driver’s seat

“Nothing” she quickly said “but yeah I convinced Eda to take me on as her apprentice and I was planning to only stay the length of summer camp”

“Which” Camila interrupted “without Vee wouldn’t have worked because the camp gives regular updates”

“But!” Luz butts back in “I didn’t know that and near the end of summer the portal got destroyed”

“So?…” Vee began “so how’d you get back?”

“Well of course as soon as the portal was destroyed we got to work trying to build a new one, which is actually how I blew your cover to mom.”

“Ah” Vee said mutely, she looked away and towards the road “I was wondering how it all fell apart”

Surprising her Camila replied “it wasn’t.. that bad” with some reluctance

“Oh… I get it” Vee said in understanding

“No, no it wasn’t like that” Camila quickly said

“I just got you wrapped up in my plan” Luz said “you didn’t have enough magic to keep looking like me so I helped you find some in the Human Realm, of course I didn’t realize that would lead you to Jacob”

Camila muttered what sounded like a curse under her breath

“Mom came in for the rescue and I finally admitted where I’d been all summer” Luz explained

But that doesn’t explain anything! How did I get from stealing Luz’s life to her helping me and Camila rescuing me!

I mean Camila’s amazing and I think I’ve been thinking of Luz way too harshly but still, why would they do anything for me?

Vee fiddled with her thumbs, skin turning blotchy with scales without her even realizing it.

She prepared herself for her next question “where… where do I live?” Is it back in the Demon Realm maybe? Is that where they’re taking me?

“You live with us!” Luz wrapped her arms around Vee’s shoulders “you’re family” she said like it made any sense

The car came to a stop in front of the Noceda family home

“But.. after what I’ve done…” she could feel tears welling up until Camila’s hand rested atop her’s

“Everything’s already been forgiven that night I found out.” Camila said “I know you’ve forgotten but I’ll say it as many times as I need to, Vee Noceda you are a part of this family.”

The dam broke, a wellspring sprung forth as Vee sobbed.

When she regained some composure the Noceda family shuffled inside leaving their worries at the door.

Vee lay on the couch staring up at the ceiling, mind fried and emotions empty

“I’m Vee Noceda” she spoke aloud experimentally “I’m Luz’s sister and Camila’s daughter” she closed her eyes “I’m Vee Noceda and I’m-“

“Feels weird right?” Luz’s voice startled her

“Gah!” Her eyes shot open as she quickly got her disguise back

“Relax it’s just me” Luz said coming to sit across from her twin “for so long it was just me and mama” she said quietly “I’m so glad you’re here Vee.” Luz said so convincingly that she almost forgot to be suspicious

“I’m really supposed to believe that you, that Camila! Just accepted me, just like that!” Her voice rose “I took your life and didn’t regret a minute of it!” Vee shouted

Now this wasn’t really true, guilt eating at her at this very moment. No Luz didn’t buy it a neutral look turned not to anger or shock but instead a soft smile “Hermana if you’re trying to push me away you’re gonna have to try something I haven’t heard before”

“Luz… just..” She shook her head trying to shake her thoughts loose “just because you’re willing to accept me despite everything I’ve done doesn’t mean Camila has.” Luz wasn’t here to see the weeks of manipulation and lies she told to hide who she is, Camila deserves so much better than a lying demon in her home

Luz hummed “I.. it is very important you stop thinking like that” Luz stated

“Why?” She looked to Luz

“Honestly it’s kinda been freaking me out that you haven’t been calling her mom” Luz said even toned

“Oh. wait no really? Cause…” Vee couldn’t even finish her thought as she sat up “I’ve really… the me that remembers really has been calling Camila.. calling her Mom?”

“Yeah… you’re good with body language right, I’m surprised you haven’t noticed how badly mom’s been taking it” Luz said

Vee felt her vision fade for a moment, no she wouldn’t really, everything in Vee’s life up to this point has told her to not get her hopes up, she didn’t get to have a life unless she stole it.

Everything since that school bathroom.. and admittedly much of her time in the human realm before that has told her the opposite, that she Is important and deserving of love.

Masha was there for her, Luz was there for her and Camila, no Mom was there for her, she’s been denying reality thinking she was only being realistic.

*Knock *Knock

“Oh that must be Eda!” Luz said jumping up to answer the door

“Well kid” Vee could hear the witch talking as soon as the door opened “I’ve gotta say that is the most terrifying potion ingredient I’ve ever seen, and humans put this stuff in food?” Eda rambled as she stepped inside

“Hey I’ve never heard of using Forget-Me-Nots or any flowers in food either” Luz said “and I’ve definitely never heard of it doing this”

“Really” Eda sounded unconvinced “it’s literally called a forget-Me-Not”

“I don’t know why it’s called that” Luz huffed “just please tell me you have something to help Vee” Luz pleaded as they entered the living room

“Hey Slithers” the witch addressed her casually “yeah I think I have an antidote, you’re lucky I’m so good with potions, and that I know a few demons who wouldn’t mind loosing a few memories in an ill advised potion test.”

Eda pulled from a satchel a glass bottle glowing an unnatural teal

“Now these Forget-Me-Not flowers are a really potent memory suppressant, had’ta dilute it a couple hundred times before testing, then try a few different neutralizing compounds before I got it right” Eda shook the bottle “now you got a major dose and if my math is right this should safely return some of your memories.”

“Some?” Vee questioned

“For now, if this works we’ll have you on regular doses until you’re yourself again.”

She held out the bottle
Vee gingerly took it studying its sway

She inhaled sharply before uncorking it and taking a swig

Vee coughed “oh yeah it tastes awful” Eda said a rueful smile gracing her face

Vee bit the bullet and downed the rest

Wiping her mouth Vee look at Luz and Eda, willing her life to come back to her

“Did it work?” Luz asked

Vee was going to shake her head when sudden flashes assailed her, a first kiss, a group of young witches in the rain, a cage, being hugged, a large human city.

As things clicked into place in her mind the gaps became all the more apparent

Vee Noceda looked to her sister “I think it did”

Luz launched herself at her, her sister wrapping her arms around her.

Three Weeks Later

Vee Noceda officially had a concussion, according to the doctors note written up by Dr Marilyn to explain to her teachers why her memory had suddenly gotten a thousand times worse.

In some ways it was humiliating being treated like she was suddenly made of porcelain by her teachers more so by Masha, Luz and her Mom, Masha especially since they were the one who accidentally poisoned her.

However it was also a comfort, in the Conformatorium the coven scouts and scientists wouldn’t have cared, out on the streets of the various towns of the Boiling Isles she was likely to meet someone who would fear and hate her for being a magic sucking basilisk.

Here on earth she was safe, she was Vee Noceda not number five, she had friends and family, family who quite literally tore down the horrific world she came from.

The bell rung shaking her out of her thoughts.

Vee got her bag and headed to lunch

As she sat down next to Masha they said “hey stranger”

“Masha, the joke got old in the first week”

“Sorry”

“No, no it’s okay it’s just” Vee sighed “frustrating, more and more is coming back to me but that only seems to make it more obvious what I’m missing, I never used to forget stuff.”

“Well that’s what the antidote is for right?” They said

Vee sighed deeply “I guess, I just don’t want to remember anything else from the Conformatorium, I didn’t realize how much I forgot.”

Masha grasped her hand trying to comfort her

Vee ran her other hand through her hair “sorry I guess I’ve just been in my own head lately”

“Don’t ever apologize” Masha said with startling seriousness

Vee looked to them, a smile peeking through the bleakness “never?”

“Nope!” Masha said with a pop “never, not even for that time you slept through our date”

Vee snorted “I’m glad you’re finally letting me off the hook for that one” she grinned squeezing Masha hand back

“I’m here for you no matter what” Masha said gazing into her eyes “same goes Luz and your mom ya know.”

“I know… thanks… I love you Masha”

“I love you too, glad you remember that much”they said

“Oh shut up” Vee kisses them on the lips not caring who saw

Two months later

Her mom held her hand loosely as Luz bumped a shoulder into her, this was a familiar pattern for Vee Noceda whenever she had an informal checkup with Eda.

“So it’s been a few doses since you’ve remembered anything new right?” Eda said

“Yeah, I still feel like I’m missing things… but it’s mostly things from before I came to the Human Realm”

Eda hummed “I’m no healer, merely the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles but I’m gonna chock that up to the normal failures of memory combined with literally growing up in a cell… sorry Slithers but I think my antidote’s run out of usefulness for ya.”

Vee was silent for a moment “thank you Eda” she said mutely

“Anytime, really” Eda said earnestly as she headed out

Luz wrapped her arms around her “I am so glad you’re okay, that first day” Luz sniffled “I thought you’d never be the same”

But that was the thing, she wasn’t the same, not the same scared basilisk stuck in a cell, not the same fugitive living under bridges and eating out of the garbage, not the same imposter living someone else’s life and not the same Vee from three months ago.

Yes she remembered everything she did before and more, but now, now what was always there, the pain of that place she came from, the pain her mind buried has resurfaced, she can see it now, touch it, it’s in front of her now not dragging behind.

And one day she’ll pack it in a box and stick it on a shelf, still there but not dragging her down.

Someday…

Tears prickled at her eyes, she’s happy to be home, to have been home for a long while and remember it.

END

Vee lets out a soft grunt as she squeezes through the loud and reckless teenagers swarming the school, all rushing out of their last block with excitement on their faces now that it’s finally the weekend.

However, instead of leaving through the front, the basilisk takes a right into one of the class halls and looks for her beautiful partner, Masha DeLisie.

She knows their schedule by heart and that they are just getting out of their Creative Writing class, which they absolutely despise and rant about during their lunchtime.

But why is she looking for Masha?

Well, since Halloween is right around the corner, many extracurricular clubs are using this time to plan fundraisers in the spirit of the spooky season.

One of those clubs, the theater club, is putting up a spooky and extravagant haunted house inside one of the class halls.

It is opening today, and so Masha asks if she’s down to go into the haunted house with them, Jess and Robbie.

Of course, Vee is down to hang out as it sounds like a lot of fun.

But she is actually getting nervous.

She has never been to a haunted house before, and she makes the mistake of watching a couple of MewTube videos to see what they look like.

Some of them look very intense and scary while others look tame and fun in a way.

The main takeaway is that every ten seconds, an actor, usually with a scary mask or make-up, will try to scare you.

Look, Vee knows that she is easy to scare, but she thinks she can handle this haunted house.

As long as Masha is by her side, she can do this.

Soon, the number of students has decreased and the hallway is mostly empty with some teens hanging out on the walls.

Vee keeps walking and walking until she turns a corner and…

“Vee!”

Her eyes light up at that voice, slightly dry, sassy yet full of energy.

She glances up and smiles warmly when she sees her enby in the far distance.

Masha has a small grin on their lips, running towards her. “Hey,” They greet softly, standing in front of her.

“Hi…” She murmurs back shyly, trying very hard not to stare at their gorgeous outfit.

They are wearing a killer Halloween-inspired outfit: a black sleeveless tank top with a large ghost graphic in the center, black denim shorts with a small pink bandage on their knee, a white zipped-up hoodie tied around their waist, and black ankle boots with long white socks.

My Titan, they pull off this outfit so well and it looks absolutely sexy on them—

“Whatcha looking at, hmm?”

Vee’s (gay) thoughts are swiftly interrupted by Masha’s soft, teasing voice.

She blinks and notices her enby with a knowing, alluring look. “N-Nothing,” She stutters, looking away with a blush.

“Nah, you were staring.”

“No, I wasn’t!”

“Yes, you were~”

Vee bites her bottom lip, staying silent.

“I’ll take your silence as a yes,” Masha chuckles, casually bumping their shoulder against hers. “You’re looking pretty cute yourself.”

“You said that already,” She whines softly.

“And I will say it again!”

Vee’s lips perk into a goofy, lovesick smile, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “T-Thanks…”

In their DMs, Masha hinted that they were dressing up for the spooky occasion, so she wanted to match them.

She is wearing a soft, long, black buttoned cardigan with cute ghosts all over it, a simple pale yellow dress that reaches mid-thigh, and her classic mid-calf brown boots.

It looks like she pulled this outfit off, judging by Masha’s words, who has stated that she looks cute multiple times throughout the day.

But it is not as cute or as hot as Masha’s outfit…

Wait, what—

Vee shakes her head, and her brow furrows in confusion when she notices two of her friends missing. “Hey, where are Jess and Robbie?”

“Oh, they won’t make it for today.”

“Oh,” Vee voices out softly. “Is everything okay?”

“Hopefully, Jess isn’t feeling too well and so they are going to the doctors. And Robbie has a family emergency, so yeah,” Masha explains.

“Hmm, okay,” Vee nods in understanding, her voice shifting into a soft, smaller tone. “D-Do you wanna move the haunted house another day or do you wanna go with me?”

Masha simply smiles, leaning closer to her. “I would love to go with you, Vee-Vee.”

Vee smiles back, looking down at the ground with another red blush forming on her cheeks.

She doesn’t fight this blush.

She feels very warm and on cloud nine whenever she is with Masha and she will take any opportunity to spend more time with her partner, even if it means getting scared.

“Alright, it’s a date!” Masha exclaims, grabbing her hand. “You ready to be scared?”

Vee chuckles, rolling her eyes. “I mean, I guess.”

Masha giggles. “Too late to back out ‘cause we are going.”

Vee yelps at the enby’s unexpected strength as they pull her.

But she soon relaxes into their warm touch and lets them drag her to where the haunted house is.

They make it to the main entrance of C-Hall and there is already a long line forming with two theater students on a small table collecting money.

It is only two dollars to enter in and four bucks to earn a bracelet that lets you go as many times as you want.

The price is not that bad and it looks like this fundraiser will be a smashing hit for the theater club.

Little by little, a duo or group of students enters the haunted house, already hearing faint screams from within as the doors close slowly and menacingly.

Vee fidgets nervously as they inch closer and closer, her palm growing sweaty in Masha’s hand.

She glances at their enbyfriend and smiles at how excited they look.

They have been waiting for this for a while, ever since they announced back in August.

They love Halloween and so it makes sense they are ready and eager to be scared, their teeth digging with excitement.

Vee turns around and takes a couple of deep breaths to calm her nerves.

You’re going to be okay, Vee.

Just run and scream and you will be gone in no time.

You are going to be fine—

“Vee, you good?”

“H-Huh?” The disguised basilisk shakes her thoughts away, throwing her partner a wobbly smile and a nod. “Y-Yeah, I-I’m okay! Excited even!”

“You sure ‘cause I can feel your hand shaking,” Masha says with an amused grin, lifting a curious brow.

With wide eyes, she glances down and yep, her hand is trembling in the palm of their soft hand, their fingernails beautifully layered with Halloween-colored nail polish.

“S-Sorry…”

“No, it’s okay,” Masha giggles, their tone immediately softening. “We don’t have to go in if you’re too scared, you know?”

“N-No! I want to go! I’m just… nervous,” She confesses, rubbing her neck. “Never been to a haunted house before.”

“Hmm, I see. Well, it’s not gonna be that bad,” Masha reassures. “But! Expect some jumpscares. Like literally every second, somebody is coming after ya.”

“Yeah, I know,” Vee chuckles bashfully, grabbing the edge of her cardigan with a nervous grip. “I-I saw some haunted houses videos on MewTube, and some looked fun while others looked… intense.”

“See, something like that I will never go to. I’m there to get scared, not to be stuffed into a body bag and traumatized for life. Nope! Not happening!”

Vee laughs lightheartedly at her partner’s passionate antic.

At the same time, she is leaning heavily against their side, laughing joyfully and freely.

She also hears the enby laughing along with her, soft chuckles turning into small snorts.

Eventually, the basilisk calms down and releases a soft sigh, feeling lighter and less anxious than before.

She slowly locks eyes with Masha, and they share a gentle, steady look beneath those warm brown pools.

Masha tries to be that edgy goth with a quick wit and sassy, snarky attitude.

But on the inside, they are probably the sweetest and kindest souls she has ever met, and it is no secret that they are absolutely protective of her (which she loves).

“Hey, promise it’s gonna be fun, Vee-Vee,” They say, brushing their shoulders against hers. “Let’s scream and get scared together, okay?”

Vee stares at the enby for a while and nods slowly, squeezing their hand.

“And if you ever get too scared or some things hit a little too close to home, let me know and we are out of there, okay?” Masha adds.

Vee pouts, loving how sweet her enby is. “Okay, thanks, Mash.”

“I got you, girl,” The enby winks at her with a fingergun, making Vee blush once again.

It is then that she notices they are next in line, the theatre kids counting them as a duo and paying for admission.

“You ready?” Masha asks softly.

Vee takes a deep breath, nodding with a small boost of confidence. “I’m ready.”

With their hands still interlocked, Vee and Masha finally go through the slowly opening doors, covered and dripping in fake blood that spelled out, “Enter if you dare.”

Then the doors suddenly shut with a loud echo, reverberating through the dimly lit pathway.

Vee swallows and immediately wraps her arms around Masha’s, already feeling a sense of creepiness running through her body.

It is not super dark thankfully, with a few lights from the hallway ceiling on.

However, they are covered with either an orange or a purple cloth, making it more mysterious and creepier.

Long black plastic sheets are draped over the walls with cobwebs stretching out, fake bats hanging from the ceiling, and gravestones scattered on the floor and rotted with blood.

Vee and Masha slowly walk side by side inside the haunted house, their small, quiet footsteps joining the faint sounds of terrified screaming coming from farther down.

The basilisk studies her surroundings very carefully and notices the walls have small fake blood splattered along with some cryptic messages.

To her right is a classroom door slightly ajar, completely pitch-black inside with trails of toilet paper hanging from the doorway.

And Vee can tell it is a jumpscare waiting to happen.

So she braces herself as they both roam further down the hallway, squeezing their hand tighter the more they get closer and…

She is right as a female actor with a bloody clown outfit and makeup comes out of the doorway and shrieks at the top of her lungs, completely ignoring her personal space as she leans heavily into Vee’s face with a devious, toothy grin.

Despite anticipating it, she lets out a small yelp, pushing herself closer to Masha to get away from her.

She feels her partner dragging her away and quietly shifts in front of her, the creepy clown staring at them with wide, haunting eyes.

After staring for a good while, she slowly disappears into the black and shuts the door loudly, causing Vee to flinch.

The basilisk exhales shakily, catching her breath.

“You good, Vee?” Masha asks softly, checking up on her.

She nods reassuringly, excitement rushing through her at the thrill of being scared. “Yes, yes I am.”

“Good, buckle up because we are just getting started!”

She lets out another confident breath, slowly readying herself as she can do this.

The young couple begins their journey in this spooky haunted house and passes by a set of lockers on the left side of the hall, also smeared with blood.

Again, it is very quiet and drags on for a few minutes until…

BANG!

Vee jumps slightly when one of the lockers knocks loudly.

It keeps shaking and pounding violently until the metal door falls to the ground with a deafening thud.

A mummy, covered with dirty, rusty rolls of gauze tape, comes out of the locker and lets out a long, deep groan, his legs and arms twisted yet walking towards them slowly.

Vee gasps softly and tries her best to stay away from the monster as they waltz around him.

He turns around and he unexpectedly picks up his speed in an attempt to grab them, making Vee squeak and frantically run away as she pushes Masha back with her.

However, he falls face-first onto the floor as he trips on the door and moans hoarsely, his legs giving up.

“…Are you okay?” Vee asks in a whisper, her voice small.

She gets a deep groan in response, almost sounding like a yes.

“O-Okay…”

Masha glances at their girlfriend with raised brows, an amused smile on their lips.

“What? That looked like it hurt.”

“He was trying to grab us.”

“Yeah, but he still fell.”

The enby chuckles softly. “Oh, Vee. Never change.”

The basilisk rolls her eyes, and she hastily locks her arm around Masha’s bicep, continuing to walk down the dark path.

They both turn a corner and find themselves in a new hallway, longer with a slightly darker atmosphere and a bright light on the door at the end.

Vee prepares herself for another big scare with her footsteps and Masha’s resonating throughout.

It is quiet once again, with the speaker above playing a dark ambiance of a spooky cabin outside, the woods creaking, and the bushes rustling.

There isn’t anything off-putting so far.

However, something shifts at the end of the dark hall.

Vee immediately stops in her tracks, eyes wide.

Masha stops with her. “What? What happened?”

“…Masha, did you see that?”

“See what?”

“S-Something moved at the end of that hallway! You didn’t see that?!”

Suddenly, a person slowly comes into frame, the low light behind them obscuring the front in total darkness, standing still and menacingly.

She feels Masha shiver, their hand gripping a little tighter. “…Okay, now I see it.”

“Stopppp…” Vee whines softly. “Do we have to go over there?”

“Baby, there’s no other way.”

She whines again, slowly walking with her enbyfriend. “I hate this.”

“I thought you were having fun?”

“I am! Just gonna get scared so bad here.”

Masha snorts, squeezing her hand three times in reassurance.

They walk slowly and hesitantly, with Vee’s eyes partially shut, obviously very scared.

Nothing happens.

It is too quiet and they are still standing there while Vee and Masha continue to stalk along the path and she doesn’t like this one bit—

Suddenly, the person starts running towards them urgently, their bare footsteps clicking sharply across the ground, echoing hauntingly.

“Masha, Masha!” Vee shrieks, a cold shrill running down her spine.

She holds onto her enby by the waist and they both let out a frightened yelp when the person stops right in front of them, inches away.

The actress is wearing a red tank top with black zebra-like stripes, black pleather shorts, and a silver necklace.

Vee would have complemented her beautiful, shoulder-length black hair if it weren’t for the long gush of blood running down the left side of her face, smiling ominously.

The basilisk and the enby stare at the girl with wide eyes, shaking lightly as Masha steps in front of their girlfriend.

There is a very tense, quiet silence between them with Vee watching her intensely to see if she does anything weird or freaky.

But she hasn’t done anything sooo…

“U-Uh, hi…” She says with a tremble, awkwardly waving. “Uh, w-we’re passing t-through so uh, c-can you excuse us?”

No response.

She is just staring with that creepy grin, completely silent.

“Vee, I don’t think she’s going to listen to you.”

“…Pretty please?”

Again, no response.

“How about we go around her, okay?” Masha suggests, smiling at their girlfriend.

“Okay…” Vee nods.

Slowly, Vee and Masha begin to walk around the menacing girl, their backs barely touching the walls.

At the same time, the actress slowly turns around with them, staring with fanatic eyes, but she doesn’t budge at all.

Seeing this as a good sign, Vee and Masha slowly step backward, watching carefully at the creepy girl.

Vee glances back now and then to see if anything or anyone is blocking behind them.

They gradually make their way to the door at the end and the actress hasn’t moved, just watching.

Vee lets out a relieved sigh. “I-I think we’re good—”

Immediately, the girl pounds towards them with her feet ready to run at them.

However, she stops midway and makes no attempts to chase them, a fakeout jumpscare in a way.

Still, Vee screams frightfully and hides herself further into her enbyfriend.

But then, she opens her eyes and realizes she is not chasing them as she slowly disappears into an open classroom door.

Vee groans inside the crook of Masha’s neck, her voice muffled. “T-That got me.”

“Yeah, it freaked me out too,” The enby chuckles lightly and nudges her softly. “Come on, let’s keep going.”

She nods slowly and grabs their hand, walking beside them as they head toward the door.

They grab the handle and open it, both crossing through and entering a new section of the haunted house with a shorter hallway this time.

No major changes to the decorations or the interior, aside from the lighting being a little brighter this time around.

Vee and Masha continue to trail along the path with bated breath.

The basilisk relaxes her shoulders and slowly prepares for the next big and scariest jump scare.

They are about to turn another corner, however…

A classroom door opens out of the sudden and the light above flickers intensely as a huge, realistic spider crawls along the ground, hissing softly.

The young couple blinks, staring at the prop completely unfazed.

“Huh, it’s just a spider,” Vee comments, a hand on her hip.

“Yeah, big one too.”

“Nah, that’s nothing. You should check out the ones in Boiling Isles.”

“Ooohh, you still need to take me~” Masha swoons, wrapping their arm around hers.

Vee chuckles shyly and steps aside, watching it crawl past her boots.

“Look at him go,” The enby cheers on.

The basilisk giggles. “Bye buddy!”

They watch the animatronic disappear into the dark and finally turn the corner, slowly walking as they talk amongst themselves.

“Very cute spider, I gotta say.”

“Hmm, not as cute as your tarantula.”

They gasp dramatically. “Don’t compare him to Mina. He’s trying!”

“But it’s the truth though!” Vee giggles, soon turning into a soft laugh.

Masha laughs along with her, chuckling with their eyes closed.

However, the cheerful, lighthearted banter is interrupted when an actor in zombie makeup slams a bloody hand against the glass window of the classroom door, banging loudly.

Both Vee and Masha let out a startled scream, completely forgetting they’re still in a haunting maze.

“Shit, that scared me,” they mutter under their breath, putting a hand on their chest.

“Y-Yeah, same,” Vee chuckles lightly.

Slowly, they brush over the zombie that is currently hitting his head over and over again on the window, blood splashing everywhere.

They continue walking past the somewhat long classroom.

However, as soon as they pass the door on the other side, that same zombie appears on the window and lets out another loud groan, slamming fiercely on the door.

Vee yelps again, not expecting that. “Ah! You ugh,” She groans.

“I actually saw that coming,” Masha remarks with a sly grin as they didn’t get scared.

“Well, good for you!” She barks back, no hostility in her tone, just annoyed she got scared.

The enby chortles and holds onto her hand again, now making another corner and…

The basilisk squeaks frightfully at the next part of the house.

The hallway is filled with fake arms on the walls, extending outwards with open hands.

The lighting has completely changed as well, with a single bright lightbulb hanging in the middle, bathing the hall in an ominous, dark red hue.

Vee shivers beside her partner, seeing that the hallway is very narrow.

Only one person can squeeze through the hallway and she doesn’t want those hands touching her body.

What if they are actually real and try to grab her?

She’s terrified of that.

“…Hey, Mash.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t like this one.”

“Baby, they’re fake.”

“You don’t know that! Maybe one’s real and it tries to grab us?!”

“Hmm, that’s true.”

Vee grunts softly, tucking her body into the warmth of Masha.

“Hey, I have an idea.”

“Hmm?” She voices out.

“Stay behind me, okay?”

With her eyes open, Vee glances up and meets their brown ones, finding nothing but warmth and genuine and caringness underneath them.

It is kind of silly of her that they are trying to protect her here.

They probably don’t think this haunted house is that scary, but she’s glad they are trying to make it less frightened for her.

With a bashful nod, Vee steps behind them and carefully wraps her arms around their midsection, pressing her chest against their back.

“Is this okay?” She asks, her breath tickling the back of their ear.

“Yes, yes, it is,” The enby grins. “Walk with me.”

Vee nods again and rests her chin on their shoulder with a small hum, slowly walking with Masha’s pace and holding onto their body tightly.

They place their hand on top of hers, reassuring and soothing to the touch.

As they continue to walk the hallway of hands, Masha glances behind their shoulder every now and then, just to make sure she is still there and with them.

Vee squeezes their body once to let them know she is here and she is fine.

Well, she squeezes two times, maybe three times…

Little by little, they are reaching the end of the hallway with nothing happening, except for the faint banging in the distance that makes Vee flinch briefly.

“See, we’re good. Nothing to worry about,” Masha says reassuringly, glancing back one last time.

However, with their gaze turned to her, Vee watches an arm slowly move on its own and vanish out through the wall.

She lets out a high-pitched squeak, gripping harder and pointing. “M-Masha!”

Masha finally looks back and gawks at their surroundings. “What, what? Wait, where’s that hand—”

As soon as they make that comment, someone’s bare footstep starts echoing toward Vee, growing louder.

She squeaks again and makes the mistake of looking behind her and…

There is someone running towards her in the dark.

“Eep!” Immediately, she grabs their hand and makes a run for it, dragging them all the way out of the hallway.

Masha yelps at her unexpected strength and Vee pulls them into an open door at the end.

They frantically enter inside and Vee looks around, gasping when she realizes there is no other door in sight.

It is just an empty, dark classroom with every desk either pushed or flipped onto its side, messy and dirty, almost as if it is abandoned.

“M-Masha, where do we go?”

“Uh, there has to be another door somewhere.”

Before they can search around the room, Vee shrieks and grips onto Masha’s arms when a bang comes from the door.

The girl in that red tank top ominously closes the door and returns once again to scare Vee and Masha as she slowly walks towards them.

The basilisk holds Masha’s forearm tightly with the enby standing right in front of her, protective.

As they continue to stare at the girl stalking, Vee yelps fearfully when she hears another loud bang sounding out in the corner.

The closet door swings wide open and forcibly hits the wall, the mummy coming out and also returning to taunt them.

Little by little, past actors from other sections, the zombie and the clown start appearing from the dark; the white lightbulb in the middle is the only luminescence produced.

They surround the young couple in a circle, creeping closer and closer.

Vee is actually terrified, whimpering softly.

And closer.

“M-Masha.”

And closer.

“It’s okay, Vee,” Masha whispers, holding her tight and bracing themselves for whatever is going to happen. “I got you.”

And closer—

RIIINNNNNGGGGGG!

The loud, ear-piercing school bell blasts through the speakers above.

Vee covers her ears, which are part of her hair, with her eyes squeezed shut at the loudness.

Then, she opens her eyes and realizes that everything has come to a stop.

All the monsters are just standing there, slowly tilting their heads to stare at the ceiling, unmoving and unfazed.

They stay there for a good minute, almost like the bell is controlling their minds.

It is slowly freaking Vee out as she doesn’t know if they’ll snap back into place and eat them.

But it doesn’t come to that as the zombie is the first one to walk away, very slowly with his face blank and soulless.

Then, the mummy, the girl with the red top and one by one, the monsters walk across the classroom with numb legs, Vee jumping as she feels the clown brushing past her, their shoulders briefly touching.

In another corner is a section of the wall covered in dirty cardboard and torn newspaper.

The zombie stands in front of it and pushes with a heavy groan, the door breaking open and all of his monster friends leaving.

Yet, Vee and Masha stand right where they are, frozen in fear and trembling lightly.

They stay like that for a long time, maybe about one or two minutes staring at the freshly opened entrance, watching to see if any monsters come in.

“A-Are they gone?” Vee asks, her voice cracking.

“Not sure,” Masha replies with a murmur, squeezing her.

With a soft breath, the enby begins to walk towards the door.

“Masha! What are you…” Vee whispers, hissing through clenched teeth.

She groans quietly and quickly follows behind her partner with timid steps.

She slowly sticks her head out the doorway and glances to the right of the hall, watching all the monsters walking away in a line.

Vee lets out a relieved sigh that they are gone, turning her head to the other side to see what is there and…

She gasps out loud, her eyes lighting up. “Masha, look!”

“Hmm?” They voice out, glancing to see Vee pointing at an open door that leads to the school’s cafeteria, where all the outdoor tables are.

“Oh my Titan, yes! Freedom!” She cheers, throwing her hands up.

“Aw, man! Don’t you wish it was longer?” Masha asks with a cheeky grin, showing off their cute tooth gap.

“Uh, no thank you! I have enough scares for today,” She giggles, already walking to the door.

Masha snorts. “Okay, fair.”

The basilisk happily grabs their hand and has a soft smile on her face as she finally beats her first haunted house, a small skip in her step.

However, she freezes on dead heels with her eyes widened, realizing that something is waiting beside the entrance, or rather someone.

There is a lifeless body wearing a clown mask with fluffy green hair and a dirty black suit beside the door.

Vee has a strong feeling that this is not a prop but an actor playing dead, waiting for the perfect moment to jump at them.

“Oooo, it’s not over yet!” Masha chirps excitedly.

Vee groans softly. “Let’s get this over with.”

“Oh my Goddess, Vee is getting a character arc?”

“S-Shut up! The exit is literally right there!”

She puffs up her chest with the little amount of confidence inside her and slowly steps over the body, staring at the actor with careful and tense eyes.

But nothing happens as Vee finally gets out of the haunted house and into the warm atmosphere of the outside, letting out a relieved sigh.

“Woof! Alright, your turn, Mash.”

“Pfft, easy!” The enby waves her off nonchalantly, crossing over the body without glancing down.

However, Vee has her attention on the body and watches the body suddenly lurching forward, letting out a loud yell and attempting to grab her partner.

Seeing this is coming, she tugs on their arm and brings them closer to her so he won’t catch them.

Still, Masha screams sharply, briefly covering their face. “Ahh! You son of a bitch!”

The clown crackles hysterically and manically, firmly shutting the door in their face.

“Why you little! Ughhhhh!” Masha groans frustratedly.

Vee stifles her chuckles, smiling widely. “I saw that coming.”

“Well, good for you!”

For a moment, there is a quiet pause, a tension-filled silence as they both stare at each other.

But then…

Vee and Masha burst into a fit of soft laughter, taking this moment to cool down from the thrilling, spooky-filled experience.

Eventually, Masha calms down from their chuckles and gently grabs Vee’s hands. “Soooo, how was your first haunted house?” They ask, grinning softly.

“Well, it was scary, I will admit that,” Vee replies, throwing that warm smile back at them. “But I had a lot of fun.”

“I’m glad you had fun, babe,” Masha says, pressing a soft kiss on her forehead.

She giggles because she is ticklish there.

“Next time, we are bringing Jess and Robbie,” The enby adds.

“Oh my Titan, yes! Jess is gonna be screaming their lungs out.”

“Nah, Robbie is gonna be the one screaming.”

Vee gasps. “No, shut up.”

“Yep! Big time scaredy-cat.”

“But he was fine when we were watching Infatuation?”

“He already watched it prior.”

“I knew it! That’s why he didn’t flinch at any of the jumpscares.”

They giggle together again, a gentle atmosphere slowly building up as they walk out of the cafeteria.

After a while, they leave the front of the school with their fingers interlocked, now walking along the sidewalk.

It is silent for a few moments again, but Vee doesn’t mind it.

It is a pleasant atmosphere, not awkward or weird, just warm and comfortable.

But then, Masha softly interrupts it as they ask with a grin, touching her shoulder with theirs. “Sooo, you wanna continue our date?”

She glances at them and throws them a smile, shrugging. “Sure. I don’t have anything pending from my classes, so yeah.”

“Awesome,” Masha pauses briefly. “You wanna go to that new ice cream shop we were talking about yesterday or wait for another day?”

Vee simply smiles, leaning closer to them. “I would love to go with you, Mash.”

It was a cold and rainy day in Gravesfield, Connecticut, and one certain basilisk was busy doing a whole lot of nothing. Vee was staring out the window as the rain pitter-pattered against the glass, and she was getting really freaking bored of watching Raindrop Races Part 739. Exhaling harshly, she flipped around to tear her eyes away from the window. She wanted something to do. She needed something to do. Something fun. Something she had never done before.

Groaning in annoyance at how freaking bored she was, Vee decided to go check on the rest of the family to see if they were doing anything interesting. Trudging down the stairs with heavy steps, Vee looked at her options. Luz, her beloved sister and partner-in-crime, was sitting cross-legged on the floor watching a Good Witch Azura movie. Vee had already seen that one… five times now? Maybe it was six. The exact number eluded her, but it was definitely more than the movie’s quality actually warranted. Mama Camila, meanwhile, was busy in the kitchen. She had all manner of pots and pans and ingredients strewn about on the countertop and stove, and she was In The Zone. Man, whatever that was smelled delicious.

Hmmm… Decisions, decisions.

Vee looked at her sister and the 6.7/10 movie.

Vee looked at her mama and the cooking wizardry going on.

The choice was obvious.

“Hey, uhh, Camila?” Vee called out as she finally descended the steps.

The mother looked up from the pot she was tending and smiled. “Look who’s finally joining the rest of the family. Thought you were never gonna come out of your room.”

“Got bored,” Vee said flatly. “I… Uhhh… Is there anything I can do to… help you with dinner?”

If you asked Camila, she would say that her response to that question was a very normal-volume, laid back, “Sure! I could definitely use some help.” In reality, though, the mother let out an ear-piercing squeal of joy at the prospect of finally getting to share the wonders of cooking with one of her girls.

“Oh, I’ve been waiting for a day like this!” Camila said. “Yes, yes! Oh, I have so many things I can show you and teach you!”

Vee shook her head and smiled at how enthusiastic her mama was. “Alright. How do I start… helping.”

Camila rubbed her hands together as she let out a happy noise. “Well, right now I’m working on a… Wait… Luz!”

“What?!” came a shout from the living room. A second later, the sound of the Azura movie was paused, cut off mid-monologue.

“Get in here!” Camila called out. “You’re joining this too!”

Luz groaned as she slowly got up off the floor. “It was just about to get to the scene where Azura and Hecate nearly accidentally kiss during the masquerade ball. This better be a good reason.”

“Come, come,” her mother said. “You and your sister are getting some cooking lessons.”

“I know how to cook,” Luz retorted. “I can make… a grilled cheese. And… uhh… cookies. And… Ummm… Uhhh…”

Camila’s flat expression said more than enough. “Right. Because grilled cheese and cookies is going to be your whole diet when you’re off on your own. You two -” Camila looked to Vee and Luz “- won’t be able to just rely on your mother’s cooking for the rest of your lives.”

Luz opened her mouth to protest, but upon realizing she had zero snappy comebacks available she resorted to just awkwardly saying, “Okay, yeah. That’s smart.”

Camila chuckled and smiled. “I’m smarter than I look, I know. Now,” she clapped her hands together twice, “which one of you wants to help me with prepping some chicken?”

Luz was busy at everything strewn out on the stove and kitchen counter. She swore she recognized the ingredients, but she couldn’t recall the name for the life of her what this was all reminding her of. “Hey, mama? Is this… uh.. what is it… locrio de pollo?”

“Close,” Camila responded. “We’re making pollo guisado. Still a chicken dish, but different flavors and textures and the like.”

Luz blushed, then looked at her mother and then down at the three chicken thighs laying ready for the marinade. “Those things are giant.”

“Each of us gets a whole thigh, so you best be hungry,” Camila replied. “Vee, how about you? Do you want to help me with prepping the marinade?”

Vee was caught off guard at first, but quickly smiled. “Oh, yeah! What do you want me to do, Camila?”

“How about you chop up the peppers and your sister can work on the onions and garlic?” Camila suggested. “That way you both can contribute to the marinade.”

Once Luz realized what task she had been assigned, her mouth dropped open. “What?! Why do I have to chop the onions? Vee’s the one whose human form doesn’t have tear ducts! Do you want me to cry all over the food?”

“I can give myself tear ducts if you want me to,” Vee said with a smirk. “Then I can cry so hard. Do you want me to show you?”

Luz pursed her lips. “Shut up,” she responded, though there was no malice in her words. She was just mighty peeved that she got the icky crying-inducing onions.

“Girls, girls, relax,” Camila requested. “Luz, you’re a big girl. You can handle yourself just fine. Now, Vee?”

“Yeah, mama?” the basilisk responded.

“You chop up the peppers into fine little pieces, okay? We don’t want giant chunks. Same goes for you, Luz. Small little bitty pieces. Comprendo?”

Both daughters nodded in unison. Camila smiled. “Good. Now, let’s get started. You two working on prepping the veggies, and I’ll get the chicken cooking. Then, we’ll bring it all together into yummy deliciousness.”

Ducking down below the stove, Camila grabbed two pairs of cutting boards and knives. Handing a pair to each child, she stepped back to watch them work. “Be careful, both of you. Don’t want anybody losing fingers tonight.”

“I can just grow mine back if anything goes wrong,” Vee commented as she grabbed a bell pepper. “But, thanks mama. I’ll be safe.”

“I’m gonna be not safe!” Luz countered. She jabbed the knife outwards twice in her sister’s direction. “Stabby stabby! I’m eeevilllll.”

Vee looked down at the blade and then rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’m more scared of mama’s slipper. You’re too nice to be evil.”

“Boo, spoilsport,” Luz replied. When it was clear that her sister dearest wasn’t in the mood for playing with dangerous cooking utensils, Luz finally turned her attention to her assigned task. “Onion, prepare to meet your maker,” she said dramatically as she tried and failed to slice it in half.

Vee snickered beside her. “Doing great, sis,” she said sarcastically. “Really showing that onion who’s boss.”

The basilisk had already cleanly split her pepper into quarters and was working on making them into thin strips. “I can switch with you if the onions and stuff actually are gonna make you cry, though. Tear ducts, noses, that kinda stuff can be morphed away in an instant.”

“Nah, I’m good,” Luz said as she finally managed to cleave the onion in half, catching one portion that was trying to roll of the cutting board with a “No you don’t!”

“Alright, suit yourself.” Vee finished slicing her second quarter of pepper and scooted it to the side of her cutting board with the flat of the blade.

Camila didn’t bother to hide the smile on her face as she watched her daughters work. “Those are looking great, both of you,” she said as she seasoned her pot and prepped it with oil before adding in the chicken thighs. Her abuela’s recipe never had a set time for how long things were supposed to cook, so she guesstimated around 10 minutes would be good for her purposes.

“Thanks, Mama,” both girls said at the same time. “Stop copying me,” they again said in unison.

“Quit copying –,” Vee started, but she was cut off by her sister.

“BANANA!” Luz shouted. “Hah! Boom! Weren’t expecting that, were you?!” The girl then burst out into giggles.

Vee tried to keep a straight face but her stoic front cracked instantly and she let out a few small laughs as she shook her head. “Banana? Buh - Really? What?”

“Never doubt a non sequitur,” Luz said as she returned to chopping her onions as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“Alright, you two, relax,” Camila said. “We don’t need any horsing around when both of you have dangerous weapons in your hands.”

The two daughters both relented and returned to their chopping and slicing. Vee was the first fo finish by just a few seconds. It definitely was not a race between the two, though, at least according to Luz. Once Luz had finished her onions and garlic, the two looked to their mother for the next steps.

“Now we’re gonna work on combining both of your hard works into the broth so that we can soak the chicken in all those flavors,” Camila explained. “Plus, it’ll give one of you a chance to get back to your movie,” she said, looking pointedly at her human daughter. “Though, I think we could all watch it together if you’re willing to give us a catch up summary, Luz.”

That caught Luz off guard as she slid her onions and garlic into the mixing bowl. “You… want to watch Azura? Who are you and what have you done with the sci-fi only loving Camila Noceda?”

“i can branch out,” Camila countered. “I’m not allowed to only be a fan of one genre, you know.”

“Hmmm… Fair,” Luz eventually replied. “So, do we just… let this simmer or whatever and then come back in an hour?”

“More like half an hour, but essentially yes. We want the chicken to be nice and tender before serving it up,” Camila said. Looking into her own pot, though, she saw the chicken still had a few more minutes to cook before it was ready to go into the broth. “How about you two girls go get comfy on the couch, and then I’ll join you in a bit? These next few steps are just combining things and getting stuff hot. Not much fun for three whole people.”

“Oh, really? i was kinda having fun,” Vee lamented. “But, I guess I can go watch Luz’s cheesy movie.”

“Cheesy?” Luz said with a gasp. “Good Witch Azura 5: The Quest for Moar Moolah is a perfectly non-cheesy movie.”

“Yeah, keep telling yourself that,” Vee said with a chuckle, but she followed her sister into the living room regardless.

Flopping down onto the couch, Luz kicked her feet up on the coffee table and resumed the movie. “So, this is part is… you know the whole…thing with Azura and Hecate, right? Like friends to enemies to friends and stuff?”

“You only talk about it like every day,” Vee commented as she joined her sister on the couch, morphing into her basilisk form as she got comfy. “‘Hecazura is the best ship in the history of ever!’” Vee said, copying her sister’s voice perfectly. “This is the big masquerade ball scene, right?”

Luz nodded aggressively. “Yeah! This is just after the big confrontation between Hecate and her big boss dude who wants her to double cross Azura, but Hecate was not having any of his bullsh – bull hockey and she tells him to kick rocks.”

“Nice save,” Vee said quietly as she nudged Luz with an elbow. “Mom totally doesn’t know what you were gonna say.”

Luz stuck out her tongue. “I don’t know what you could be insinuating, dear sister. I’m a little angel who cannot even think a swear word.”

“I know what you were thinking,” Camila called out from the kitchen as she finally got the chicken simmering in the broth. Wiping her hands dry on a fresh hand towel, the mother joined her daughters in the living room. Taking her spot at the love seat, she leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs. “Turn up the volume, would you?”

Abiding by her mother’s request, Luz jabbed at the Volume Up button on the remote a few times, before having to take it down one notch so that it was at a nice multiple of 5. “There we go,” she said. “That better, Mama?”

“Perfect,” Camila replied. “Food should be ready in… say, 30 minutes or so.”

“Yummyyyyy,” Vee said ina sing-song voice. “Can’t wait, Mama. Hope our hard work pays off.”

“I do too,” Camila said with a smile. “Now, hit play!” After a beat, she added. “But no popcorn before dinner.”

“Aww, but what if I wanted dessert before dinner?” Luz countered.

Camila silenced her with a look of pure maternal disappointment.

“Point taken,” Luz said quickly. “Okay, movie time it is!” Pointing the remote at the TV, she pressed play.

Two fakeout Hecate and Azura kisses, three purple prose-ridden conversations, and one super totally epic battle later, Camila let out a groan as she slowly got off the couch. “Need to go check on the food,” she announced as she crossed into the kitchen. “Keep the movie playing. I can listen.”

“Ooooohhhh,” Luz said, her voice high pitched. “Is someone a fan of Azura all of the sudden? How’s the food looking?”

“It’s good,” Camila replied, lifting the lid off the pot and peeking inside. Grabbing a pair of forks, she found the chicken pulling apart with barely any effort. Smiling to herself, Camila set the forks to the side and then used a spoon to grab a taste of the broth. It was immaculate.

“Do ya mean the food or the movie?” Vee inquired. “Because I can’t believe Luz isn’t destroying a toilet with how cheesy this movie is.”

“Both can be true,” Camila replied. Grabbing some black pepper, she gave it a solid grind over the stew to add that extra bit of flavor to its profile. “Now, once that scene finishes up, both of you get back here. This is looking perfecto. Abuela would be so proud.”

“Yes, food!” Vee cried out as she hopped off the couch and jogged into the kitchen. “I am starving,” she said as she slid into her seat at the table.

Pausing the movie mid-sentence, Luz dropped the remote off on the coffee table as she slowly walked into the kitchen. “Okay, firstly: I took my Lactaid pill so, uhhh, I can handle the cheesy dialogue, thank you very much. And secondly, didn’t you literally have a Hexes Hold’em card at lunch?”

Vee blew a raspberry in response. “I’m a growing basilisk, so I need all the food I can get. Plus, only having the magic cards and nothing else would be like if you could only ever eat… I dunno… salads or something. Would you live? Yeah. Would you get sick of it after a while? Also yeah.”

Luz snorted out her nose as she sat next to her sister. “Touche.”

“You two…” Camila said, trailing off. “You two bicker like you’ve been siblings your whole lives and not just a few years.”

“Yeah, we got that chemistry,” Luz replied, doing a little shoulder shimmy as she grinned at her sister.

“I’m the magical shapeshifter from another dimension, and yet you’re the goofy, crazy, extroverted one,” Vee said as Camila placed a bowl of the guisado in front of her. Grabbing her spoon, she dunked it in the stew and sloshed everything around to mix it all up.

“Well, someone has to bounce off your… chill-ness,” Luz replied.

Camila deposited the next bowl in front of her human daughter before grabbing one for herself and returning to the table. Sitting opposite the two girls, she settled into her seat. Scooting up a little closer, she relished the smells of the guisado and memories that came with it. Grabbing her spoon, she sliced a chunk of chicken in half, scooped up some veggies and a bit of the broth, and brought it to her mouth.

It tasted like home.

Looking to her children as they took their own first bites, Camila hoped they would get that same heart-warming feeling as she did when they shared the kitchen with their own kids.

What I like about Vee

I wanted to get out the words

why I love Vee

this sweet character

the strong girl who fought through a lot

sometimes awkward, but always friendly and compassionate

what I like about Vee

is that she is far from the scary monster she could have been

a dangerous basilisk that can suck away magic

but actually someone who doesn’t want to hurt others

a shapeshifter that stole the protagonist’s life

in reality she just was a lost soul looking for home,

definitely no monster!

what I like about Vee

is how she thinks about identity

she can take any person’s shape

pretend to be anyone

at camp, at school, at home

but she doesn’t spend her time fooling around with her powers,

no, behind her shapeshifting she is still a teenager coming of age

when she keeps up appearances with the identity she “borrowed”

she worries who she is behind the mask

what I also like about Vee

is how strong she is

how she takes responsibility

while still staying authentic

she could have hated Luz for what she had and Vee never got from the beginning

instead, she accepted her, learned to like her

and supported Camilla, when Luz hadn’t yet returned

She was the one to keep up appearances at home

when Camilla followed Luz to save the world

when nobody asked her to do that for them,

Vee just does her part

So many aspects of her character and story resonate with me

why I feel at home with this character

that’s why I keep writing about her

and hopefully will

even years from now

I am Vee Noceda

I started as a cruel experiment

the revival of a long dead species

to feed the hunger for power of one man

and his evil regime

I wasn’t supposed to be born

I lived a life of a prisoner

and when I was not rotting in a small cell

I had to suffer through trials and torture

my cellmates were part of my species

But they were experiments just like me

No family

I was Number Five

After I broke out from Belos’ prison

I was on the run when I saw this human

just for a few moments, I didn’t know her

then by accident, I stumbled into the Human Realm

And used the only human appearance that I had

Before I knew it, I had become that person

driving to camp with her Mum,

pretending to be a human teenager

at once learning about her life and the world she was living in

while powering through the awkwardness of not knowing

I became part of Cabin 7

had lovely people that took me as I am

when I played that part

of another person who was not there

I was Luz Noceda

When I went to school after the holidays

Slept at her house, lived with her Mom

I slowly took that life that I was playing

became Luz and made that space my own

while living in fear of being found out

then the day came that Luz spoke to us,

revealed the truth

and I was ready to run

leave behind the life that I cherished

but where I only lived another person’s life

instead, Camilla took me

gave me a home

let me be my own person

I was Vee

Now Luz returned and she brought her friends, the Hexsquad

the portal to the world where I was born is open again

but I don’t think much about returning

I have people that know me fully now

including the secret of my identity

and friends that love me

with some trickery, I can now go to school as my own person

with my personal human appearance

as Vee not as someone I pretend to be

I love my life

and I come home to a family that call me mija and hermana

After all the struggle

I can finally feel at ease

I may have been born a cruel experiment

but I have family now

and a name

I am Vee Noceda

Moderator's Note: Picross, or Nonograms, are puzzles that start from an empty grid. Given a set of clues on each row and column, your goal is to determine which squares should be filled in and which squares should be blank. A correctly filled-in grid produces a picture.

The clues come in the form of numbers next to each row and column of the puzzle. A number means that there is a group containing that number of consecutive filled-in squares along the row or column. Multiple numbers mean that there are multiple groups separated by one or more blank squares. Clues are read from left to right for rows and top to bottom for columns. For example, a clue on a row reading "4 2" indicates that there is a group of 4 consecutive filled-in tiles, then some gap of blank tiles, then a group of 2 consecutive filled-in tiles. Any number of blank squares or no blank squares at all are allowed at the beginning and end of each row/column. Using these clues, your job is to determine the pattern of filled-in tiles that satisfies all of the provided clues.

Feel free to look at the solutions to some of the easy puzzles to see how the rules work in practice (the "Summer" puzzle is a particularly good example of the rules). If you need to reset the boards, reload the page. Good luck!

Author's Note: These will be sorted by artist and difficulty,
I (Wyrm) did my best to label them by how hard they would be for a beginner, it has been quite a while since I was a beginner so I'm probably going to be some amount of wrong.

Each one has a title that doubles as a hint, and under each one you'll be able to unspoil the completed puzzle and see what it's supposed to be.

Lamp Entertainment presents…

”Every morning when I see her getting off at the bus stop
It’s like the world brightens

She snuck in my brain and now she’s stuck in my brain
But she keeps me sane

For a couple of years she’s drenched my fears
Of becoming like the others

Those who grow up to become unhappy mothers and fathers of unhappy kids
And why is that?”

Clara stopped writing, her pen hovering over the paper while she read through the short poem. She frowned while mouthing the words to herself.

No… this wasn’t working.

She let out a sigh of disappointment and crossed the whole thing out with a big X. To the literary garbage heap with you.

In the real world, the sun hid behind the clouds and a gentle breeze made Clara consider putting on her hoodie again. Sitting outside to write always sounded so romantic. Authentic, in a way. Just a tortured poet, her pen, ink, and paper, and the tiny sunbeams sneaking through the dancing leaves of the trees… then the wind would remind her of itself, make her shiver and toss her papers about.

Also, the noise from cars going by, people walking by, talking on their phone, or playing videos way too loud, seriously, just get some earbuds or something…

Returning her focus back to the words she had just crossed over, she tapped the pen against the side of her head a few times. She bit her lip out of concentration while she read through her hastily scribbled words again. It wasn’t all bad… there was potential there.

She reached down into her tote bag and felt around until she found the pencil case among the other good-to-have things. She used a yellow highlighter to mark the salvageable parts. Yellow felt like an appropriate color for that, going by stoplight rules.

Few people knew Clara Lambretta wrote poetry, which was the way she wanted it to be. As far as she was concerned, the closer that number was to zero, the better. If people knew, they might ask to read some of it, and there was no way in hell that was ever happening, ever. In part because her writing wasn’t very good… but mostly because what most of those verses were about…

She played around with the pen absentmindedly, before doodling a heart with a crack going through it. She had plenty of practice drawing those. She must’ve made hundreds of them, strewn throughout her many notebooks, flocking around her poems like butterflies around flowers.

Clara used a red pen to add a few drops of blood dripping from the heart rendered asunder. However, she wasn’t a very good artist, so it didn’t look very good.

With another sigh, this one more frustrated, Clara started flipping through the notebook. It was a regular A5 notebook, which she actually got as a gift from Vee last year. There was a cartoon snake on the front cover, and a sticker of another snake that was at risk of falling off. It was wholly unremarkable, and one of Clara’s most cherished possessions.

It wasn’t just for her amateur poetry either, but also her diary, and home to every errant thought that demanded it be put into writing. As pages flew by, flashes of words and fragmented sentences made little memories pop into her brain. Mostly whatever she was feeling at the time. Poetry, diary entries about anything and everything, song lyrics that had gotten stuck in her head, notes to remind herself of stuff, smut…

Yeah, that was another reason why anyone who laid eyes upon the contents of this book had to die.

”Look who it is! Hi Clara!”

The sudden voice calling out her name nearly scared the life right out of her. She jumped in her seat, and instinctively placed a hand on the open notebook before turning around in her seat to see who was calling for her. Her ears recognized who it was instantly, of course, but her mind took a second to catch up.

The cloud blocking the sun moved, letting the star spread its warm, bright beams down on the Earth and its people.

”Oh, hi Vee!” Clara exclaimed, involuntarily breaking out into a smile that was more than just polite. Or more than just happy to see a friend. Vee was approaching, a happy smile on her face as well… a smile that could light up a whole room. Or the whole world.

Masha wasn’t far behind Vee, of course, though they chose to wave to her instead of shouting.

”You scared me there!” Clara said once Vee was finally within normal conversation distance.

”Oh no, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to!” Vee said, looking embarrassed for a moment, with a cute little blush. Well, everything about her was cute, all the time.

Vee sat down at the picnic table where Clara had spread out her things. Her big, bright, almost impossibly bright eyes flickered down to the notebook, which Clara quickly closed in a very inconspicuous manner. Yes, most inconspicuous, Vee was sure not to wonder what it was Clara was writing that she wasn’t allowed to see.

”Didn’t expect to see you here,” she said.

’Here’ was a small park a stone’s throw away from the mall in Sepulcher City, which was about a twenty to thirty minute drive from Gravesfield (depending on how illegally your driver felt like driving).

”Yeah, did you come all the way here to do homework?” Masha asked, sitting down next to Vee.

”Noooo…” Clara sighed. ”I was supposed to hang out with Maddie today, but she called and said her boyfriend couldn’t drive her today… and of course, I was already on the bus here, so I didn’t really have a choice at that point.”

Vee and Masha replied with sympathetic groans.

The worst part though, for Clara? It didn’t hurt as much as it used to, Maddie dumping her like that. She’d done it before, changed her plans or come up with excuses. Clara wasn’t even sure why she still hung out with her… probably because she still remembered fondly that time in second grade, when they had stolen a permanent marker (which was less permanent than their kid brains thought) so they could write ’BFF’ on each other’s hands. Maybe, against her better judgment, she still thought that meant something. Or maybe she was just afraid of being alone.

”Aw, that sucks to hear,” Vee said. ”Do you wanna hang out with us then? We’re going to the mall.”

Yes. Yes please.

”Well, I guess I don’t have anything better to do,” Clara said, already gathering up her pens again. ”So if it’s alright with you guys…”

”It’s fine with me,” Masha said. They flashed a cheeky smile. ”So long as you’re fine with being the third wheel on our date, that is.”

Ow. Did they know how much that hurt? Is that why they said it, were they doing it on purpose?

”Date?” Vee said in a manner which indicated this was the first she had heard of it. She turned to her enbyfriend. ”As I recall, we’re here because someone forgot to get Sam a birthday present.”

”Eh, still counts as a date,” Masha said, deciding that this was the one hill they were going to die on.

”It does not,” Vee said simply.

”Clara, back me up here,” Masha stage whispered to the third wheel.

”I dunno…”

”I’ll drive you home so you don’t have to take the bus,” Masha stage whispered even harder.

Ah, stand by your principles, or lie to avoid having to use public transportation? A dilemma old as time.

”Yeah, I think it counts,” Clara said, feeling a part of herself die. From this day on, she would lie as she breathed.

Masha mouthed ”Yes!” and did a fist pump while Vee pouted.

”Accepting bribes, really?” she said accusatorially and pretended to dry a tear from her eye at this betrayal.

”I know, I would make for an excellent politician,” Clara said, lacing into her words as much toxic pride and corruption as she could manage.

Vee couldn’t pretend to be angry anymore; she just started giggling. Masha burst out into a full-on belly laugh. Clara herself couldn’t help but chuckle at her own gag.

”Anyway, my offer still stands,” Vee said once the collective laughing fit over a joke that really wasn’t that good had calmed down. ”Even though you’re a traitor,” she hissed, her last words covered in venom, spat out like a cobra. ”Wanna come with?”

”Yeah, sure,” Clara said, quickly putting her things in her tote bag. It was the rainbow one, one of her favorites… she got it for June two years ago when she decided she was going to come out… aaaaand then she chickened out, and the whole coming out thing had to wait another year. Though considering the number of people that seemed surprised once she finally mustered up the courage was close to zero, maybe it was less of a coming out, and more just opening the door to the glass closet. So maybe she wasn’t that good at hiding things.

She put her notebook in the bag as well.

Then again, maybe she was good at hiding her feelings… at least from some…

It hit like that, little moments every now and then. The sadness, the jealousy, the brokenheartedness… then she pushed them back down, bottled them up so she could pour them over her pages later instead. It was no way to live, but it was a way to survive, which was the next best thing.

The three of them started walking towards the mall together, doing some casual catching-up chatting. Not that there was too much to catch up on, since they had seen each other in school yesterday. Clara shared some gossip she heard during cheerleading practice. Masha told them about what that crazy guy, Jake Hopkims or something, had been up to. Vee showed Clara pictures of some puppies her mama helped deliver the other day.

The mall was pretty busy when they got there, at least by small town standards. It was Saturday, after all, which meant there were plenty of teens milling around, wasting time and money. The nice weather on this early summer’s day meant the ones who didn’t have a car or bus card could walk there. A good day to be a business owner, in other words.

”Alright, remember Mash’, we’re here to get a gift for Sam, nothing else,” Vee reminded the enby spearheading the trio towards the Warm Subject (which was like Hot Topic, but with even more bootleg merch).

”Yeahyeahyeah, don’t worry, I’m not gonna get distracted,” Masha said with a dismissive wave of their hand.

Twenty minutes later, Masha was still distracted by all the band tees, all for bands Sam had no interest in whatsoever. So far, they had narrowed it down to three possible ones they wanted, for Sleepy Marker, Loathing, and Twänty-Öne Aeronåuts.

Vee, who was supposed to remind Masha to stay on track, was also distracted, looking at necklaces.

Clara, who was supposed to remind Vee to remind Masha to stay on track was in turn distracted looking at Vee. Or, uh… she was distracted looking at, the tote bags. Which were right next to the necklaces. Where Vee was. That’s why she was looking there.

”Hm…” Vee hummed to herself, looking over the various pieces of jewelry. ”What about this one?” she asked, holding up a necklace with a bright orange stone. ”It’s a tiger’s eye stone… whaddaya think?” She held it up so Clara could see.

”It’s nice,” Clara said. ”Very nice, actually. It’s really pretty… it matches your eyes.”

A small smile played on Vee’s lips.

”If this is pretty, and it matches my eyes… does that mean you think I have pretty eyes?”

Head slightly tilted, with that enchanting smile, fluttering her eyes at her… Clara’s knees felt weaker than any exercise had ever made her feel.

”Yeah,” she said, almost feeling out of breath. ”I-I do think you have pretty eyes.” Her traitorous body made her cheeks heat up… she probably looked like a tomato in the face.

Vee looked surprised, her smile dropping just a little. Was Clara imagining things, or was Vee blushing too…?

Thankfully, Masha barged in on… whatever that moment between Vee and Clara was… it was a good thing, because Clara was panicking, trying to figure out what to say, how the hell she should continue that conversation in a normal way.

”Alright, I will admit it, I did get a little distracted there,” Masha said with a chipper tone, seemingly unaware of the awkward tension that had sprung up between Clara and Vee. ”However; new shirt acquired.” They held up the new addition to their wardrobe. ”I decided to go with something bold, a black band tee. A little out there, I know.”

The thought crossed Clara’s mind, wondering what would make Masha more mad. That she was flirting with their girlfriend, or that she was doing such a bad job at it?

Clara giggled as much at that thought as she did at Masha’s joke about the shirts.

Vee smiled, obviously amused as well, though she quickly got back into the stern girlfriend role she was supposed to be playing.

”You were supposed to get something for Sam,” she reminded them.

Masha rolled their eyes, and reached out to grab a plushie of a hawk from a shelf.

”There we go, I had that one singled out the moment we walked in here,” they said. ”It’s like that bird from those books Sam likes, Arkie-something.”

”You mean Archimicarus?” Clara said.

”Yeah… have you read those books?” Masha asked. Had Clara not known better, she might’ve thought they were implying a dumb blonde backflipping bimbo like her couldn’t read. Fortunately, Masha was a good person… probably?

”Of course, everyone’s read the Spirit Morph Saga books,” she said. She didn’t feel the need to tell them she had also read some… or all… of Sam’s fanfiction about the franchise… including the, ah… spicy ones.

”Not me, I’m way too contrarian,” Masha said. ”I was reading shit like Apollo Galloanserae and other stuff no one’s heard of.”

”And I’ve been meaning to read them, I just never got around to it,” Vee sighed. ”I watched the movie when that came out… I thought it was pretty good, but Sam hated it…”

”Book nerds always hate the film, even if they’re good,” Masha said, rolling their eyes at the memory of how dramatically their friend had bemoaned shortcomings of the adaptation. Clara knew all too well, she had read the long rant Sam posted on scrumblr. ”Anyway, we better get out of here before I get distracted by something else,” they added. ”Plus, I’m kinda getting hungry.”

”Oh, I’m starving!” Vee said, lighting up at the prospect of food. It was funny, it almost looked like she had a pair of ears perking up under her hair… like a dog might do when it heard it was time for dinner.

Masha headed to the register with their finds, the cashier looking like they wanted to murder them for daring to make them work at their job instead of scrolling smutty fanfics on their phone. Vee took a moment of consideration and decided to get the necklace with the tiger’s eye stone. And as it turned out, Clara was not safe from impulse purchases either, as she grabbed a brand new tote bag for herself.

Vee raised an eyebrow when she saw Clara with the new addition to her collection.

”Don’t you already have like ten bags?” she asked.

”Well, yeah, but… you never know when you’re gonna need another one,” Clara defended herself meekly. She definitely did not have a problem or anything. ”I’ll stop at a dozen, I promise,” she swore, even placing her hand on her chest. ”A baker’s dozen,” she added quickly, though not so quickly Vee couldn’t still hear it.

Vee giggled at the joke, and Clara’s stomach felt weird… she was probably hungry too… yeah, that was it, that’s what she could tell herself, gaslight herself into believing. Hungry. And maybe a little thirsty.

”Ooh, nice bag,” Masha said once the three of them had left the store. ”Huntr/x, eh? Are you a big fan of K-pop?”

”I don’t really listen to a lot of K-pop, but I do like Huntr/x,” Clara explained. ”’Cause, well… Huntr/x don’t miss!”

”How it’s done, done, done!” Vee and Masha joined in on the chorus.

”I’d love to see one of their shows live, I heard they get really crazy with their special effects,” Clara said once the giggling died down from the latest bit.

”Y-yeah, I’ve heard,” Vee said. ”But, uh… personally, I think it would get a little too exciting for me, you know?”

Clara nodded.

”It probably gets pretty loud and chaotic at their concerts,” she admitted. Honestly, the army of stans bound to show up would probably be too much for her as well.

”Exactly,” Vee mumbled. ”Anyway, how about that food?” she said, quickly changing topics. ”I’m hungry!”

”You’re always hungry,” Masha said, rolling their eyes, but with a fond smile.

The trio headed over to the food court, which was pretty small, and since it was around lunchtime, it was jam-packed with people. After a brief debate, they decided to head to Gothe’s, since their line was the shortest.

Gothe’s was the oldest food vendor in the mall and were famous for their ”half special,” a hotdog with mashed potatoes. Very filling, which was perfect for Vee, since she apparently hadn’t been fed for like a week.

However, tragedy struck; once it was finally their time to order, it turned out they were out of mash! So they just got hot dogs. From half special, to plain old ordinary.

”How the fuck do you run out of powdered mashed potatoes!?” Masha ranted, waving around their sausage. Some ketchup dripped down on their skirt, making them cuss up a storm. Some of them sounded like they might be from ancient, dead languages.

”Disgraceful,” Vee said before shoving like half a hot dog into her mouth all at once. Did she even chew? Clara wasn’t sure if she should be impressed or afraid. At least she had the good manners to not speak with her mouth full… that was something at least.

Once they were done with their disappointing lunch, the three of them spent some more time wandering around various stores, mostly browsing, talking, having a good time.

Clara was eternally grateful Vee and Masha left their public displays of affection to a minimum… made it easier to pretend like they were just a regular friend group and not, well… a couple and their third wheel. Made it easier to pretend everything was fine and like she wasn’t burning up inside. Not so much a raging forest fire anymore. Just a pile of smoldering coal and ash.

About an hour and a half later, they were in Masha’s car (which was actually their dad’s car, mostly for insurance reasons), on their way home. Masha was driving, Vee was sitting in the front passenger seat, in charge of the music, and Clara was relegated to the backseat.

Wasn’t that just the perfect metaphor? So close, but behind, looking in on what she wanted…

She took out her trusty old notebook and turned it to a mostly empty page. She clicked the pen a few times before putting it against the paper.

”Dear diary
I met a girl, who made my dull heart light up with joy
Oh dear diary
I’m falling apart
Welcome to the life of a broken heart

</3 </3 </3 </3 </3”

We know it’s there but we can’t say it yet (it’s love)

Chapter 1/3

Part 2 coming soon…

Masha had been unusually focused on their phone for the last few minutes. Vee noticed because they kept glancing over every few seconds, like they were comparing something. Eventually, they sat up.

“Can I try something?” Masha asked.

Vee looked up from where she was curled against the arm of the couch. “What kind of something?” she replied.

“I wanted to try a makeup look on you,” Masha said.

Vee playfully groaned. “Again?” She usually didn’t wear makeup, but on the occasion she did, she preferred not to shapeshift it on. It felt more special when she or Masha did it.

Masha nodded.

“What brought this on?” Vee asked.

“I saw a look I thought you’d be cute in,” Masha explained.

Vee felt her face warm almost immediately. Annoying, but Masha didn’t seem to notice. They were already digging through a makeup bag they’d apparently brought with them. Masha thought for a moment, then took the blanket off the couch, and draped it over the mirror.

“What are you doing?” Vee asked.

“I want this to be a surprise, so I don’t want you looking in the mirror before I’m done!” Masha replied.

“That makes me much more scared than I was before!” Vee exclaimed.

Masha chuckled. “Just come over here.”

Vee pushed herself off the couch and wandered over, stopping in front of them. “So what exactly am I agreeing to?” she asked.

“Again, it’s a surprise!” Masha said.

Vee groaned.

Masha only laughed and grabbed her hand, tugging her closer. Before Vee could protest, Masha settled themself comfortably in her lap, setting the makeup kit across her thighs.

“There,” Masha said.

“You trapped me,” Vee accused.

“Mhm,” Masha hummed.

Masha brushed a few strands of hair away from Vee’s face, and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. Vee’s face turned bright pink. Even though they’ve been together for a couple years now, Vee still manages to get flustered at tiny stuff like that.

“Hm,” Masha muttered.

“What?” Vee asked.

“Can you change your hair real quick?” Masha requested.

Vee blinked. “Okay… what do you want me to do with it?” she asked.

Masha hummed thoughtfully, scrolling through a few pictures on her phone. “Maybe a teeny bit shorter?” she suggested.

Vee’s hair immediately began shrinking, about an inch or two shorter. Masha tilted their head. “A little messier,” they instructed.

The ends curled slightly, falling into her face.

“Ooh. Wait,” Masha said.

Vee sat patiently while Masha continued studying her like an art project.

“Make it black,” Masha decided.

The hair shifted again. Masha gasped.

Vee tilted her head. “What?” she asked.

“You just look really cute!” Masha replied, beaming.

Vee groaned and buried her face in Masha’s shoulder. The reaction only made Masha laugh. They reached up and gently pushed a few strands back into place.

“There we go,” Masha murmured.

Masha reached for the foundation. A small pump of product landed on the back of their hand before they started applying it to Vee’s face with a brush. They worked carefully, spreading it in smooth strokes along her cheeks and jaw, blending it down evenly. Vee noted that the tone was slightly lighter than Vee’s natural color. Vee frowned faintly as she watched Masha focus.

“You’re concentrating too hard,” Vee observed.

“I don’t want you to look patchy,” Masha explained.

“I don’t look patchy normally,” Vee protested.

“Yeah, well I got this foundation from a gas station,” Masha admitted.

Masha leaned back slightly, tilting Vee’s chin with two fingers to check the blend. “There we go,” she said.

“What’s next?” Vee asked.

Masha grabbed an eyeliner pencil and carefully brushed a bit of it along her lash line. Their tongue was sticking out slightly. One hand rested against Vee’s cheek to keep her steady, which did not help since Vee’s reaction was to lean as far into their hand as possible. Masha moved down to her waterline.

“Look up for me,” Masha instructed.

Vee did, blinking once as Masha gently pulled her lower eyelid down.

“Don’t blink,” Masha warned.

“I have eyes, you know!” Vee complained.

“Sucks for you, I guess. Just try and keep them open,” Masha said.

Vee huffed but complied. The pencil glided carefully along her waterline. For a moment, Masha’s face was very close to hers. Close enough that Vee could see the peach fuzz on their face. Close enough to see the little bits of acne on their forehead. Close enough to see the outline of her face in Masha’s eyes….

“You’re staring,” Masha pointed out.

Vee immediately looked away. “You were staring first,” Vee rebutted.

“I’m doing your makeup,” Masha countered.

“And I have nowhere else to look!!!” Vee exclaimed.

“The TV is literally on,” Masha said.

“Shut up!!!” Vee yelled.

Masha chuckled. “Fine, head down,” she ordered.

Vee complied. They moved the pencil to her other eye, and gave it the same treatment. Masha took a second to admire their work. Vee could almost see hearts in Masha’s eyes. They grabbed the liquid eyeliner and grabbed Vee’s chin again.

“Eyes closed, and head up!” Masha ordered.

The brush touched her skin. Slower than the pencil, more careful. Masha’s hand steadied her chin, tilting her just slightly. Masha drew a cold line at the corner of her eye. Then another. Vee stayed still, eyes closed, only listening to the soft movement of Masha working.

“Okay,” Masha murmured to themself. A few careful flicks of the brush. When Vee finally opened her eyes again, Masha had already pulled back. Masha let out a quiet, pleased sound.

“There,” Masha said, proud. Sharp black wings extended from the corners of Vee’s eyes. Beneath each one, two small pointed accents had been drawn under her lower lash line, creating the shape of a simple four-point star. The design was subtle enough not to overpower the rest of the makeup, but striking enough to catch the eye immediately.

Masha started rummaging through their bag again.

“Are we almost done?” Vee asked.

“Kinda!” Masha replied.

They dug through the makeup bag before pulling out an eyeshadow palette.

“Close your eyes,” Masha instructed.

Vee did. Masha swept the darkest shade across one eyelid, blending it carefully into the crease. The color deepened with each pass. After that, they brushed beneath her eye too, connecting it to the liner. Once they were happy with the first eye, Masha moved to the second, occasionally pausing to compare both sides. Every few seconds they would lean back, squint, then immediately lean in again to fix something only they could see. By the time they finished blending, the dark shadow framed Vee’s eyes perfectly, making the pitch black star accents stand out even more.

Masha stared for a second. “Oh, that is so cool,” they breathed.

“Can I open my eyes yet?” Vee asked.

“Nope,” Masha said.

Vee let out a long, suffering sigh.

“You’re being dramatic,” Masha said.

“I’ve had my eyes closed for, like, an hour,” Vee complained.

“It’s been maybe five minutes,” Masha corrected.

Vee muttered something under her breath. Masha ignored it and reached into their bag again, pulling out a tube of mascara.

“One more thing,” Masha said.

Masha rested a hand against the back of Vee’s head to keep her steady.

“Stay still,” she commanded.

“I mean, it’s not like I can do anything else right now,” Vee replied.

The mascara wand brushed through her lashes. One eye, then the other. It didn’t take long, but Masha still paused every few seconds to check their work. Finally, they leaned back.

“Okay,” Masha said.

Vee immediately opened her eyes. Masha’s expression softened.

“Are you done with the eyes?” Vee asked.

“Nope!” Masha replied. Before Vee could respond, Masha leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “Now I’m done,” she said.

Vee’s face immediately flushed pink, the color still visible under the foundation. Masha, distracted, kept searching through the makeup bag for the next tool. When they looked up again, Vee leaned in and kissed their cheek quickly.

Masha froze. Their hand stalled mid-motion over the bag.

Vee blinked. “Wait. Did I fluster you?” she asked.

Masha didn’t answer right away. They just turned their face slightly away.

Vee stared for a second, then let out a quiet laugh. “Yeah, I did,” they said.

A small, frustrated exhale escaped Masha. “Just sit still,” they said.

Vee giggled, but complied. Masha pulled a tube of lip gloss out of their bag. Masha opened the lip gloss and tipped her chin up with two fingers. The gloss went on quickly, and Vee didn’t realise Masha was done until they poked her nose.

“Done,” Masha announced.

Vee beamed. “Is that it?” she asked.

“Yep!” Masha capped the gloss and set it back in the bag.

Vee glanced at them. “What now?” she asked.

“One more thing,” Masha said.

“Seriously!?” Vee exclaimed.

“One sec, I gotta grab it, stay here!” Masha said, hopping off of Vee’s lap and heading to their closet.

Masha came back with 3 pieces of clothing.

“How much money did you spend on this?” Vee asked.

“Not that much,” Masha said, setting everything down. “Well, Hunter made one of them, and the rest I got at Hot Subject.”

Vee blinked. “You got Hunter to help with this?” she asked.

“Mm-hm,” Masha confirmed.

“How long have you been planning this?” Vee questioned.

Masha paused, thinking. “A couple weeks?” she said.

Vee’s eyes widened. Masha was already unfolding the first piece of fabric. It was a sweater. Vee stared. It looked exactly like her favorite pumpkin sweater! It was grey and black instead of orange, but the pattern was unmistakable. The stitching looked a little uneven in places. Vee’s expression shifted immediately.

“Wait, did Hunter make that?” Vee asked.

“Yeah,” Masha replied.

Vee made a small, breathy sound of excitement and reached out slightly, stopping herself just short of grabbing it. “I love it. Do I get to keep it!?” she asked.

“I mean, it only fits one of us,” Masha pointed out.

Masha poked her and picked up the next piece: jeans covered in small star designs, clearly similar to a pair they already owned, just sized differently. Then a pair of red and black, striped, fingerless gloves.

“Okay,” Masha said, straightening up. “Go change.”

Masha jumped up and headed to the doorway.

Vee looked down at the clothes in her arms. “Uhm, alright,” she said. She adjusted the stack slightly and nodded toward the bathroom. “Give me a minute.”

“Mhm,” Masha hummed.

Masha turned and disappeared out of the room. Vee glanced down at the clothes in her hands and started changing. The clothes were surprisingly comfortable. The sweater especially, though Hunter’s clothes were always cozy. Then came the pants, then the gloves. She thought for a moment, then focused. A septum ring settled into place first, cool and precise. Then two snakebite piercings at her lower lip, matching and slightly spiked, catching the light when she moved. Vee exhaled once, checking the feeling of it. It’s not the first time she’s shifted herself piercings, but until now she’s only done her ears. She stood up and yelled “I’m done!”

Masha opened the door and gasped when they saw Vee. They stood in the doorway for a minute, their face turning bright red. They ran to Vee and tackled them in a hug.

“YOU. LOOK. SO. ADORABLE!!!” Masha yelled, squeezing Vee so tightly that Vee let out a small, wheezing laugh.

“Okay, okay, I can’t breathe!” Vee said, patting Masha’s back.

Masha pulled back just enough to look at her, hands still gripping her shoulders. “Sorry, but you literally look like you stepped out of a fashion magazine,” Masha said, their voice still pitched high with excitement.

Vee ducked her head, the tips of her ears burning red. “It’s the piercings too! When did you do that?!” Masha asked.

Vee reached up and touched the septum ring self-consciously. “I, uh. Just now. While I was changing,” Vee said. “I figured it matched the vibe.”

Masha stared at her for a long second, then let out a noise somewhere between a squeal and a groan. “I’m going to pass out,” Masha said.

“Please don’t,” Vee said, grabbing their arm.

Masha laughed and pulled her into another, gentler hug. This time, Vee relaxed into it, tucking her chin over Masha’s shoulder. “You really like it?” Vee asked quietly.

Masha pulled back and cupped Vee’s face in both hands. “I love it,” Masha said firmly. “You look amazing. I mean, you always look amazing, but this is-” Masha paused, searching for the right word. “-really, really good.”

Vee’s blush deepened. “Okay,” Vee said, her voice barely above a mumble. “Yayyy!”

Masha grinned and stepped back, grabbing Vee’s hand.

“Do I get to see it now?” Vee asked.

“Oh, yeah!” Masha laughed. “I forgot you haven’t seen it yet.”

Masha pulled the blanket off the mirror, and Vee saw her reflection for the first time in an hour. Vee blinked. Then she leaned in closer, tilting her head side to side.

“Oh,” Vee breathed.

Masha watched her nervously, shifting their weight from foot to foot. “So?” Masha asked. “What do you think?”

Vee didn’t answer right away. She touched the edge of the black wing extending from her eye, then traced the tiny star accents beneath her lower lash line. “I look… like a different person,” Vee said quietly.

Masha’s expression flickered with uncertainty. “Is that bad?” she asked.

Vee finally turned away from the mirror and looked directly at Masha. “No,” Vee said firmly. “It’s not bad at all. I just didn’t expect to like it this much.”

Masha’s face split into a relieved grin. “So you do like it?” Masha pressed.

Vee looked back at the mirror, taking in the dark shadow, the sharp liner, the piercings that glinted against her lips and nose, the perfectly fitted sweater, and the star-patterned jeans. “I love it,” Vee said, her voice gaining confidence. “I love all of it.”

Masha let out a loud, happy exhale. “Oh thank god,” Masha said, clutching their chest dramatically.

Vee laughed and turned to face them fully. “You put this much effort into me,” Vee said softly. “How could I hate it?”

Masha’s cheeks went pink. Vee stepped closer and took Masha’s hands. “Thank you,” Vee said. “Really. For all of this.”

Masha squeezed her fingers. “You’re welcome,” she said.
For a long moment, they just stood there, hands intertwined, smiling at each other. Then Masha’s stomach let out an audible growl, breaking the silence.

Vee tilted her head. “Are you hungry?”

Masha groaned, dropping their forehead against Vee’s shoulder. “I didn’t eat lunch,” she mumbled into the fabric of the sweater.

Vee laughed and wrapped an arm around them, pulling them close. “Let’s get food then. My treat,” Vee offered.

Masha lifted their head, eyes bright. “Really?”

“Really,” Vee confirmed. “But I’m keeping this outfit.”

Masha grinned. “Of course! Hunter did make the sweater for you.”

They grabbed their jackets, and Vee caught one last glimpse of herself in the mirror as they headed for the door. The sharp wings, the piercings, the dark sweater, it was still a little surreal. Vee decided she wouldn’t mind looking like this a little more often.

As they stepped out into the cool evening air, Masha bumped their shoulder against Vee’s.

“So,” Masha said, “same time next week?”

“Shh! Shh! They’re coming!” Eda pulled the curtain back and turned to the gathering. The chatter and laughter died down. It had taken a bit of fast talking to convince Luz and Camila that what she they were doing was the traditional way to keep the people who were going to be married out of the way and to occupy their minds while everyone else set up the ceremony. It wasn’t a prank, not exactly. Amity and Luz had unknowingly avoided the tradition by eloping to Palm Stings. Hunter and Willow showed no signs of being in a hurry to get married.

Lilith and Gus rattled around in the kitchen, barely visible, while Amity and Luz were snuggled up on the sofa. Willow and Hunter stood by the door, hand in hand, talking with Hooty, who was behaving for once. Raine sat in the corner in an armchair, chatting with Camila, who was sitting on a clever folding fabric chair (a camp chair, she had called it). Raine had their hand resting on her forearm. Eda didn’t think that they noticed it was the same way that they would touch her when they talked with her. Eda looked down at her missing arm and hook hand and smiled; she was used to it now. Hooty opened the door, revealing Vee with her hand raised, just about to knock and Masha smiling at their bride-to-be.

Vee blinked both sets of eyelids when she saw everyone waiting for them. Masha just smiled and hugged Willow first because she was the closest to them. Hunter awkwardly held out a hand, human-style, but Vee just swept him into the hug with Masha and Willow. A few seconds later Luz and Amity glommed onto them and Hooty wrapped them all in coils.

“Okay! Okay! Break it up!” Eda shouted and the hug broke apart slowly. When everyone had been seated except Vee and Masha, she waved at them to speak.

“Um—I—we—” Vee stammered. Masha gazed at her red face, showing their gap-toothed smile.

They squeezed Vee’s hand and stepped forward slightly before announcing, “We’re ready. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Everyone had also been present at Camila’s house two weeks previously for their Human Realm wedding. That’s when Vee had pulled Eda aside and asked her if she and Masha could also get married in the Owl House. Eda had agreed without hesitation.

Now that Vee and Masha were here, though, Eda felt just a little bad about sending them off; they were so obviously eager. “Well, kid, it’s not like the Human Realm. You do have to get the approval of the Wedding Bird.” Eda was proud that she kept her voice calm and her face under control. For that matter, the only slight grin in the room was Camila’s. Everyone else was playing along.

“The Wedding Bird?” Vee asked, her eyebrows scrunching together. Masha, though, had rolled their eyes.

“Yep. You have to capture her and bring her back—” Eda stopped as Masha cut her off.

“Sounds like bullshit tradition to me,” Masha’s voice was calm, but also firm and unshakable. Eda loved them so much. They reminded her of Raine and how hard they were to move when they had made their mind up.

“Well, maybe, but think of it more like a wedding license. You had to get one of those, right?” Eda asked, glad that Luz had told her about them.

“Yeah,” Vee answered. “Where is this Wedding Bird? What does it look like?”

Gus and Lilith came in from the kitchen. Gus made a spell circle and a bird appeared in front of Vee. It looked solid and real; the kid (twenty-two was still a kid to Eda) was good.

The Wedding Bird he’d conjured matched the tales perfectly. A tall wading bird, up to Eda’s shoulders, with long, thick red legs and taloned, slightly webbed feet. Her plumage was iridescent white with shimmering pink and blue highlights. A deep red crest ran from her large bulbous head halfway down her back and matched the deep red colour of her spoon-shaped, flat beak. Gus had even included the glittering rings around the Wedding Bird’s legs, some plain gold and some encrusted with gems, that she was supposed to give to couples (and throuples and polycules. Eda glanced at Raine, then Camila) who didn’t have jewelry to exchange.

“I’ve never seen a bird like that,” Hunter said, then blushed when Eda shot him a dangerous glance. She couldn’t let him blow it.

“I heard that she was seen in the abandoned city on the knee, near the old tunnels that lead to Eclipse Lake.” Luz made a circle with her staff and a map appeared next to Gus’ image of the Wedding Bird. Vee and Masha both leaned forward to look as Amity showed them the location of the abandoned city. Luz hadn’t told Eda that she’d planned this and she wondered why Luz sent them there.

“Don’t go into the old mine tunnels. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff down there and some of them have collapsed,” Amity said, and laughed when Hunter made a sound of agreement.

“That seems like a good place to start.” Masha traced their finger on the map and it pulled back to a wide view of the Titan so they could see where the Owl House was in relation to it.

“Not too far by air,” Amity said. Luz broke the spell circle, causing the map to disappear with a pop. As soon as she had, the staff receded into Stringbean and the Palisman curled around Luz’s neck.

“Are you willing to let Masha borrow you for the day?” Luz asked her Palisman. Stringbean flicked Luz’s ear with her tongue and flew to Masha in response. Masha stroked the Palisman and she hissed again.

Luz grinned and said, “She said she wouldn’t let anything bad happen to you and that you’ve gotten much better at flying.”

Hunter whispered something to Willow and she put her hand on his chest. Eda glared at him again.

“You have to bring the Wedding Bird back here by sundown, so you’ve got about six hours. If you don’t find her by then, come back by sundown anyway. We’ll have dinner and you can try again in the morning.” Eda ruffled Vee’s hair then after just a moment, she did the same with Masha’s.

“Think you can find the city on the knee?” Luz asked.

Masha nodded. “Stringbean knows the way, and I’ll let her do the flying.” They stroked Stringbean who purred like a cat. Taking Vee’s hand, they went through the door that Hooty opened for them.

Stringbean grew her staff out again and Masha mounted while Vee changed into a large white bird with a long neck.

“Whoa! What sort of bird is that?” Eda asked. Lilith held her hand out toward Vee, who nodded her long neck at Lilith.

“It’s a swan,” Camila said, placing her hand on Eda’s arm just like Raine had placed their hand on Camila’s arm earlier. Eda jumped slightly because she hadn’t noticed Camila moving up behind her.

Lilith reached out a tentative hand and stroked Vee’s feathers. “They’re so soft. Thank you, Vee.” She bowed to the bird and Vee bowed her head again.

With a loud ‘Honk!’ Swan-Vee hunkered down, made a long ungainly run, and leapt into the air. Masha had mounted and paced her as she took off. When they’d cleared the tree line and were on their way toward the knee, Eda clapped her hand sharply.

“All right, we have a few hours. Let’s get this party ready for them.” She turned to Raine. “You’ll be ready to perform the ceremony when they get back?”

“I’ve been ready for years,” they whispered quietly to themselves, then answered louder, “I’m ready.”

“I wish I’d worn a thicker hoodie!” Masha shouted over the wind.

Vee turned her swan face toward Masha and honked once. Masha knew it was an agreement.

Both of them turned their faces up when a shadow passed over them. A griffin was speeding along, easily keeping up with them and turning its pigeon-shaped head back and forth trying to judge what they were. Vee veered off sharply and charged it aggressively even though she was much smaller. The griffin banked, but Vee had more maneuverability and swooped at its head. It squawked in alarm, blew out a haze of spiders which Vee simply absorbed by breathing them all in and absorbing their magic. The griffin squawked again and flew away at top speed in the same approximate direction they were travelling. Vee dived back down to Masha’s side and rejoined them.

“Nice. So how does magical spider griffin breath taste!?” Masha shouted and laughed at Vee’s answering honk.

They made the rest of the journey to the abandoned city with no trouble. As they landed, a flock of five griffins took off from a huge nest in the distance from the other edge of the city, joining the one that had fled from Vee earlier. The nest looked like it may have been in a burnt out stadium or amphitheater. Vee face-planted her landing trying to watch the griffins.

“Ow!” she said, changing back to her human form and rubbing her chin. She pulled Masha into her arms and held them to warm them up. Stringbean changed into a purplish cat and sat around Masha’s neck.

Vee leaned in to kiss Masha, but they held up a hand. “Spiders?” they asked.

“Spiders were good. They were mostly magic, honestly.” Vee leaned in to kiss Masha again, but Masha stepped back.

“Mostly?” they asked.

“Well, some crunchy bits?” Vee laughed.

“Nuh uh, no kisses until you brush your teeth.” Masha giggled as Vee chased them with her lips puckered. The game went on for almost a minute before Masha tripped over a fallen block of stone and sent Stringbean flying through the air. She landed on her feet in cat form and cleaned her paw like she’d never been doing anything else.

“Ow!” Masha rubbed their ankle and shin.

“You okay?” Vee rushed toward them and helped them up.

“Yeah, I’ll be okay.” They leaned on Vee as they walked toward a burned-out husk of a building that must have been a store or a restaurant and sat on the curb outside it. Stringbean rubbed their non-injured ankle with her head. Masha laughed and scratched Stringbean-cat’s head while she purred.

“So… what is this all really about?” Vee asked, looking around.

“Pffft,” Masha scoffed. “It’s obvious that it’s a snipe hunt and they were just trying to get rid of us. It’s either a prank or they’re just trying to keep us out of the way while they finish preparations.” They stood up with Vee’s aid and took a step. “I’m okay; it’s just going to be bruised.”

“So you don’t think there really is a Wedding Bird?”Vee asked.

Masha shook their head. “Nah. But the way that Luz sent us here, maybe she left something here for us? A present or something? Does that seem like something Luz would do? She seemed really confident about it.”

Vee blinked and looked around. “Hmm, maybe.” She took Masha’s hand and together they walked through the city. Vee’s nose twitched as she sniffed.

“There’s a lot of old magic here,” Vee said. “But it’s all really old and stale. I smell something… animal over there; it smells a lot like chickens.” She pointed and led Masha through the ruins.

“What do you think happened here?” Masha asked.

Both of them stopped and stared at the buildings. To Vee, it looked like some of the photographs of cities that had been bombed that she’d seen in history class with signs of fire and crumbled buildings. It was hard to tell how old the ruins were, but there was no sign that any witches or demons lived there. Vee sniffed again, but she shook her head and sighed.

“I don’t know. Lilith would know if anyone, or maybe Amity. She’s taken to exploring places like this and she’s finding all sorts of old books. She found a book that described first-hand how Belos came to power. It was scary because the way she read it, it was just like what’s happening at home right now.” Vee sighed.

“Yeah. It sucks, but we’ve got each other and we won’t give up without a fight.” Masha dug in their pocket and pulled out a mint. They handed it to Vee, who crunched it up.

“That’s good enough for me.” Masha leaned in and kissed her. They expected Vee to relax, but she stiffened in Masha’s arms.

Vee pulled her lips barely back from Masha’s. She whispered urgently, “The Wedding Bird is at the corner.”

“Ha ha ha,” Masha whispered back and leaned their head forward to kiss Vee again. Before they could, Vee turned them slowly but firmly around.

The Wedding Bird was standing about a hundred feet away at the next intersection. It looked sort of like the illusion that Gus had produced.

Except…

It wasn’t a bird. It was a fucking dinosaur. Nearly seven feet tall, sickle-taloned, huge muscular legs, no webbed feet, slashing beak instead of a spoonbill. Gus had gotten the feathers and crest right, though. The gold and silver rings around her right leg and the… the… bejeweled golden tiara she wore proclaimed her The Wedding Bird without a doubt.

She turned her head to peer at them, just like an eagle would have (or a Deinonychus, or a Utahraptor, Masha thought to themselves). Masha and Vee were both frozen; Vee’s breath in Masha’s ear was the only sound until the Wedding Bird extended her neck and roared. Masha had expected it to sound like a hawk or an eagle, but it was a low rumbling growl that reminded them uncomfortably of a lion or a… crocodile… that’s what it was, it was a crocodilian roar.

The Wedding Bird took a step toward them. The rings on her leg rattled, even over the roaring.

Vee pushed past Masha and stood in front of her. A second later, she was an elephant. Stringbean flew up onto her head and changed into a honey badger. Vee trumpeted and Stringbean growled at the Wedding Bird, who stopped roaring, turned her head this way and that, then turned and ran… like an ostrich, or a horse, or a… a… dinosaur. She was a dinosaur. The primal fight or flight response made Masha’s legs jelly, but they still had their voice.

“Wait! Wait! We’re here to get married!” Masha shouted after it, then reconsidered. Did they really want a giant, raptor-like dinosaur to think about them in any way? The Wedding Bird slid to a stop at the next intersection. She looked at them with avian head twitches again and this time she shrieked. It was a strange laughing call and it made Masha think less of an eagle and more of a seagull. They laughed along with the Wedding Bird’s shrieks in spite of their fear.

Vee shrank to her human form and took Masha’s shaking hand. The Wedding Bird just stared at them. Stringbean, still in her honey badger form, growled as she levitated by Vee’s head.

“Why did she just stop?” Vee asked.

“I think…” Masha couldn’t think clearly, only teeth and talons filled their thoughts. The word ‘disemboweled’ made her shiver. But they steeled themselves. “I think she wants us to follow her.” Masha made one foot move, then the other. Vee held them back for only a moment before taking a step with them. Another step. The Wedding Bird kept craning her neck and watching them. When they got within fifty feet, she ran to the next intersection and shrieked at them again. Cautiously, they followed her through the town.

“Notice that nothing else is moving?” Masha whispered.

“Yeah. I haven’t heard or seen anything since she appeared.” Vee kept her eyes on the Wedding Bird. No other birds sang or insects chirped. There was only the slight stir of a breeze. They both jumped when the Wedding Bird ran off again, the rings on her leg rattling musically. They followed her through two more intersections, out of the burnt husk of the town, and into an overgrown path that quickly grew wooded.

“Something’s answering her calls,” Vee whispered. Masha stopped in their tracks.

“What?” they asked.

“I can hear something answering her at a distance, coming from the way we’re going.” Vee squeezed Masha’s hand. “I think we should turn back.”

Masha turned Vee to face them, took them by the other hand and asked, “Do you think she wants to hurt us?”

Vee shook her head.

Masha squeezed her hands again. “Look, I’m scared. So scared it’s hard to talk, but we can fly out of here if we need to, right?” Honey-badger-Stringbean flicked a tongue at Masha’s ear in assent. “Let’s keep going. I think she wants to show us something.”

Vee sighed, but nodded. She impulsively kissed Masha on the cheek. “But if I say go, you get on Stringbean and fly back to the Owl House. I’ll hold her off and then fly away when I can.”

Masha nodded, released one of Vee’s hands and followed the Wedding Bird. Two more turnings of the path and Masha could hear what Vee had: the shriek of the Wedding Bird, the answering piping calls of something else. One last sharp turn and an opening appeared into the side of the hill. The calls came from inside it. The Wedding Bird didn’t wait and ran directly into the cave.

“Luz said we shouldn’t go into the caves.” Vee tugged on Masha’s hand as Masha made to follow.

Masha took out their cell phone, checked the battery and turned on the flashlight. “Maybe we’ll just pop in and take a look, but I don’t want to go out of sight of the cave opening. We don’t have a ball of yarn.”

“I don’t know…” Vee’s hands shook. “I smell something bad in there… like decaying meat, maybe?”

Earlier she’d calmed Masha’s nerves, but now it was Masha’s turn to calm hers. “I got you, boo. I won’t let anything happen to you. Also, we’ve got a loaded Stringbean and Luz has been teaching me the basics. I can at least blast something and fly away.”

With a flick of her tongue and a hiss, Stringbean turned into a staff and fell into Masha’s hands.

“Okay, but if we lose sight of the entrance we turn back. Or if I don’t like what we see. I can absorb a lot of magic, but there are physical limits. Okay?” Vee’s hand was sweaty in Masha’s.

“Okay,” Masha agreed.

Hand in hand they stepped into the cave and Masha panned the light from their cell phone around, then smiled and produced two large light orbs from the staff in their other hand. The light filled the cave.

The Wedding Bird sat not far from the entrance on a nest. It looked remarkably like the nest that Eda slept in (Masha had snuck into her room and looked once). High-pitched peeping, chirping and shrieking drew their eyes down and they saw the creatures that had answered the Wedding Bird. Chicken-sized copies of the Wedding Bird surrounded them, trying to imitate the Wedding Bird’s earlier roaring. Broken egg bits littered the floor, as did bones of small animals. The smell was the droppings all over the floor. The Wedding Bird watched them from her nest; she didn’t seem concerned that they were going to hurt what could only have been her chicks.

“I lost count. At least twenty?” Vee whispered.

“Yeah, I think so.” Masha bent over to touch one of the chicks and the Wedding Bird was suddenly alert. Moving slowly, Masha let one climb into their hand. It pecked at their arm. “I think they’re hungry.”

“What do Wedding Bird chicks eat?” Vee asked nervously.

Masha knelt and looked at the bones. The chick in their arms leapt out. “I would say anything they could catch or maybe that mama could catch..” They didn’t mention the fairy wings they saw littered around the floor of the cave.

Masha stood up and turned to address the Wedding Bird. “Is this a quest? Do we need to do something for you?”

The Wedding Bird turned her head back and forth between Masha and the chicks several times and screeched once gently. Stringbean released from her staff and flew to the Wedding Bird, who watched her warily. With a pop, Stringbean changed to look like Vee, then a copy of the Wedding Bird (the bird blinked at Stringbean twice), then she changed to a copy of the chicks and pecked at something. The Wedding Bird blinked at her again and screeched softly. Stringbean flew back to Masha and hissed at them.

“Goddess,” Masha whispered. “I can understand her.”

“What?” Vee asked, putting her hands on her face. She was so cute when she was confused.

“I can understand Stringbean. She said they’re hungry and the Queen wants food for the chicks. It’s a test for you. I’m supposed to stay here and clean the cave. Why did I get stuck cleaning?” Masha put their hand under Stringbean’s belly and nuzzled her with their cheek.

“Are you sure it’s safe here? Would you rather take the chicks out to look for food? Maybe I can protect them better? How will you clean the cave?” Vee looked around at the mess of shells, bones and droppings.

“Stringbean will help me. She says she can show me how. I’m going to get to do more than just blasting shit with fireballs!” Masha’s excitement grew.

“I guess I’ll take them to that griffin nest and see if there’s any eggs there?” Vee sounded doubtful. “I hate that they may be… I just don’t…”

“It’s the cycle of nature, love.” Masha hugged Vee. “They’re predators—”

“So am I,” Vee said in a whisper and Masha knew that Vee was thinking about how she could destroy almost anything magical here.

“But you have sapience to make the choice not to. They don’t have that choice, or maybe they do and it’s just their nature. Eda would eat a wild griffin egg, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with letting the chicks eat them. Would you rather have them starve?”

“No, I can do this.” Vee got that determined look on her face; the one that Masha had grown to love. The one that said she was scared, but going to push her boundaries.

“All right, chickies, follow me!” Vee blurred and she was a slightly smaller copy of the Wedding Bird. The Wedding Bird in her nest sat up straight, extended her neck out and hissed at the chicks. They looked from her to Vee and back twice but when Vee raced off, they followed her chirping wildly.

Vee led the chicks out of the cave and down the rubble-strewn streets of the city. The Wedding Bird shape was fast. Flying and running like this always felt freeing to Vee; she thought sometimes it was from growing up in a cage. Looking behind her for a second to make sure the chicks were following, she almost tripped on a pile of bricks. The chicks were far behind; they just couldn’t keep up and she was running too fast for her own safety, so she slowed down to let the chicks catch up. They surrounded her, cheeping and growling adorably. They were cute where the Wedding Bird queen was beautiful or maybe handsome or terrifying, yeah, beautiful and terrifying both.

Vee walked this time, measuring the pace of the chicks. She wondered idly if chickens in the human realm could run this fast or if these chicks were more like velociraptors. It didn’t take long to get to the nest. It really was an abandoned stadium of some sort. A tall metal pole still stood at one end, the set of bleachers on the far side was largely still intact, but the ones on the side closest to Vee had collapsed.

She approached the rubble slowly, looking for a path through it. The musky smell of wild griffins came from it, as did the odor of magic: strong magic, more than just whatever magic they used to breathe spiders or fly. It smelled a lot like when Willow made plants bloom or Gus made an especially good illusion. Vee could never fully describe it to anyone else.

Picking her way through the fallen bleachers, Vee approached the playing field. She had expected overgrown weeds and flowers, but the griffins had trampled it flat around a huge, communal nest in the far end of the field opposite the metal pole. She stopped and blinked in surprise at the sight. The griffins were… dancing. Their eyes flicked toward her and the chicks and they paused, but then continued Vee thought that because they were so much larger that the griffins didn’t consider Vee or the chicks as threats.

The larger of the two lifted its tail straight up like a happy cat and spread out the feathers on it. (Vee idly wondered if males or females were larger, or if griffins had more than two sexes; she’d ask Viney next time she saw her). In the sunlight, the grey feathers of the griffin turned iridescent and shimmered in blues and pinks, very similar to the sheen of the Wedding Bird’s feathers.

Vee looked down at the chicks. They were standing, almost totally motionless, heads up and beaks open. Their throats were working like they were swallowing something. The magic around her thickened and she looked up. The smaller griffin had raised its tail and spread its tail feathers too, mirroring the larger one. They spun in a huge circle and stepped toward each other, then back. Each time they stepped forward they rubbed their necks together and cooed like giant pigeons. Vee realized suddenly that this was a mating ritual. She looked down at the chicks, who were still standing beaks open.

Vee closed her eyes and opened her other senses. Magic seethed around her: ambient magic from the ruined city, old, stale, and… evil. Something evil had happened there, but long ago and only residue remained. She also sensed the everyday magic that had been there in the past and the background magic from the Titan. It was weaker than when she’d been hatched, but growing stronger as King came into his powers.

But there was also the thick magic she had felt. It emanated from the field, from the griffins mating dance. Vee opened her mouth to taste it, unconsciously imitating the chicks. Love filled her. She felt her love for Masha so strongly it hurt; Masha accepted her for everything she was. A different sort of love was also there: familial for Mom, Luz and her basilisk siblings. Another sort was there for Ethan and Pol from Cabin Seven and the friends she had made there and in the Human Realm. But Masha’s love covered it all.

She concentrated and felt the animal love between the griffins. This wasn’t just two mindless animals mating; they loved each other with a bond just as strong as the one between her and Masha. She tasted it again and it filled her, fed her. The chicks were feeding on it, also, feeding on the magic of the griffins’ love. She and the chicks stood there, mouths open, feeding while the griffins danced. Vee didn’t know how long they stood there. Suddenly, the dance was done and the griffins walked together side by side to the far end of the field by the pole. They ran almost the entire length of the field before they took flight, spinning and circling each other as they rose. They swooped down and made a low pass over where Vee stood with the chicks and breathed. Spiders fell from the sky in a rain of magic. It wasn’t an attack, it was something else that Vee couldn’t define.

The chicks ran crazily sucking up the magic from the spiders, as well as eating the physical spiders, just as Vee had earlier when she had been a swan. She only took a little of the magic, just enough to replace what she’d spent changing forms and let the chicks have the rest. With two last, loud calls the griffins flew off. The feeling of love and magic went with them. Vee blinked again; she’d been lost in thinking about Masha’s lips on hers and their arms around her. The chicks were nuzzling Vee’s legs and peeping. Love came from them, too, directed toward Vee. Was Vee a Wedding Bird auntie now?

She tried to roar like the queen Wedding Bird but only ululated oddly, but the chicks seemed to understand. Vee led them back through the ruined city slowly. The chicks were larger, almost turkey-sized now. They must be like her; they required magic to live and thrive, but physical food reduced that need. They waddled after her. This time she had to watch them more sharply as they tended to drift off if she didn’t herd them with her. One of them fell asleep and she lifted it onto her back gently with her beak. Its talons gripped and dug in, but she bore it. It was warm and the love it was emanating filled her and fed her in a different way. She saw the smoke from the cave long before she got there and started hurrying along, but when she arrived, she saw Masha had it all under control. A huge pile of debris had been cleared from the cave and sat outside the entrance with a stream of greyish water running from the cave. Masha had started a small fire with some of the flammable rubble.

“How?” Vee tried to ask, but only a shrieking came from her. She shifted to her human shape. The bird that had clung to her back was now tangled in her hair and peeping insistently. She untangled it and sat it next to its kin. They all ran off into the cave through the water toward their mother’s calls.

“How?” Vee tried to ask again, but Masha was in her arms and kissing her.

When they pulled back, they said, “I remembered the labors of Hercules.”

“What?” Vee asked, confused.

“You remember. When Hercules had to clean the Stables of Whatever, he just lifted up a river and ran it through the whole thing? I used Stringbean and pressure washed the F out of that cave.” They waved at the rubble. “We’ll have to come back later and take care of this, but I separated off what could be burned.”

“Where is Stringbean?” Vee asked. If anything happened to her, Luz would never forgive either of them.

“She’s talking with the Wedding Bird. She says that Wedding Bird is pleased with me.” Masha tossed their hair and struck a pose. “But I’m not surprised; most people like me.”

Vee laughed.

“How about you?” Masha took her hand and led her into the cave.

“Well, I discovered I can feed on the magic of love,” Vee said nonchalantly.

“What?” Masha asked, lifting their hands to their face like Vee did when Vee was confused.

Vee told them about her trip and the griffins’ mating dance and feeling the love. “It’s like that song from The Lion King. I really could feel the love tonight.”

The Wedding Bird was cleaning each of her chicks in turn while Vee and Masha spoke. Stringbean was shaped like the Queen in miniature and was helping the Queen groom the chicks. When they were done cleaning them, Stringbean changed to her normal shape, flew to Masha’s shoulder and hissed at them. The Wedding Bird rose and bowed her head to them. She made calls that sounded more like the griffins’ cooing than any calls she had made earlier.

“I think she’s thanking us?” Masha asked. Stringbean flicked a tongue at them. “Stringbean says yes.”

“We would like your blessing to wed,” Masha held out her hand to the Wedding Bird. She turned her head this way and that at Masha’s hand, then rose from her nest. The chicks chirped excitedly, sensing something was happening. After she had stood, the Wedding Bird bowed her head to Masha.

“What?” Vee asked. The Wedding Bird bowed to her also, then ran past them out of the cave with the chicks following her in. She stopped at the entrance and waited for them.

“Where are we going now?” Vee asked. She tugged Masha’s hand and they followed.

“I think back to the Owl House?” they asked Stringbean, who nodded enthusiastically. The sun was low in the sky, but there was still plenty of time before it set. Stringbean shifted to staff form. Masha put out the fire with a gush of water then sand to make sure. They mounted and Vee shifted to a swan again.

With a wailing, Dopplered shriek, the Wedding Bird ran off through the city. Vee ran after her and took flight with Masha on her tail.

Camila had ended up taking charge of the preparations with Emira as her lieutenant. That girl had a gift for organization and command that made everything flow just right. If chairs needed to be set up, Emira knew just the person (he had been idling in the corner talking to his girlfriend, Willow) to get it done. This had also freed up Willow so Emira could talk to her about what type and color of flowers were needed and where they were to go.

Edric, Katya and Amber had been sent to the kitchens to help Lilith. Luz and Amity were… making out in the corner. Camila started to walk toward them to refocus them on getting the tables set and ready for the reception, but Emira was already heading there. Instead, Camila went into the Owl House in search of Eda and Raine. The first few times she’d come here with Luz she’d been terrified, but after coming to the Owl House on her own to visit (and drink too much Apple Blood and rum), she’d relaxed. Now she visited twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays, ostensibly to see Luz, but just as often she only visited Eda and Raine.

Camila found the two of them in Eda’s bedroom arguing gently over Eda’s dress. Camila watched them from the doorway, enjoying their banter.

“That’s cut way too low,” Raine said, pointing to the bust of Eda’s bright red dress.

“The only one who’ll be looking at me is you,” Eda told them. Camila laughed to herself. She’d be looking also. Respectfully.

“I don’t think that’s true at all. I know at least one other person who will—”

“Her daughter’s getting married; she’s going to be too busy to look.” Eda grinned at Raine, then bent down to kiss them. She was so tall, so protective. Raine saw Camila in the doorway when they pulled away.

“Been there long?” they asked quietly.

Camila answered with a non-answer. “Your bustline is fine. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” She felt the heat rise in her cheeks. They’d teased each other before, but this felt like a different line to cross.

“See?” Eda asked, took two steps and hugged Camila to her. “She says it’s fine, so it’s fine.”

Raine threw their hands up. “Okay, okay, you win.”

“I always do,” Eda said over Camila’s head. Her bosom was soft and warm and her arms around Camila were distracting her from why she had come up here.

“Sun’s going to be down soon. They should be back any moment.” Her voice was muffled by Eda’s hug. Eda released her.

“Yeah, we owe it to your kids to do right by them. I’m still sad we didn’t get to do this for Luz and Amity.” Eda took Camila’s hand and Raine took her other hand. When they passed the kitchen, Edric was finishing up something in a cauldron.

“Where’s Lily?” Eda asked him.

“She’s outside getting all the food tables prepped and making sure that King doesn’t lick all the frosting off the cake.” He held up his spoon and watched the way the viscous liquid dripped off it. Camila didn’t really want to know what it was.

“Awesome, make sure to be outside for the wedding yourself, Blight brother.” Eda always called him that and he always laughed, like he was doing now.

Camila, Raine and Eda found out that Emira had finished up the last touches. Pink flowers were interspersed on vines with deep purple ones. Camila knew it was meant to be Vee and Masha. Only a few people saw beyond Masha’s ‘Emo’ exterior to the person inside.

“I’ve got to go fix that,” Camila said, pointing to the flowers. She squeezed Raine’s hand first, then Eda’s. Both of them responded with answering squeezes. It took her a moment to get to Willow and explain, but Willow just smiled and the purple blooms disappeared and were replaced seconds later with yellow flowers that made Camila think of daffodils. She knew Masha would like them much better.

She circulated amongst the guests, making sure to talk to the other basilisks (three of them now, one more had come out of hiding) to make sure they were comfortable. It was taking a while for some of the witches to accept basilisks living amongst them. The low sun had just made Camila’s mind up for her to go ask Eda if they should go out looking when noises came from the trees. Birds were flying up from them and cawing and the trees themselves were rustling.

Eda and Amity responded faster than anyone else and stood at the treeline with their staffs out. Luz stood behind Amity with a handful of glyphs readied; as King’s magic grew, she had rediscovered them along with him. The noises came closer and now Camila could see two specks in the sky. With the sun behind her, she could see Vee as a swan and Masha on Stringbean’s staff. They were flying fast, maybe as fast as Vee could and definitely as fast Camila would have comfortable flying.

“They’ll be here in a few seconds!” Masha shouted as they landed behind Luz.

Stringbean immediately changed to her snakey form and flew to Luz’s shoulders. She hissed loudly at her.

“They found her!” Luz shouted at the same time Masha shouted, “We found her!”

Swan-Vee landed and immediately changed to her basilisk shape, but before she could open her mouth, Eda was shouting.

“What?” Eda had just enough time to ask before a swarm of turkey-sized birds came rushing from the treeline with a huge… dinosaur running behind them.

Camila realized the Wedding Bird was a dinosaur, wearing a tiara and with rings on her legs, but still a huge dinosaur. Eda raised her staff, but Masha swatted it down.

“No! Don’t hurt them!” Vee slithered up next to Masha.

The chicks arrived first… ¡Madre de Dios! They were just down-covered chicks. They swarmed around Vee, Masha, Luz, Eda and Amity. Luz was the first to reach down and touch one. As she stroked its neck, it lifted its head and cawed. Amity knelt next to Luz and stroked another one.

The Wedding Bird herself walked slowly and carefully up to where her chicks were gathered, but then she saw something and walked past them to King, who had just come out of the Owl House. He held out his paw (hand? Camila used both and King seemed okay with both) to the Wedding Bird. She dipped her head and then, with a crash, went down on her knee and bowed to him. It made her think of the time she’d ridden a camel at a fair and it had allowed her to mount.

King put his paw on her head, touched her tiara wonderingly, and she rose in a swift motion. With a roaring, she called her chicks to her.

“We found her!” Vee said to a wide-eyed, mouth-opened Eda.

“But it’s just a story,” Eda wailed. Raine bowed to the Wedding Bird. She bowed back to them.

Stringbean hissed in Luz’s ear.

“Tell her about the tasks, the quests,” Masha told the small shapeshifter.

Stringbean stopped to glare at Masha before hissing at them.

Masha held up their hands in placation to Stringbean. “Sorry, I know you were just about to tell her.”

“Wait, you can understand her?” Luz asked.

“I can.” Masha nodded.

“How?” Luz asked, looking from them to Stringbean and then at the Wedding Bird, who was nosing at Raine while they stroked her crest. Luz repeated, “How?”

“I wish I knew.” Masha hugged Luz. “Maybe it’s because we’re in-laws now; I don’t know. Or maybe it was a quest reward, like in a video game.”

The chicks swarmed the food tables, jumping up on them and scattering canapés as they devoured anything they could get their claws and beaks on. Lilith tried to herd them away, but they squawked at her and Vee was running to protect them. The Wedding Bird butted Raine with her head and herded them toward Eda. They walked to her with a grace that belied them having a dinosaur pushing them.

“You okay, Rainstorm?” Eda asked, meeting the avian stare of the Wedding Bird.

“I’m okay,” they replied. When they took Eda’s hand, the Wedding Bird turned her head this way and that, seeming unsure. An angry squawk from one of her chicks made her spin away. Three great strides and she was pushing the chick away from the cake. She didn’t seem to mind them eating any of the other food, but she was stopping them from eating the cake.

Stringbean kept hissing in Luz’s ear while Luz’s eyes kept getting wider and wider. Camila tried to watch everything, but her gaze kept coming back to the Wedding Bird. She had wandered off and was nosing at Hunter and Willow now but merely blinked at them when they bowed to her.

“She’s gathering up couples who should be married, I think,” Camila said. She wondered what it was about Eda and Raine that said they were ready, but Hunter and Willow still weren’t. Camila looked at Eda’s and Raine’s intertwined hands and sighed. It was time to do what they’d come here to do.

“All right! ¡Escúchenme!” The hubbub kept going. Chicks wandered through the crowd eating and cawing. Edric Blight was feeding one a sweet tamal that Vee had especially asked for. Lilith was protecting the cake from two of the chicks and Emira was desperately trying to chase the rest away from the catering tables. Camila turned at Eda’s hook on her shoulder.

“I got this, Cam.” A shiver and Eda was in her harpy form.

“Shut up!” Eda shouted. Her voice carried over all the noise; Camila saw the spell circle that Raine was surreptitiously making on their side to amplify her voice, but Eda really, really, really hadn’t needed it.

Every face turned to her: witch, demon, human, avian, dinosaur, basilisk. Camila thought even the trees were quivering and paying attention to Eda (she knew she was quivering and paying attention). Eda shifted back and patted Camila’s shoulder with her hook.

“Gracias, mamita.” Camila froze. She’d just blurted it out. Eda didn’t seem to notice.

“You’ve got their attention,” Eda stage-whispered, but her voice was still being amplified by Raine’s spell and everyone laughed.

“Let’s do what we came here to do.” Camila pointed at Masha then Vee. “Go get changed, and I mean in clothes, not just shapeshifted or using Concealment Stones.”

She pointed to the Wedding Bird. “Gather up your chicks. Stop eating the appetizers. We’ll need them for after and there will be plenty to share.” The Wedding Bird blinked at her in what Camila could only think was astonishment at being addressed like that.

“Edric, Emira, go help Lilith get things cleaned up. Amity and Luz, go help your sister and Masha.” Camila was back on her game. Everyone scrambled to follow her orders and pretty quickly the party was back to order.

King, Vee’s basilisk siblings, and the Wedding Bird kept the chicks corralled while Viney and Skara made a trip to Bonesborough to bring back more food for them. Between the Blights and Lilith the food tables were (mostly) made presentable again. Raine and Eda ran errands and acted as go-betweens from Camila and anyone who needed direction. Camila saw Eda’s smile at letting someone else take charge and also noticed Raine’s appreciative glances at her. Their stare shook her to her core just like Eda’s did.

Skara and Viney returned, riding griffins. They had some sort of huge slab of meat over each of the griffins’ saddlebags (Camila didn’t want to know what the meat was). A pale form flew close behind them with three other tiny pale dots flying alongside it. It was almost dark now and the low sun behind her made them a blur, but as they got closer she saw.

“¡Dios mío!” It – no, she –was bat-winged, taloned, and mostly just face. Lank black hair spilled from her head. The Wedding Bird must have spotted her also, because she roared at the flying Demon.

“Calm yourself!” the Demon yelled down to the Wedding Bird and the dinosaur shut her mouth. Her chicks gathered around her, calling nervously.

Eda flexed her legs, leapt into the air and was in her harpy form again. She flew up to meet the Demon as Viney and Skara landed near the edge of the clearing. Eda was talking to the Demon in the air. Now that they were closer, Camila could see that they were bat wings and the smaller dots were miniature ones, probably her children. She could only be the Bat Queen that Luz had told her about.

“Make some room, Cam!” Eda shouted down. Emira was there at Camila’s side helping her move tables so the Bat Queen could land. When Camila bowed to her respectfully, she saw King and the Wedding Bird doing the same.

“Wasn’t expecting you,” Eda said as she landed and changed to her normal shape.

“I heard the call of the Wedding Bird again.” The Bat Queen had a beautiful, soft voice with an accent that Camila had never heard from a Demon before. It was a voice that brooked no nonsense; a voice that was used to command. “I haven’t heard her call in hundreds, maybe a thousand years.”

Eda stepped up next to Camila and took her hand. Camila didn’t think her heart could beat faster than it had been, but it proved her wrong.

“Her kid and her kid’s partner are here for a second wedding after being married in the Human Realm.” Eda waved her hook at the Owl House. “We sent them off to find the Wedding Bird, but they actually found her. Camila’s kids are good at finding secrets here.”

The Bat Queen turned the full weight of her stare on Camila. Without Eda’s hand, Camila thought she would have been shaking.

“You are the mother of Luz the human? I see the resemblance. You raised a good girl.” A long wing reached out to stroke Camila’s cheek and it was warm and soft. The Bat Queen’s good graces felt amazing; maybe it was something telepathic also?

“Thank you. My other daughter is amazing, too. I am honored to meet you; Luz told me about your trials and your adorable children.” She grinned at the children peeking out at her from behind the Bat Queen’s legs.

“I must speak with Erosavia, if you please?” The Bat Queen started to turn away.

“Your name is Erosavia?” Camila asked the Wedding Bird, who turned her head this way and that, then made a small chirp: such a tiny sound from such a large creature. Everyone who heard it knew it was ‘yes.’

“It’s a lovely name, Erosavia.” Camila bowed again to her and tugged Eda until she did also. When she straightened up (if she ever had been straight, she didn’t think so anymore) she tugged Eda away toward Raine and left the Bat Queen talking with King and Erosavia. It struck Camila that they were all royalty of a sort. She looked to the stars that were just starting to peek out and thought of the Collector.

“What do you think they’re talking about?” Camila asked Raine.

They took Camila’s other hand and they all stared at the tableau. King stood in between the Bat Queen and Erosavia. He seemed to understand the chirps from Erosavia because he nodded along with them sometimes.

“I think King may have just been adopted by two more mothers,” Eda whispered just loud enough for Camila and Raine and no one else.

Camila thought Eda sounded jealous. She lifted a hand to caress Eda’s cheek. “If Luz can have two moms in two different worlds, King can have three here.” Camila watched emotions play over Eda: jealousy, love, concern, then love. Eda shifted her gaze to Camila and love remained. From the corner of her eye Camila saw Erosavia regarding them again with avian head tilts.

She had just started to say something to Eda when Hooty slammed open the door of the Owl House and shrieked, “Here they come!”

Vee blinked both sets of eyelids as she exited the Owl House with Masha on her arm. She’d expected it to be darker, but someone had lit torches along the perimeter and balls of light from glyphs floated above the throng. Mamá stood with Eda and Raine, watching Masha and her. The Demon with the Wedding Bird and King caught her eye; she had to be the Bat Queen. She looked down at Masha’s elbow digging into her side.

“I see her, too, but Luz said she’s okay.” Masha was gracefully resplendent in a black and yellow tuxedo that Hunter had made for them under Camila’s guidance. Black pants and jacket with bright yellow lining that matched the vest under it. A classic black silk tie with a gold tie-tack that had belonged to Manny’s father and a yellow pocket square that had belonged to Mamá’s abuelo rounded it out. Mamá had wanted Masha to wear heels, but Masha had adamantly resisted and instead wore shiny black oxfords.

Vee knew how strange she looked in her hybrid wedding dress. She wore a traditional veil (that Mamá had worn at her wedding) and a human-style wedding dress over the upper part of her body. She had left the lower half unadorned so she could move properly. The only ornamentation there was the ring through her tail that she’d never been able to remove.

Masha elbowed her again and they walked through the gathering to where King stood with the Wedding Bird and the Bat Queen.

“I thought we were going to get married by Raine, but it looks like we’re going to get married by royalty and a god instead,” Masha whispered to Vee, who gulped and nodded.

King stepped out to meet them and took their hands in his. Vee looked down at her brother (Half-brother? Adopted brother? Step-brother? All that really mattered was he was family).

He swallowed and gathered his nerve. “I know this isn’t how you planned it, but Erosavia, uh, that’s the Wedding Bird’s name, asked me to do this. I guess she thinks it’s, I don’t know, more special if I do.”

“What the Titan binds shall never be unbound, what Erosavia blesses will stay blessed for eternity.” Vee didn’t know what she expected the Bat Queen to sound like, but it wasn’t this powerful voice of command with an accent she couldn’t place. The Bat Queen stepped up next to King and Erosavia did the same on his other side. They both dwarfed him in size, but King radiated a majesty of his own that belied his size and appearance.

Raine handed King a note; he glanced down at it and smiled.

“We are—” he stopped at the sound of his amplified voice. Raine was doing their trick with a spell circle. King gathered himself again.

“We are here today to bond these two in matrimony. Already they have wed in the Human Realm and now they seek to be wed here in my realm.” A buzz passed through everyone at the words, ‘my realm.’ “A blessed day for them and also a blessed day for us, as they have rediscovered the Wedding Bird, Erosavia, and once again true love walks this land. A long healing process is coming to a close and with their wedding will come a new era for the Isles.”

Vee looked at Masha. Had they really done that? Masha was staring wide-eyed at the Bat Queen, who was smiling at them.

“Where hatred once ruled the land disguised as love, now love shall rule this land. I name the Bat Queen, Raine Whispers, and Edalyn Clawthorne as my ambassadors at large until I am of age and grown into my complete power. It is time to uncover the truth.”

“I am the Titan of the Isles. My father’s body provides the land you walk on. His bones and blood powered the land’s magic, but now mine will. HIs body is the building blocks of all this and now his power runs through me.”

Some of the gathered gasped. Not everyone there knew that King was a Titan, the Titan. Now it was out and there was no putting it back.

“But that is secondary to today’s celebration. Let it be known that my sister Vee Noceda, by birth a basilisk and resident of the Boiling Isles, created as an instrument of destruction by Belos, and by choice daughter of Camila Noceda and sister to Luz Noceda, is to be wed to Masha Chumak, resident of the Human Realm. Vee shows that your creation is not your destiny. She has more honest love in her than anyone I’ve ever met. I don’t know Masha as well, but I look forward to seeing them share their life with Vee. Anyone that Vee loves so much has to be a good person.”

“Vee Noceda, do you voluntarily bind yourself to Masha Chumak for all your life? Do you vow to honor and love them? Do you vow to protect them as you would yourself?”

Vee blinked. These weren’t the vows they’d written. She saw magic swirling between King and Erosavia and a lesser tendril of the magic swirling around the Bat Queen. She had a feeling these vows were going to be magically binding and she found she didn’t mind at all; she’d already known they would be bound for life. She was sure. She’d been unsure about so much for so long, frightened and scared, small and timid until she’d found her family with Camila and Luz and love with Masha. She knew this was what she wanted.

“I do so vow.” She bowed her head to King. Erosavia surged forward, mouth gaping wide. Vee stood stock still, confident that Erosavia wouldn’t hurt her. Erosavia’s jaws closed around the ring on Vee’s tail and, with a crunch, it shattered. Vee gaped. Masha gasped. No one had been able to remove the ring: no human torch or saw, no demon’s or witch’s magic. Amity and Alador had tried all they knew but it had been impervious. Erosavia stood and opened her mouth. Vee just managed to catch the plain gold band that dropped from it. The rings on Erosavia’s legs rattled and a second ring appeared on her tongue. Masha caught that one deftly as it fell out.

“Let the bonds of your old life be broken. New bonds forged between you and Masha. By my will, the will of my ambassadors and the will of Erosavia, let it be so.” The magic swirling around King, Erosavia and the Bat Queen surged into Vee. She was filled with love, not just for Masha, but for her family and everyone else, all her friends, all of Luz’s friends. Masha jerked upright also. They felt it too as it filled them.

King turned to Masha and they repeated the same vows that Vee had sworn. The swirls of magic filled them again. Vee felt herself afloat on a sea of love, the warmth of it suffused her, surrounded her and fed her. Masha’s hand grasped in hers said they felt the same way.

When they kissed, the magic from both of them mixed, and became more than the sum of it combined. It swept out over the attendees. Vee could see it and she knew the other basilisks, Erosavia, and her chicks could, but she didn’t think anyone else could. They all felt it though, as it passed through them, filled them with happiness, joy, and love.

There was another collective gasp and then applause and shouts of congratulations as the kiss went on just a little too long, as a good wedding kiss should. When they broke apart, King stepped in front of them.

“Who I have bound, let no one unbind. I present to you…” He leaned over and whispered to them. “How do you want to be presented?”

“Vee and Masha Noceda,” Masha said firmly. Vee had pushed for a hyphenated name, but Masha wanted to take hers.

“Vee and Masha Noceda. My sister and sister-in-law. Beware my wrath, any who cause them hurt!” King sounded fierce, much more fierce than he should have for his size. Erosavia roared and her chicks all chirped along with them.

The party kicked into gear after that. Vee remembered cutting the cake and feeding a piece to Masha, but not much else until the very end of the reception when she found Mamá sitting on the steps of the Owl House watching Raine and Eda talking, their heads close together. Erosavia was still sniffing around them as they were feeding her chicks cake.

Mamá looked up as Vee sat next to her. Her arm snaked around Vee. Vee shifted to her human form to sit more comfortably.

“I’m so happy for you both.” Mamá leaned over and kissed Vee’s forehead.

“Thank you for all you’ve done. I could never have met them without you and Luz and I love them so much and I love you.” Vee grasped her hands tightly.

“You deserve all the happiness. I heard Luz call you a cinnamon roll once and she was right. You’re a precious cinnamon roll. Now you have the blessings of two worlds behind you and no hate can touch you. Take that with you. Your whole life, you will have love, even at times when it seems like it won’t be enough.” Mamá closed her eyes.

“Thinking of Manny?” Vee asked.

Camila opened her eyes, flicked them back to Eda and Raine and nodded before shaking her head. Eda was talking animatedly to Raine, who smiled at her. Vee saw Camila’s eyes go from their faces to their intertwined hands. Only someone as close as Vee was would have seen the slight widening of Camila’s eyes.

“No. I was thinking of them.” She sighed. “I thought of Manny earlier and what he would have said and how happy he would have been. There’s so much of him in Luz.”

Erosavia was staring their way now. It still unnerved Vee a bit to be under that dinosaurian gaze.

“What do you think she wants?” Camila asked as Erosavia slowly walked toward them.

“Don’t you know? Really know?” Vee lifted Camila’s hand to her chest. Camila could feel her own heartbeat, Vee knew. “I have eyes.” Vee laughed. “I see how you look at them. You love them and not just like they’re Luz’s other parents. You are in love with them.”

Camila tried to yank her hand away just as Erosavia arrived. The dinosaur sniffed at her then looked back to Raine and Eda and made a small chirp.

Camila closed her eyes. “I do love them. I am in love with them. But it can’t be. It’s so far.”

Vee laughed from her belly now. “It’s just next door. You can still work in the Human Realm, doing what you love, and when you come home, you can go right through the Portal Door and be right here. It’s literally just next door.”

“It’s your time. It’s your day,” Camila objected. Erosavia made the chirp again.

“I don’t mind. I just want you to be happy, too.” Vee changed to her basilisk shape and yanked Camila upright with a squeal.

Eda and Raine were both staring their way now.

“Go, be with them.” Vee pushed Camila gently and she took one hesitant step then another, then she was running with Erosavia at her side. Open arms awaited her. Vee went to find King and the Bat Queen. No one was going to object to a second wedding here today.

🎨	Cover Art	by KeaNoble
🎨	Genesis	by that-one-raccoon
🎨	Dragon Vee	by DragonIndex5
📚	Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends	by obvious_eponym_placeholder
🎨	Emo Vee >>	by KeaNoble
🎨	Every Face That Ever Was	by Spencethebence
📚🎨	Sorry I Can't Say (Sorry I Can't Stay)	by BotMuffins (fic and art) and selenic_heart (art)
🎨	Magazine	by KeaNoble
🎨	Autumnal Hug	by novas-art-place and selenic_heart
📚	Five Times Vee Transformed into Luz	by Jagodzianka
🎨	Vee-PNGtuber!	by YourLocalDeadSkeleton
📚	Myosotis Life	by Jetcore500
🎨	Close-Up	by YourLocalDeadSkeleton
🎨	Vee if she was in Cookierun Kingdom	by novas-art-place
📚	getting scared with you	by VeeforVendetta04
🎨	Forgotten Culture	by KeaNoble
🎨	Looping The Seasons	by Vynee and selenic_heart
📚	Cooking Lessons with Mama and Hermanita	by deus_ex_ellimist / MemoryOverload
🎨	5..67	by KeaNoble
🪶	Two Poems about Vee	by Lars/Lars_rainbow_pen
🎨	Resident Veevil	by YourLocalDeadSkeleton
🧩	Vee themed Picross/Nonograms	by A Sappy Whimsical Wyrm and ExistentialBee
🎨	V - The Hierophant	by YourLocalDeadSkeleton
🎨	Pick Me Up (I've Got A New Lead)	by oilith
📚	We know it’s there but we can’t say it yet (it’s love)	by The_Lampman
🎨	Autumn Fun!	by Tonakuma
🎨	Timeskip Veelow	by novas-art-place
📚🎨	Veemo	by ramnnodls
🎨	Cyberpunk 2077 – Vee	by YourLocalDeadSkeleton
🎨	Game Winning Catch	by arcaneknight23
📚	The Wedding Bird	by dark_pookha
🎨	Demon Emo	by selenic_heart
Credits

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							2	4	2	3	1	2	1	3	2	4	2
							5	3	3	5	7	2	7	5	3	3	5
					12	13	1	1	3	2	1	1	1	2	3	1	1	13	12
				3
			2	2
	2	1	1	2
				15
	2	2	2	2
2	1	3	1	2
		4	5	4
	3	3	3	3
	3	3	3	3
	3	3	3	3
		4	5	4
2	1	3	1	2
	2	2	2	2
	2	2	2	2
				15

													1
													1	1
												5	1	1				1	1
						7					3	1	1	1	1			1	1	1
						1	6	4			2	1	1	1	1	1	5	1	3	1
						1	1	1	2	11	1	1	1	2	8	1	7	8	1	8
				1	1
				1	10
			1	3	1
		1	1	3	3
		1	1	1	1
		2	1	4	4
			2	1	1
		1	1	4	3
	1	2	1	2	1
	2	2	1	2	1
2	1	2	1	2	1
		1	1	5	1
	1	1	1	2	4
1	1	3	1	2	1
	1	2	1	2	1

									1					1					1
								1	1	1	1	1		8		1	1	1	1	1
								1	2	1	3	4	1	2	1	4	3	1	2	1
								4	2	5	8	2	1	1	1	2	8	5	2	4
							16	8	9	10	6	9	12	4	12	9	6	10	9	8	16
						15
					1	1
					1	1
					1	1
					1	1
				1	1	1
				1	1	1
		1	1	1	1	1
		1	1	1	1	1
		2	1	1	1	2
1	1	1	1	1	1	1
1	1	1	1	1	1	1
				1	7	1
			1	3	3	1
		1	3	1	3	1
		1	3	1	3	1
			1	3	3	1
						13
	2	1	1	1	1	2
	1	2	1	1	2	1
			2	2	2	2
			3	2	2	3
			3	2	2	3
					6	6
					6	6
						13
						13
						13
						13
						0

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Hello, Fellow Human! 2026 Edition

Table of Contents

Credits

Genesis

Dragon Vee

Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends

Emo Vee >>

Every Face That Ever Was

Sorry I Can't Say (Sorry I Can't Stay)

Magazine

Autumnal Hug

Five Times Vee Transformed into Luz

Vee-PNGtuber!

Myosotis Life

Close-Up

Vee if she was in Cookierun Kingdom

getting scared with you

Forgotten Culture

Looping The Seasons

Cooking Lessons with Mama and Hermanita

5..67

Two Poems about Vee

What I like about Vee

I am Vee Noceda

Resident Veevil

Vee themed Picross/Nonograms

Easy Puzzles

V by V

Five by Five

Summer

Hard Puzzles

Evil

Her

Cutie Pie

Very Hard Puzzles

The Progress in 4 Years

Freedom

The Love of Two

Extremely Hard Puzzle

A Tasty Game

Impossibly Hard Puzzle

V - The Hierophant

Pick Me Up (I've Got A New Lead)

We know it’s there but we can’t say it yet (it’s love)

Autumn Fun!

Timeskip Veelow

Veemo

Cyberpunk 2077 – Vee

Game Winning Catch

The Wedding Bird

Demon Emo

Credits

02Eepy | Abomancy

Arcaneknight23

Barrow-Wight

BotMuffins

dark_pookha

Dragon Index

ExistentialBee

Jagodzianka

Jetcore500

Kea!

Lars

Local (YourLocalDeadSkeleton)

Louise or VeeforVendetta

MemoryOverload

Nova

Oilith

RamnNodls

Spencethebence

that-one-raccoon

The Lampman

Tonakuma

Wyrm

Ceph | selenic_heart

Top

										4				3	1
							2	1		2			2	1	1	1
					14	14	4	3	2	2	4	10	7	4	2	2	4	0
			4	2
			3	2
			2	2
			2	2
			2	3
			2	4
2	2	1	1	1
	2	2	2	1
		2	3	1
	2	2	1	1
		3	3	2
			4	5
		4	1	4
		4	1	3

												1
									1		1	1	1		1
							2	4	2	3	1	2	1	3	2	4	2
							5	3	3	5	7	2	7	5	3	3	5
					12	13	1	1	3	2	1	1	1	2	3	1	1	13	12
				3
			2	2
	2	1	1	2
				15
	2	2	2	2
2	1	3	1	2
		4	5	4
	3	3	3	3
	3	3	3	3
	3	3	3	3
		4	5	4
2	1	3	1	2
	2	2	2	2
	2	2	2	2
				15

													1
													1	1
												5	1	1				1	1
						7					3	1	1	1	1			1	1	1
						1	6	4			2	1	1	1	1	1	5	1	3	1
						1	1	1	2	11	1	1	1	2	8	1	7	8	1	8
				1	1
				1	10
			1	3	1
		1	1	3	3
		1	1	1	1
		2	1	4	4
			2	1	1
		1	1	4	3
	1	2	1	2	1
	2	2	1	2	1
2	1	2	1	2	1
		1	1	5	1
	1	1	1	2	4
1	1	3	1	2	1
	1	2	1	2	1

									1					1					1
								1	1	1	1	1		8		1	1	1	1	1
								1	2	1	3	4	1	2	1	4	3	1	2	1
								4	2	5	8	2	1	1	1	2	8	5	2	4
							16	8	9	10	6	9	12	4	12	9	6	10	9	8	16
						15
					1	1
					1	1
					1	1
					1	1
				1	1	1
				1	1	1
		1	1	1	1	1
		1	1	1	1	1
		2	1	1	1	2
1	1	1	1	1	1	1
1	1	1	1	1	1	1
				1	7	1
			1	3	3	1
		1	3	1	3	1
		1	3	1	3	1
			1	3	3	1
						13
	2	1	1	1	1	2
	1	2	1	1	2	1
			2	2	2	2
			3	2	2	3
			3	2	2	3
					6	6
					6	6
						13
						13
						13
						13
						0