"Anything on your end?" the captain asked, looking over Bonesborough on a cliff with binoculars.
"Nothing on my end," Axel replied.
The new job given by the Emperor's coven was to look over Bonesborough as guards. No checking for wild witches this time, that was another groups job.
The captain had split them up into groups of two so they could cover the town. Currently Axel was with the captain.
There has been no witch or demon doing anything that would be considered illegal, at least to Axel thought.
There were demons literally eating each other in an attempt to transport them. Or maybe the term wouldn't be eating in this case. Anyways, Axel couldn't find anything in the laws that said this was wrong.
And the demons were doing it so shamelessly he could believe this was just something that demons did.
'Weird'
Axel was also on the look for the vendor that sold him the temporary tattoo, though no luck so far, they probably moved locations around the city.
"They look like they know what they're doing," Axel commented looking at the scouts who were assigned to witch hunting.
"They have to be, this is the location where the Owl Lady usually sets up shop," the captain replied.
The Owl Lady, the most powerful wild witch with the biggest bounty. Rumor around the caste is that the head of the Emperor's Coven herself has been chasing the Owl Lady for almost ten years.
"She moves her store so regularly it's hard to," the captain began to say, "I need eyes on the light down on Marrow Street," he suddenly called out.
On the street, two bright lights, looking like spotlights, erupted from the ground.
"I think I see words?" Axel replied, looking through binoculars.
There were some words in lights above some kind of stand, though Axel couldn't see the words due to the sheer brightness. But after a moment his eyes adjusted where he could read it.
"Captain? How many people use the Owl Lady's name for branding?" Axel asked.
"No body, what do you see?" the captain asked again.
"A large sign advertising Eda the Owl Lady's Human Collectables," Axel answered.
"Is there an illusion in your goggles?" the captain asked turning his eyes to the lights.
The captain's eyes took a moment to adjust to the light, but as soon as it did, he retracted his head from the binoculars.
"I'll call the scouts working on the wild witches," the captain mumbled pulling something that looked like a walkie talkie out from his coat.
"At least it's not our problem," Axel commented.
———————————————————————
"Thanks for the help!" the scout said waving out Axel and the captain.
The captain and Axel sat together inside a carriage, in front of them was a demon horse, and in a covered section behind them was the Owl Lady.
"How protective are the covers?" Axel asked pointing behind himself.
"Not very, the cuffs will be the things to stop her," the captain replied.
"And the cuffs?" Axel then asked.
"We can only hope," the captain replied looking straight ahead as they moved towards the Conformatorium.
Frankly, Axel didn't believe that the thing behind him was the Owl Lady. It didn't make sense that someone who had fought the head of the Emperor's Coven for so long, would give herself up like this.
"Are we sure this is the Owl Lady?" Axel asked the captain.
"It doesn't matter, it's either a very foolish Basilisk, or a wild witch doing something weird," the captain responded, "Either way, they go Conformatorium," the captain told Axel.
"Perhaps a body swap spell?" the captain mused.
'Like Freaky Fraturday'
"Like Freaky Fraturday," the Owl Lady mumbled.
Axel turned to look at where the Owl Lady was. Before turning back to face the same way as the captain.
'The Owl Lady probably just got the Freaky Fraturday movie from the same place she gets all of her human junk, which come to think of it, where does she get so much human stuff?'
"Come on Luz!" the Owl Lady said trying to motivate herself, "You can get out of this one, right?" she said before shaking.
'No way'
"Captain," Axel said turning to his captain, "May I speak with the Owl Lady alone for a moment?" he asked.
"I cannot allow you to talk the Owl Lady alone, it is far too dangerous," the captain replied.
"We both know that something is wrong with the Owl Lady, let me try and figure out what that something is," Axel told the captain, "If anything happens, I'll call out for help," he said.
"Fine, just remember to pass any information on," the captain responded.
"Yeah, just remember the signal," Axel said.
"Of course," the captain said slowing the carriage down to a stop, "I'll let you know when we have to keep moving to keep schedule," the captain told Axel.
Axel the jumped out of a carriage and into the back where the Owl Lady was seated.
She had long gray hair, two golden ball earrings, a red sleeveless dress with a gem in the middle, and for some reason oven mitts that had a hole in them so her index finger could poke through.
"Who are you?" Axel asked the Owl Lady.
"Ok so it looks like I'm the Owl Lady, but I swear this is a huge misunderstanding," the Owl Lady told Axel.
'She's talking like Luz'
"What's the misunderstanding then?" Axel asked.
"I'm actually a human who's been body swapped into in the Owl Lady's body," she explained, "I'm Luz the human," she then said trying to shake Axel's hand.
'She says she's Luz, but I can't trust this'
Axel knew enough about magic to be scared of what it could do, but he did not know of the limits of magic.
He knew there was a magic that allowed witches to enter people's minds to see their memories, so there was always the chance that this witch is simply imitating Luz. Axel didn't have the means to say for sure, so he couldn't risk it.
"So, how did a human come to be in a witch's body?" Axel asked.
"I came to the demon realm with a friend of mine; wait do you know a human named Axel?" the Owl Lady asked.
"Answer the question," Axel reminded.
"There was this door that Eda has that brought us here, then we were arguing and shalblamo! Body swapped," she recounted.
'So the way me and Luz got here is in the hands of the Owl Lady'
"Now you tell me, do you know a human named Axel?" she then asked.
Suddenly, a knock came from the side.
"Times up," the captain said.
"Understood," Axel replied.
"Wait wait wait! Do you know Axel?" she asked once more.
For a second Axel stopped, he thought about saying yes, but the fear of this being memory magic from a witch scared him.
"No, I do not," Axel answered leaving the Owl Lady alone.
Axel jumped back next to the captain, conflicted.
"Anything good information?" the captain said spinning his finger and getting the demon horse to start moving again.
"She is saying she's a human who was body swapped into a witch," Axel recounted.
"That would explain a few things," the captain mumbled.
"But you can't trust it, can you?" Axel asked.
"Suppose you can't," the captain replied.
———————————————————————
The transfer between the carriage and the Conformatorium was simple. It was a handoff, and Axel and the captain were done.
With that, they both turned to leave.
"Ms. Lilith!" the captain exclaimed.
From behind the two, Lilith had flown down from her staff, and was now in front of them.
"I have heard my sister has been locked up in here, is this true?" Lilith asked.
"Yes ma'am," the captain replied.
"Good," she said entering the Conformatorium sparing neither Axel or the captain a glance.
"I guess she's happy the Owl Lady was finally put up," Axel said getting back on the carriage.
"It would seem so," the captain said starting up the carriage.
'Luz, I pray for your saftey'
The two started their way back to Bonesborough, this time with no one behind them.
"How many criminals do you think the others have caught?" Axel asked.
"Eight," the captain replied without a doubt.
"Very specific," Axel mumbled.
"You asked," the captain remarked.
Then, a blast reverberated from behind the two. Before they could even turnaround, the two saw the Owl Lady fly by.
"Move it!" the captain ordered the demon horse, making a circle with his finger.
As the two barreled down the street, Axel saw Lilith flying past as well.
———————————————————————
The demonic horse could pull the carriage fast, but apparently not fast enough for it seems like all the action had already concluded.
There were a bunch of people arguing with one another. Some teenagers, some older folks, a few scouts, and a talking dog?
"Go check where we saw the lights, I'll see what I can do here," the captain ordered.
"Understood," Axel replied.
———————————————————————
The Owl Lady was long gone, along with anything that she carried with her.
But as Axel looked closer, he saw a discarded sign.
'It was a wooden plank with the words 'Eda the Owl Lady's' engraved onto it. Around the words was a border that was marked with circles with odd pattern.
'Could it be?'
Touching one of the circles, a light spread between all of the circles through the lights, and an image of the Owl Lady appeared.
Axel took a look at the circle and saw that inside the circle was a pattern. It was another glyph. With this Axel knew, that Luz was with the Owl Lady.
Only someone without the ability to cast magic would find a glyph, for if they could cast magic normally, glyphs would be meaningless.
And with this Axel thought, no, he knew, that the Owl Lady had brainwashed Luz.
'I promise, I help you Luz'
Standing back up after memorizing the light glyph, Axel knew what he had to do.
Free Luz, get out of the demon realm destroy the door. And a single witch stood between everything that Axel wanted to do.
The Owl Lady.