Chapter Text
“Come on, come on!” Luz grumbled to herself, doing her best to concentrate on her lock-picking spell. An explosion rattled the castle walls, and she grimaced as she looked up at the large, intricate door to the Emperor’s vault.
Everything hinged on their distraction. The longer she took, the more rebels wouldn’t be coming home tonight. If she couldn't get in…
She shook her head, redoubling her focus as she focused in on her spell. Another explosion rang out in the distance as she stuck her tongue out and-
CLICK!
“Yes!” Luz practically shouted, bursting through the door and looking at all the magical artifacts surrounding her.
She had only been given a description of the artifact the Emperor was planning to use- something small and circular, made of gold with nine different colored gemstones to represent the nine covens embedded on the top. It was supposed to be relatively small compared to some of the other artifacts, like the Healing Hat or the Green Thumb Gauntlet, but with enough power to potentially wipe out any who opposed the Emperor. Some even said it had enough power to punch a hole into another realm, but Luz wasn’t sure she believed that part.
It didn’t matter if she did, though. Her mission was to steal it and bring it back to the rebellion, so she scanned the shelves of relics, blinking at the odd shapes that greeted her.
Some even blinked back.
Another explosion shook the castle, and she cursed under her breath. People were out there fighting- dying in order to distract the coven guards away from the vault. She moved further into the room as a little squeak made her look up. Her palisman, Stringbean, was floating over something shiny and round.
The relic!
Luz rushed over, petting Stringbean as she picked up the small device. She looked it over for a second, wondering how something so small could be worth such a high-risk mission, and made to put it in her pocket, trying to think of the route she’d use to escape. The sooner she got out of here, the better for everyone.
“That isn’t a toy, child.”
A chilly voice filled the room, the air turning to ice as Luz turned around to see a large, masked man in a white cloak. Two sharp horns jutted up from the golden mask the Emperor always wore, his piercing blue eyes glaring at her in pure disdain. Luz scrambled backward as Stringbean solidified and turned into her staff, trying to put some distance between her and the tyrant that ruled the land.
“Hand over the relic, and I’ll consider letting you go,” the Emperor said icily. “The guards could use a little game of cat and echo-mouse before we snuff out your little rebellion.” The Emperor took a step forward, towering over the teenage girl as she glared back at him defiantly. “Refuse and I will simply have to end your story here.”
Luz felt a shiver go down her spine at the threat. Most guards she encountered meant it when they threatened her life, but the Emperor said it as if it was no more than a casual observation of the weather. It was merely a statement of fact to him. The hair on Luz’s neck stood up as she looked around, trying to find a way out. Slipping past the Emperor without some sort of distraction would be borderline impossible and most likely suicide, but with every second she took to figure it out, he inched closer, his gauntleted hand raised in expected compliance.
Luz took a deep breath and did the only thing she could think to do: she lifted Stringbean like a club, and swung her as hard as she could into the Emperor’s head, knocking his mask off as he snarled in pain. An older witch with graying blond hair spat out some blood as he worked his jaw, his gaze growing harsher as he glared at Luz. The rebel witch blinked a few times, the shock of seeing the Emperor’s face stalling her brain for a moment before her brain caught up to her body and pushed her legs into gear.
Just as she started to run, though, his hand shot out and gripped her arm harshly. The pressure made Luz think her arm was about to snap as the Emperor pulled her back roughly, his other hand darting into her pocket for the relic. The two struggled as Luz did her best to keep the relic as far from him as possible, throwing other artifacts in the room at his face to try and get him to drop her to no avail.
She watched as the Emperor ignored each assault, his free hand grasping the relic in her pocket with a smile of success. Luz reached out instinctively, grabbing the golden disc and trying to wrestle it from the Emperor’s control, not caring as she hit several buttons on the device.
The Emperor’s face paled as he watched her, and he glared at the teenage rebel. “You idiot! Stop what you’re doing at once!”
Luz opened her mouth to give a witty retort, but before she could, the relic started glowing a bright white, gaining both of their attention. It started shaking, the colored gems shining bright before they started spinning violently. The Emperor dropped it, stumbling back as the beams came together, ripping open a hole out of nothing. Then another. And another.
Portals filled the room, sucking in artifacts as Luz scrambled for purchase, unable to find anything as the large vortex beside her pulled her through the portal and into pitch black. A few moments later, she was falling, her inner balance thrown off as she tried to reorient herself to fly on Stringbean. Before she could, though, she slammed into the ground hard, blinking as stars filled her vision. She tried to get to her feet, but everything hurt, and she was certain she had broken something as she collapsed back to the ground with a loud groan.
Her breath was ragged, and her ears were ringing as she tried to figure out where she was. She heard a rumbling of some sort- a beast? She looked up to see two lights shining at her, a figure with large hair stepping out of the creature toward her.
Then she collapsed, and everything went black.