"And Vee, you can have the key for now," Luz said as she handed the new portal key to her adopted sister. "That way, if it gets to be too much, you can call up the portal and go straight home."
They had, of course, returned back through the portal. Amity could feel the nerves and anticipation in everyone.
"Okay," Vee said, a little confused as she pocketed the key. "Now what?"
"Now, I cast a glyph," Luz said, glowing glyphs flying from her fingertips and laying on the ground with lines spreading out to connect them. "Belos used this to teleport to the Titan's skull when Aunt Lilith and I went to the past. It's really complicated, one of those 'looks like an atomic model' ones I mentioned to Doctor Richards, so without the Titan's power and the gift of knowledge from the palisman souls I'd never have been able to ast it from memory, but..."
With a flash, their party teleported to the interior of the Titan's skull.
"And now," Luz began, "we have a discussion to have."
"What do you mean?" Camila.
"The plan is that I confront the Collector," Luz said. "Since I'm a Titan, I should be immune to his magic if he doesn't want to play nice. But you guys aren't."
Amity immediately realized what was going on: "Luz, no."
"If you're with me and he acts up, I'd have to protect you," Luz continued. "And it's not like I'm asking you guys to sit around and do nothing: He has the whole Isles to play with and yet he made that big house," Luz said while gesturing up to the Titan's 'crown.' "Which means he has a reason to have all that space... Like the puppets he made out of everyone else. Titan Magic negates Archivist magic, so while I try to talk some sense into the Collector, I want you guys to try and find where he's keeping everyone and try to free them with glyphs."
"...She has a point," Hunter said after a moment. "If we stick together, we're a liability. But if we split up... Well, if the Collector doesn't want to play ball, we need more than one way to rescue everyone."
"Please, if anyone can talk The Collector around, it's Luz, all she does is make friends," Gus said.
Luz paused for a moment, her emotions shifting and calming, but... In a good way.
"Luz?" Amity asked.
"Nothing, just, just thinking about how far I've come," Luz said with a smile.
"...I agree with Luz's plan," Willow said after a moment. "I... I want to try and find and help everyone."
...Of course she did, after what Luz had uncovered just a few hours ago.
"It's not a plan as much as the pros and cons of," Luz began, "I know you guys worry about me doing stuff on my own, so I wanted to make sure we were clear on things before... You know... Vee?"
"...I'd rather not go into too much danger right away," Vee admitted.
"I vote for whatever Vee's most comfortable with," Masha added.
"Mom?" Luz asked.
Camila sighed. "I don't like the idea of you going off alone, but... What you're saying makes sense."
"Okay, that settled: Who's riding with who?" Luz said while summoning Stringbean. "There are nine of us who need to get into the Collector's place and only six staves between us."
"Can we go slower this time?" Camila begged.
Soon enough, they had flown up into the Collector's lair, and Luz, looking at an ornate door down a hallway, said, "That looks like a good place to start." She then hugged her mom, kissed Amity on the cheek, and said, "Stay safe."
Luz went to the ornate door, and everyone else ducked down a side hall.
"So what should we be on the lookout for?" Masha asked, their head on a swivel.
"The Collector turned everyone they collected into wooden puppets," Hunter explained. "Like uh, marionettes but without the strings. We saw him playing with them earlier, but it was like he was making them move."
"Yeah, that's all kinds of creepy," Masha admitted. They then took Vee's hand.
It didn't take them long to stumble across another hallway that had a few puppets on display at its otherwise dead end.
"...It's the Coven Heads?" Willow asked.
"Most of them," Hunter said with a sad glance at the puppets of Darius and Eberwolf.
And he was right. In addition to the aforementioned two, there was Mason, Terra Snapdragon, Adrian Graye, who Gus was now using a telekinesis spell to make pick his own nose, Osran, Vitamir, and Hettie Cutburn, but there was no sign of Raine.
Suddenly, they all heard footsteps. Two people approached, but one of them was... Off. Wrong rhythm to their steps, and the sound was like wood on tile.
Gus quickly worked a spell that left them invisible. And Amity had to hand-gag herself to stop from gasping when the two figures came into view.
"Oh, getting you to pick up the other puppets was the best idea I ever had," Odalia said, clearly just to hear the sound of her own voice. "Now, if only I could figure out a way out of cooking the Collector those wretched pizza bagels... When my oracle spirit told me they'd be the sign of my downfall, this isn't what I thought it meant."
This, this was impossible. She was dead, Amity had seen her die. Belos had petrified her and then blasted the statue to dust. There was nothing left of her... And yet... That looked like Odalia. It sounded like Odalia. The emotions radiating off of her felt like Odalia's emotions... And when Amity looked closely, she saw a sort of... Presence. One she'd seen on Doctor Strange. On a few people she'd seen around the institute, on Luz's friend Marcy, on some of the people that were at the alien invasion... Especially that Craig guy.
A presence she only saw when looking for it, or when she was tense, or seeing someone up close for the first time.
That she'd only seen since becoming a valkyrie.
A presence... On people who had died. Or at least had come close enough that it counted.
Somehow, someway, Odalia had come back to life, and that terrified Amity. Every time she thought she'd been done with Odalia, confronted her for the last time, gotten out all of her feelings that horrid woman kept finding ways to come back and hurt her some more. What was the point of writing those letters if the person they were addressed to didn't have the decency to stay gone?
Proving her point, Odalia looked into what should have been an empty hall, other than the puppets, with an intense gaze and with a simple oracle spell tore down the illusion that Gus was using to hide them. Her eyes locked onto Amity and she gave a smile. Not a happy smile, like you'd expect from a parent who had reunited with her child. A smug smile, as if a plan was coming together.
"Oh, Mittens," she said with fake sweetness. "It's so good to see you."
"I have nothing to say to you," Amity insisted.
"Oh, I didn't mean it's good to see you because I want something from you," Odalia said dismissively. "But if you're back, it means that your... Luz... Is back, too, which means that the Collector and... It means that the Collector will soon be dealt with."
"And what gives you that idea?" Amity found herself asking. She could feel the feelings of the others around her. They were just as concerned and perplexed as she was.
"The brat in the starry pajamas has a loud mouth. They don't understand that sometimes important information should be kept secret. Like how his 'best friend,' the Owl Lady's dog, is a baby Titan," Odalia said smugly. "And with that, everything fell into place." Odalia grabbed her oracle focus, her eyes lighting up and spectral flames projecting outward before forming a screen. "With Belos gone, I don't need to bother with subtlety."
An image appeared, Luz, in her Titan form, and Amity as she was now cuddled up close together, smiling, happy, looking at each other lovingly... While sitting on Belos's throne.
"Some variation of this image has been in most futures I've seen," Odalia said, "The Queen in Black and her consort, my daughter, ruling the Isles. At first, it was different every time, older, younger, a sword and black armor, skintight suits, one where you had wings of Lavender, and she a large golden gauntlet decorated with six large gems in different colors. But for the past several weeks," Odalia said, "whenever I managed to sneak a glance at the future to see if my ambitions were still possible, this exact image is all I've seen."
"...And?" Amity asked.
"Don't play dumb, Mittens, it's beneath you," Odalia insisted. "You've spent enough time slumming it at the Owl Lady's shack to know exactly what the young Titan looks like. In fact, I notice you weren't surprised about its status at all, nor are you surprised by the form your human has assumed here. You've already seen this power, and you know exactly what it is: A liar and a traitor he may have been, but Belos wasn't wrong about the human being blessed by the Titan."
"She's more than blessed," Amity said, "for all intents and purposes, Odalia, she is the Titan now. Which means whatever you're scheming is—"
"Oh, that's even better!" Odalia shouted. "See, again, the Collector's too stupid to know when to keep their mouth shut, always talking about how amazing the Titans were, how they were the most powerful things ever, how not even the magic of his kind can affect the... I assumed that your human would use the Titan's gift to defeat the collector and be awarded the throne by a grateful populace, but if she's now a living god... Well, it doesn't matter. You're wearing the same clothes in this image as you are now. This future will come to pass. Soon."
Amity looked closer at the predicted future and noticed the state of the Throne room, and some details about her and her Luz's body language that she'd overlooked on a first glance.
And then she started laughing as she realized just how Odalia had misinterpreted the scene.
"What's so funny, Mittens?"
"Other than how stupid you are?" Amity bit back. "Get it through your thick skull: Luz and I are never going to rule the Isles. It's not what we want. And frankly, even if the bowels freeze over and we somehow end up in charge anyway, after everything you've done to me, to the people I care about, you won't get anything out of it. You wouldn't be the Queen-Mother, the royal adviser, the grand vizier... Part of me wants to say that you'd be in prison for your crimes, or living penniless in a slum somewhere... But I don't even care enough about you anyway to do even that."
Odalia's eyes flashed Oracle purple, and she called forth her spirit, which took Amity off guard. Moments later, a number of staves were moved to Amity's defence.
However, Camila stepped forward. "Now, now, we can handle this civilly. You must be Amity's mother," she said to Odalia.
Odalia preened. "Why yes, I am, and you would be... Luz's?"
"Yes. I have to say, it's been wonderful having Amity and company around these past few months. She's a perfect young witch and an excellent influence on my Luz."
"Oh, it's good to hear that she's been living up to the standards of a young witch of her station," Odalia said, pleased in a selfish way. "And I'm sure you're very proud of your daughter. It's so rare that poor common folk have the privilege of rising above their station, and yet here your girl is: Born magicless but now a powerful witch, set to marry into the elite, set to be royalty, a living god... It must be beyond your wildest dreams."
"I'm proud of my Luz in more ways than I think you'll ever be able to understand," Camila said with fondness but also a bit of hidden venom, a jab Odalia clearly missed.
Then there was a loud cracking sound, and Odalia spun around before collapsing to the floor. It took Amity a moment to realize that Camila had punched Odalia square in the jaw.
"I've been wanting to do that for months now," Camila said. "Oh, and even though it's not important," she spat on Odalia, "we're not 'poor commoners.' I pull six figures at my veterinarian practice."
Odalia just groaned.
Amity stepped forward and kneeled next to Odalia's prone form. "I don't know how you managed to weasle out of the Titan's bowels or whatever other bad place you went to, but just because you took me off guard, that doesn't mean I'm still afraid of you. I could have destroyed you myself if I had to, and I have plenty of friends who'd line up to keep me safe from you if I couldn't. Not to mention what Luz would do to you if you ever managed to hurt me again. I've done everything I can to leave you behind, to work out all of the trauma you left me with... Just leave me, Edric, Emira, Dad... The people I love and who love me alone. If you ever were half the mother you should have been, you'll give me that."
"Dang," came a familiar voice from behind them. "That was one heck of a show."
Turning around, Amity saw that standing in a hidden doorway next to the Coven Head puppets was Eda the Owl Lady.
AN: Fun fact. The average salary for a veterinarian in Connecticut is over $100 K. Things vary, of course... But Camila being able to just decide to take the day off in Yesterday's Lie and her instructions to Vee on who to call suggest that Camila is in charge of and/or potentially owns the clinic. It's entirely possible that she's pulling nearly half a million a year. Luz's expensive hobbies, the fact that they have a very nice two-story house in a state where housing costs are pretty high, could just flat out buy the old Wittebane house in the epilogue... Camila was implied to be under a bit of financial stress in Thanks to Them, but that's almost certainly only because she took in four traumatized teenagers with extreme special dietary needs who only had the clothes on their backs on short notice and went above and beyond to make sure their needs were met. Some people seem to think that the Nocedas are struggling, but all evidence suggests that they're more than comfortable when it comes to money.