Eda’s Moving Castle- [Raeda]
after many, many desperate attempts to work through writer’s block, here’s a little...Howl’s Moving Castle au. maybe I’ll do more parts if there’s an interest for it! I’m hopeful just forcing myself to write something silly like this will get...creative juices (ew) flowing again.
“Hooty, is that Raine?” Luz gasped, stopping dead in her tracks. Her cloak fell to the ground, the insistent knocking on the door suddenly falling on deaf ears. The owl-shaped flame flared up, its wings spreading before the fiery bird shook himself out. “They were stumbling around in the Boiling Wastes. I stopped the castle and King brought them in!”
“She’s still out,” King piped up from beneath the wooden staircase, casting aside the pale purple fabric that acted as a makeshift door for the makeshift bedroom. He pointed to the little circle above the door, which was divided into quarters and each quarter painted a different color. Currently, the arrow pointed to the quarter painted black. Luz had stumbled through it from the human realm some years prior, confirming for Hooty and King where the mysterious door led.
Another furious knock on the front of the castle jolted Luz back to the task at hand, and she flung the cloak around her shoulders, instantly turning into a long purple and gold cloak, the hood of it becoming a pointed purple hat. As Luz introduced herself as ‘The Good Witch Azura’ in a voice slightly higher than her own, Raine stirred in their seat, one eye opening slightly to take in the room. “YOU’RE AWAKE!” Hooty shouted. Startled, they toppled out of their chair, sprawling onto the floor. Luz, glancing over her shoulder, suddenly firmly pressed a wrapped package into unnamed hands, an accompanying voice trying to ask her questions but being drowned out by her usual voice all but shouting: “IF THERE’S A PROBLEM COME BACK LATER.” Before slamming the door shut.
The trio crowded around them as they pulled themselves to a pained sitting position, Hooty’s sparks flicking wildly onto the floor in front of the hearth. “How did you find us?” King asked, not giving Raine a single moment to collect themselves. “Eda said last time she saw you, your whole brain deal was all gooed up with Belos propaganda.”
“...Is that really how she said it?” they asked quietly.
“More or less,” Luz nodded.
Raine considered this a moment before continuing. “It’s more or less true, I suppose.”
King, Luz, and Raine sat at what tripled as a kitchen table, a writing desk, and a junk drawer. Hooty burned with visible annoyance, having just been viciously bullied by King into heating up one of the many kettles for tea. He grumbled as Raine explained how they found themselves wandering the Wastes, talking animatedly as tea spilled with every movement of their hands.
“Eda was really worried about you,” Luz said nervously when they finished. “She’ll be even more worried now when she finds out you’re doing all this under cover stuff.”
“Only until the Day of Unity. I have to do this, it’s the only way to keep her safe…to keep everyone safe.”
King tapped his claws against the teacup, a furious click-click-click-click-click announcing his concern. “This can’t be the only way.”
“King’s right,” Luz added. “This is too risky, what if Belos finds out that mind control stuff isn’t working on you? Eda could-”
“No,” Raine interrupted, his teacup clattering firmly against its saucer. “Luz, your heart’s in the right place, but it isn’t safe. You know what they’d do to her if they caught her. I can do this, you have to believe that.”
“Of course we believe in you,” Luz said as King nodded furiously. “But that doesn’t mean you should have to do this alone. We can help.”
Raine smiled despite themselves. A lot had changed. “I’m not doing it alone. And you can help me by keeping yourselves safe. I need you to promise me something, though. Eda cannot know about this. If she thinks I’m myself, she won’t take no for an answer. You have to keep this a secret. As far as she’s concerned, I’m fully…brain gooed.”
“Raine, that’s too much,” King said, visibly upset. “That’s not fair to any of us.”
“Please,” they pleaded. “It won’t be for long, this is the only way I can keep her safe.”
Hooty and Luz shared a look of deep discomfort before both nodded slowly. King’s head whipped back and forth as he tried to force them to make eye contact with him. “You’re kidding!”
“Raine’s right,” Luz said sadly. “We don’t really have a plan of our own to stop the Day of Unity, and there’s a really good chance Eda might rush in and get hurt. The only reason we’ve been as cautious as we have been is because she didn’t want to risk anything happening to them.” With this, she gestured to Raine, who deflated. They didn’t want to lie to Eda, there was nothing they wanted more than to tell her the truth and rush in against Belos as a unit, but it wasn’t practical. All of this had been to protect her, and what was the use of that if they were willing to risk her safety when it mattered the most?
“She’s back,” Hooty said urgently. Immediately, the dial by the door spun from the black quarter to a light purple one. When Luz came to live in the castle, she’d repainted the dial, excited to match her home to her Azura robes.
Eda entered, hands full of human trophies. Literally. One object she held was a gold-painted plastic cup reading “Best Fishing Dad.” There was a swordfish on it. Inside the cup were several doll heads, clearly discarded from different dolls. Luz shuddered as Eda slammed the loot onto the table, a few heads popping out and rolling to the floor with the motion. “Look at these puppies!” Eda said proudly.
As she said it, she looked up, making full eye contact with Raine. They quickly tried to erase all the affection from their face, for fear she’d see through the lie immediately. “Wh—?” she started.
“Hooty found them in the Wastes,” Luz interjected quickly. Eda’s attention appeared to be divided by the interruption, although her eyes never left them. “We think Belos took all he needed from them, and abandoned them. We think they’re still under his control.” King shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, but Eda was too distracted to even see him.
“So we’ll find a way to break the curse or spell or whatever it is,” she replied. “That’s all there is to it.” She set to work busying herself, making a point to not make eye contact with anyone, allowing Luz, Raine, and King to share a concerned look. The castle jerked as Hooty attempted to lean out of the hearth to join in the Look Sharing, knocking a full pile of papers and glass bottles onto the floor with a loud clatter. Raine immediately ducked down and began helping Eda picking the discarded objects up. Their hands brushed and Eda’s face went bright red before she shot up and stalked toward the window. “I could talk to Lilith. She should still have all her, whatever, from the Emperor’s Coven. She’ll be able to help.” She said it with a forced finality before turning on her heel toward the door, twisting the dial so the arrow pointed from purple to yellow.
She hesitated, one hand resting on the doorknob as the other reached for her palisman. “Should…they come with me?” The question was asked as if Raine wasn’t even in the room. Behind her back, Luz watched a wave of sadness come over their face. She opened her mouth to say something before they cut in, “Lilith can bring me back to Belos!” They casted a desperate look toward Luz and King, silently urging them to help.
Luz inched forward to Eda, speaking low to her alone. “If they think you’re helping them back to their Coven, they might be able to tell you how to help them, even if it’s…not on purpose.” She cringed at the lie, feeling her skin begin to crawl. Eda seemed to brighten at this, immediately appearing more confident. She turned to face them, and Raine fought a smile seeing her look like herself again.
“Hooty, keep the castle in the Wastes while we’re gone, I don’t want to risk anyone coming here when I don’t know how long we’ll be.” She walked up the Raine, holding their hands within her own. “I’ll figure it out.” They attempted to keep a neutral face as she did this, but the second she turned they let out a huff of air that caused Luz to suppress a squeal. They shot her a look of warning, but immediately diffused it with a gentle smile before responding to Eda’s beckon to follow.
They stepped into the wastes, the dry ground blowing up with the breeze. The trees around them reached into the sky, their dark branches spindling into the clouds. Her palisman came alive, wings spreading as she reached a hand out to them, steading the pair before the staff lifted into the air. They held tight to her waist, her hair whipping around them in the wind. The scenery below them shifted from the Wastes to the market, little dots of other witches going from stall to colorful stall. Eda spoke as they flew above each area, telling stories about the two of them in hopes it would jog their memory. “Do you remember when every potion shop in the Isles banned me, so you had to go from stall to stall for me?” They heard every other word because of the sound of the wind, but they still smiled with the memory, grateful she couldn’t see their face.
“It’s how I know no one in the Isles actually hates me. Besides, Belos, of course. And….well most people. Some people. It’s how I know some people in the Isles don’t actually hate me. They had to have known you were running errands for me.” Raine snorted and then quickly put a hand to their face, as if to take back the sound. The truth was that everyone did know they were doing errands for her, and they were eventually also banned from every potion shop in the Isles. They had eventually just brewed the potion themselves for her, coming back hours later and promising her they had scoured the whole isle. It was too late, though, because Eda stiffened against them. Slowly, the palisman descended into the woods, dodging treetops before landing rather abruptly in mossy undergrowth.
She spun to face them, knuckles turning white with how hard she clutched the palisman. “You remember that?” she whispered. They turned away from her and she cupped their face, so gently, forcing them to turn to face her again. “You reacted to that. Raine, do you remember that?”
“That’s not what happened,” they replied quietly. “Not fully, at least-”
She pulled them in and kissed them, cutting off whatever they were about to say. As she finally pulled away, before Raine could collect themselves enough to speak again, she smacked them in the shoulder with her palisman, light enough for it to be a semi-playful gesture and hard enough for them to rub it afterwards with a slightly offended look on their face.
She held her palisman up again, as if to swing it a second time, as they waved their hands out defensively. “Let me explain. Belos doesn’t know the mind control wasn’t working on me, I’ve been able to essentially be under cover in the Coven, and I had to lie to you because I didn’t…you’re…UGH.”
They put their head into their hands, desperately trying to explain in a way that didn’t sound like they thought she couldn’t take care of herself, a defense she would absolutely mention. To their surprise, they felt her hand on their shoulder. “I understand. I just wish you felt like you could have told me. You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”
Suddenly, they wrapped their arms around her, pulling her into a tight hug. She jerked, shocked before settling into it. “I’m sorry. I had to,” they said quietly.
“Don’t apologize,” she said. “But now? We’re doing this together. No more secrets.”
