Chapter Text
Lilith rested her chin on the table, eyes darting between her sister and the palisman across from her.
“Owlbert contemplates his next move carefully, his track record is against him big time and his opponent is seemingly confident in her chances of another Victory.”
Eda hummed low in her throat, face impassive as she ran her flesh hand along the edge of her cards.
Owlbert trilled and laid down his next card with his beak.
The three of soldiers stood up and multiplied, attempting to take down Eda’s flaming tower of fives.
The tower fell and he hooted proudly.
Lilith cheered.
“Owlbert gains the upper hand! It looks like his victory over the twenty-five-time winner, Eda Clawthorne, may actually be nigh!”
Eda scoffed.
“It ain’t over till it’s over, sis. I think you’re both forgetting something.”
She pulled something out of her deck with two fingers and Owlbert’s eyes widened, despair written across his fluffy, feathery face.
“My Wild Card!”
She laid it down and the card shifted into a stormcloud that electrocuted the last of Owlbert’s deck.
Lilith screached, hands in the air.
“I can- not believe it! Eda the card master has successfully protected her winning streak for a twenty- sixth time!”
Eda preened and smirked down at Owlbert who hooted sadly.
“Hah! Take that , ya adorable lil feather-ball!”
Lilith flopped forward, phasing through the coffee table, her massive poof of curly red hair poking out of the surface.
“That was fun,” she said contentedly, voice muffled by the rug on the living room floor.
Eda reached under the coffee table with her skeleton hand and patted her head fondly.
“Glad I sufficed as your entertainment for the afternoon, Lilybean.”
She stood and stretched, feeling her spine pop and her skin pull where it connected to her cursed half.
She looked out the window.
“Sun’s almost down. You wanna hang out with me at the market tonight or do you wanna stay here with King?”
Lilith rolled over and sat up, pushing her glasses back up her nose.
“Depends on whatever King wants. I think he’ll want to go, though. He’s been acting kinda restless lately.”
Eda hummed. She had her reservations about taking King with her to the Night Market, but the little guy was scrappy and knew enough of the unspoken rules the market operated by to not get into too much mischief.
“Well, go ask him then. I think he’s sleeping up in my room.
Lilith nodded and stood before floating up the stairs, as she had reservations about moving through walls, ceilings, and closed doors. Something about rudeness, or the like.
It all started like this: the day after her graduation, two coven scouts had showed up at their door to escort Lilith to the carriage that would take her to basic training. Eda had watched her sister be gripped firmly by the shoulders like a prisoner being dragged away to her sentence with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
It started like this: three weeks later Eda woke up in the dead of the night to the sight of Lilith hovering over her bed in a bloody gray uniform and screaming just as loud as Eda was.
Only when mom rushed into her room to see what was wrong, she walked right through Lilith.
Because she was dead.
Her big sister was gone, but not gone.
Eda doesn’t know how it happened. She has her suspicions, but Lilith looked so pained, so terrified when she tried to remember that she let it be.
In the beginning, it was hard.
The dead had no use for lies, and the admission from Lilith that she was the reason half her body had turned to rot in broad daylight all those weeks ago, it had been agonizing.
Eda had been worried about pretending to be surprised when the news inevitably came from the EC that Lilith was…gone. She wasn’t worried about pretending to be devastated . Even with Lilith not technically being completely gone she’d spent an embarrassing amount of time blubbering like a damn baby.
But then, the letter came, nearly two weeks after Lilith had appeared in the night.
It was just a short letter, condolences, and the death in question, merely stated as a tragic accident.
Gwendolyn, (because after that day, she definitely wasn’t mom, anymore) had read the letter, sat down for a few moments, then wordlessly passed the letter to Eda, before going into the kitchen to make dinner.
She didn’t cry.
She did her best not to speak of it at all.
Dad had been the one to cobble together a funeral, that he didn’t even show up for. Apparently merchant work on the next titan over is more important than your daughter’s funeral.
That night, after she and Lilith watched an empty box be lowered into the ground in her honor, she packed up as much as she could fit in a single bag and left.
So, for the last thirty-odd years, she was left with this: her little-big sister immortalized at eighteen and vibrant, clad in her favorite grudgby uniform after some experimenting in changing her form to something less…grisly…and using all of the free time being dead allowed her to act as childish as she pleased.
Free from the expectations Gwendolyn, their mother, had piled on her that had left her quiet and lacking in self-worth in life.
Now, in a weird sense, Eda was the oldest, and she did her best to look after Lilith, as much as a dead child needed looking after, anyways. Bringing home new books, talking her down from panic attacks that nearly left the house in ruins, and making up for lost time.
“You going out again tonight, girl?”
Eda nodded.
“I always do, Nana.”
“Hmmph. Give my regards to the bastards at the square, then.”
Eda chuckled.
“I always do, Nana.”
An interesting effect of the curse to note: Lilith was not, by far, the only dead witch she was acquainted with.
Nana, or Yaga Clawthorne, the original owner of the Owl House, was a gruff old woman with a wild gray mane and a hooked nose. She was an expert at glaring down at everyone in a manner that made one feel like they had just been caught with their hand in a cookie jar, regardless of whether or not any crime had actually been committed.
King came scrambling down the stairs with Lilith at his heels.
“The mighty King of demons demands to accompany you to the market!”
Eda tugged on her long black gloves while King scuttled over to her, tugging at the edge of her skirt.
“Mmm, Lils figured you would, buddy. You wanna grab some of the mushrooms we harvested over the weekend? You can use them as a starting bet for a few rounds of poker with Maaya while I work.”
King pumped his arms in the air excitedly and dashed to the kitchen.
Lilith giggled and followed after him.
“I should probably give him a hand.”
“Make sure he only grabs enough to fit in the market basket. I need enough left over to actually cook with this week.”
She gave her a thumbs up.
“Got it!”
Eda finished getting ready to go out for the night. She pulled on her boots, the left one padded on the inside to keep her skeletal foot level with her flesh one, and adjusted her gloves so that they were pulled over the long sleeves of her dark blouse.
Hanging on a hook by the door was a dark, extremely wide brimmed hat with a dark veil sewn into the brim. She picked it up and donned it with practiced movements, hiding her skeletal face till all that could be seen through the veil was the burning glow of her irises.
Even covered up, her cursed half hidden from prying eyes, she made for an eccentric sight in broad daylight.
How do you solve this problem?
You don’t step out into the sun.
In the night market, Eda wasn’t any stranger than the next shady vendor, making it the perfect place to set up shop every evening after sundown.
Outside of the safety of her home, Edalyn Clawthorne was practically dead. She hadn’t seen anyone from her old life who wasn’t deceased since she left her parent’s house.
Now, she was Matka, the shrouded poteneer and lesser known seller of human oddities.
King came back into the living room with a wicker basket filled, but not overflowing, with sizable black mushrooms. Behind him, Lilith gave her a thumbs up, assuring her that the pantry would not be practically barren when she opened it come dawn.
“Everyone ready?” she asked.
Two chirps of confirmation met her ear.
“Then let’s head out.”
“Yes! Market, Market!” King and Lilith chanted in unison.
“Have fun! Bring me back a souvenir!” Hooty called as the door shut on a quiet, but certainly not empty house.