23 Escape through the forest and Festering doubt

"-that?" I finished saying as I snapped myself back to attention before looking around to see that we were at the edge of town. "What, how are we?- did you just teleport us?" I asked still looking around.

"You can do that?!" I questioned in a surprised voice as I looked back at her. "Pfff, no she used a tool one of the Emperor's coven Guards ha- OW!" I heard the sudden addition of Edric say before being pinched by Emira.

"Like Edric said I used a magic tool that I borrowed (swiped) from a coven guard, though it's too bad it broke," Emira said as she pointed at a pile of what looked to be dust on the ground. "But what about King?" I asked before King stumbled out from behind a tree.

"Hey King what's wrong?" I asked as I turned to King. "I, the mighty King, am fine whoever you are!" King said with unfocused eyes that he rubbed as if to get something out of his eyes. "Hey Emira, there's something wrong with King." I turned my head back and informed her before I saw an awkward look on her face.

"Eheh... sorry I think King stood too close in front of the light while the tool went off, sorry," Emira said with an awkward smile before picking up King and apologizing to him directly. "All is forgiven, my subject, I the mighty King am fine!" King said while trying to make a confident face that made him look all the cuter in Emira's eyes.

"Awww, thank you for forgiving me," Emira said before giving a quick pat on King's head making King which King seemed to accept without much issue. "So back to what happened back there," I said shaking my head as I regained focus.

"What about it?" Emira and Edric said at the same time before Edric was pushed away while letting out a quick "oof!" as he was pushed in his gut. "That teleportation tool, are you sure it was fine to use?" I asked as I fell into thought.

'I mean wouldn't they have tracking magic for stuff like that?' I thought while looking at Emira who also seemed to be thinking. "Maybe? I don't think that tool was all that important if it broke within one use." Emira said while shrugging before she started walking toward the general direction of the Owl House.

"Are you sure? Because this could be pretty bad if my Aun- I mean if the captain of the Emperor's Coven tracks us back to the house." I ask Emira as she gives me a strange look.

"Look I doubt that they would so don't worry," Emira reassured me as Edric nodded in agreement with his sister.

"*sigh*, if you say so." I shrug as I began to get up from my sitting position but suddenly feel a horrible burning and stabbing pain from my calf where I was hit.

"AAAHH!" I screamed out as I fell back on my butt. "Az!/Az!" I hear both of them call out before running over as I hold my leg in pain. "Wow this hurts," I say in a pained yet amused-sounding voice trying not to scream more as I clenched my jaw.

"When did you get hurt?!" I heard Emira say as she kneeled down and looked over the wound despite not having any way to help me beyond that. "It's f-fine I have a healing spell I can use," I grunt out as I channeled my magic into a circle and activated a healing spell I knew.

As it flared to life, so did the wound as a familiar flame that shaped into an unknown pattern appeared over the quickly closing gash as it hovered there. "What is that?" I ask in mild concern not quite sure what the symbol is supposed to be.

"Oh no... we've got to go now!" I hear Emira say as I focus back on the now concerned faces of Emira and Edric. "What? What is it?!" I started to feel more concerned now as I stood on my leg which was recovered enough to put pressure on.

"That's a tracking mark, we're going now!" I see Emira and Edric take off with King before processing what Emira said. 'Shit...' was all I thought before I took off running after them...

POV CHANGE, Lilith...

'Where did Az go? I know he was up here before?' Lilith thought as she stood atop the roof that she Az launched himself up onto. 'To be honest, it was an odd but interesting application of fire magic,' Lilith continued to think as she remembered how he created an explosion using fire magic to launch himself while he was on a large piece of metal.

'I couldn't imagine people usually using it that way due to how dangerous it is though.' As Lilith thought this a Coven guard walked up to her breaking her out of her focus when she heard their voice.

"Captain, one of our members just informed us that they placed a tracker on the Owl Lady's son when they hit him." The Coven guard reported which gained more of her interest as she nodded in satisfaction.

"Good work, lead me to the guard who placed the tracker we will set out now!" Lilith said as they walked briskly toward the rest of the Coven guards.

POV Change, Chris...

"*huff**huff*, how long are we going to keep running, we already passed the house?" I asked focusing on Emira in front of me and Edric who was carrying King. "We need to get as far as we can so they give up... or at least I hope that they do," Emira explained, whispering the last part.

"What was that?" I questioned before seeing Edric look back. "It doesn't matter what she said, more importantly, what did you do to have a whole squad of Coven guards to come after you, because there is no way us stealing those skewers would cause that!" Edric asked between pants.

"I..." I stop myself from answering, hesitant to tell them what happened. 'It might just involve them in something they don't need to worry about... I mean I don't think they'll be in trouble if I just separate from them since I don't think they saw them with me.' I thought trying to reason to the part of me that wanted to stay with them in the hope that we would escape as I looked at the preteen twins in front of me that were helping me get away despite not even knowing what I did.

"Az, just tell us what happened!" I heard Emira say as I looked up to see her looking back at me now as well. "I-I..." ' Just try to reassure them that this is a mistake and ask them to go back to the house...' my conscience told me knowing that it would only cause more trouble for them.

'...Just do it, you can escape to the human realm anyways so there's no consequence.' I heard it continue to reason which by all means I couldn't argue with right now.

'They aren't even at the same level as they were at in the show so it would just be better not to cause problems for them too unlike with Raine and Eda or with Camila, making her worry about you after those 'fights' you had with Grim and the hooded man.' It continued on as I remembered how I worried Raine when I fought Grim, when I made Eda worry so much that she didn't drink her potion to suppress her curse, or when I was hurt so badly while trying to escape Grim with Camila that I passed out making her worry. "-I'm just making things worse for everyone..." I mumbled as I came to a stop with my head facing back toward the ground.

"Emira, Edric, sorry..." I raised my head with the best smile I could give on my face. "I think there might be some mistake, I'll just go talk to them and clear it up." I lied trying to convince them.

'I mean they're young, right? It should be easy to make them believe me and head back to the house right?' I questioned to myself as I saw the suspicious looks on their faces. "Just go back to the house and look after King, I'll be back in a bit," I said to them trying to convince them.

"...Only if you have one of us go with you since we're still your babysitters," Emira said as she placed a hand on my shoulder. "But it'll just inconvenience you, you don't need to worry about it!" I said cheerfully hoping to convince them to just go back to the house.

'I can't exactly escape if there's someone with me, it'll just make things worse if they get involved...' I said to myself as I looked at them for a while.

"Please trust me on this, it's not a big deal" I pleaded as I saw their reluctant looks before they whispered to each other. "Fine we'll try since you won't let us to go with you," Emira said with a serious look. "*sigh*, thank you for that," I said as smiled for real this time before running off into the forest.

"We're not seriously letting him go alone, are we?!" Edric said exasperated as Emira turned to him. "You're not but I am, I'm still responsible for him," Emira said as she took off in the direction of Az. "Hey what about me?! I'm responsible for him too you know!" Edric said as he saw her fade away into the trees.