Was evelyn ever ALMOST caught by witch hunters?

I WROTE IT, BECAUSE DRAWING IT TAKES TOO LONG.

For some reason, I forgot I could just...... Write these little shorts with little illustrations alongside it, instead of drawing out the whole thing and it takes forever. So... here ya go! Two more little drawings beneath the cut with some text!

Roger growled through the gap amongst his ivory. He could not wrap his head around why his rival was standing there with bow and arrow, willing to.. What? Shoot him? For this woman. Barely a Christian woman, even. "What are you going to do?" Roger gestured at Caleb's homemade weaponry. "You're going to shoot me if I don't leave?" "Maybe." Caleb said, still not tensing the bow. "My brother's a real clever guy, he knows a lot about the body. Did you know that arterial bleeding is the most fatal?" "Uh-" "Looks the most accidental, too." Roger furrowed his brows. Caleb's brown eyes were void of warmth. "What are you saying?" "I'm saying I'm holding a bow. I'm saying I'm pretty good at using it. I'm saying I'm a woodsman, you're not. I'm saying that if I wanted to accidentally shoot you and hide your body, I could. And if you were discovered, it's an arrow in you, not an English pistol wound, or a knife. And nobody knows you were ever here." "...You're not serious." "You can always find out." "You're bluffing, I've never seen you use a bow and-" "Leave my property." Caleb repeated. "And if you are going to accuse my friend of witchcraft, you better have more than suggestive or spectral evidence." Roger glowered back, held his hands up in peace, and backed away. "Fine, I will." And left the way he came through the woods. Caleb waited until he couldn't see him any more, before locking the door and pulling the curtains. Roger had never liked Caleb, but before his rival took a break from witch hunting, Roger had at least had a competitors respect for the man. But respect turned to suspicion. Caleb had been acting strange for awhile... Glum and a lot more quiet. Then that woman showed up. And now the cove were against spectral evidences? Caleb had been the most frequent and outspoken about how witches found a lawful loophole by using supernatural means to get away with their crimes. As it was difficult to prove that a witch had tormented someone in their dreams, for example. And Roger agreed! Sure, Caleb was annoying, but they had both been amongst the best and the worst of hunters, being the same age only meant the two lads butted head to stay in their spot as head of a patrol. Being a witch hunter was a competitive sport, almost, it was hard to explain unless you participated. They were not friends, but Roger was sure if the roles had been reversed, Caleb would've been suspicious too and, honestly? Caleb would've tried to save Roger. It was just good sportsmanship. And this whole thing smelled wicked. Caleb turned to Evelyn. "Are you alright?" "I don't know.." She said and looked at her hands. Artemis had crawled out onto her shoulder to give her a comforting little spider hug. "My magic.. It didn't work." "What?" Caleb abandoned his bow by its place next to the backdoor. "It's not working?" "I don't- I was trying to make it work, he saw me. I'm sorry." Caleb lift her chin up. "Hey no, it's alright. Maybe.. You've just been here too long?" "No that's not it. I know it isn't." "Maybe you're ill?" She smiled up at the crease of worry on his forehead. He was trying to sound calm and proper, and she knew that tone of his. That rougher, almost demanding, serious tone. That tone he used with Philip and his friends when they were turning to him for leadership and give them orders - even if he was just as anxious as them.

His eyes flickered away, noticing that she had caught him spiralling with worries. He shook his head to get out of it and straightened his back. "Are you ill?" He repeated with a softer tone "No, I dont think so." "Not witch-ill, human-ill?" "No... I don't have any symptoms." "Hm.." Caleb thought back at when she had visited him at his job. "Oh, was it the sprig of dill tea?" Evelyn's eyes lit up. "Oh! Oh right that did taste awful!" Caleb couldn't help but break out into a soft scoff. "Well, good to know that folktale is true." "Huh?" "It's said sprig of dill keeps witches and evil away. That's why we drink it at the morrow' meeting." Evelyn's lips pressed into a line, feeling a little silly that she had so readily accepted tea from a bunch of woodsmen-slash-witch hunters. Of course they would be drinking things like that out of superstition.

"Right." She brushed her vest. Caleb snorted. "Stop it! I was afraid!" "Sorry, sorry. I'm sure it's only temporary." Evelyn looked at her hands. "You think so?" "Yeah. But.. Why don't you stay here, just in case, until it comes back. Yeah?" "Appreciated." "Of course." Evelyn swayed her skirt bashfully. "Caleb?" "Mh?" "Thank you." She pulled him in so she could plant a kiss on his cheek. "You've been my hero today." Caleb's limbs were full of pink and red butterflies. He laughed nervously and swatted his hand around in the air. "Oh! PFSH! O-Of course! I can't just- You're a maiden in distress! It's only the right thing-! Anytime, milady." And theatrically rolled his hand before bowing to her. And that got him in the right height for both of her hands to cup his face. "I think you deserve one more then." And kissed him on the side of his nose, his forehead, and when his smile spread his lips wide across his face, she kissed the dimple by his side. And that was enough. Caleb crumbled, and turned away from her with an incoherent sputtering of words. She smiled. Caleb put his face in his hands to cool, stroked them through his hair and coughed. "TEA?" He offered, gesturing at the stove. "Er- not, that tea, better tea." "Sure." And took a seat nearby him.

Andddd speaking of you going into the philosophies of it all that’s exactly what I’m going to do!! (THIS IS REALLLY LONG IM SO SORRY you don’t have to get to it right away)

One corner of philosophy that I enjoy is free will and determinism. Determinism is basically the opposite of free will; it’s the idea that every event, decision and action is determined by a chain of prior occurrences.

I think determinism is really important within The Owl House, especially regarding Luz’s guilt about helping Belos, and with how you are writing ttocw.

Let me talk about Belos/Philip for a bit.

One thing that comes to my mind when thinking about your interpretation of the Wittebanes is the case of Leopold and Loeb. I would recommend looking it up if you would like, it’s as tragic as it is fascinating, but to sum it up two boys committed murder hoping to demonstrate superior intellect, which they believed would allow them to commit the “perfect crime” without consequences.

Im not trying to compare these guys to Caleb and Philip or connect them to each other in any way, it’s the defense their lawyer made that’s important. (It’s said that by the end of his speech the court room was quiet and the judge was weeping openly.)

Clarence Darrow, the lawyer, attempted to show that the boys were helpless victims of heredity and environment. In other words, the deterministic ideas of Nature and Nurture. Nature refers to the biological/genetic factors that impact one’s traits. For example, you have no free will over your eye color, but this idea goes a lot deeper than just physical appearance. Nurture is one’s upbringing, their environment, experiences etc. and how they impact you and your choices.

Both of these affecting your decisions would be something like: you walk into an ice cream shop. You can’t get anything with nuts because you are allergic (nature), and people have told you how good this one flavor is (nurture) so you think you will go with that.

It’s not really as simple as that however, a lot of the things you do can be traced back to one of the two, or both. What does this have to do with the Wittebanes?

You are writing Philip as a perfect example of how nurture changes someone. How the simplest actions, even the ones that seem the most insignificant, have effect on a person. Especially how these things that happen to Philip when he was just a kid will turn him into Belos in the long run. That mask he wore that Caleb said could trick witch’s? He wore it for hundreds of years in the isles. The ideas and politics and religion he grew up with influenced the way he created his empire, raised Hunter, spoke about the Titan, etc.

I believe Caleb has spoken about how he feels somewhat at fault for the way Philip turned out, and he’s not wrong. But then you begin to ask why Caleb acted the way he did to Philip, then who or what was the cause of those actions, and it will keep spiraling until the whole world is to blame for the actions of one man, and you can’t blame the world for the hurt and suffering of so many people.

I think that’s when I start to wonder about Hunter, he was influenced and raised to believe what he did was right, but so did Philip. Hmmm personally I think it’s whether or not you can come to the realization that what you are doing or did is wrong and hold yourself accountable for your actions. But even then there is still the people you hurt and it’s not up to you whether they will forgive you or not. I just love thinking about these kinda things

But one thing I know for certain is that Luz should not be beating herself up over helping Belos.

Because if Luz never taught him the light glyph then there would be no collector, no emperor belos, no emperors coven. Sure, I can understand her guilt, she was the one that put his plan into motion.

But if there was no emperors coven then Lilith would never have cursed her sister, never causing her to run off and find the portal door. No portal door means Luz would have never walked into the demon realm. But she did, meaning she has, at the time, already taught him the glyph. It was always going to happen, there was no way around it.

Not only that, but I’m sure Belos knew. I’m sure he knew all of this. Why else would Lilith be able to keep her palisman, because without it she would have (most likely) never risen in ranks, never become as powerful as she was. Never ultimately betraying the coven in favor of her sister. Never ending up at the Owl House on that fateful day when Flora Desplora planted the idea of the time pools in her head. Would have never gone back in time with Luz, met Philip. Never taught him the light spell.

I’m sure Lilith joining the coven must have been some sort of realization for Belos. I’m sure he recognized her face, as unlikely as it sounds, but he remembered Luz. He for sure could have stopped Luz and the rest from getting away after she blew up the portal door, but he didn’t. If you look up the hollow mind paintings you can see them in (I’m pretty sure) chronological order, and there is one of him standing in front of a smirking Flora, undoubtedly sending her off to plant the idea of the time pools in Lilith’s head.

But what I don’t think Belos understands is that it wasn’t him manipulating the situation. It was an act of fate. There was no free will in any of this. Luz was always going to step through that door, and always going to teach him the glyph. I would say that she has nothing to be guilty about but I can understand why she still would be. Even if she never had any say in what was going to happen she did still end up causing a lot of people to get hurt. The thing she needs to get is that it was the actions of Belos that caused people to get hurt, her actions were a factor in what happened, sure, but she had no control over what was happening, and it wasn’t her that actively went out and hurt people 😭😭😭 I just want her to be happy shoajsjakaja

If this gets deleted somehow I swear

I don't really have anything to add! this was really cool to read!

But I will add that, yes! That is an interest of mine (nurture vs nature) and an intention I have with Philip. I think it's an interesting puddle of grey to pat my feet into when writing complex villains/antagonists/conflicts. I enjoy exploring greyness in characters in general! So you're spot on there.

Hi Mera!

I just wanted to say that I really really love your writing style. The way you bring personality and deeper at your characters is amazing, you make them feel like real persons.

For example! In TTCW, you write Caleb like any other human, with problems, moral conflicts, boundaries, inner thoughts, conflicts that feels like one’s that isn’t hard to imagine he could be in…

It’s simply pure art.

I wanted be a writer since I was a child, and I had my enthusiastic period at my 15s. The same for the painting and the draw. But also I had my period of discouragement, and because of time, work and school I didn’t feel capable of improve anything of this.

Find your stories, and your art was a motivation to not give up in this in a dark moment to me.

And thank you..! I'll always be surprised that people find my writing style interesting. I'm not even sure what makes my style "a style" of writing in the first place, haha!

I'm very glad you are enjoying my characterisation in ttocw! I'm having fun with it! :'D

I wanted to tell stories to inspire people to tell their stories. In whatever medium they choose. Art, text, music- Please go forward! Throw your heart ahead and run to catch it!

The world needs it. The creative spirit needs you to share yourself too. You matter. No matter if your story is big or small, a fanfic or an original work. You have something to share. I think that's worth something.

It is scary, I know. It will feel a bit awkward and lonely at first, but it's just like biking! You'll wobble before it starts rolling. And then you just gotta find your pace.

You got this!