We get some insight into Amity, as well as a bit more of Eda’s backstory.

Luz: A job fair for witches! Eda, can we go?

Eda: Absolutely not! I didn’t join a coven for a reason. Sure, it’s like a fun club for witches, but you’re also giving up your magical independence to be part of a crooked system! Eh, but, you know, no judgement. In any case, I haven’t been to one since we were girls.

Luz: We? Who’s we? You have a mysterious past! Now we gotta go!

Covention turns out to be more like a convention than a job fair (none of the job fairs I’ve ever been to have been terribly kid-friendly).

Eda promptly reveals that her main crime was refusing to join a coven,

Luz: Wow. Acceptance, camaraderie – covens sound incredible! Eda, why haven’t you ever joined one?

Eda: Watch closely, Luz. When you join a coven, all your other magic is sealed away. From now on, that kid will only be able to make illusions. Since I never joined a coven, I can do every kind of magic. That’s why I’m the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles.

The covens are an obvious nod to Hogwarts Houses, except rather than sorting you into them in school, this decides your magical fate for the rest of your life.

Luz and her friends are eager to see a demonstration from the Emperor’s Coven (and with a name like that, it’s bound to be evil).

Luz: Aren’t you coming, Eda?

Eda: No way! Of all the covens, they’re the worst. I’ll wait out here.

Luz: I get it, Eda. Covens bad, individualism good. But I’m still figuring this world out, so I’m going to go in there and make up my own mind, okay?

Luz has a good head on her shoulders! But Eda ends up coming anyway, because people start noticing that she bears a striking resemblance to the wanted Owl Lady.

Principal Bump: Students ask me all the time, “Principal Bump, what’s the height of magical achievement?” […] It’s being selected to join the best of the best, and there are none better than the jewel of the coven system, and the enforcers of his will, the Emperor’s Coven! Feast your eyes on this elite force, each member hand-picked to help usher in a new age of controlled magic. Members of the Emperor’s Coven have access to all, yes all forms of magic! […] But only the best can ascend these ranks. Someday, that could be one of you!

If the name didn’t tip you off, the job description of “enforcers of the Emperor’s will” sure will!

Then along comes this lady, the head of the Emperor’s Coven, whom Eda clearly recognizes…

But Luz has more pressing concerns than Eda’s mysterious backstory, as she runs into Amity again.

Luz: Hey, Amity. So, funny story. Not an abomination, sorry for the confusion last week. I’m Luz, the human. Hi!

I love her. But Amity has a (understandable) bone to pick with her.

Amity: You’re the one that got me in trouble with Principal Bump, and I never get in trouble.

Amity is a fascinating mix of Hermione and Draco Malfoy – she’s a blue-blood and a bully, but she’s also genuinely smart and talented.

Amity: You can’t be here! This Covention is for witches only!

Luz: Well, I’m learning how to be a witch! I’m receiving magic lessons from a powerful witch and a ferocious demon.

Then said ferocious demon shows up with a cupcake!

Amity! You wasted a perfectly good cupcake!

Amity: Oops. That was an accident.

Luz: Why are you being so mean, Amity?

Amity: Because you and your pet are giving witches in training a bad name.

King: I am not a pet!

Luz: He’s a very good boy, and the king of demons! I’ll tell you what, Amity. It’s one thing to say I can’t be a witch-

Amity: Cause, you can’t.

Luz: But it’s another thing to bully my friends. Just like the Good Witch Azura said when facing down her rival Hecate at the Bog of Immediate Regret, I challenge you to a witch’s duel!

Amity: I accept.

Luz, you know I love how you stick up for your friends, but this is a terrible idea.

Luz: One, if I win, you apologize to King for squashing his cupcake. And two, you admit that humans can be witches, too.

Amity: Fine by me. But when I win, not only do you have to tell the whole Covention you’re not a witch, you have to stop training, forever.

I’d say those are really unfair terms, especially when the odds are clearly in Amity’s favor, to say the least. But they seal the deal with an EVERLASTING OATH. My baby’s making some really terrible life decisions today.

Meanwhile, Eda meets up with her mysterious past person.

Lilith: Sister? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you last. What are you wearing? You look like some sort of trash collector…oh, right. You are.

Eda: Oh, Lily, I just came to see the leader of the Emperor’s Coven in action.

Eda’s clearly just making excuses, as she seemed pretty surprised to see Lilith.

Lilith: You think being covenless makes you so much smarter than everyone else. But while you run from the law like a degenerate, I’m mentoring the next generation of powerful witch students into the world.

Eda: Well, I have a student. And I bet she could wipe the floor with any of your prissy little bluebloods.

Luz: Eda, I need your help! I accidentally challenged Amity to a witch’s duel and I think she’s going to kill me all the way dead!

Lilith: Hm, it looks like your student has met my strongest protege. And look at those ears! Is she human? Where did you even find one of these?

Lilith endorses the duel by taking down all the wanted posters so that Eda can focus on her student.

Eda: Now, I’m coming at you with a blast of fire. What do you do?

Eda: Oh, that’s right. I haven’t taught you many spells, huh? Boy, I hope you didn’t make an everlasting oath to stop learning magic or anything. You’d be toast!

Yeah, that’s ANOTHER thing you should have taught her: How to recognize a bad deal! But as it stands, it’ll be all Luz can do to survive the duel. So rather than teaching her anything useful for a duel, Eda takes the easy way out and just cheats.

Eda: Nobody’ll know! To all eyes up there, it’ll look like you’re performing magic. Just trust me.

Luz: But I will know in my heart. Even if I win now, I lose.

But it’ll keep her from an untimely death (and giving up on her dreams), so Luz goes along with it.

Luz is terrible at improvising, though, so she blows her cover (and the duel).

Luz: It wasn’t my idea to cheat, and when I found out, I tried to stop it, but-

Amity: Who could believe anything you say?

Eda: Wait just a sec, Miss Protégé. A power glyph from the construction coven!

So it turns out that they both lost because their mentors were more concerned with winning than their students.

And they promptly start a duel of their own anyway. Not hard to believe they’re related.

Then Luz runs off after Amity.

Luz: Amity, I’m sorry.

Amity: Seriously? Just leave me alone.

Luz: I didn’t mean to embarrass you.

Amity: That’s all you ever do! First at school, and now this. […] You made me look like a fool in front of the Emperor’s Coven, my future! You think it’s so easy to be a witch. I have been working my whole life to get to the top. You lost! You cheated! Say it! Say you’re not a witch!

This is why I consider Episode 2 so superfluous: This moment where Luz is confronted about her assumption that everyone will go out of their way to support her, when they have their own lives, their own hopes and dreams that might not be compatible with hers.

Luz: I’m not a witch.

But I’m training hard to be one.

Amity: That’s nothing. A child could do a light spell…but I’ve never seen it cast like that.

Luz: It doesn’t come naturally to me, like it does for you. So I’ve had to improvise.

Then Amity unbinds the oath spell, cause she’s not heartless!

Meanwhile, there’s a real witch’s duel afoot!

This fight is amazing, but I cannot do it justice with stills. You know the drill: Go watch it yourself!

Eda: Lily wait. The curse. Look at me. Look at my face. The curse is worsening and I can’t keep up with it. I don’t know how much time I have left.

It’s implied that they’re about the same age (give or take a couple years), but Eda’s clearly aging rapidly due to her curse.

Eda: I just had to see my sister, for possibly the last time.

She exits with a joke, but I feel like she’s serious in her desire to reconnect with her sister.

Lilith: You make it so hard to want to help you, Edalyn.

Kikimora: Lilith, I see you let the Owl Lady get the best of your temper. Just remember what Emperor Belos has promised you.

Lilith: I will capture her ma’am. You have my word.

Lilith clearly wants to help her sister, but if it would be at the price of her freedom, Eda just as clearly wouldn’t want it, even if she could somehow get rid of the curse (a big if).

Until next time…