Chapter Text
Iguin rubbed on the underside of Maomao’s calf as it twitched and threatened to kick him again. He slowly let her leg down however his hand began to travel towards her chest, his fingers crept inside her garments before taking hold of a specific vile stored inside.
Iguin’s hand lifted the ink-pot up, inspecting the contaminants. “You are a special case. You managed to make your very own ink.” His voice echoed as people began to sprint over to the fire. His fingers tapped against the walls of glass and Maomao’s arms are beginning to become sore.
“Come with us, you’ll reach limits unbounded by the principles of magic~” Her eyes dilated in shock racing back and forth between her pen and Iguin.
“I can’t!” Maomao shook her head multiple times to the point of her becoming dizzy.
“Hm..? But if you do you’ll be able to help your mother.. Your master… Even yourself.” Iguin chuckled and his laughter only brought her into distraught. A single smidge of ink floated and covered her mouth entrappening any sounds that would come out. More bolts of ink flowed out of his cloak and suddenly shot out all at once in one direction.
Maomao faced her head immediately over there meeting the striking gaze of Jinshi, “It seems we’ve brought some unwanted attention.” More ink escaped from Iguin’s cloak and he unclasped his hand from her arms, she almost sighed with relief however was interrupted by a rope of ink tying her arms to her torso.
“What were you doing to her.” Jinshi demanded, Maomao stepped backwards but it seemed to be the wrong step as paper crunched under her foot and caught on fire. She looked down under her seeing the same cobblestone tiles.
Maomao shook her foot a multitude of times and the flame slowly died down. “You better watch your step.” Dark fog enveloped his body sheltering each inch of him, the fog compresses against him and dissipates from thin air.
(What a piece of shit) Maomao thought inside her head while looking at the empty space left behind from Iguin, she turned her head back to Jinshi who was about to step onto the cobblestone tiles around him.
Maomao yelped out with aggressiveness despite the ink gagging her, Jinshi stared at her in confusion as she crawled back into the burnt up room and came back out kicking a block of black. Maomao rubbed the sole of her shoe then wrote into the ground.
‘The ground has been tampered with magic, I will come to you’
A clear sweat drop fell from Maomao’s face as she stuck herself to the walls of her chamber, eventually she reached Jinshi and faced him head on. His hand started to lift up hesitating to touch the ink around her mouth, Jinshi tapped on the edge of the ink then recoiled his hand back just hovering near his eyes seeing as the ink hadn’t stained him at all.
Jinshi gripped tighter on the ink block as it peeled like an orange, the flap of ink fell on the ground and Maomao sighed, having been away from the stench of ink. “If you can, please untie me.” Maomao spoke, turning around.
“How can ink even be this strong to hold you bound?” HIs hands positioned into a fist as he tore the ink and it splattered onto his face. The rope of ink dropped onto the ground almost completing a ring, Maomao turned back to face Jinshi only to see his face littered with droplets of ink and raised an eyebrow seeing a drop of ink fall from his chin.
“That's gonna stain.” Maomao grabbed the rag tying her hair up and dabbed across Jinshi’s face.
“I feel like that's going to make it spread more.”
“It might. But this ink can be toxic to handle.” She smoothly lied from her mouth, she refined her lying skills after leaving the Atelier after all.
“Then explain to me why you are manufacturing this ink.” He pitched out, voice holding the disappointment in a stable manner. Maomao’s face drooped, knowing how her lie didn’t hold out.
“It was only a joke…” She finished dabbing all the ink off his face and quickly tied her hair again then pulled out her palm quire and pen hiding it inside her sleeves, she heard an audible sigh from her side before Jinshi spoke again.
“Actually, Apothecary. What is your relation with witches?” …Alright how shall she proceed with this one, say that she was a witch, say that she only knows Qifrey or act completely dumb.
“... I am.” His head tilted to the side looking at Maomao in confusion. “I mean that I am a witch myself.” HIs jaw dropped and stilled in motion, during that she looked back at where the fire was and saw faint smoke rising from the supposed place of arson.
“So.. You can cast magic.” He skeptically asked, she mentally memorised the spell of the water flower back then with Agott during the silver eve festival and precisely drew on the page. Coco drew carefully the ring leaving a small gap.
“That is true, I do remember a spell from back then… Wait a moment.” Maomao sighed, quickly drawing another spell of invisibility so the seal wouldn’t be seen by him. She shivered, feeling the anticipation emanating from Jinshi.
“Flos.. Aquae.” Coco finished the ring for the flower as it brightened into a glowing blue right from her hands, it burst out in a short distance almost hitting Jinshi in the face. He grabbed a lowly petal that was falling from the air and inspected it more closely.
“You made a flower out of water..?” He murmured, watching it fade away and Maomao put the seal back into her sleeve.
“Yes, I was taught water magic mostly. A courtesy of my master.” Maomao stored her stationary away looking back at Jinshi.
“Now that we’ve established you're a witch and previously said that the ground was tampered with.. Shall you get rid of it?” Maomao groaned, hunching her back over.
“Your wish is my command… But I do have a favour to ask, don’t tell this to anyone and I do require full isolation during this.”
“Consider that approved; however I am not able to grant you the isolation, this is an important pathway afterall.”
“Really just something to cover me while I work.”
“I thought you could make miracles.”
“I technically can but I do still need total isolation.”
“You won’t give this up will you?”
“I suppose I can work with people around.”
“Great! Since these chambers are obviously going to need repairs there are going to be people constructing right next to you.”
“I’ll get started now….”