Chapter Text
Well I thought that love watched over this house
But you're boarding up the windows now
Olruggio had always feared that one day, Qifrey would leave.
Since the moment he’d met that bright, angry, elusive boy, he dreamed of the day he was too late to stop him. The day he trailed Qifrey through the woods too slowly, or he didn’t catch on to one of his plans to go out hunting, or simply Qifrey escaped the desperate grasp that held him back, held him tethered.
The past two days after the girls’ failed second test he’d had a lot of time to think. This instance had felt so close, for the first time in years, and he couldn’t stop himself from wondering what would’ve happened had Olruggio not held him back again. If Richeh hadn’t hurriedly pulled him through one of her little window ways. If he hadn’t rushed forward to Qifrey’s side, to find him pushed to his physical and moral limit.
As much as he itched to stay by Qifrey’s side right now, while away the hours anxiously guarding both him from the exits and protecting his unconscious form from the rest of the Great Hall, it had been good to get out here, to Lord Cladd’s castle. He strode through the halls now, ready to propose his solution to Hiehart and his apprentice. Olruggio’s assignments were easy, comfortable. A problem to solve, a client to consider. Lady Miia had been easy to figure out. He knew how to approach his clients, how to offer help.
Qifrey, as always, was a different story.
Olruggio sighed to himself, resting a hand on the heavy wood door for a moment before he pushed it open.
As he entered the room, Jujy was still laying flat out on the floor, defeated, but Hiehart had moved right to the corner edge of the room where he’d already started prising a tile up. At the sound of the doors closing, they both looked up.
Hiehart threw his arms wide in welcome. “Oh, Predis! You’ve returned! I thought I’d get started just in case while–”
“Lay that tile back down, I have a different idea. To suit Lady Miia’s request.” Olruggio stalked over to the centre of the room.
“Brilliant! I knew you’d come back with something.”
“Yeah, I told you not to start yet, master.” Jujy said, sitting up to watch Olruggio’s movements.
“It’s called showing initiative, Jujy. Now, what are we doing rather than tiles?”
“We’re still doing tiles, just fewer of them.” Olruggio explained. He outlined his plan, gesturing to the central tiles, watching as the two started nodding vigorously.
They all kneeled on the floor, the tiles below them casting a luminous white glow. After pulling up one of the tiles, he sketched out the original spell into his notebook, even though he remembered it well from when they first laid the floor a couple weeks back, and from the many times he’d used it in the past. It was good practice, after all, to not assume you knew a spell because of habit. He added a few choice modifications that would lend a blue glow, before he flipped the book around to show the other two. “Here, just add these lines and they should be fine to re-lay.”
“Mmm.” Jujy said appreciatively. “That’s simple.”
Olruggio nodded. “It was always going to be a simple job, just a time consuming one.”
“Now it’s neither, thanks to the genius Master Olruggio!” Hiehart said.
“I’m not anyone’s master.” He waved a hand. “Nor am I a genius.” He took out his pen and added the new markers onto the tile he’d uncovered to check. He then laid down the top tile again, pressing with the weight of his palm so the spell in the floor below activated against the circle. It glowed blue.
“Bravo! Now, let me and Jujy do the rest according to your example!”
“On it, master.”
They took to prising the tiles up with a new voracity.
Olruggio frowned at Hiehart’s wording. “Wh… I’m doing the same as you guys.”
“Oh, nonsense, we’ve got it without you.” Jujy said.
“Yeah, you should just relax! You deserve it. We’re the ones who forced you to come out here after all.”
“It’ll be faster if we all…”
“Oh, no sweat!” Jujy waved a dismissive hand. “We were expecting to tile this entire floor, so you’re saving us time.”
“It’s technically my assignment. You guys are just helping me–”
“You shouldn’t waste your genius, mister.” Jujy lectured.
“Exactly! You bring the genius, we bring the enthusiasm!”
“Don’t you mean manual labour?”
“That too!”
“Alright then,” Olruggio said, then sat back against the wall, amused as they one by one prised up the tiles, scratching his new modification onto them and squabbling amongst themselves. He knew better than to argue with those two sometimes.
Still, his mind couldn’t help playing over what Jujy had said earlier. Helping a friend, eh…
Olruggio once again slipped Qifrey’s glasses out from the swathes of his cloak, turning them over in his fingers and tilting them in the light. The spell was still there, the ink invisible sometimes, but shining at certain angles. He sighed, bringing out his sketchbook and laying the glasses down across a fresh page. Over in the centre of the room Jujy shrieked with a reprimand as Hiehart allegedly dropped rather than carefully relaid one of the tiles and started pleading reticence. A gradual mix of white and blue glowed around them as they worked.
Tilting the glasses to catch the light, Olruggio sketched out the light-reducing spell into his book. He’d noticed it yesterday while he had been replacing the shaded lens that had cracked out from the centre. He’d retraced the obfuscating spell, thinking the fixed glasses could be a peace offering. But now it was an offering, and a question. A question… more a plea. Just to know his best friend in the world again.
“Oh, come on! Look, master, even when we tell him to take a break, he’s still sketching spells!”
Olruggio startled out of the little reverie at Jujy’s exclamation to see her pointing over to him, sitting back while Hiehart finished up with a tile.
“I suppose Predis Olruggio just can’t help but work for the benefit of mankind at all times.” Hiehart said grandly.
“No, no, stop that.” Olruggio waved a hand, snapping his book shut. “This one’s for personal use. Have you finished with the floor?”
“Yep, all done!” Jujy said as she hopped up to her feet and dusted off her trousers. She walked around a little across the floor, demonstrating their work.
“Good.” Olruggio nodded his approval. “Let’s go see if they like our design, then.”
~~~
The next few days were a blur while the girls completed their test and Coco misadventured to the tower, before finally they all managed to find their way back home safe and sound. He’d been relieved, ready to greet a sweet reprieve from his worries, before Tartah’s arrival had reminded him of everything he had yet to prepare for Silver Eve.
Qifrey had shooed him out of the kitchen soon after dinner. He had seemed exasperated after Olruggio offered to completely take over cleaning up on account of Qifrey’s injured arm. Olruggio knew he didn’t like special treatment. He could tell Qifrey also wanted to have a word with Tartah though, so Olruggio begrudgingly left him to it, retreating back to his room.
He had to have been tired earlier, falling asleep out in the field like that, but now he felt the will to sleep evade him. Worse than that, his brain felt scattered, unfocused, and he longed to ground himself in something stable.
As such, Olruggio sat at his desk, flicking open his notebook. His desk was scattered with loose sheets of spells he was working on, but he liked to check his book to remind himself of anything new he’d thought of in case it had potential.
And that was how he turned a page and found himself frowning down at an unfamiliar spell.
What in the world–? He let his finger trace the edge of the incomplete circle. It was an uncommon spell, though not unrecognisable, one some witch had designed for those with sensory or visual issues, to soften and block harsh lights.
When had he drawn this? More than that, why? Had he thought he could submit it for Silver Eve somehow? No, this wasn’t really his own design, and he couldn’t remember thinking of a related idea or something that would draw from it. It certainly wasn’t flashy or interesting enough to debut on stage, and while it was useful for some, he had a reputation to maintain.
Olruggio scratched his head, then began to copy out the spell regardless. He hoped that through drawing it again he’d remind himself. He stared at the finished spell, then tapped his pen against the page, frustrated.
None of this had helped him ground his thoughts.
Before their trip to the Great Hall, Olruggio had felt ready to get stuck into his work, surrender all sense of time to his projects as he did every time he had a commission due. But now… he’d lost taste for it, lost his train of thought.
Olruggio stood from his desk again, stretching and heading back out of his room. He wasn’t sure where he wanted to go, until he reached the end of the corridor and heard the sound of soft cursing emerging from the kitchen.
Qifrey was standing by the cupboard of kitchen appliances, his back quivering slightly as he clasped his injured arm with his hand. Olruggio caught his intent easily; his other hand trailed next to the heavy mixing bowl he liked to use when baking. It had a seal at the bottom that triggered the materials inside to swirl themselves together, and it fit into a circle on a plate below to easily activate and deactivate the seal on demand.
“I told you I’d help you with heavy things like that.” He said from the doorway, leaning against the wall.
Qifrey’s shoulders tensed, then relaxed. He turned around to face Olruggio. “And I told you it’s fine.”
“You should go get that checked out tomorrow, in any case.” Olruggio said with a sigh as he strode across the kitchen, then leant to grab the bowl for him. Qifrey muttered a small thanks. “What are you trying to do anyway?”
“I thought it’d be nice to make a cake for the girls. I know I was asleep for most of it, but all of them passing the second test is a big achievement.”
“Right now? You can’t bake it tomorrow?”
“If it’s ready before tomorrow then Tartah can take home a slice.”
“You aren’t tired?”
Qifrey was quiet for a moment. “I just wanted something normal, I guess.”
Olruggio raised an eyebrow, surprised by his candour. You and me both. “I’ll help, then.”
Qifrey’s eye narrowed at him for a moment before he shrugged heavily. “Thanks. Can you fetch the flour and sugar for me then.”
Olruggio nodded, laying out the ingredients on the counter. “Are the girls in bed already?”
“Mostly. I’ve set up a bed for Tartah by the fireplace, but he’s up with Coco at the moment.” Qifrey said.
They worked side by side, falling into a rhythm, in comfortable silence aside from Qifrey’s occasional directions. It was familiar. They’d stayed up cooking together many times before, unwinding after whatever days they’d had.
As they finished, Olruggio sat up at the countertop, watching while Qifrey put the batter in to bake. He’d done most of the clearing up already, but he’d get up again in a second to help with the bowl.
Qifrey ducked out of the room for a second, then came back in, raising a finger to his lips. They both peeked outside, to the living room, where Tartah lay by the fireplace. His textbook and squire were open, but he was fast asleep.
Qifrey smiled a little, then made his way over to lay a blanket properly over him.
“He’s a good kid.” Olruggio said softly once Qifrey returned to the kitchen.
“Yeah.” Qifrey said. He sat beside him at the kitchen counter. Slowly, Qifrey’s head drifted sideways until it rested on Olruggio’s shoulder. He sighed, and Olruggio didn’t move.
And they sat like that, until the cake was done. Olruggio finished clearing up and they said goodnight.
It had been them, back to normal. Qifrey was still with him.