Chapter Text
Agott was not someone who startled easily.
She was usually composed, generally quiet, and very still. Master Olly has a habit of complaining about her habit of “tiptoeing” around the atelier and startling him with her sudden appearance, even though she was just naturally silent when she walked and moved. Tonight, however, Agott did have to shamefully admit that she nearly knocked off a bottle of ink from her desk and onto the floor when she heard the door to her room creak open.
She was, truthfully, ready for a berating. On her less than lucky days, Master Qifrey has a habit of doing rounds and checking if all his students were in bed and asleep. It was her own fault that he developed this tendency at all, really. Agott was his only one apprentice who enjoyed staying up and pretending to sleep at bedtime, only to draw up a dimmer-than-her-best light sigil to accompany her reading under the blankets. Most nights she would get away with the act and finish a chapter or two, other nights Master Olly came down for a second round of checking and she received a good scold instead of any studying done.
Tonight, however, her guest was not one of her professors visiting to scold her and urge her to bed, or to pull her out into the kitchen to start a lecture on work-life balance, but rather, to inquire her for a request.
“Richeh,” the way Agott said her peer’s name made it sound like a sigh of relief. “You scared me.”
The younger girl seemed a little occupied with the view. Her pale, misty, aquamarine irises reflected the rays emanating from the simple light sigil Agott had casted only moments prior on her desk. Her two eyes were darting and scanning the interior of Agott and Coco’s shared room like it was her first time there, as if they didn’t gather in the exact same room to study or talk together at times. But Agott knew that Richeh was generally an easily fascinated girl. Even a little change in how she and Coco reorganized their desks and bookshelves would scarcely go unnoticed by the her.
When her gaze finally landed on Agott, still sitting on her desk, in a small voice, she said, “Richeh needs a little help."
Needless to say, since the day the atelier received Richeh as a new apprentice, Agott had the vivid understanding that she and Richeh viewed witchcraft very differently. Agott was not afraid to put her own wants aside as long as she pulls the needed spells for the occasion. Richeh was the opposite—she will do things her way, and often times, her ineffectiveness made Agott’s skin prickle. They were rather close because Agott liked that Richeh was calm, quiet, and rather pensive, but they very rarely discussed spells together due to their differing opinions.
Despite so, in no time at all, Agott nodded anyway, “Of course,” she said quietly.
Her amethyst eyes, in turn, briefly glanced at the bed opposite hers, occupied by a deeply sleeping Coco, tucked underneath her blanket with a spell book still open next to her. One of her hands was outstretched, like her fingers were holding the book open while she read in bed, but now they just laid limp over a long, abandoned, and rightfully boring paragraph about the importance of line thickness when writing sigils. It was a book—and a chapter—on the fundamentals of drawing spells that Agott has read, repeatedly, in her elementary years, of course.
She returned her attention to the younger apprentice, saying, “We’ll have to be a little quiet, though.”
It immediately hit Agott how strange the request sounded: she was asking Richeh to be quiet.
The girl obliged anyway, not finding the request odd or weird. When she nodded, her head was still turned in Coco’s bed’s direction, eyes squinted at who knows what and a little in thought. Agott’s best guess was that Richeh was trying to decipher what book it was Coco was reading and which page she was stuck on.
When she was ready to leave Coco’s book be, Richeh took a few tentative steps towards the desk, approaching where Agott sat. The room owner positioned her roommate’s cushion closer to hers, so that the guest could sit more comfortably in a cross-legged position facing her.
“What do you need help with?” Agott asked, as soon as Richeh was settled.
“Richeh wants to borrow a few books,” she said.
“Oh,” Agott commented briefly. “What kind?”
And suddenly, Agott was presented with a folded piece of paper that Richeh seemingly have pulled out of thin air. It had creases so deep, that she was sure it had been folded that way for an extended period of time. That, or Richeh had been fidgeting with it and folding and unfolding it while she held onto it.
“There is a list,” she said, matter-of-factly, unfolding the now brittle piece of paper.
Although the creases made the handwritten list’s ink lines a little faded, Agott had no trouble telling that the handwriting belonged to Master Qifrey—neat, a little slanted, and a little curled, enough for it to be described as dainty. She read a few of the titles as Richeh struggled to unfold the piece of paper without ripping it, finding familiar titles and authors in the five items listed.
“I should have all of them here,” Agott said, eyeing her bookshelf. “They’re a little heavy, especially that first one.”
If Richeh was displeased, Agott could not tell. “Are they boring?"
She hummed a little, eyes still trained on the list not just to make sure she could lend Richeh all the books tonight, but also because she wanted to delay the obvious answer, that yes, the books she had been recommended to borrow from Agott were extremely boring.
“They’re good for strengthening your fundamentals,” she answered instead, not wanting to diminish Richeh’s spirit. “I wrote notes and annotations in the pages. They should help you understand better.”
Agott always felt like she owned a little tracking spell that connected her with all her books, despite her ever growing collection, extremely full bookshelf, and less than ideal habit of leaving her books lying in places. She was quite lucky to find three spread around her room. One—the thickest one—was collecting dust as the base of a pile she had made on her bedside table, and the other two was on her desk. The rest of the items on the list, however, must be elsewhere.
Agott pointed at the second and fifth titles on Richeh’s list. “These two are this—” she then pointed at the book on her desk, “and this—” as she pointed to a second one. She consulted the list again, pointing at the first item on it, saying, “I’ll get you this one.”
It should be a little difficult navigating her path to the little table, but her light spell aided, if only barely. Agott has also lived in this room longer than any of the other apprentices. She could probably draw the wood grains of the floors and her bed and the tables from memory alone if anyone asked her to. Getting to her table in the dark was a simple feat compared to it.
Her fingers worked quickly, wedging between the table and the large, heavy, hardbound book. When she still needed to consult the book, much much younger than she was now, the book hid her entire torso when she held it—hugged it—with both her arms. She sometimes would need the help of the attendants around her childhood home when she wanted to move the book around, carrying it to the sitting room or the table near her mother’s desk. It was much lighter to her now, a struggle to carry with one hand, but she would manage just fine with two.
“Do you want some help bringing it to your room?” Agott asked, the sentence coming out of her lips faster than she could register it.
Richeh was flipping the two other books in her hands, swapping through the pages as if she wanted to make out the rate of monotony and how fast she could get through them. Upon hearing Agott’s voice, she did look up to see the older girl standing in the dark with the large book in her hands. She was quite lucky Richeh was sitting so close near the light spell, as it aided Agott in seeing the way her gaze dimmed as a wave of disappointment flashed in her face.
Agott made her way back to the desks. “It’s not too boring,” she said, plopping back down on the cushion by her desk. “What chapter did Master Qifrey ask you to read? You don’t have to read the whole thing.”
Richeh stacked the two books she had just retrieved from Agott’s desk moments ago on Coco’s desk. “No…” she said, her eyes still looking a little disappointed.
The older girl did notice how Richeh had failed to explain what topics that Master Qifrey wanted her to focus on. But she did not, however, press. Richeh would tell her if she needed the extra help. Otherwise, she performed the best under her own devices.
“Where are the other two books?” the small voice suddenly asked, reminding Agott that she was, indeed still missing two items on the list.
Agott looked around the room. “I’m sure I must have left one of them in the sitting room. I asked Master Olly to check some of my notes yesterday. He must have left it there,” she said, trying to remember. Even if it was not true and the book was not in the sitting room, it must be somewhere inside the atelier, and she would find it in no time at all. Her books did not have anywhere else to be but in her vicinity. “The last one, though…”
She scanned the books on her desk one more time, failing to find it immediately. It was a book she consulted plenty of times as a much younger apprentice, much like the other books, as they did focus on the fundamentals. She could really see the direction Master Qifrey was going with this list. She did still feel it was a little unfair that she was the one tasked to find the books for Richeh.
Agott came back to the present when she heard rustling near them, like the sound of fabric rubbing against more fabric. Her eyes looked up to find Coco stretching in her bed, turning over, and grabbing the blanket to cover her shoulders, her back now facing the two apprentices still awake by the desk and the light spell, as if she was trying to shield herself away from all the talking and discussing happening only a few feet from her. The open book on Coco’s bed laid abandoned behind her, pages still open.
Agott’s eyes perked up when she finally saw the pages clearly. “That’s the book you’re looking for, Richeh.”
She hummed in thought as a response, “So Master Qifrey has asked Coco to read too.”
“Um…” Agott started, vividly remembering her roommate asking her if she could recommend one of her spell books to read before bed. No professors were mentioned in the process of borrowing said book. “I’m sure strengthening fundamentals never hurt anyone.”
The younger girl peeked back to Coco’s bed. “Richeh will borrow it after Coco.”
Agott nodded, “That’s a great idea. You can get started on these three first.”
She still looked a little sad—maybe it was apprehension—when she took the thickest book from Agott. Richeh balanced it on her lap and stacked the two other books on top of them.
“Ask me if you have any questions,” Agott offered. “Or Master Olly and Master Qifrey. I’m sure they’ll be happy to help.”
Richeh nodded, eyeing the three books on her lap. “Thank you, Agott.”
The older girl only nodded as an answer, feeling the familiar tug of a thin smile on her cheeks.
Finding Richeh’s problems solved and the girl’s business in her room finished, she was expecting a parting and Richeh leaving the room. She did not, however, expect what happened next.
Richeh balanced the books in one hand—her left—her non-dominant one, as if getting ready to leave. The largest, most boring book looked like it was a struggle to carry, especially because there were two other spell books on top of it and Richeh had a smaller stature. She did manage, however, Agott’s smile growing a little wider upon finding Richeh standing on her own two feet and off the cushion with the books in her hand, as if ready to leave.
But she walked closer instead, stretching the free hand not carrying the books. Agott’s smile disappeared as a wave of confusion hit her all at once, and she was scrunching her eyebrows instead when Richeh’s fingers patted Agott’s dark curls, mussing them if only slightly.
Agott’s lips parted in surprise. “Richeh—”
The younger girl stepped back, taking her hand away to support the books in her other hand. “Richeh will return the books soon,” she said, the little, bright, spark of spirit back in her sky-blue eyes, illuminated by the light spell, as if she had found a newfound strength. “Nothing will happen to them. You have Richeh’s word.”
Agott blinked, realizing that Richeh was worried about soiling her books. “You don’t have to worry about that. They’re very old books.”
Richeh nodded as an answer, a look of determination in her face.
She turned to leave, without saying a goodbye, good night, or see you tomorrow morning. It was very much like Richeh, showing up unannounced and leaving as soon as she had what she came for. Her back disappeared through the door, and she did not look back once, even when the door clicked back shut behind her.
Agott touched the tips of her curls, brushing them behind her ear as she let out a breath she did not realize she was holding.