Chapter Text
Coco awoke to a slight headache that made her dread opening her eyes. A soft, light voice came from the left of her, prompting her to sit up and asking a series of questions that Coco couldn’t be bothered to put effort into, giving small nods and shakes of the head at the woman’s questions, shakes that she ultimately regrets due to the thrumming between her temples that the movement causes. She moves her fingers up to brush the bandages towards her cheek- ah, yes, she has been hit by magic. Pesky magic, magic aimed at Qifrey, magic that tried to hurt him.
With her open eye, she scanned the room, spotting the exit which she carefully trotted towards before the flaps opened, and Coco was yanked from behind her back to the bed by the nurse. The white haired man looked between her and the nurse quickly, words flowing from his mouth with urgency before Coco could even think to speak back up.
“Coco, you may not leave, you must stay here and rest as intended,” his gaze flicked back to the nurse, ”Did you check her over?”
The nurse chuckled before stating that yes, she had checked over the child. Continuing, she said that Coco had a head injury- a concussion, she called it- and would likely have a headache for a few days as well with some nausea, but that she would be fine.
That seemed to calm the man down enough, his face softening just enough that Coco could tell. The
nurse walked from the room, and for a moment, everything was still, but then her master turned his head and the girl could see the fear, guilt, and sadness that enveloped his pupils staring back at her.
The following conversation was a whirlwind of emotions, but thankfully, it was productive and while begrudgingly, Coco was left to stay under the care of Lord Beldaruit while Qifrey went to find her friend.
——
Her headache only got worse as the night went on- to much thinking paired with a large amount of noise and pure ruckus led the light ache to root itself far deeper and the sickness that plagued her stomach to grow more intense. Despite this, the throbbing of her skull dulled the instant Agott’s face fell into Coco’s shoulder as she made her way through the window way , her arm wrapping around the shorter girl’s torso and her fingers curling into the fabric on her back. For a moment everything was right, everything was fine and would be fine.
The cries of the other girls about her face brought back the pressure behind her temples, but she couldn’t help but feel joy at there safety, and hopefully, should the ring be correct, her master.
In her peripheral vision she saw movement accompanied by the wails of their Watchful Eye. She assumed he had passed out ‘If not for the deep pit in her stomach and the focus steeling her aching mind she she might have laughed at the knowing , almost humorous look on his face made slightly off putting by the clear exhaustion lining his features. The group was soon put on the heroic duty of making pouched slug stones as a diversion. It was tedious, but it took her off the feeling of dull pain reverberating through her skull, so she wasn’t mad about it.
Her attention was diverted by the loud clang that echoed through the sky of the floating pedestals bumping into one another, dislodging them from the circle formation. Her head flew around before landing on the collapsed form of Lord Beldaruit. The man was giving up. They all were, and they were just watching as everything they had worked for fell in on itself.
And then a thought crossed her mind.
She stepped forward, and then she flew.
——
It took everything in how power not to immediately lie down the moment her feet touched, cool, solid ground, Agott’s hands in hers. She leaned into the taller girl slightly as she heard footsteps approaching white coming from out of the corner of her eye as her master came into view. A soft warmth filled her chest at Qifrey’s question of Custas’ whereabouts, the knowledge of the good she had caused bringing her slight relief at the knowledge of the good she had caused.
That warmth turned to dread when her Master’s composure dropped to a look of icey horror at the mention of the boy’s well being. Fear and concern took over her body as she pleaded with the man to tell her what was wrong, what was happening, as she desperately tried to push past the thrumming pain that went through her skull at her thrashing movement.
A split second decision had her dragging both herself and Qifrey into the air for her to learn the truth behind the man’s carefully concealed lies.
——
The wagon home was long and exhausting. She could barely stay awake for half of the time, going between leaning up against their Watchfull Eye, to leaning against Agott, to her head resting all the way back against the wood supporting their backs, to ultimately laying on the floor. None of them make her feel better though.
The movement of the wheels across the bumpy ground not only contributed to the throbbing of her head but to the ill feeling of her insides. Twice the nausea overtook her and she had to desperately wave her Master to stop the horse so she could stumble off the wagon in time to spill her guts. Both times she could feel worried gazes bear into her with Qifrey and Olruggio’s parroting questions on her wellbeing that only worsened the pain behind her eyes with its noise.
She quickly waved them off, saying that the nurse had warned her of this while plastering a soft, fake smile on her face that she knew no one believed by the way everyone still stared back with concern fleeting across their faces. Ignoring them she got back into the wagon and they continued to move. When they arrived to the atelier she all but hobbled upstairs, trying to ignore the fleeting thought of this being her home now.
She flung herself into her bed, barely hearing Agott’s words behind her as her vision faded to black.
Then it faded to blue, then a bright cyan, then black. Then blue, a bright cyan, the sharp lines of crystals blurred into memory, then black. Then black, then blue, then her mom. Then her laughs and her smiles, then her look of fear as she called out Coco’s name, then black. Then black, then blue, then a bright cyan, then her mother’s crystallized form staring back at her, then black. Then black, then blue, then Qifrey.
She jolts up, breathing heavy as she squeezed her eyes closed, the ringing in her ears overtaking her mind and just pain, the migraine overwhelming her for just a moment before she found herself bolting from her bed, only making it to the void toiled a moment before bile rose from her stomach. She sat there for a moment, her forehead pressed against the cold porcelain as tears threatened to escape her eyes. Blinking them away, she slowly moved, ignoring how it only made the throbbing of her head worsen, to grab her cloak and her shoes. She sipped them both on and walked down the steps of her room in the atelier, to open the door into the inky black of night.
——
It’s a fight to keep her stomach in her body as she moves around. The consistent motion, moving up and down, left and right around her town to draw the spells has her head throbbing more than it did when she first woke. Every movement sends sharp pains through her temples and behind her eyes, and any harsh motion has her vision blurring.
Finishing the last line, Coco moved back, and waited, her body swaying in the wind. She waited more, and more, before her body couldn’t anymore and she slowly lowered herself to the ground. For a moment the shock overtook her as she stared out to the crystallized mass. She felt like she was floating.
Then time stopped. But it didn’t, she was there, and she was floating, flying even, and then she was back. Confusion enveloped her being as she heard her master’s voice coming from behind her. It felt like time was moving so slow, and when she tried to respond her mouth felt like a brick attacked to her face. She could do nothing as the tears fell silently from her eyes as she heard him move closer to her. When he asked about the counterspell surrounding the cyan amalgamation, she felt her mouth move, and the confusion was gone, replaced by the ever present migraine that had followed her since the injury that had happened less that two days prior.
The conversation they shared was melancholic, and by the time he brought up his condition, the tears started to flow again, but this time they were loud and unapologetic as a mixture of grief and pain flood her senses. He could have said that anywhere other than there, but her Master chose his words deliberately, and all she could do was cry as she saw the closest thing she had to family reflect in the shiny crystal of her mother’s hardened face.
A face now ridden of snow because of him.
Because he cared.
Because he was still there, still standing by her side and holding her as she cried.
A small, quiet wine escaped her throat as she was jostled, Qifrey lifting the small girl into his arms as they walked to a nearby carriage. She could feel his hand come to lightly brush the hair on her head. His voice was hushed as he spoke,” Coco, I want to take you to the hospital, in the village.”His breath came close to her ear as the man ducked his head to her own, before continuing, “I am worried about this-“
Despite how much it pained her to do so, she shook her head quickly against his shirt, “No, I’m fine, I just didn’t sleep much last night so my head hurts a bit more. I’m fine, I just want to go home- to the atelier.” The last part came out so quiet she barely heard it, but the sentiment was loud and clear. She could feel his grip on her tighten as he breathed for a moment before muttering “If you don’t feel better after sleep I shall take you, Coco.”
He stood and for a moment Coco felt much more like a child in his arms than she ever had before, in pain and clutching to her Master like her life depended on it. He stood, and then he took them to the flying contraption, which flew them home.
——
After dinner the only thing that coco could describe herself as was dead. Every noise hurt, every movement hurt, everything hurt and there was nothing she could do but try to watch through the blinding light of the likely dull float glow lamp as group conversed lightly. She knew they were trying to be quiet and conscious of her clearly pained look, but it did nothing for her. By the time they were done, she dismissed herself, Agott closely following behind her alongside the Eyes from the table that bore into her back. Coco could tell the taller girl wanted to say something, but she only followed, her hand outstretched to rest behind the green haired girl’s back to catch her should she fall. When she reached her room she collapsed face down onto the bed, a groan escaping her throat, muffles by the linens below.
The silence in the room was almost as painfully deafening as the conversation downstairs had been. She could feel everything. Her heartbeat traveled from the tips of her fingers to the nerves behind her eyes, and with every beat it felt as though she were being bludgeoned, her skull being beat in as though it were a pumpkin to be smashed in a child’s game.
“We were all so scared when you were gone, Coco.” The whisper roared in the room’s silence, echoing off of the walls and deep into Coco’s bones, refracting off into a full body shiver. The floating feeling was back. “I was worried that you’d..”
The tone of her voice nearly made Coco sob, it was so soft, so kind. How could words like that bring so much pain. On impulse, the shorter girl pushed past every instinct and sense of self preservation that told her that this would only bring pain to bring herself to standing, to hug to girl standing the the side of her bed.
For a second she flew. For a second Coco floated away into the atmosphere where nothing existed, not even her own thoughts. Then she was back. The world shifted as her body straitened, the room blurring into a mass of colors as her legs collapsed in on her and the only thing she could feel was blinding hot pain that overtook every limb, every organ, every cell of her body. She could feel hands on her, lowering her from the mass she had fallen into to the floor. She thought her name was being called, but she couldn’t tell over the ringing of pain. Pain that was being numbed, Pain that floated away.
And then there was nothing.