Chapter Text
Qifrey had vanished from the world of the unknowing only two years after his daughter Coco was born, retreating back into the world of witches instead of trying to fit in in the world of the unknowing. He regretted it, he especially regretted leaving his daughter behind.
Charlotte was a close friend he had met shortly after he fled from the Great Hall at eighteen and the mother of his daughter. She knew that he was alive, and she knew where to find him if anything went wrong or if she ever needed help.
Qifrey had only seen his daughter once after he had left her and her mother. Coco had been five at the time. He had seen her at the Silver Eve festival. She was looking around with blue eyes that seemed to sparkle with excitement, the colourful lights of the festival reflecting brightly off her white hair, making it look like a rainbow of colour.
Qifrey had placed a crown of blue flowers that he had made for her with magic in her hair with a smile, he hadn’t said anything to her, he had simply made it seem like a kind gesture from a stranger. The flowers complemented her sparkling clear blue eyes.
Charlotte hadn’t seen him, Coco had vanished into the crowd after that. Qifrey had walked away, not expecting to see her again. He had seen her once more that night, just before she left with her mother.
She had a book in her arms and she was spinning around, showing her mother the glowing stones under her feet. Qifrey only heard one snippet of conversation before his daughter and her mother vanished into the crowd.
“Mommy! When I grow up, I’m going to become a witch and use my magic to make the whole world vibrant, just you wait!” Coco said excitedly, spinning around, the stones lighting up beneath her feet.
“You can’t.” Charlotte told her.
“But why not?” Coco asked.
“Darling, you can’t simply decide to become a witch and use magic. It’s a power that you have to be born with. Unfortunately it’s not something normal people are capable of. You would have to have been born a witch’s daughter.” Charlotte told her.
Coco started spinning around again. “But look! The ground shines wherever I step!”
Charlotte held out her hand to Coco, who ran over to her mother, practically crashing into her leg. “Well, let’s see if it keeps shining all the way home. If so, maybe you can use magic.” Charlotte told Coco before they were swallowed up by the crowd.
Qifrey vanished back into the crowd in the opposite direction. Little did Coco know, she had in fact been born the daughter of a witch, her father just wasn’t around to teach her to use magic like he should.
Qifrey needed to find his husband and apprentice so they could go home as well. He was ready to go home, he needed to go home.
~
“I wish I was born the daughter of a witch.” Coco said to no one at all. It was a wish that she had held tightly to for the last five years. It was something she had begun to cling to ever since her mother had told her that she would have to have been born the daughter of a witch to do magic, and Coco so desperately wanted to do magic.
Coco was sitting alone on the roof, her magic picture book sat in her lap. She was waiting on the sheets to dry so she could take them inside. She enjoyed just sitting up on the roof and letting herself get completely lost in her own thoughts sometimes. She often used these times where she was waiting for things to dry to do just that.
Coco sometimes wondered if the man with white hair and a single sparkling blue eye that she had always assumed was her father was a witch. She barely remembered him, he had vanished from her memory when she was very young. But he looked so similar to her in her memories it made sense that he would be her father.
Her mother didn’t talk about her father much. She had told Coco that he had vanished when she was two, and that no one knew what had happened to him. She had told Coco that he was a kind man who had loved her more than anything and that no matter what had happened to him she was absolutely certain that he hated the fact that he had left her behind.
Coco set her book aside and walked over to the drying sheets. As she held tight to the belief that her father had been a witch she took two of the sheets in her hands.
“Oh sheets of white, become now a cloak of flight!” Coco said as she released the sheets, throwing them forward slightly.
They did not become cloaks of flight. Coco sighed slightly. “Of course it wouldn’t be that easy.” Coco said, once more talking to no one.
A strong gust of wind blew one of the sheets off the line and it started to blow away. Coco chased after it, hoping to catch it before it blew off the roof where she couldn’t reach it. “This isn’t the kind of flight I meant!” Coco called to the sheet, although she knew it couldn’t hear her.
Coco caught the sheet and as she pulled it close she gasped. A Pegasus carriage was flying by. They weren’t exactly common out here in the middle of nowhere, and what was even more unusual was the fact that it landed in front of the shop.
Coco ran and threw the sheet back over the line. Coco scooped her book into her arms as she ran for the stairs down into the house, setting her book down on a box before rushing down the stairs to the shop, calling out for her mother all the while.
~
Qifrey didn’t know what had brought him here today. He hadn’t seen Charlotte or his daughter in five years, and here he was, standing in a shop that felt both familiar like home and completely unfamiliar at the same time.
Qifrey had a folded paper tucked in his bag. The seamstress’ measurements written on it would be used to make a cloak for a ten year old of about Qifrey’s own figure at that age. He didn’t know what he wanted from the fabric, it would be too long on his girls, all three of them were shorter than he had been. It wasn’t even the right colour, it was the same smoke grey that his own cloak was.
There were three women who had arrived in a pegasus carriage a moment before in the shop. They were loudly talking about the fabric in the shop and Qifrey had to bite his tongue slightly to avoid stepping forward and helping them. It was a habit just over a decade old, from when he had lived here and spent his days helping around the shop. But now it wasn’t his place to do such a thing.
He was standing beside a door, he had forgotten that it opened out, but he was reminded of that fact when it lightly smacked into his arm.
“Mom!” A girl’s excited voice was calling.
The girl poked her head around the door and looked up to meet Qifrey’s eye. Qifrey nearly dropped the bag he was holding when he saw her, his breath catching in his throat.
Shoulder length white hair and sparkling clear blue eyes. Her bangs hung over her right eye slightly but she brushed them out of her face, tucking them behind her ear in what seemed to be a practiced habit.
This was Coco.
This was his daughter.
“I’m sorry sir! I didn’t know you were there!” Coco said nervously.
Qifrey smiled warmly and tipped his head slightly. “It’s quite alright. The fault is entirely my own, I chose a poor place to stand.” Qifrey told her.
He let her come stand in front of him. Her attention was almost instantly grabbed by the women in the shop talking about fabric. Qifrey watched Coco tilt her head, her body following slightly. Qifrey knew he was doing much the same.
Coco gasped slightly and brought her hands together in front of her. “It must have been them, they’re the ones who came in the Pegasus carriage!” Coco said excitedly.
Coco turned to look at Qifrey, her eyes glittering with excitement. Qifrey just smiled and shook his head. “I’m not with them.”
Qifrey finally saw Charlotte when she appeared with a box of fabric in her arms. She saw Coco before she saw Qifrey.
“Coco? Could you help me out?” Charlotte asked. She walked over to the table in the main room and went to set down the box she was carrying when she finally saw Qifrey.
She dropped the box onto the table, although it was close enough to the table you would barely notice it had been dropped if you weren’t watching her. She blinked at Qifrey for a moment before speaking.
“What can we do for you, sir?” Charlotte asked. She spoke as if she didn’t know Qifrey, despite knowing him quite well. Although they hadn’t spoken in eight years since he left.
“I was looking for some smoke coloured fabric. But if you’re busy I can come again another time.” Qifrey said.
Coco turned to Qifrey and her hand came up to her chest. “I can help you. If that’s alright with you sir.”
Qifrey smiled at her, because by the stars he truly couldn’t stop smiling at her and he didn’t think he wanted to, and let his hand start to search in his bag for the paper with measurements on it. “Will you now?” Qifrey asked.
“You’re in excellent hands with her, Qif- sir.” Charlotte said, almost using Qifrey’s name. He wouldn’t have really minded if she did, she knew it after all. Charlotte started to walk away so she could tend to the women in the shop. Coco ran after her for a moment.
“Mom! Once I’m done with my work can I go see the Pegasus carriage?” Coco asked excitedly.
“What?” Charlotte asked as she turned around to look at her daughter.
“There’s a Pegasus carriage outside!” Coco said excitedly, practically bouncing on her toes.
“What did I say about touching customers’ property?” Charlotte asked with a sigh.
“I promise I won’t touch. I just want to look.” Coco said as she clasped her hands together in front of her.
Charlotte just sighed.
“I’ll stop talking about how I want to be a witch all the time.” Coco said.
Qifrey had to purse his lips to keep from laughing at that comment. It was sad in its way, Coco should have been raised as a witch, Qifrey should have been there for her, he should have taught her magic her whole life the way she deserved. But it was also a bit funny that this was clearly a constant conversation.
Charlotte shot Qifrey a look and then mouthed something. ‘She is her father’s daughter’. Qifrey really had to keep himself from laughing at that.
“Fine. But only after you’re done with your work.” Charlotte told her.
Coco jumped excitedly and then ran back over to Qifrey, her eyes still glittering excitedly. “Sorry to keep you waiting sir! What measurements do you need?” Coco asked.
Qifrey finally pulled the paper from his bag and handed it to Coco as he unfolded it. She took it from him and looked over it. “You use seamstress’ measurements sir. Is someone in your family a seamstress?” Coco asked.
“I used to help out in a friend’s shop, she taught me to use seamstress’ measurements, I just continue to do it when I need fabric.” Qifrey told her. He didn’t tell Coco that the friend he helped was her own mother.
“Well it’s quite helpful. Come with me.” Coco said.
She led him to the back where the large rolls of fabric were kept, along with a worktable used for cutting fabric. There was still a small box of tools sitting on the table, the same place that it had been when he lived here. Everything was so familiar, even though he hadn’t been back in eight years. It was an odd homesick feeling since he was standing right in the same place he felt as if he missed.
Coco set the paper on the table and began to look over the rolls of fabric. “Is the fabric you’re wanting the same colour as the cloak you’re wearing, sir?” Coco asked, her fingers hovering over a roll of fabric that really was the exact same colour of smoke as the cloak draped around Qifrey’s shoulders.
“Yes, thank you. That’s perfect.” Qifrey said.
Coco nodded and pulled out the fabric and set it on the table. She unrolled it and set the paper Qifrey had given her on top of the fabric so she could easily see the measurements she needed. She pulled out her ruler and easily turned it over her fingers as she measured out where she would need to cut. She left the ruler on the fabric and grabbed her pigment stone, making a small mark at the end of the ruler. The ruler was then returned to the box with a soft click.
Coco closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she steadied herself. She reached up to the top of the fabric and pulled the stone down the fabric, making a perfectly straight thin line. It was steady and there wasn’t an instant of hesitation. Coco would make a fantastic witch if she was properly trained, her hands were perfectly steady.
Coco smiled slightly and then switched to her shears, cutting the fabric with the same steady precision as she had drawn her line with.
Qifrey finally realised that he was leaning over her work when she made a slightly startled sound. Qifrey picked up the fabric and began running his fingers along the edge Coco had cut.
“You have excellent focus, and steady hands. Not an instant of hesitation in the line. A perfectly clean cut. And a finish showing true precision and care for your craft. I had no idea this village possessed such a skilled artisan.” Qifrey looked Coco in the eyes as he finished. “This is real magic.” Qifrey told her.
Coco stared at him with wide eyes as she seemed to process what Qifrey had just said to her. Then she started speaking quickly and she was waving her arms in front of her frantically. “No! What I do here isn’t anything like real magic! Magic is mysterious, and priceless, and wonderfully shiny and sparkly and unbelievably beautiful!” Coco nearly shouted. Her hands dropped in front of her and she looked down at them. “It’s just so… so… precious. More precious than I can say.” Coco said with a soft voice.
An instant later Coco covered her face with her hands as she turned red. “Actually come to think of it, what am I saying?”
Qifrey smiled warmly at her, even if she couldn’t see him. “I get the sense that you truly love magic. Why is that? If you don’t mind telling me.”
“When I was little, my mother took me to a festival, I don’t quite remember where anymore. And while I was there, I met a witch wearing a mask.” Coco started.
~
The story Coco told him was about the night he had seen her at the Silver Eve festival. She had gotten a magic picture book from a Brimmed Cap witch. That was a concern, but it didn’t seem as if it had done any damage yet. So perhaps he could prevent disaster. Olruggio would perhaps be thrilled by Coco’s love of magic coming from something he made.
“Ever since that day it’s been my dream to become a witch. And I’ve never been able to let go of the dream.” Coco said.
Qifrey was about to ask about the book she had bought from the Brimmed Cap when there was the sound of something collapsing with a loud crash. Coco ran out of the shop and Qifrey followed just behind her, worried that someone may have gotten hurt.
The Pegasus carriage that had been outside was turned on its side and the floorboard with the spell drawn on it was laying on the grass beside it. The two Pegasi that had been pulling the carriage were panicking, but were being calmed by someone. Qifrey walked over to the carriage and checked for any damage to the carriage itself. He didn’t find any, which was good. The only damage he could see was to the spell itself, it had gotten wiped off in a few areas. He would simply need to re-draw the spell, nothing too difficult.
“Pardon me. Perhaps I can be of service to you. I took a look and the damage doesn’t appear to be serious.” Qifrey said to the women who had followed them out and were yelling at the kids who had been messing around.
“Really? And who are you?” One of the women asked.
“Apologies. Please allow me to cap off my attire.” Qifrey said as he pulled his hat out from under his cloak. He heard Coco gasp as she realised what Qifrey was putting on. He set his hat on his head and introduced himself as he tossed his ribbon over his shoulder. “Qifrey the witch, at your service madam.”
“You can fix it then?” Another one of the women asked with a clap of her hands.
Qifrey picked up the floorboard and set it on its edge so he could roll it around. As much as he could most certainly carry it around he didn’t particularly wish to do so. He wanted to ask to use the workshop, he would be able to be unobserved and he was comfortable in the space.
“Indeed.” He told the woman.
“You certainly are a lifesaver, Sir witch.” A man who had earlier been wrangling the Pegasi said.
“It’s nothing at all. In fact, all I have to do is reapply the spell to the floorboard of the carriage.” Qifrey said.
“Your help is greatly appreciated.” The first woman said.
“And happily given.” Qifrey said with a smile. It was only mostly happily given to these women. They were exhausting and annoying and would perhaps benefit from walking home. “However this work environment is-”
“You can use our workshop if you would like. We would be delighted and honoured.” Coco said as she ran up to him.
Qifrey glanced over at Charlotte for proper permission. She nodded to him with a smile on her face. “Of course, Coco is right, we would be delighted.”
~
Coco sat on the step in front of the door to the workshop with her chin on her knees. Mr Qifrey had asked her to ensure that no one disturbed him while he was working. She had hoped to watch a spell be cast, but of course she wouldn’t be that lucky. It was lucky enough that Coco had met a real life witch at all, she really shouldn’t have gotten too hopeful.
Coco wondered if Mr Qifrey looked like her father. The eye that Coco could see was the same shade of blue as her own eyes and he had the same white hair. Mr Qifrey reminded her of the man from her memories, he had the same kind look in his eye and his smile was warm and kind. Perhaps Mr Qifrey was her father, he looked enough like her for that to be a possibility, right?
Coco saw the boys who had damaged the carriage sneaking closer to the house. They vanished around the corner of the house and when Coco stood up and looked around the corner she didn’t find them. Out of habit, and knowing that there were plenty of ways to get up onto the roof, she looked up. She found them crouched on the roof.
Coco stood up and walked to stand beneath them. “What do you two think you’re doing?” Coco asked them.
“She caught us!”
“She doesn’t matter, it’s fine.”
Coco climbed up onto the roof easily. The boys were clearly surprised she was up there but they didn’t fight her being up there with them. One of the boys pulled open the shutters to a window that looked down into the workshop. The curtains on the other side of the glass were drawn, blocking the view into the room.
“Man, talk about disappointing.”
“What a letdown.”
The boys slid down the roof as they grumbled, leaving Coco alone on the roof. She sat for a moment before a strong gust of wind blew one of the sheets over her, covering her face. She grabbed it so it didn’t fly away and pulled it away from her face as she waited for the wind to die down. Once it did she climbed higher up the roof and hung the sheet up on the line once more. It was the same sheet that had flown away earlier as well, how odd.
Coco headed back inside and paused in front of the slats that would let you see into the workshop if you knelt and looked through them. Coco knelt down and leaned forward. She hesitated for a moment as she tried to decide if she was willing to break a silent rule and watch a witch cast magic. She shouldn’t and she knew that, but she was so desperate to know how magic was cast.
Coco leaned forward and looked through the slats.
She had to squint to see a little bit better since the workshop got a bit blurry from this height. Mr Qifrey had a pen in his hand and there was an open bottle of ink on the table beside the floorboard. He dipped the pen into the ink and then he started to draw on the floorboard, completing the pattern that seemed to have been partly erased.
Magic wasn’t cast in the way she thought, it wasn’t spoken words, it was a pattern drawn with a pen and ink.
Coco was mesmerized by the fluidity of Mr Qifrey’s drawing. She didn’t remember she was supposed to be outside the door until he called for her.
“Coco! All finished here.”
~
Charlotte waved to Qifrey as he left. She hadn’t seen him in many years and she really hadn’t thought she would see him in her shop today. She had told him years ago that he was welcome at any time, even if all he wanted was to come see Coco. But he had never come, and Charlotte had stopped waiting for him to come. So it surprised her when he had finally shown up.
He had watched her with such warmth in his eyes and in his smile. Charlotte knew that Qifrey had never stopped loving his daughter, even if he hadn’t been around. She hoped that he would come around more often now, Coco would lose her mind if a real witch started coming around more often.
“You know, I was starting to worry there for a moment.” Charlotte said.
Coco looked up at her and tilted her head in confusion. Charlotte smiled and laughed slightly. Coco really was her father’s daughter, he did the same thing when he was confused.
“Well, you’re in love with magic. You have been ever since you were little. I thought you might ask to leave home and go off with that witch.” Charlotte said. She felt a little bad calling Qifrey ‘that witch’ but as far as Coco knew that was all he was. She didn’t know that Qifrey was her father. “Your father already… I don’t know what I would do without you.” Charlotte said. She couldn’t blame Qifrey for leaving, she was the one who told him that he should return to being a witch, he clearly missed it.
She didn’t want to be alone though, that was why she had a kid in the first place. She loved Coco more than anything now, and she couldn’t imagine loving anything more than she loved her daughter.
“You’ll never have to find out! I’ll never leave you alone mom! I promise!” Coco said. She wrapped Charlotte’s waist in a tight hug.
Charlotte wrapped her daughter’s shoulders in just as tight of a hug. “You really are a sweet girl, thank you.”
~
“Good night Mom.” Coco said.
“Good night dear.” Charlotte said.
Coco started to head upstairs when Charlotte made up her mind to tell Coco something she should have told her years ago.
“Coco.” Charlotte said.
Coco appeared once more with a curious expression. Charlotte took a deep breath and leaned against the doorframe before she started talking.
“You really are your father’s daughter, you know. You look just like him, I was reminded of that today. I hadn’t seen him in eight years, so it was surprising to see him in the shop today. You share such a love of magic, I really wouldn’t have been surprised if you had asked to go off with him earlier.” Charlotte said.
“Mr Qifrey is my father?” Coco asked.
Coco had picked up what Charlotte was telling her so quickly. Charlotte wondered if Coco had thought about it today, they looked incredibly similar, the same white hair and brilliant blue eyes. “He is. Coco, you are the daughter of a witch.” Charlotte told her. She had lied to Coco five years ago, she had been born the daughter of a witch, Charlotte had to assume that Coco was capable of magic and she had lied because she wasn’t capable of teaching Coco to use magic.
“Thank you for telling me. I know you had your reasons to keep it from me.” Coco said.
Charlotte smiled sadly. There really weren’t reasons, not good ones at least, she had just never felt as if she was allowed to tell her, despite the fact that Qifrey had never told Charlotte that Coco wasn’t to know who he was. Charlotte had just never told her. “Good night Coco.”
“Good night Mom.” Coco said before she vanished up the stairs.
Charlotte didn’t know why she felt like Coco needed to know that tonight, but she did, and now she wondered what was going to happen because of it.
~
Coco closed the door to her room and sat at her desk, her mind was racing and her body wasn’t reacting as fast as her mind was going. Mr Qifrey was her father, Coco was the daughter of a witch, magic was drawn. That wasn’t what she expected to learn today, none of it was, but she did her best to file that information away, she would think about the knowledge of who her father was later.
Coco grabbed a pile of blank paper from the corner of her desk along with the magic picture book and the wand that had come with it. She pulled at the end of the wand and smiled when it came off, revealing a pen tip underneath. The purple orb had ink in it when Coco managed to twist it off the end opposite the pen tip.
Coco opened the magic picture book and found a pattern that felt similar to the pattern that Mr Qifrey had drawn earlier. Not in many of the specifics but it was a circle with a pattern inside. She decided that she would try drawing this one and see what happened.
Coco brushed the bangs that hung over her right eye behind her ear, an endlessly practiced habit since they naturally wanted to hang over her eye, dipped the pen into the ink and began to draw. It was shaky since she didn’t have any practice using a pen whatsoever before today, she’d barely learned to read and her writing was never done with an ink pen on the rare occasions she wrote at all.
Coco drew a careful circle around the pattern and waited, but nothing happened.
Coco sighed and picked up the paper as she slumped forward to put her head on the desk. She must have done something wrong, but she didn’t know what, she had done the same thing she had watched Mr Qifrey do earlier that day.
Suddenly the drawing started to glow. Coco sat up sharply and stared at the paper in wonder as she set the paper back on the table. As she watched, beautiful sparkles appeared above the paper she had drawn on. They lit up the room with brilliant green and pink flashes.
When the sparkles faded Coco started rushing around her room, squealing about what had just happened as quietly as she could, as to not wake her mother. Coco had just done magic! Real magic! Coco was absolutely thrilled.
There was a momentary pause as she thought about the consequences. She wasn’t supposed to be able to do magic (or was she? She was a witch’s daughter) and she had learned from looking when she wasn’t supposed to. Would Mr Qifrey get mad at her for having spied on him, would Coco get in trouble for doing magic?
But Coco had done magic, and she was absolutely thrilled. If the first pattern she had drawn produced sparkles, what did the others do? There was one way to find out.
~
Qifrey was curled up on the ground, his cloak tangled around him as he used it like a blanket. There was a Pyreball seal pinned to the ground a meter or so away from where he was laying. He was using it like a campfire, he had used it to cook his dinner and now he was using it for warmth. Qifrey could have flown home, he probably should have flown home. But something had kept him from getting very far from his daughter’s home, and he wasn’t quite sure why.
Qifrey’s thoughts kept coming back to the picture book that Coco had brought up before. The one that she had gotten from a Brimmed Cap at the Silver Eve festival five years ago. Qifrey wasn’t quite sure why the picture book was nagging at him so much.
Qifrey shot up as he had a realisation. A magic picture book. How could he possibly have been so blind and stupid! Coco had said she had also been given a wand, that was almost certainly literal in a way he truly wished it wasn’t. Qifrey had to get back to her now. Before anything went horrifically wrong.
~
Coco frantically slammed a pillow onto the fire that she had accidentally started with the spell she had just drawn. It had been some sort of fire spell that burned the paper it was drawn on. She sighed in relief when it went out. She tossed her pillow back onto her bed and picked up the paper, placing it with the others she had already drawn.
She had learned a few things as she was drawing. Larger ones were stronger than smaller ones, neat ones lasted significantly longer than sloppy ones. Drawing them large and neat was really difficult though, especially the outermost circles. Mr Qifrey had made it look so easy earlier.
Coco had a flash of inspiration and returned to her desk with excitement. She grabbed another sheet of paper and flipped to one of the more complex patterns in the book. This one had a beautiful illustrated dragon beneath the spell pattern. She placed the blank paper over the top of the page in the book and found that she could see through to the pattern below if she put a bit of pressure on the blank paper. Coco squinted so she could see a little bit better and started to trace the complex pattern as carefully as she could.
~
Qifrey slipped in through the front door, it wasn’t locked. The house was almost completely silent. The only light he had seen was upstairs so he headed straight there, the room that had been set up for Coco all those years ago.
He nudged the door open gently, making almost no sound at all, and found Coco hunched over her desk with a pen in her hand and a small ink vial sitting on the desk beside her elbow. Qifrey caught the familiar movement of a shaky hand carefully drawing the ring on a seal, she had figured out how to do magic, the ink at her elbow was almost certainly casting ink. Whatever Coco was drawing would work if she closed the ring fully.
Qifrey lunged forward and grabbed Coco just as she closed the ring, pulling her away from the desk. He caught a brief glimpse of what Coco had drawn and he didn’t recognise it, this was most certainly forbidden magic. The Brimmed Caps were making children do their dirty work now, absolutely despicable. Then again, he should have known that the Brimmed Caps didn’t care about whether you were an adult or a child, just if you could do what they wanted you to do.
The pen fell from Coco’s hand and hit the ink vial hard enough to knock it over, the ink spilled across the desk but didn’t touch the paper, which could have ruined the casting seal and caused the spell to fail completely. That would have been preferable but Qifrey didn’t have time to pause and destroy the seal himself, he just had to get them both out of this house and most certainly out of this room.
The candle that Coco had been using as light to draw was put out by the gust of wind Qifrey made with his cloak as he pulled Coco into his arms and ran out the window, pushing off her bed as he shoved the window open with one hand, holding Coco to himself with the other.
As he ran out onto the roof a brilliant blue glow exploded from the seal she had drawn. He was running out of time, he had to get away from the house as fast as possible.
~
Coco was held tightly in someone’s arms, although she couldn’t tell who it was, because she had been grabbed from behind and now her face was pressed into the person’s shoulder. They had pulled her away from her desk just as she had finished the outermost circle of the spell. She had dropped the pen onto the ink bottle, she had watched the ink spill all over her desk. And then she was pulled out the window. All Coco could see now was a bright blue light exploding from the paper she had drawn on.
Coco felt the person who was carrying her run off the edge of the roof and Coco almost screamed in terror before she felt herself shoot higher up into the sky instead of falling to the ground like she expected. Instead of screaming Coco clung onto the person carrying her tighter, now terrified that she would be dropped from a truly terrifying height.
~
Qifrey had to get them as far away from the house as he could get them. He put his feet together and used his Sylph shoes to shoot fifty or so meters into the air. He felt comfortable saying that they would be comfortably out of the range of the spell. Even with how complex it was it was still rather small so its range would still be limited.
Once he was high enough to be comfortable he used the last of the momentum of his push off and flipped upside down to burn some of the energy so he could balance more easily. As he levelled in the air and was right side up once more he stabilised himself and tucked his feet under himself, sitting back on his heels. His attention went to Coco instead of the house.
He was afraid for her, he didn’t know what she had drawn and that worried him quite a bit. He hadn’t meant to shout at her.
~
Coco was pulled away from the person’s shoulder and she saw that the person who had grabbed her was Mr Qifrey. His cloak was billowing around him, they were standing still in the air but their clothes and hair were being blown around by the wind. Mr Qifrey looked absolutely furious.
“What did you draw?! Tell me Coco, what spell did you draw?!” Mr Qifrey shouted.
“I don’t know! I just traced a pattern in the book!” Coco told him, she could hear the panic filling her own voice. Coco had no idea what was happening, but she could tell that she had done something wrong, very wrong.
~
Charlotte was woken by a commotion upstairs, it sounded as if someone was running in Coco’s room and then out onto the roof. She grabbed a shawl and lit a lantern as she put on her shoes so she could go outside to look around. Charlotte walked out of the house and started to look around to find the reason for the commotion. It was almost pitch black, she could barely see beyond the dim light of her lantern.
“Coco?” Charlotte called into the night, her daughter shouldn’t be awake, but there shouldn’t be anyone else in her daughter’s room so she had to assume that the commotion had come from Coco.
Charlotte’s eyes snapped up to the sky when she heard two familiar voices screaming for her to run at once.
Coco was held tightly in Qifrey’s arms, and they were both high above the ground. Qifrey had come back and had pulled Coco from her room in the middle of the night and was now holding her close high in the sky as if he was protecting her from something on the ground. That wasn’t something Qifrey would do without asking for permission, he wouldn’t take Coco without letting Charlotte know he was doing it.
Charlotte realised that something was very, very wrong and started to run.
The last thing Charlotte heard was her daughter and her best friend’s simultaneous screams.
The last thing Charlotte saw was her daughter held tightly in her father’s arms, both of them looking panicked.
The last thought Charlotte had was a simple one. ‘Qifrey, I beg of you, protect her with your life. That’s all I ask of you now. Protect our daughter.’
“Mom, run!”
“Charlotte, run!”
~
Qifrey’s heart stopped and he gasped involuntarily when he looked back down at the house.
Charlotte was standing outside calling Coco’s name, that was what had drawn his attention in the first place. She must have woken up when Qifrey ran across the roof, Charlotte had been a light sleeper even before Coco was born, she had been an even lighter sleeper after.
The seal Coco had drawn was creating massive glowing blue crystals that were coating everything they could get to, there was a thin layer of ice preceding them and there was mist that felt like the air itself was freezing. The crystals were spreading across the house quickly, the largest ones around where Coco’s room was. They were getting closer and closer to Charlotte and she didn’t seem to notice them.
Both Qifrey and Coco screamed, both of their voices sharp with panic.
“Mom, run!”
“Charlotte, run!”
Charlotte looked up at them and started to run but she wasn’t fast enough and Qifrey watched as one of his best friends and the mother of his daughter turned to crystal.
~
Coco looked down when she heard her mother calling her name, a reflex that had been trained into her for as long as she could remember. There were massive crystals spreading across the house and they were growing rapidly closer to her mother. They seemed to have started from her room, this was the magic she had drawn, this was why Mr Qifrey had seemed so angry.
Coco’s magic was dangerous.
Her mother wasn’t looking back at the house, instead she was looking away from it into the darkness and must not have seen the crystals and didn’t seem panicked. She wasn’t looking up so she likely hadn’t seen Coco and Qifrey high above the ground.
Coco screamed, and she heard Mr Qifrey do the same.
“Mom, run!”
“Charlotte, run!”
Coco’s mother looked up and seemed to see Mr Qifrey and her high above the ground and she started to run without looking back. But she didn’t run fast enough, and Coco watched her mother turn to crystal.
And it was all her fault.
~
Qifrey felt Coco go completely still in his arms as she stared down at her mother. Qifrey felt the same shock, not able to do much more than stare down at the crystalline statue that had once been Charlotte, although Qifrey most certainly felt the shock on a lesser scale. Charlotte had been one of his best friends, but Charlotte had been Coco’s mother and she didn’t have anyone else.
“No… this can’t be real.” Coco said. Her voice was quiet and completely empty. It mirrored the frozen state Coco seemed to be in.
This was forbidden magic. This was the pain and harm it could cause.
And then Coco started struggling fiercely against his grip on her and screaming for her mother with a force that Qifrey knew would destroy her voice completely.
~
Coco tried to twist out of Mr Qifrey’s arms, she had to get down there, she had to get to her mother, she had to fix this somehow. Coco started wriggling even harder as she tried to escape his arms.
“Let go! I have to go save my mom!” Coco shrieked as she tried to thrash out of his arms.
“Hold still! I don’t want to drop you!” Mr Qifrey said as he tried to keep his hold on her, seemingly just as desperate to keep Coco in his arms as she was to escape them.
“She’s in danger because of me!” Coco shouted at him. She pulled her feet up and shoved them against his chest, trying her hardest to escape his arms.
“Stop it, you mustn’t! That spell is evil!” Mr Qifrey shouted as his grip tightened slightly.
Coco had to get him to drop her, and maybe something meant to hurt would get him to let go. That was exactly what she planned to do.
~
Qifrey was struggling to keep Coco in his arms, if nothing else falling from this height would almost certainly kill her. He couldn’t let Coco kill herself tonight, Charlotte would find a way to kill Qifrey from beyond the grave if he let Coco die tonight. Although she was making quite the valiant effort to launch herself from his arms.
“If you’re my father didn’t you love my mother?! Why don’t you want to save her!?” Coco screamed at him.
Qifrey’s grip slackened in shock. He didn’t know she was aware that he was her father. And he cared about Charlotte deeply, he wanted to save her, of course he did. But he couldn’t do anything without knowing what spell was causing this effect. And he didn’t know that right now, and he couldn’t do anything about saving Charlotte at this moment. Coco managed to launch herself from his arms as his grip slackened and fell towards the ground at an alarming speed.
“No!” Qifrey screamed as she fell.
Qifrey’s shock took a back seat to his fear for Coco’s life and he dove to catch her.
~
Coco was caught just before hitting the ground. Mr Qifrey hit the ground hard, it probably hurt, just to catch her.
Coco twisted out of his arms once more, scrambling over him as she tried to reach for her mother. She was still desperately screaming although she could barely hear herself anymore. All she could hear was the faint sound of her own voice filling the air and her own heartbeat slamming in her chest.
~
Qifrey grabbed Coco’s wrist and pulled her back from the spell. He couldn’t let her touch it, he didn’t know if he could save her if he did. Qifrey wrapped her tightly in his arms, hopefully too tight for her to escape from, and shot into the air, as high as he could so they were out of the range of the spell and Coco would be discouraged from trying to escape his arms. Qifrey never went this high, the air was thinner and colder up here.
~
Coco clung tightly to Mr Qifrey. They were high in the sky now, much higher than they had been before. Coco knew better than to launch herself from Mr Qifrey’s arms now. And so she just clung to him like a lifeline, and with how high in the air they were he was the only thing that could save her.
She was sobbing, she couldn’t control herself anymore, she just needed to cry. This was all her fault, she should have been more careful.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Coco choked out through her sobs.
“Of course you didn’t.” Mr Qifrey said softly, holding her close. His voice was far more gentle than she deserved right now, after what she had done. “It was all kept a secret to prevent tragedies like this. Casting ink, and the knowledge of casting seals. That is all you need to use magic. Concealing that is our one great rule. And now that you know the truth, you must have your memories erased.” Mr Qifrey said.
“Please! If I forget, who will save my mom!?” Coco asked.
“I’ll do my best.” Mr Qifrey said.
Coco fisted her hands tightly in Mr Qifrey’s cloak and looked up to meet his eye. “I don’t know what kind of magic it was but I can remember that picture book by heart! I can be of help to you! Please! Let me help you save my mom!”
“Do you remember what page you copied?” Mr Qifery asked.
“Absolutely! Please! I’ll do anything to save my mother. You can wipe my memories after that, but please, let me help you save her. I don’t have anywhere else to go, if you’re really my father, please, give me somewhere to go until I can go home.” Coco said, tucking herself close to Mr Qifrey, burying her face in his cloak.
~
That… he hadn’t expected that. He supposed he knew that Coco wouldn’t have anywhere to go if she couldn’t go home. He knew that Charlotte was all Coco had. But he hadn’t thought about taking her home with him. He wasn’t sure he could be a good father to her, he had already left her once, how could he possibly be a good father after that?
Qifrey made his choice.
“Can you keep our secret?” Qifrey asked his daughter
Coco answered without an instant of hesitation. “Yes.”
“Are you willing to learn?” Qifrey asked gently.
Coco pulled her face from his cloak and looked up at him, her eyes still filled with tears. “To learn…?”
“Once you know the truth, it cannot be undone. And so, you must join those who are sworn to protect the secret. That is your way forward, your only way. Coco, from now on, you will be a witch.” Qifrey said, holding her up to meet her eyes as he spoke. And the sun broke over the horizon behind her, bathing them both in the golden light of a new day.