Chapter Text
Coco closed the ring on the seal she had spent the night drawing, finally getting it right despite her hands shaking harder than she could ever remember them shaking before. Coco carefully set the seal on the table between Qifrey and Olruggio’s beds.
She watched the spell glow and then the mist it created spread over both of her long unconscious Masters. Coco almost held her breath reflexively, the mist looked so similar to that which had brought them to these beds in the first place, but this was different, it had to be.
Both Qifrey and Olruggio groaned quietly and sat up blinking as they looked around, the spell had worked, both of them were awake.
Coco felt her knees give out completely and she hit the floor hard enough to hurt as she started sobbing violently. She could barely breathe, but not in the way that had haunted her for five years. This was different, her chest was tight in a good way, not one that terrified her.
“Coco? What’s wrong?” Qifrey asked as he knelt down beside her, one of his hands coming to rest lightly on her shoulder. Coco pulled off her glasses, letting them hang on their chain around her neck and then lunged at Qifrey, knocking him to the ground as she wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his shoulder.
“It worked! It worked! It worked!” Coco said, clinging tightly to him as she sobbed. Qifrey held her for a moment before he helped Coco to her feet and looked her over, her tears still falling as he did so.
Coco knew that she looked older, of course she looked older. She wasn’t wearing what she would have worn the last time Qifrey would have seen her, she looked like a very different person than she did when her Masters had been cursed. Honestly it was a wonder that Qifrey had recognised her at all.
“Coco, how long were we unconscious?” Olruggio asked. A good question since Coco was visibly older and her reaction implied that a significant amount of time had passed since they had been cursed.
“Fifteen years. It took me fifteen years and more dead Brimmed Caps than I care to remember to find a way to wake you.” Coco told him, her voice still shaking.
Qifrey pulled Coco into a hug as he sat down on the bed with her, pulling her into his lap. Coco let her head drop to rest on Qifrey’s shoulder. She took more solace in the fact that Qifrey was awake and wrapping his arms around her once more than she really should have.
She had so many days where she had started to lose faith that she would be able to wake Qifrey and Olruggio up, both for lack of faith in her own abilities and the lack of faith that she would even live that long. Coco had worked for fifteen years, and had accomplished so much, and been subjected to so much pain.
But it all washed away as completely and utterly insignificant now that she was curled up in Qifrey’s arms once more.
Olruggio sat down beside them on the bed instead of sitting across from them on the opposite bed. Neither of them had their uniforms, just their underclothes. Both of their uniforms were folded neatly back at the Atelier, where they had been for the last fifteen years. Coco wasn’t wearing her uniform either, although hers was folded on the window seat in the room where she had been sitting while drawing before.
“Is it just you?” Qifrey asked after a moment once Coco had mostly composed herself once more. She was an adult, she knew that she needed to pull herself together at least a little bit.
Coco lifted her head from Qifrey’s shoulder. She reached over to the table between the beds and picked up Qifrey’s glasses, setting them on his nose so he could see properly. Coco shook her head and raised her voice. “You can come in!” The door swung open and the other three joined them in the room. “They’re awake.” Coco said.
The other three girls launched themselves at Qifrey and Olruggio, burying them beneath all four girls clinging to the both of them.
“It’s been a long fifteen years hasn’t it?” Qifrey asked, he sounded a little breathless, perhaps understandable since he had four adult women flopped on top of him.
“It has.” Richeh said. The three girls stood up, pulling Coco up with them.
“Look at us! We graduated!” Tetia said, spinning in a circle. Her uniform was very pretty, a lovely pink cloak and a white dress reminiscent of her apprentice dress, loose and flowy, it was perfect for her. Her hat was a matching pink and had two points, just like she had talked about when they were younger.
Richeh’s cloak was a brilliant blue and much tighter than Tetia’s, it fit more like an apprentice cloak, hiding her hands more than most witches. There was a long white dress beneath her cloak. Her hat was much the same as her apprentice hat although it was the same blue as her cloak.
Agott wore a white shirt with a deep purple waistcoat with gold embroidery over the shirt and a long plain black skirt. Her cloak was the same beautiful deep purple with golden embroidery as her hat and waistcoat.
All three of them still had a golden tassel at the tip of their hat, keeping the ornament of their apprenticeship, a long held tie to their original Master.
“Coco’s got the uniform that shows just how dedicated she is. But she’s not wearing it right now.” Richeh said.
“I can fix that.” Agott said with a smile. She walked over to the window seat and picked up Coco’s cloak, hat, and sword, bringing them over to Coco.
Coco had her underclothes on, and she knew that she looked like Qifrey, her hair and eyes having been sapped of their natural colour after one of the several times she had been attempting to reverse the effects of forbidden magic and it had backfired (although that particular experiment had been the worst of the backlash she had ever had). Coco’s long white skirt and black turtle neck looked nearly the same as Qifrey’s. Her long snow white hair was braided over her shoulder, making the long black ribbon woven into her hair stand out even more. Icy blue eyes sparkled with tears and pure joy behind the glasses that were once more perched on her nose.
Agott walked over to Coco and flung her smoke coloured cloak over her shoulders and fastened it. She also placed her hat of the same colour atop her head. The ornament on the tip of her hat was a long deep purple ribbon, not quite the same as Qifrey’s but instead Agott’s claim on Coco. Agott handed Coco her sword, she didn’t tie it to her belt quite yet, since she was going to sit back down, and she would rather just set it beside her for that, it would be more comfortable.
“I have to wonder how often you’re mistaken for me.” Qifrey said as he looked Coco over with a soft smile.
“Not mistaken, although they have called me your female version who happens to be a bit more bloodthirsty than you are.” Coco said, holding up her sword slightly when specifying the bloodthirsty bit.
“They also call her the inventor by necessity, there’s a lot of things she’s created because there was a problem she needed to solve and she didn’t already have the tools to do so. She’s done a lot to improve our knowledge about reversing forbidden magic.” Agott said.
Coco stuck her sword under her belt, not a proper way to secure it but it quickly freed both of her hands. “Speaking of reversing magic, I believe I have memories to return.” Coco said, pulling her Palm Quire from her belt and completing a spell in it. It would restore all the memories of the people in the room who had memories erased at one point or another.
And then Coco realised her mistake doing that while Agott was in the room.
“Coco! What the hell have you done!?” Agott shouted. Her eyes were wide and she looked absolutely furious and yet her expression held so much pain that Coco looked away because she couldn’t meet Agott’s eyes now that she knew what Coco had taken (and taken, and taken, and taken, and taken more times than Coco could count) from her over the last fifteen years.
Coco winced as she sat down beside Qifrey, who was now being glared at by Olruggio in a similar fashion. They were in much the same situation, having repeatedly wiped the memories of their respective Watchful Eyes of things they didn’t think were necessary for them to know. Coco pulled her sword from under her belt and set it on the bed beside her where she could easily grab it if it was needed, not that it would be needed today, at least she hoped not.
“I get the feeling that you’re not any better than I am in the memory erasure regard based on the fact that you’re being yelled at.” Qifrey said.
Coco smiled slightly and pulled off her hat. She set it on her lap and pulled the pin from it, she folded down the white fabric that concealed the memory erasure seal stitched onto her hat and showed it to Qifrey. “I’m not. I’ve even hidden it in the same way you do, somewhere that wouldn’t be expected.” Coco said. She hid the seal once more and replaced the pin in the fabric. Coco didn’t put her hat back on, just held it in her lap. She didn’t really need to put it back on right now after all.
“You are getting yelled at later. I’m glad to remember how your hair and eyes changed colour now, despite the fact that you took my memories of it makes me absolutely furious.” Agott said with a sigh as she sat down on the bed across from Coco, Qifrey, and Olruggio. Richeh and Tetia sat down beside Agott.
“You wiped all of our memories. Richeh and I knew as well, and you took the memories from us as well.” Tetia said, sounding slightly dejected.
“Did you also take Master Beldaruit’s memories?” Richeh asked softly.
“No. He’s the only one whose memories I’ve never wiped, I’ve never bothered trying because it would be too dangerous.” Coco said.
“Of course.” Agott said with a sigh. She truly didn’t seem as if she intended to yell at Coco here, which was a small mercy given all the things Coco knew she had taken over the last fifteen years. She did deserve to be yelled at for at least some of them.
“What are your children doing right now since both of you are here?” Tetia asked. She sounded less dejected now, then again, most things were like water off a duck’s back for her. But Coco figured there would be a quiet conversation between them later on about relying more on the help her friends could provide.
“I turned them over to Beldaruit when we got here last night.” Coco said with a shrug. As much as she wasn’t the most fond of Beldaruit her kids found him highly entertaining, whether for a reason Beldaruit was always the most fond of… that was debatable.
“Are we sure that’s a good idea?” Tetia asked, a bit of concern lacing her voice.
“Did we turn out horribly?” Coco asked.
“I suppose not.” Tetia said.
“They’ll be fine for a day. Less so actually, I’m not keeping these two-” Coco gestured to Qifrey and Olruggio as she spoke. “-here for much longer if I don’t have to. Our dear Sinocia will be around in a moment to let me know if I can take them home today.” Coco said.
“I suppose that’s fair. Would you two mind if we visited the Atelier for a few days?” Richeh asked. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap, which Coco had learned meant that her mind was unsettled, when she very intentionally kept herself very neat and tidy.
“That’s perfectly fine with me. I assume my darling Watchful Eye doesn’t mind either?” Coco asked as she looked to Agott.
“That’s fine. You two are always welcome in our home, you may always consider it your home as well.” Agott said. She seemed far more calm now, although Coco knew that she was simply holding onto her anger and it would explode in a more private setting.
Her anger was more than fair, Coco had taken many things from her, conversations where Coco had cried on her shoulder because of what had happened to her and what she had done to others. But those conversations were things Agott hadn’t needed to remember at the time, quite honestly Coco didn’t particularly think that Agott really needed to remember those conversations now either.
“You have children?” Qifrey asked Coco.
“I have apprentices actually. Agott told me that I wasn’t allowed to vanish from society to hunt down the Brimmed Caps until I found a way to wake the two of you up and returned. So I took on apprentices to give me somewhere to come home to. To give me a reason to come home at all.” Coco said.
“It worked quite well. She spends most of her time at home with her students. Although she still vanishes from time to time.” Agott said.
“So she’s not so different from Qifrey on that front.” Olruggio said with a sigh.
“I imagine she does more murder while she’s gone than Qifrey did. Murder, getting grievously injured, and really quite traumatised, that’s what I’m faced with when she comes back, and then she doesn’t let me remember it. She never lets me help her, she just erases my memory of why she left at all and I don’t know what happened to her while she was gone. She carries everything by herself, not letting me know she’s hurting at all.” Agott said.
“Qifrey, you said that I wasn’t any better than you, the more true statement might be that I’m far worse than you are.” Coco said.
“You might be.” Qifrey said.
“By the way, Coco, what caused your hair to turn white like that? Agott said she was angry with you for erasing her memory regarding why it happened. So what happened?” Olruggio asked.
“God I’m so mad you wiped my memory of that! I could have helped you!” Agott said.
Coco set her hat aside, setting it atop her sword. “And that would have just killed me faster and you know it. I was already dying at a slightly alarming rate since being loving and affectionate is in my nature and that’s a death sentence.” Coco said. She was twisting the end of the black ribbon in her hair around her fingers, a long held comforting habit.
“And thus you vanished and intentionally caused yourself stress and pain more often than usual for five years.” Agott said. She rubbed the side of her face and neck with her hand, hard enough to hurt herself slightly based on the fact that she winced.
Coco picked up her sword and touched it to the inside of Agott’s wrist and guided her hand down to her lap. She didn’t want Agott to hurt herself when it wasn’t necessary, and it was never necessary for Agott to get hurt. Agott folded her hands, at least she was listening to Coco despite the fact that she was so angry and hurt.
“How did you end up like me?” Qifrey asked softly. Coco wasn’t surprised that Qifrey had figured out what had happened, even if it hadn’t been said directly.
Coco set her sword on the bed beside her once more, her hand returning to the ribbon in her hair. “I was attempting to reverse the Silverwood curse and accidentally had it backfire on me. It took me five years to reverse it properly while forcefully stressing myself out, I probably could have done it faster if I wasn’t dying. But both of us are now free of the Silverwoods. They’re now growing in front of the Atelier.” Coco said.
“You are absolutely exhausting.” Agott said with a sigh.
“And you chose to marry me despite knowing exactly who I was, both before and after I made my choice of what I was going to do. So now you’re stuck with me.” Coco said with a shrug.
“We’ve missed a lot.” Olruggio said.
“I suppose you have.” Coco said.
“When did you get married?” Qifrey asked.
“About ten years ago, I was fifteen and we had all just graduated.” Coco said.
“And getting married at all was a huge danger to your health.” Agott said softly, Coco watched the colour drain from Agott’s face as she put together the timeline of when Coco had been affected by the backlash of the Silverwood curse.
“I was dying, and I wanted you to be happy almost more than anything. If I died as your wife I would have made you happy at least once before I died. And it was the last day of nothing but happiness that I was willing to give myself.” Coco said.
“That’s why you were so desperate to not have anywhere to go home to, at least not properly. You wanted to force more stress.” Agott said.
“It was. But I will never regret my wife, my children, or my home. Never.” Coco said.
“You disappeared for a while after our wedding, you were in pain, weren’t you? Our wedding nearly killed you.” Agott said quietly.
Coco remembered that night clearly. It had almost killed her, the unrestrained joy and comfort from that day. But what she also remembered was fleeing from the end of her own wedding because there were tree branches growing from her fingertips and the backs of her hands. They had been covered by her gloves so no one had noticed them.
She had fled to the Medical Spire that night and sobbed at Qifrey’s bedside. It had saved her life, the roots choking her heart withered in the face of her pain and sorrow. She should have died on her wedding night, but the sorrow born of the man who she wished had been able to walk her down the aisle being incapable of doing so or even being at her wedding at all and she felt as if it was her own fault, that sorrow saved her life.
“It did, I truly thought I would die that night. There were branches growing from my hands, although hidden by my gloves. But I will never regret that day. It was the happiest day of my life. You shouldn’t regret it either.” Coco said.
“What saved you that night?” Qifrey asked.
“You did. I came and sat by your bedside for a while, the guilt and sorrow caused the roots choking my heart to wither for the time being.” Coco said.
Qifrey turned slightly and rubbed the backs of Coco’s hands and her fingertips where the branches had started to grow. “I’m so sorry, you ended up that way because of me. I’m truly so sorry.” Qifrey said.
“It’s not your fault Qifrey, it’s mine. I should have been more careful with what I was drawing. I did it to myself.” Coco said.
There was a knock at the door, a familiar rhythm, announcing Sinocia’s presence, cutting off their conversation and letting Coco take the blame without Qifrey arguing with her.
“Coco, are you ready for me to check on them?” Sinocia called through the door.
“Of course. Come in, Sinocia.” Coco called.
Sinocia walked into the room and started checking over Qifrey and Olruggio. They hadn’t been injured in years and this was truly just a cursory check before they were sent home.
“Does anything feel wrong aside from some slight disorientation as you adjust to the time difference?” Sinocia asked.
“Nothing at all. Thank you Sinocia.” Qifrey said.
Sinocia straightened up and turned to address Coco since they were being released to her care. “You can take them home. They seem to be fine.” Sinocia said.
“Perfect, thank you Sinocia.” Coco said as she stood up to give Sinocia a hug.
“Of course. It’s my job. And honestly I’m really glad that they’re finally getting to go home after all these years.” Sinocia said with a smile.
“So am I.” Coco said as she released Sinocia. “So am I.”
Sinocia left the room to go and check on her other patients. Coco turned around to the others. “We might as well get going now, there’s not a reason to stay here. I have to wrangle the girls away from Beldaruit before we can go home.” Coco said as she picked up her hat and put it back on. She also tied her sword to her belt where it belonged, opposite her casting materials.
“Oh that’s going to be fun.” Agott said.
Everyone got up and followed Coco as she started leading the way out of the Medical Spire so they could go collect her apprentices from the Silverwood grove. She figured she might as well walk instead of getting a bubble carriage since it wasn’t actually that far and she had been sitting for most of the last few days (weeks really but she wasn’t going to admit to that) and walking would be good for her.
“So much fun.” Coco said sarcastically.
“Were you four trained by Beldaruit after we were put to sleep?” Qifrey asked. He was walking at Coco’s side and Olruggio was walking just behind them. The other three were walking closer to Olruggio than Coco and Qifrey but they could all still be part of the conversation.
“We were.” Tetia said. They all respected Beldaruit as their second Master, but he would never get the same love they all held for Qifrey and Olruggio, and he had long since accepted that. In reality he had never really tried to replace the girls’ former Masters, he had just been there when they needed him and taught them as well as he could.
Beldaruit had never tried to win Coco over, he knew that it wouldn’t work, he had already tried after all. Coco was most certainly the least fond of him out of her peers, she held little respect for the man but she was always cordial with him, and she had decided to trust him with some things, because what little respect she had came from her knowledge that he truly wanted to be a good Master for the girls his former apprentice had left behind.
“Was he a good Master to you?” Qifrey asked.
“In his way, yes he was a good Master.” Coco told him. And he was. Coco had laid many of her worries and fears at his feet and he had reassured her. He had given her more exceptions than he should have, he still did. But he wasn’t the same as the man who had proved that he would risk his very life to protect his students. He was also the man who had refused to allow her to take her fourth test until she turned fifteen, despite being more than capable of doing it when she was twelve.
“Is he why you decided to become a teacher yourself?” Qifrey asked Coco.
“No. You were.” Coco said, her hand returning to the ribbon in her hair, twisting it around her fingers.
“That ribbon seems familiar, do I know where it came from?” Qifrey asked, his tone telling Coco he already knew the answer to his question, but he was asking it anyway.
“It’s yours. I’ve worn it in my hair in one way or another since you were put to sleep all those years ago. It’s been a reminder of the vow I made that day to wake you up no matter the personal cost.” Coco said. Her hand paused for a moment before moving to start undoing her braid. “Do you want it back?” Coco asked.
“I think it’s benefiting you more than it would benefit me at this point.” Qifrey said.
“It was once given to Qifrey as a symbol of a vow he made to me that I wouldn’t remember. I think it’s fitting that it’s continuing that purpose, just with a different vow.” Olruggio said.
Coco started twisting the ribbon around her fingers once more. “You know, there were days I wondered if just wiping my memories of you both and returning to being an unknowing seamstress would be less painful than working myself to the bone to save you and feeling as if I wasn’t making any progress. I’m glad I didn’t, don’t take that as if I regret waking you up, but there were a lot of days where I started to lose faith in my own abilities.” Coco said.
Coco took a shaky breath in an attempt to compose herself before continuing. “I always thought about when you came to save me when I went to the tower. ‘You mustn’t say that hope is lost. There is always hope, that’s just the kind of witches we are.’ That’s what you told me, and those words kept me going more times than I can remember and in more ways than I’m prepared to say. And your ribbon reminds me that you’re the reason I have to keep going.” Coco said.
Qifrey stopped walking and pulled Coco into his arms. She was taller than he was now, which was almost disorienting, because she remembered when he had to kneel to hug her properly like it was yesterday. And for him it was yesterday. Now Coco had to stoop slightly to properly return the hug.
“You’ve gotten so much taller.” Qifrey said, a smile evident in his voice.
Coco laughed slightly and released Qifrey, standing up properly as she did so. They kept walking as they continued talking. “Fifiteen years can do that to a person.”
“Fiffteen years… I’m truly sorry.” Qifrey said.
“If anyone should be sorry it should be me, I’m the one who took so long to figure out how to wake you two up.” Coco said.
“You woke them up anyway, and your children are chasing me. Please come and get them.” Beldaruit’s smoke clone said as it appeared in front of them.
Coco snickered at that. “We’re on our way to collect them. Then we’ll go home. Qifrey and Olruggio have been turned over to my care.” Coco said.
“That’s good.” Beldaruit said.
“Coco, did you raise menace children?” Olruggio asked, a smile obvious in his voice.
“Only to Beldaruit.” Coco said with a smile.
“Please come get them.” Beldaruit begged.
“We’re on our way.” Coco said.
Beldaruit’s smoke clone vanished. “The girls are only chasing him around because he lets them. He loves those girls more than he lets on.” Coco said with a soft smile.
Coco started drawing a wind seal under her cloak as they walked. She would dispel the smoke clone and then they could head home, she really wanted to go home, she wasn’t a particular fan of the Great Hall.
“It’s always felt too much like drowning down here for me, I’m glad to go home.” Coco said absently with a slight shudder.
“Do you have issues with water?” Qifrey asked, tilting his head slightly as he asked.
“Some. I would really rather not get wet if I don’t absolutely have to.” Coco said. It was technically true, but it was worse than that and she knew it.
“She had to get into a lake the other day and nearly had a panic attack in front of the children. She did have a panic attack alone in her room later. I would say she has issues with water.” Agott told Qifrey.
“Agott!”
“Am I wrong?” Agott asked.
“I suppose you’re not.” Coco said with a sigh.
“Do I want to know why you’re so uncomfortable with water?” Agott asked.
“Iguin and Sasaran.” Coco said.
“Yeah I should have known.” Agott said.
“Welcome to why most of the horrible things that have happened to me in the last fifteen years have happened at all.” Coco said.
“And I know about so few of them.” Agott said.
“For a good reason. You don’t need to know.” Coco said.
“You’re the inventor by necessity… Coco, why did you have to create waterproof ink and a pen that would draw underwater?” Agott asked.
“Winter is always the worst. They like to trap me under the ice. I have to be able to draw under the water on those days. They like trying to take my ability to draw, it makes them feel safe.” Coco said with a shrug.
Coco coughed as quietly as she could, silently clearing her lungs of the icy water that had filled it so many times. Those days were always the worst. Coco knew that there wasn’t any actual water in her lungs now, but she always felt like she was drowning again when she thought about that feeling for very long.
They walked into the grove of Silverwoods that Beldaruit spent so much time in and Coco shuddered slightly as she looked around for her apprentices and Beldaruit. And then they all came charging out of the trees towards them, the children chasing Beldaruit.
Coco smiled as she closed the ring and pulled the page from her Palm Quire and let the wind spell blow away the smoke clone.
“Come on you four, it’s time to go home.” Coco called out to her girls as she returned her Quire to her belt where it belonged. The kids ran over to her and walked around her feet as they all headed towards the Windowways.
This was Coco’s second group of apprentices, her first four had already graduated and left the Atelier, she missed them but they were all working hard to achieve their goals in the Great Hall. Except for Celeste, Coco’s first apprentice, who had stuck around, wanting to stay with Coco and Agott. She had been in Kalhn when they came to the Great Hall so she wasn’t with them.
“Once we’re back to the Atelier will you tell us what happened before you woke us up?” Qifrey asked.
“If you wish for me to do so, that is most certainly something I can do.” Coco said.
“I think that will be quite enlightening for us.” Olruggio said.
“Are you going to tell a story, Mistress Coco?” Eliza asked excitedly.
Coco ruffled her hair. “I am. A story about when I was a bit younger, up until today, it’ll be quite a long one. Although you four won’t get to hear it, it’s not a story meant for little girls.” Coco said.
“But we’re not little girls! I’m almost twelve! I’m a big girl!” Rose said defiantly.
“Maybe I’ll tell you four the story after you graduate, maybe you’ll be old enough then.” Coco said with a smile.
“Who’s the man who looks like you?” Lyra asked as she gestured toward Qifrey.
“This is Qifrey, my first Master, and most definitely the one I hold more fondness for.” Coco said.
“Oh, he’s the one you’ve spent so much time crying over!” Elise said happily.
Coco winced at just how accurate that statement was. It was more true than Elise knew, she had never and would never see the worst of it. “Yeah, he is.”
“They know strange things about me.” Qifrey said.
“I don’t actually talk about you much, it usually involves me crying. Celeste knows the most about you, she was my first apprentice. She graduated already, so did her peers, my first quartet of students.” Coco said. They had made it to the Windowways and Coco was setting one of them to the Atelier.
“Do these four know what you do when you vanish from the Atelier?” Qifrey asked.
Coco’s free hand fell to the hilt of her sword, the sword that had taken more lives than she cared to think about most of the time. “They don’t. And they’ve never figured out why I teach them to use a sword aside from ensuring they know how to use the Raincleaver, which I don’t ever let them do, they’re too young. Celeste is the only apprentice who’s ever learned what I do and why I do it.” Coco said.
“Do they really need to know?” Qifrey asked as he watched Coco finish setting the Windowway.
Coco waved for everyone else to go through first, apprentices and adults alike. Coco took a deep breath and looked Qifrey in the eye. “No, they don’t. They don’t need to understand why there are rumours of bloodlust surrounding their mistress. Even if those rumors are more than true. This sword is stained with more blood than they ever need to know about, at least not properly. Not when they’re this young at least.” Coco said.
“And that’s fair enough.” Qifrey said.
Coco smiled and held out her hand to him, letting the seriousness from the exchange drain from her completely. “Let’s go home, Master Qifrey.”
Qifrey took her hand with a smile of his own. “Don’t you call me your Master. You’ve graduated and you’re the Mistress of your own apprentices now.”
Coco laughed softly and stepped through the Windoway, pulling Qifrey along behind her. “Welcome home, Qifrey.” Coco said.
Qifrey looked around at the Atelier, or rather the small room that held the Windowway while Coco adjusted the Windowway once more.
“You never left…” Qifrey said softly.
“I didn’t. Or rather, I came back a decade ago, after I graduated and got married. I lived in the Great Hall until I graduated. I’ve lived here ever since, it helped with you being gone some.” Coco said as she led Qifrey up the stairs into the main room.
The Atelier had changed a lot and yet it had barely changed at all. It was Coco and Agott’s Atelier now, it had been for the last decade and changes had been so slow that they were hard to notice in the moment and now it truly was a mix of herself and Agott as well as Qifrey and Olruggio.
“It feels so much warmer now.” Qifrey said.
“Agott and I made it our home while preserving the memories that you left behind.” Coco said.
“You’ve made it beautiful.” Qifrey said.
“Thank you.” Coco said.
“Mistress Coco, you’re back.” Celeste said as she poked her head around the doorframe. She was back from Kalhn and was in the kitchen.
“Celeste, what did I say about calling me Mistress?” Coco asked. It had been three years and the girl had never fully shaken the habit of calling Coco her Mistress.
“Sorry Coco! I keep forgetting.” Celeste said awkwardly.
“It’s alright.” Coco said. She took off her hat and cloak, setting them on a table along with her sword. “What’s the plan for breakfast?” Coco asked as she joined Celeste in the kitchen.
“Nothing complicated. Want to help?” Celeste asked.
“May I help?” Qifrey asked as he joined the two women in the kitchen.
“Of course.” Coco said with a smile. “Celeste, meet Qifrey, my first Master. Qifrey, meet Celeste, my first apprentice.” Coco said, making a quick introduction.
“Ah, you’re the Qifrey she’s told me about.” Celeste said.
“I would suppose I am. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Qifrey said.
“Well then, let’s make breakfast.” Coco said.
~
Qifrey, Olruggio, Tetia, and Richeh joined Coco, Agott, and Celeste at the adult table. The four apprentices sat at their own table. The apprentices were chatting quietly amongst themselves as they ate and Qifrey couldn’t quite understand what they were saying, it wasn’t quite processing correctly.
It was really quite disorienting to be sitting at a table with his apprentices (former apprentices now he supposed) and it was like he blinked and they were either his own age or a little bit older than him. And he supposed it was about right, he had been unconscious for fifteen years even if it didn’t feel as if it had been that long to him. It was like falling asleep, time had passed without Qifrey realising it at all.
Coco was sitting beside him and she was smiling and laughing as if this was completely natural and it was exactly where she was meant to be. Olruggio sat across from Qifrey, joining in the conversation seemingly easily, and Qifrey didn’t understand how he was doing that. Qifrey lifted his spoon to his mouth and tried to adjust to his new reality.
Coco’s hand came to rest on Qifrey’s shoulder, startling him out of his own thoughts. Qifrey looked up at her and she smiled softly. Her braid was starting to come loose and her glasses were slipping down her nose slightly. Qifrey absentmindedly reached up and nudged her glasses back into place with his index finger.
Coco blinked a few times and then fixed Qifrey’s own glasses in return, he hadn’t even noticed they were askew. Coco was sweet and gentle, the same as she had been when she was small. Qifrey couldn’t quite believe that Coco was quite capable of murder, she didn’t strike him as the type to truly go on a killing spree.
But perhaps he was wrong. There was a steel behind those now icy blue eyes that Qifrey recognised from looking in the mirror himself over the years. The resolve to get revenge at any cost. He couldn’t imagine that same steal behind the warm golden eyes that he had met in that seamstress’ shop.
Qifrey couldn’t imagine what had happened to that little girl with warm golden eyes and soft green hair that had shaped her into the woman sitting beside him. Icy blue eyes filled with steel and long snow white hair braided around a long black silk ribbon that was a symbol of a vow made and at least partly fulfilled.
“Are you alright Qifrey?” Coco asked softly. Her voice pulled Qifrey from his thoughts once more. He was being quite spacy today.
“I… I’ll be alright. It’s just… fifteen years of your lives that I’ve missed. I feel so bad that I left you four behind.” Qifrey said.
Coco pulled him against her side in a hug as best as she could while sitting at a table the way they were. “None of us blame you. You had no choice. All of the blame falls on the Brimmed Caps for using the magic in the first place and me for taking fifteen years to find a way to reverse it.” Coco said.
“It’s not your fault either. You did what you could. You even managed to undo the Silverwood curse and I’ve been trying to do that for fifteen years myself.” Qifrey said.
“You did what you could, both in trying to undo the Silverwood curse and in the last fifteen years. We actually have gifts for you both. We all kept two separate journals, all the things we wanted to tell you and all the questions we had for you over the years. They’re probably all pretty long. I know mine are, they felt like I was still talking to you, so they’re filled with so much.” Coco told him.
“You’re all so sweet.” Qifrey said. He was going to cry reading those journals, he knew that.
Coco squeezed Qifrey a little tighter. “You deserve it. You both do. Now eat your breakfast.” Coco said as she released him.
Qifrey laughed and did as he was told. The food was absolutely delicious.
~
Olruggio sat beside Qifrey on the couch. Coco and Agott sat together on Qifrey’s other side. Celeste sat with Tetia and Richeh on the couch opposite them. Coco’s apprentices had all been sent to their rooms to study for the day so it was just the adults in the main room.
“So, how has being a teacher treated you Coco?” Olruggio asked.
“Well enough. These four tend to be mostly manageable, better than my first four.” Coco told him with a smile.
“There’s been two groups?” Olruggio asked.
“Yeah. Most of my first group lives in the Great Hall now. Although Celeste decided to stay here.” Coco said.
“I don’t exactly have anywhere else to go. And I want to be a teacher so it’s not bad for me to stay here.” Celeste said.
“I promise you the children are not why she loses sleep at night.” Agott said.
“Nope, that’s the Brimmed Caps fault. And my own, honestly, I probably work too much. Although that tends to come on nights when I can’t sleep.” Coco said.
“Coco, I don’t remember the last time I shared a bed with my wife. You sleep at your desk more often than not.” Agott said.
“There’s a bed that I sleep in, thank you very much.” Coco said somewhat indignantly.
“You don’t usually use it. But I’m not going to argue with you about this right now.” Agott said with a sigh.
“So, do you have a story to tell now that your children have gone up to their rooms to study?” Qifrey asked.
Coco laughed slightly. “I suppose that I do. Where do you want me to start?” Coco asked.
“Wherever you think is a good place to start.” Qifrey said with a shrug.
“You’re really quite unhelpful.” Coco said with a sigh. She closed her eyes and then started talking. Her voice pitched up slightly sounding younger as she started telling the story that started fifteen years prior.