Chapter Text
Agott doesn't know why she hasn't uttered a single word about this. Or rather, why she didn't say something the first time. It's certainly far too late to go ringing up the Knights Moralis now. It's been far too late for a long time.
The exact date of the day she should've reported is written in her calendar, hanging above her little desk in her perpetually dusty room. Before, she'd had no use for it. The days had blended together in an indistinguishable haze of study and work. She had felt as though she were trapped in a conservatory on a beating-hot summer's day. Then, she met Coco, and with Coco came a breeze that disturbed the thick air of the Tower, air that hung as heavy as that in the Great Hall, for perhaps the very first time in its long life.
Their meeting remains etched in Agott’s mind, for better or worse.
-
Her footsteps had echoed as she stomped down the Tower’s stone stairwell, the old dusty one hidden away that only she used. She'd pulled tightly at the ribbon clasp of her cloak just to stop herself from clawing at her scalp. She thought she'd explode from the rage.
“What is this, Agott?”
“Er–it's the spell you recommended I draw up, Mother. The updated beast wards to protect the tower. I settled on this design.” She stared down at the shine on her shoes, wishing there'd be one day she could speak to the Head Librarian without her voice wavering. Her spellwork on these seals was some of her best yet, so–
“Is this what you interrupted my work for?”
She felt like she'd been dunked into the ice-cold lake below.
“I, u-um…”
The sound of Adina’s exhausted sigh, like she almost couldn't help but pity Agott, would remain burned into her mind for a long time to come.
“I apologise, Mother,” she said, feeling as small as a child again.
“What will I do with you?” Adina muttered, talking to her desk, as though Agott simply weren't there. She looked up again. Agott had to dig her hands into her palm to keep eye contact. “Go and continue with your studies. If you keep progressing at the rate you are now, well… We've discussed this.”
Hot shame burned her neck. “Yes,” she whispered meekly, ducking her head as she turned to leave.
Tears stung at Agott’s eyes. She hated the Tower. She hated her mother. She hated herself. She kicked a foot into the big oak door to the seventh floor before opening it and immediately regretted that decision, scrunching her face up tight as pain shot through her ankle. At least this floor would be quiet. It was filled with all the old useless books that nobody but her could be bothered to deal with, so it was blissfully free from judging eyes.
Agott closed her own eyes and sighed. She'd just go back to her work and keep drawing. There was nothing else to it. She breathed in, opened her eyes, and shrieked.
A girl sat perched on a ladder, engrossed in a book. She had hair the colour of young barley. Agott didn't have much time to observe her–the girl startled at Agott’s cry. The wheels of the ladder scooted back, and she tumbled down the length of the bookshelf, hitting the tough floorboards a second after her book with a hard smack.
“Owwwww!”
Agott stared in absolute shock. She had to try several times to get her voice working. “Who–who are you? What are you doing?!”
“This is a library,” the girl said, rubbing at her shoulder. “What do you think I'm doing?”
“Excuse me?”
“I'm looking for something! You act like I'm not allowed to be here.”
“I'm–you–you aren't!” Agott exclaimed, her jaw agape.
The girl–the intruder, rather–pulled herself up using a lower rung of the ladder. Her hair was a mess now, but she didn’t seem to notice or care. “Huh?”
“Did you pass the trials?”
“What trials?”
“Don't play dumb,” Agott said between gritted teeth. Her mind reeling and her nerves alight with fright and adrenaline, Agott wondered what on earth she was to do in such a situation. Her despairing tears from just a moment earlier had evaporated into thin air. “Which atelier are you from? Tell me who you are and what you want.”
“I'm not playing dumb,” the girl said. She was frowning now, immoving. Something about her expression was unsettling.
“I'll call someone,” Agott said, but she'd been knocked off-kilter, and her voice wavered. She steeled her fists and lifted her chin. “I'm an apprentice of the Head Librarian, Adina Arklaum.”
The girl tilted her head. “Who?”
“Who?” Agott spluttered indignantly, her swell of pride popping like a bubble. “I'm sorry, but are you even aware of where you are right now?”
“Of course I am,” she replied, just as indignantly. The moment of intensity had truly vanished, and she looked like an ordinary girl Agott’s age again. “Are you?”
“I live–work–here,” Agott stated.
The girl pulled herself back up using a lower rung of the ladder. She straightened and brushed down her simple cotton dress. “You do? Then, I wonder if you can't help me. I'm looking for a book that's important to me. It's extremely important. I was only told that I needed to pass the sea monsters and enter the Tower, so if I'm really not meant to be here, I'm sorry. Can you do me a favour and let me stay?”
Then, she smiled.
Agott found the denial she was obligated to yell out did not come.
“You can't seriously be asking me for a favour. How did you get in? Go and ask your Master to set up the test for you and do it properly.”
“You made me fall off a ladder. You must owe me something.”
“I–”
As hard as she bit her lip, she couldn't help bitterness from overflowing within her, like plunging a cap into a full ink bottle and watching the pigment escape out the sides. I'll tell my mother immediately. And then what? She'd just have to face that bored, disapproving gaze again, wouldn't she? Those terrible thoughts she'd had for years were rearing their heads again. She didn't have the courage to look at them head-on. Every magic book in the world is here. It'd be so easy. So easy to sink into despair, and desperation, and start reaching for things she shouldn't…
If only there were another way she could get her mother back. Satisfy some of that simmering anger, even if it were petty or small. If only she could grow tall, and look down on her mother as she did to her.
“Are you up to something?” Agott asked, hands on her hips.
The girl laughed. “No. I'll keep everything nice and tidy, too. Promise.”
Agott stared at the girl, with her short green hair and plain dress and young open face. It was the first time in a long time she'd seen someone her age. And despite her having managed to enter the Tower, Agott couldn't imagine her being able to hurt even a fly.
“I'll allow it,” Agott said, slowly, savouring the words on her tongue, even as she was in disbelief at what she was saying. “If you keep quiet and don't get caught. There are prying eyes everywhere in this place, even if it seems empty. I'm saying that for me, not you. You'd better not take me down with you. Find what you need and leave. Understand?”
The girl's mouth quirked into a smile, but the cool look dimming her eyes didn't move, and Agott flushed with the irritating feeling that in the end her vague approval had changed nothing at all.
“You're nicer than you look, you know. What's your name? Mine is Coco.”
“Agott,” she replied, without thinking. She didn't know her at all. Her intentions could be perfectly terrible.
Coco, huh?