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It was that dream again, standing in front of a mirror that didn’t reflect Coco, not any version of herself that she could remember at least.
The girl on the other side was shorter than Coco, she had to look down to see the girl properly. Her hair was bright green and just below shoulder length. When she looked up at Coco her eyes were a warm gold colour and she wore no glasses. She wore an apprentice dress beneath a teal cloak and there was a matching hat perched atop her head. She was dressed like Qifrey’s apprentices usually were. That’s what she was, Coco supposed, she was Qifrey’s and she would be forever.
~
Coco was dreaming again, she had been knocked unconscious by the Brimmed Cap after the dragon had started attacking again. After Master Qifrey had made that beautiful water dragon. She didn’t know what was happening outside herself. But now she was standing in front of a mirror that reflected a version of herself that she didn’t know quite yet.
She was taller than Coco was and she looked older. She had long snow white hair that spilled down to her waist. Her eyes were an icy blue behind a pair of glasses that reminded her of Master Qifrey.
She wore what looked like Master Qifrey’s uniform, although it was a little different. She wore a tight black turtle neck under a loose white shirt that had long black ribbons tying up the sleeves. Her skirt was long and white, but there was colourful embroidery along the hem, multicoloured flowers on a silver branch, there were also what looked like they might be seals embroidered with black thread mixed in as well. She had a long smoke coloured cloak hanging around her shoulders that matched the smoke gray hat that sat on her head, a long black silk ribbon was attached to the tip.
There was a silver necklace with charms on it hanging around her neck that seemed old and incredibly important to her.
She looked exhausted, and her fingers were growing more and more stained with ink every time she saw her. But she looked happy, but there was also something hollow behind her eyes when Coco saw her.
She didn’t know what it was.
~
“It’s just me, myself, and I. Stuck in my mind, livin’ in this world you left behind.” Coco said as she reached out and pressed her hand against the invisible and indestructable barrier that separated herself from that younger version of herself that was lost to her.
~
“Dreamin’ of all these monsters that I’ll never get to fight. But boy, I wish I could, so I could bring the world some light.” Coco said. That was what she wanted to be as a witch, someone who brought light and vibrancy to the world with her magic.
~
Coco stared down at the little girl and wished she knew her. “‘Cause I’m stuck with your stories, but no clue who you are. And no idea if you’re dead or just too far.”
Coco hadn’t been able to restore her memories yet, and she wasn’t sure if it would be possible to recover them, recover this little girl. It was seeming less and less likely the longer it took.
“Somebody tell me, come and give me a sign-”
~
“If I fight those monsters, is it you I’ll find?” Both Coco’s asked. Both of them now looking at each other and pressing their hands against the invisible barrier between them. The older wishing to recover the younger, the younger wishing to grow into the older.
~
Coco reached down and pulled out her pen, turning it over in her fingers and then smiling up at the older version of herself. “If so, then. Give me Brimmed Caps and a demon. Give me tests and a dragon. I know life and fate are scary. But I wanna be legendary. I’ll fight Iguin and Sasaran. The Brimmed Caps, even the Knights Moralis. I know life and fate are scary but I wanna be legendary.”
~
Coco turned away and her hands came to her arms instead of the glass, making herself smaller. She couldn’t let this younger version of herself wind up where she had, she didn’t deserve that.
“There are strangers in our ranks. Tryin’ to shatter the pact, but we’re standing tall. Too many voices and faces that call me dangerous. They keep takin’ space in my mind and it’s not much longer I can stall. ‘Cause they’re getting impatient, dangerous too-”
The voices of every person who doubted her, called her dangerous, called her a traitor, welled up in her mind, nearly drowning out her own thoughts.
~
Coco looked up at herself, shying away from something in her own mind. Coco wanted so desperately to reach out and comfort her, pressing herself against the cracking glass between them. “And I would fight them if I was half as strong as you.”
~
Coco looked down at her younger self, that part of herself that she had lost long ago. She sank to her knees and covered her ears, trying to block out the voices. “Somebody help me, come and give me the strength. Can I do whatever it takes to keep her safe from my life? If so, then-”
~
“Give me Brimmed Caps and a demon. Give me tests and a dragon. I know life and fate are scary. But I wanna be legendary. I’ll fight Iguin and Sasaran. The Brimmed Caps, even the Knights Moralis. I know life and fate are scary but I wanna be legendary.” Coco said, starting to draw on the glass between them, trying to break down the barrier to her older self. It was already fractured and fragile, so maybe it just needed a push. She wanted to help the woman on the other side of the glass.
~
They were surrounding Coco now, their voices nearly deafening, becoming the only thing she could hear.
“Where is she? Where is the witch who’ll bring our destruction? Where is she? Where is the witch who should never have been saved? ‘Cause it’s been fifteen years.” The voices echoed, their words deafening even though her ears were covered.
“Fifteen years…” Coco mumbled to herself, so long and yet all she had done was make them think she was a danger to them all.
“And we still have no answer.” The voices echoed, filling her mind with nothing but doubt.
Coco started trying to talk, to get them to go away, to leave her alone, to stop accusing her of things she couldn’t control. “Give me a chance, a single opportunity and I’ll overcome these obstacles and scrutiny and-”
Easthies’ voice cut through the voices clearly, a voice that hadn’t criticised her in years now, not like this at least, not since he chose to believe in her. But his voice always echoed in her dreams. “Woman, when’s your traitorous spirit going to show? When’s your anger going to get the better of you?”
A voice that was both painfully familiar and yet completely foreign to her cut through everything. “Don’t you dare call her a traitor!”
Coco looked up and saw shattered glass on both sides of the mirror, as if the barrier had been nothing more than glass the whole time, and her younger self was standing between her and Easthies making herself as large as she could, her arms and legs spread, attempting to hide Coco behind herself, defending Coco from Easthies.
Easthies smirked and leaned down, getting in the little girl’s face. “I just did. Whatcha gonna do about it, girl?”
Little Coco’s voice grew soft and she looked over her shoulder at Coco, a question in her eyes as much as her voice. “Somebody tell me, come and give me a sign, if I fight this monster, is it you I’ll find?”
~
Coco took a deep breath and pulled out her Palm Quire. She knew more than she should have of course, something she was beginning to realise was because she was part of the woman who was covering her ears on the floor, staring at Coco with tears in her eyes.
She recognised the man in front of her, his name was Easthies, although she couldn’t parse if he was the Vice Captain or the Captain of the Knights Moralis, it must have changed since she had memories of both.
She wasn’t sure she could actually defeat him in any kind of combat, but she had no choice besides trying, because her older self couldn’t defend herself right now, so Coco had to step up.
The crowd of people around them started chanting as Easthies prepared to draw. Magic then, she would have to use as much as she was able to draw, which wasn’t much.
“Fight, little witch, fight!”
Easthies’ smile was cruel. “Wanna entertain me?”
“Bite, little witch, bite!”
“Let’s see how you take this,” Easthies said as he drew something Coco couldn’t see. She didn’t know what she was doing, and it was all she could do to barely dodge the attack, much less counter it in any way.
“Strike, little witch, strike!”
Easthies kept drawing as he watched Coco struggle to dodge his spells. “Wanna be a witch? Then,”
“Fight, little witch, fight, little witch, fight!”
Easthies paused for a moment, seeming almost as if he was gloating, he grew closer to Coco, towering over her, his crimson eyes cold as he stared down at her. “You’ve made your worst mistake here, might be your last one too. You’ll have no more of that traitorous spirit to break when you and I are through. I’ll teach you all the lessons your ‘daddy’ never could.”
Coco didn’t understand why there was such a sharpness on Easthies speaking of her father, she didn’t even remember him, so she had no idea who he was even talking about. The closest she could think of was Master Qifrey, but he wasn’t her father, at least not as far as she was aware of.
Easthies’ smile somehow seemed to grow crueller than it had been as he kept speaking, getting in Coco’s face. “This cruel world doesn’t give out presents just for being good, so,”
“Fight, little witch, fight!”
Easthies backed off slightly and returned to throwing spell after spell at Coco, forcing her to dodge frantically. “Wanna entertain mе?”
“Bite, little witch, bite!”
“Lеt’s see how you take this,”
“Strike, little witch, strike!”
“Wanna be a witch? Then,”
“Fight, little witch, fight, little witch, fight!”
“Or die, little witch, die!”
“Don’t you know it’s fight or fly, little witch, fly?”
Coco couldn’t fly, she didn’t have Sylph shoes of her own and Agott’s were destroyed, and she wouldn’t have them even if they weren’t. She was trapped on the ground, and besides, she wouldn’t flee from this fight, she had someone to protect.
“All because you had to try, little witch, try!”
“Run away before you,”
“Die, little witch, die, little witch, die!” A ball of fire came hurtling towards her face, and Coco didn’t have time to dodge.
She was grabbed by the arm and yanked out of the way while a jet of water put out the fire.
Everything else seemed to freeze around her, as if time had simply stopped.
“Need some help?” A familiar voice, yet one completely alien to her asked.
Coco looked up and found her older self standing beside her, arm still held in the older woman’s grip. She had a Silverwood pen in her hand and she wasn’t crying anymore, she looked confident and prepared to face her demons.
“What’s going on here?” Coco asked her older self.
“Is your plan to dodge without countering? ‘Cause I suggest you fight back.” Her older self asked, her eyes almost kind as she looked down at Coco.
“I don’t know how. I don’t have the time to draw anything or the knowledge of what to draw.”
“Draw in the air. This is a dream, it’s not real, all that matters is the intent, not the seal itself. The magic will still work.” Her older self said.
Coco raised her pen and drew a circle and a sigil in the middle, the intent behind it to knock Easthies off his feet. It worked, and he fell slow, as if it was less that time was stopped but instead slowed to a crawl.
Her eyes went wide as she looked up at her older self. “Woah, how did I do that? Is time now moving slow?”
“No, I just made us faster than all of them, it’s my mind, I should have the advantage.” Her older self told her, ruffling Coco’s hair without knocking off her cap.
“Woah, that is so sick!”
The woman smiled and then returned her attention to Easthies, who was now flat on his back on the ground looking almost pained.
“Alright now, let’s try this again. I’ve no respect for bullies, those who impose their will. I’ve seen plenty enough to truly understand this kind of filth. Let’s teach this dog a lesson in front of all his kind.” The woman looked back to Coco and laid her free hand on Coco’s chest, just over her heart. “One young witch has a larger heart than all these witches combined!”
And then time seemed to speed up a little, but was still slow enough to give Coco the clear advantage. Coco was more confident now, and started to go on the offensive.
“Fight, little witch, fight!”
Coco’s voice joined the crowd’s although her voice more encouraging than anything. “Show them that you’ve got some,”
“Bite, little witch, bite!”
“Take advantage now and,”
“Strike, little witch, strike!”
“Don’t go down without a,”
“Fight, little witch, fight, little witch!”
“Get up and fight!”
“Fight, little witch, fight! Wanna entertain us? Bite, little witch, bite! Let’s see how you take this strike, little witch, strike! Wanna be a witch? Then fight, little witch, fight, little witch, fight!”
The space they were in was suddenly no longer a dark void, but rather a beach. Coco was scooped into her older self’s arms and they were shooting far above the beach.
“Hold on tight, I’m going to need one of my hands free to draw.” Her older self said.
“Of course.” Coco said. She wrapped her arms around her older self’s shoulders and managed to slip around so she was on the older woman’s back so she could see what she was drawing.
Her hand moved fluidly through the air, she seemed to be drawing a proper seal, but nothing Coco recognised, it was incredibly complicated and Coco almost wanted to see it drawn on paper, she imagined that it would be beautiful.
And then a massive dragon made of water formed above the ocean, pulling seawater and the moisture from the clouds into itself. It was the same spell that she assumed was Master Qifrey’s, it was the last thing she had seen before being knocked unconscious.
“It’s stunning.” Coco said quietly.
“Thank you. It’s my father’s spell, I owe everything to him.” Her older self said softly.
And that was interesting, because it was Master Qifrey’s spell, and what Easthies had said earlier pointed to the father he was speaking of being Master Qifrey as well.
The dragon crashed down onto the beach and as the older version of Coco followed it down Coco could see the people vanish as the water washed over them.
Coco’s older self touched down on the beach, the sand drying under her feet as she did. Coco slid down from her back and stood beside her.
“Thank you for defending me when I couldn’t do it myself. That was incredibly brave of you.” The woman said as she knelt down to Coco’s level.
“You deserved it, and besides, I’ve got to be able to defend myself from them one day, this was good practice.” Coco said.
Her older self smiled bitterly. “I suppose you will. But I doubt that you’ll remember this at all by then.” The woman said.
Coco paused and tilted her head slightly before speaking. “I’ll always be here with you, you just have to know how to shatter that glass between us, it was already cracking, it just needs a little bit of force.” Coco said.
And then the world around them shattered bits of glass falling around them. Her older self’s eyes were wide and there were tears forming in them.
“I remember you now. Thank you for everything.” Her older self said.
A voice rang through the once more empty dark. “Coco, please, I beg of you, wake up.”
Her older self stood up and took Coco’s hand. “Come on, it’s time for you to go home.”
And then everything vanished from her memory except for her own name and a man named Qifrey, and she was left staring at this unfamiliar woman who looked so much like Qifrey, but it wasn’t Qifrey.
And then Coco opened her eyes to find a group of girls who looked about her age, perhaps a little older, all swarmed around her. She didn’t know who any of them were, they were all strangers and they looked so concerned and they were crowding around her and they started talking as soon as Coco opened her eyes and Coco was quickly realising that she couldn’t breathe properly through her panic and the strangers who were looking at her like she should know who they were were standing too close to her there was only one thing she could remember and she had to hope that he would come to save her.
All Coco could think to do was scream for the one thing she remembered as loud as she could, hoping that he would hear her.
“Qifrey!”
The lingering remnants of a strange dream fading rapidly away.