Chapter Text
The sound of chirping birds, of children’s laughter. The scent of something sweet in the air, the softness of a blanket. The throbbing of his head and the unshakable feeling that something is wrong.
“What happened to Custas and Tartah?”
“Custas… legs… branches…”
“Qifrey is that-”
“I'm sorry, Olruggio.”
Olruggio blinked awake with a groan. He couldn’t recall the time or how exactly he ended up in bed or why his head hurt so damn much but he knew that Qifrey was cooking something. It was a strategy the white-haired witch often employed to get Olruggio out of bed, he couldn’t resist Qifrey’s cooking even if he tried. But what was that dream about?
“Ah, Olly! Glad to see you’re awake.” That gentle voice drifted past Olruggio’s ears as he stepped into the kitchen of the atelier. “We’ve made thornbark tea buns for an afternoon snack.” There was a steaming plate of fresh buns on the table and the girls smiling up at him. Except for Coco. There was a worried look plastered across her face and something was clearly troubling her as she took a half-hearted nibble of the bun she was holding.
“Up late with another commission, Master Olly?” Tetia held out a bun for him, that usual sweet glint in her eyes.
Was he? He couldn't remember what he was doing last night at all. Olruggio caught Qifrey’s eye and the other witch looked quickly away. Olly’s head throbbed once more, a dull ache cresting into another wave of pain. “Urh-” He clutched the side of his temple and lurched forward a little, his body screaming for him to sit down. He gladly obliged and with another groan, plopped down at his usual position at the table. Tetia was still offering him the bun but now a vapor bubble was in front of him as well.
“You mustn't stay up so late so many days in a row,” Qifrey took his spot opposite. “It is okay to take breaks, even when working with demanding clients.” Olruggio frowned. He couldn’t remember taking on any particularly demanding commissions lately, or if he had a pressing deadline approaching. Even with his chronic lack of sleep, he didn’t tend to forget business-related things so easily, but he was always busy with new contraption orders right after Silver Eve.
“Are you alright, Master Olruggio?” Agott had looked up from her book, and now everyone was staring at him with worried faces. It took him a moment to process that Agott was even speaking to him, all he could feel were eyes and the strange look Qifrey was giving him that Olruggio couldn’t quite read…
“Ah, yes! Just busy as always.” He sunk his teeth into the fluffy bun to avoid having to explain any further, not that he even could. “Mmmph,” the bun was sweet but not too sugary with the underlying hint of thornbark tea balancing everything out. The girls giggled at his reaction and the corner of Qifrey’s ever-present smile quirked a bit higher. As he ate his snack and drank more water, Olruggio started to feel a bit better, and the anxiety and dread lingering in the back of his mind started to fade away. If he had really forgotten about an important commission, then there would be a note of it somewhere in his room.
One thing was still tugging at the back of his brain, though. Something was definitely wrong with Coco, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong with Qifrey as well. Or maybe, he thought, the issue was one in the same. He knew how deeply Qifrey cared for his students, so perhaps Coco’s issue was what was weighing on Qifrey’s mind. That still didn’t explain the eye contact avoidance or the strange look Qifrey gave him at the table.
Whatever it was, Qifrey always kept his secret close to his chest and kept his cheery facade. Olruggio wasn’t a stranger to Qifrey’s uncanny ability to be unreadable but it was always alarming to him when something felt off with his best friend. But he knew that Qifrey was one of the most capable witches in the world and that it was probably best to leave any issue with the girls in the hands of their teacher, even if it made him a bad Watchful Eye.
“Thank you, girls, Qifrey, for the delicious snack. I’m afraid it’s back to work for me.” Olruggio stood from his cross-legged position and stretched. “Learn hard, do as I say, not as I do, you know.” He waved a hand in the air before stealing one last glance at Qifrey. The expression he wore earlier had disappeared and Olruggio was met with Qifrey’s usual pleasant smile.
“I do hope you’ll have time to join us for dinner, Olly!” Qifrey called after him once he turned around and headed back for his room. Olruggio smiled and looked back at the members of his atelier.
“Depends on what you’re cooking,” he said playfully. “If it’s as good as those buns then I might be able to find the time.” Olruggio knew he would probably join them for dinner no matter what, but he also knew Qifrey liked a culinary challenge and that side of him benefitted everyone in the house. He turned back to his room once more and heard Richeh and Tetia pitching dinner ideas to Qifrey already.
Back in the privacy of his room, Olruggio let out a long breath. Maybe diving back into work would help him shake the stubborn anxiety that was still stirring in his chest. There was a neat stack of papers piled high on his workbench, all letters that needed answering. To the right was a much less neat stack of papers haphazardly scattered across the bulk of the desk. Crumpled spells were scattered on the ground nearby and all the windows in the room were tightly shut. Olruggio found as well, that his collection of components were also in a similar state of disarray. He would have to clean up at least a little before getting started.
The afternoon light greeted him as he pulled open the shutters on the windows. He opened the largest a crack to let the crisp early winter air into the room. It had gotten particularly cold quickly this year and he hoped the contraptions he’d sent out to some villages were already being put to use. The light and fresh air had served as a great motivator and Olruggio set out to tackle the various piles lying about his room.
Various shelves lined the walls of his room, holding all the various components, books, and trinkets he and Qifrey had collected over the years. As Olruggio was straightening a jar of dye, he spotted the large scalewolf scale he had kept from one of his first adventures with Qifrey after they had truly become friends. He carefully picked up the scale and ran his thumb over the smooth surface.
That day, the two of them had snuck off from the Great Hall late in the evening. Olruggio remembered how Lord Beldaruit had him bring Qifrey something to eat, since he claimed he wasn’t feeling well and had skipped dinner but as soon as he had knocked on the door, Qifrey pulled him inside quick enough that the food Olruggio had brought was launched all over the floor. He could remember Qifrey’s laugh, the mischief behind his eyes, and the way he effortlessly casted a spell to clean up the mess all before Olruggio could muster a word.
“Olly, let’s go outside.”
“Lord Beldaruit is gonna catch on to you faking being sick sooner or later.”
“He should have brough me dinner himself then, not deliver my partner in crime straight to my door.”
Olruggio closed his eyes tightly, trying to stop the flood of emotions from drowning him. But he didn’t think he’d ever get over the way Qifrey looked during that sunset with the glint of a pack of scalewolves below them.
“Olly, look at how large that one is!”
“That must be the leader of the pack.”
“I want a scale from that one, it’s the size of a tea platter!”
“Qifrey that’s not- Qifrey!”
The young white-haired witch had jumped down from the ledge they were sitting on to face off with the large scalewolf, thinking a strong enough blast of wind would knock a scale loose. He was, of course, very wrong. Olruggio smiled at the memory of having to distract a pack of scalewolves just so Qifrey wouldn’t get attacked while he tried to blow the wolves into each other.
“Finally!”
“Did you get one?”
“Yes! Thank you, Olly!”
“Whatever, let’s just get out of here, please!”
Just as they were about to fly back up to the ledge, the massive scalewolf, which had an equally massive tail, knocked Qifrey out of the air where he landed with a loud thud right in front of the now-angry pack. Olruggio could remember the way his heart dropped and the way his brain froze when he tried to think of a spell to save him. If he remembered correctly, he had made a large enough pyreball to make the wolves back away just enough so that he could dive back down to pick Qifrey up. That part was a little fuzzy now, but he was flying so fast that once he reached the ledge again, the two of them crashed down into the grass in a mess of limbs.
“Damn,” Olruggio muttered and tried to get the image of Qifrey giggling, pinned underneath him, holding up the scale like it was the greatest prize, out of his mind before his imagination got too carried away. He set the scale down quickly and turned back to his cleaning tasks but every so often, another item would set off a cascade of feelings that he usually kept in check.
It was hard not to think about Qifrey in that way. Olruggio could barely remember the times in his life without Qifrey. All that played in his mind when he thought back to his early years as an apprentice was his white hair, sad smile, and piercing blue eye. There’s something you’re forgetting. The thought jolted through Olruggio like a bolt of lightning. Why was this feeling of dread still hanging on? Why couldn’t he shake these feelings towards Qifrey? The endless worry, admiration, and- No, Olruggio scolded himself. He let out an angry groan and decided that the bookshelves full of memories could get sorted later when he wasn’t so… not in control of his emotions.
Olruggio turned his attention back to his workbench and the mess of paper on it. First, the discarded spells. He quickly picked up all the crinkled balls around the desk and deposited them into the bin he kept nearby. Next, the work in progress spells. Various sized seals sat in a disorgainzed pile in the center of the desk, next to the open notebook where he kept track of what he was doing. His workspace might have been a mess, but Olly was careful to keep a detailed journal of each spell he was working on. With a shuffle and few taps on the table, the spells were tucked neatly in their proper page in the notebook. He took a mental note of the fact that there were no deadlines or particularly challenging spells in the pile. Finally, the stack of letters he needed to reply to. Olruggio took his letter opener and gently cut back the wax seal of the first envelope.
After the first five requests for frivolous spells requested by nobles, Olruggio found his mind wandering yet again. He had been mindlessly twirling his pen while reading but soon became keenly aware of its weight in his hand. He had kept the same pen for over ten years now, with nib replacements as they naturally wore down, but the bulk of the wand remained the same. For his birthday, he couldn’t quite remember how old he was, Qifrey had gifted him the pen. He had apparently spent most of the few months leading up to Olruggio’s birthday watching the way he drew his spells, how he gripped the pen, and how Olruggio liked his current selection of pens.
The gift had almost brough Olruggio to tears. The pen was a little too top-heavy for Olruggio’s liking at the time, but now that imbalance was something that felt natural. He wasn’t sure he could draw properly with any other pen. It took him a second before he realized he wasn’t reading the letters anymore, and was now just staring at the pen as if it would somehow summon Qifrey if he looked for long enough. No matter how much he used the pen or how many times he looked at it while casting, it always amazed Olruggio how much care and thought was put into the writing too and how many little flourishes were added that screamed “Qifrey designed this.” Where the grip met the nib, Qifrey had included a small fire motif that made it look like the nib was arising from a ring of fire, the color shifted down the length of pen from black, to dark blue, to a pale smoke color at the end. It was their colors. The one design choice that Olruggio didn’t fully understand, though, was the small golden star embedded in the middle of the grip.
He remembered how weird Qifrey got when he asked about the star and why it was included. Looking back on that moment, Qifrey almost seemed flustered about it. The reasons didn’t matter all that much to Olruggio, just that the pen was beautiful and that it was a gift from Qifrey. “I can’t get anything done like this,” Olruggio muttered and let his forehead rest on the workbench. “I gotta take a break.” The pile of opened letters, although not yet half the size of the unopened ones, was enough for Olruggio for now, especially since his mind kept wandering to Qifrey and their adolescence.
He placed the pen down on the workbench and lifted his head up. After a quick stretch of his arms, Olruggio stood to go sit by the open window. A cold breeze would do him good, he thought. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting the chill of the outdoors wash over him. A couple more deep breaths later and Olruggio found his heart starting to settle and his mind starting to calm. He gazed out at the vast swaths of land spread out before their Atelier. A light snow had started to fall while he was cleaning and now there was a soft blanket of white snow dusting the landscape. Olruggio soon noticed movement outside and saw that a sparrel was racing across the open ground towards a tree, where it shivered on the ground for a moment before climbing up to its nest.
I would hate to be out there in the cold all alone. Olruggio found himself feeling bad for the little creature. He had it good inside the Atelier, surrounded by warmpth, good food, a job that paid him more than enough, and most importantly, the companionship of four young apprentices and the one person who knew him better than anyone. If only that sparrel had something warm for itself. Inspiration dawned on Olruggio in an instant. It was a silly spell, no one would purchase it, of course, but the idea brought on a fuzzy feeling and the knowledge that a spell like this might just cheer Coco up from whatever was bothering her.
Many of the types of creatures that called the land outside the atelier home made nests out of the natural materials of their environment, so what if he just made those same abundant nesting materials emmit some heat to keep the critters warm in the winter? It was exactly the type of spell Coco would come up with. Olruggio smiled to himself as he returned to his desk to flip to a new notebook page. He picked up his pen once more and started jotting down the necessary aspects of the spell. A spell to be cast upon the natural nesting materials in the area, such as sticks and leaves, that would generate some amount of heat but not enough to scare or harm the creature or destroy the material. It would also be helpful, he thought, if he knew which animals in the area preferred which materials to have the best chance of success.
Olruggio was familiar with the fauna in the area, but not so much what nesting materials the residents were drawn to. He was sure he had a book on the local trees and shrubs that might be of some use to decide the best vessel for testing his spell. He set his pen down and excitedly pushed back his chair to start searching his bookshelves. “Damnit, Qifrey,” Olruggio muttered at the disorganized shelf. “Just had to distract me from my cleaning earlier.” Finally, after a few minutes of searching and trying yet again to not think of the white-haired witch, he procured the book he was searching for. “Let’s see here…” Olruggio started flipping through the introductory pages, stopping briefly to skim pages that might be helpful. About half of the way through the book, something suddenly fluttered to the floor.
He bent down to retrieve the small note that had been tucked into the pages. Olruggio set the book face down on the bookshelf and carefully unfolded the piece of paper. It was small, no larger than a hand quire, and had one simple drawing on it. A pair of glasses. Olruggio’s brow furrowed. Did he put this here? What page of the book did the note fall out of? He picked the book back up to look at what he could have possibly left such a strage note in. At the top, staring back up at him, was one word. A large drawing was on the right-hand page. “Silverwood…” Olruggio whispered, still confused as to why a pair of glasses would have anything to do with a silverwood tree-
Out of nowhere, his head started throbbing once more, worse than it was when he first woke up. The book clattered to the floor, the note drifting softly down after it. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his palms to his temples, trying desperately for any release from the pain but it wouldn’t go away. Instead, as the pain continued, an image flashed into his mind. There, in front of him no more than a meter away, was a silverwood tree.
A silverwood tree with Qifrey in the middle of it.