Chapter Text
Qifrey opened the door of his Atelier expecting to find Agott having returned from whatever had caused her to run off earlier that day. Instead, Qifrey was faced with a young girl wearing a brimmed hat cradling Agott in her arms.
The Brimmed Cap girl looked absolutely distraught, as if she was about to cry when she looked up towards Qifrey, barely meeting his eye. “You’re Agott’s Master, you’re Qifrey, right?” The Brimmed Cap asked, her voice wavering as she spoke.
“I am. What did you do to her?” Qifrey asked, fully on guard in case the girl attacked him. She was a child, yes, but she was also a Brimmed Cap, and it was almost impossible for her to have good intentions, and he didn’t know what the girl had done to Agott to knock her unconscious like this.
“I wiped her memories of me. All I can do for her if she remembers me is destroy her life. I care about her far too much for that. So I’ve removed her memories of me and now I’ve come to return her to you. I mean you no harm, I promise.”
Qifrey knelt down to the girl’s level so he could look her in the eyes properly. There were tears brimming in her eyes, it looked like she was barely holding herself together. This wasn’t an easy decision for this girl, he could see that. She seemed to mean what she said, about Agott meaning a lot to her.
“Do you want me to take her?” Qifrey asked, holding out his arms so he could take Agott from the girl, still slightly worried that the Brimmed Cap girl was going to do something of ill intent.
The Brimmed Cap nodded and held Agott out to him. Qifrey took Agott from the Brimmed Cap girl, holding her close against himself. He let out a slow, relieved breath when he felt that Agott was still breathing, and he tucked her against his chest.
The Brimmed Cap girl produced Agott’s hat from a bag at her waist. She moved as if to hand it to Qifrey but then she paused and held it close to her chest for a moment as she sank to her knees, pressing her face to Agott’s hat for a moment.
And then she pulled off her own brimmed hat and dropped it, none to gently, onto the ground beside her. Qifrey had never seen a Brimmed Cap remove their hat, revealing their face. The girl had short green hair and brilliant golden eyes that remained filled with tears.
Qifrey watched in shock as the Brimmed Cap carefully removed the golden tassel from Agott’s hat and set it gingerly in her lap, as if it was the most precious thing she had ever touched. Her hands then went to her own hat and removed the tassel from the end of the spiral that formed the tip.
She tied her own tassel onto the tip of Agott’s cap with trembling fingers before tying Agott’s tassel onto the end of her own hat. Both of them holding on to a small part of the other, and Agott would never remember.
It reminded Qifrey of Olruggio, a tassel swap that only one party would remember, and the one holding tightly to a vow that only they would remember and no one else. And Qifrey wondered if this would end in the same way he and Olruggio did, and he had to hope that it wouldn’t, these girls, even if one was a Brimmed Cap, didn’t deserve that fate.
The Brimmed Cap handed Agott’s hat to Qifrey. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have hurt her like this if I didn’t have to. I couldn’t let her end up like you have, I can’t have her spending her whole life desperately chasing after me, desperately chasing an answer I would never be able to give to her. Nor do I think I could leave this world behind. I would be more than willing for her, I don’t want to be part of this world, but I’m not sure I’m capable of leaving, this is all I’ve ever known after all.”
Qifrey looked at the girl in shock. She knew that he was watching closely for a lead on the Brimmed Caps. And now one was on her knees without her hat in front of him and he didn’t think he could chase after her. Not after what she had said. He was frozen, holding Agott tightly in his arms with her hat in one hand.
This girl seemed like she was Agott’s age, and Qifrey had to wonder if this was the girl who Agott was so desperately searching for after the incident that got her banished from her own family, because of an association with a Brimmed Cap girl, even if she had never known it. The fact that she hadn’t known that her only friend had been a Brimmed Cap was the only reason Agott had been allowed to keep her memories at all.
That was also why Beldaruit had suggested that Agott be taken on as Qifrey’s apprentice, because he recognised that familiar desperation for an answer that he had often seen in his own apprentice. And Qifrey had welcomed her warmly.
And now the girl that Agott had been hunting for knelt on the ground in front of Qifrey, having just removed herself from Agott’s memories, a choice that had clearly broken something in her.
And Qifrey saw some of himself in that.
“I’ll see what I can do for you, I’ll see what the others are willing to tell me. Someone will know what to do about it, we use it amongst ourselves often enough we must know what to do if it gets out of hand and we need to remove it. But for now, I suppose, knowing that I’ll be keeping an eye on your Atelier, on Agott, will be enough anxiety to keep you stable.”
She knew what he was. She was also willing to help him. Qifrey had no idea who this Brimmed Cap was, not really at least, all he had was an assumption based on her words, but she truly didn’t seem to have any intent to hurt his family. In fact, she seemed inclined to help them, or at least to help Agott.
The Brimmed Cap picked up her hat and rose to her feet, her hands still shaking. “Don’t tell her about me, alright? Thank you for taking her in, thank you for making her part of your family. You’re what she deserves.” The Brimmed Cap said. She then looked down at Agott, still unconscious in Qifrey’s arms. She was crying now, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m sorry, my dear Agott. I’ll go easy on you if we meet again, I promise. Goodbye.”
The Brimmed Cap put her hat back on and vanished in a swirl of water, and it was almost as if she was never there.
~
Qifrey blinked in surprise at the girl who stood in front of him wearing a familiar Brimmed Cap, her face mostly hidden by the wide brim of her hat and the tassels lining it, but Qifrey recognised her.
He would always remember her.
This was the girl who had brought him Agott after wiping her memories of the girl herself five years ago. This was the girl who removed herself from everyone’s memory but his every time they saw her. This was the girl who had saved him from the Silverwood tree.
And he had never learned her name.
“It’s you…” Qifrey said as he stared at the girl.
“You remember me.” The girl said.
“Of course I remember you, I’m the only one whose memory you never removed yourself from. You saved my life. I would never have thought you were a Brimmed Cap if you didn’t wear that hat almost every time I saw you.” Qifrey said.
The girl reached up and pulled off her hat, holding it at her side. Her hair spilled down, seemingly having been tucked up into her hat, long enough to brush the ground, it looked almost as if she had never cut it in her life.
“I never wanted to be a Brimmed Cap, but it’s how I was raised, it’s the only thing I’ve ever known. Do I really have a choice?”
It reminded him of something she had said the first time he met her. ‘Nor do I think I could leave this world behind. I would be more than willing for her, I don’t want to be part of this world, but I’m not sure I’m capable of leaving, this is all I’ve ever known after all.’
She had said that she was willing five years ago, but now she was standing in front of Qifrey, completely alone and had willingly removed her hat, revealing her face to him, something Brimmed Caps weren’t supposed to do.
And now she was asking if she had a choice, and Qifrey wanted to give her that choice, he truly wanted to give her that choice because she still had Agott’s tassel on her hat and he could see a way that she and Agott could have a better fate than him and Olruggio, even though everything was getting better now.
“Of course you have a choice. Everyone has the right to choose their Master, even you. As far as I’m concerned that means you can choose to apprentice with a Pointed Cap witch.” Qifrey told her.
The girl paused for a moment and then pulled out a pen, and began to draw on her hat. Qifrey watched silently as he tried to decide what she was doing. He didn’t think that she was planning to hurt him, but he wasn’t sure what else she would be doing.
And then the brim on the girl’s hat vanished. It looked like the hat of a Pointed Cap witch now, Agott’s tassel still attached to the tip, although it was the only tassel on her hat now.
The girl looked up at Qifrey and pursed her lips. “Will you take me as your apprentice?”
“Of course I will, you deserve a choice.” Qifrey told her.
“Thank you for giving me a second chance, Master Qifrey.” The girl said with a bright smile as she placed her hat back on her head, now looking like a Pointed Cap witch rather than a Brimmed Cap.
Qifrey held out his hand to her. “Of course, you deserve it.”
The girl took his hand almost as soon as he extended it to her. “My name is Coco, Master Qifrey. My name is Coco.”