Chapter Text
Leaving the Great Hall was easy. Agott already had most of her bags packed and ready to go from when she was thrown out of the Arklaum manor. She was put in a temporary housing in the Great Hall until she found a place to apprentice. She had sent out maybe hundreds of letters but all came back with a scripted rejection.
All except one.
As soon as the letter came to meet with her came. She sent a letter replying 'YES' without even checking to see who accepted her. A reply came swiftly to meet at the pointed cap pastry stall in the Great Hall market. Getting dressed in her nicest Arklaum outfit and grabbing her spell book full of things she had been practicing. She had to make a good first impression after all.
Agott kept her head down as she walked to the marketplace and found two men standing in front of the stall.
"You'll be fine Qif. She isn't gonna say no to you." The man with short black hair and long black robes spoke to the other man, who had fluffy white hair with smoke colored robes and a black turtleneck shirt.
The other man, probably her new master, looked down sadly at his pastry and sighed. "What if she knows about the things…"
The first man grabs the other around the shoulders and shakes him. "Why do you think we left the Hall in the first place! If we listened to all the rumors of this place, then we would be in a lot more trouble than we already are!"
The other man laughed and turned slightly to find Agott watching their whole conversation. And suddenly she remembers meeting him before. When she got lost a few years back during the Silver Eve festival, she found him with his head down in his lap in an alleyway and asked him for help finding her mother. He immediately was willing to help, but by that point her mother had found her. She doesn't remember what was said between him and her mother but she did remember that his name was Qifrey.
"Master Qifrey, my name is Agott Arklaum and I wish to be your apprentice." She stepped forward with her head held high and proud. The man in question was so surprised he almost dropped his pastry.
He quickly recovered after the man with dark hair behind him, that looked crazy familiar to her, kicked the other out of his stupor. "Im am so glad to meet you again. I don't know if you remember…"
"I do." She flicked her eyes over to the other man who looked confused and back to Qifrey. "We didn't speak much that day but I do remember you from your hair."
She watched the man behind him laugh and Qifrey chuckle before handing off his pastry to his friend and kneeling down to her height. "Well, at least this conversation doesn't have to be too awkward then. I would love to talk for a bit before you decide to take me as your master, so would you like a pointed pastry?"
He gestured to the stall and she nodded. She ordered a pastry with salted butter, marmalade prism lemons, and some roasted nuts. The man with black hair paid for her and they all went to a quiet area of the Great Hall that Agott had never known existed.
She watches the two communicate silently to each other as they walk and clutched her spell book with one hand and her pastry in the other. They got to a small open area that showed the bubble of the ocean floor and Qifrey pulled a blanket out of his bag, putting it on the ground.
"I know this isn't much, but I like to get to know people better when I am on their level and the stone can be quite uncomfortable." He sat down on the ground and his friend followed suit sitting on his right. He gestured for them to all sit together in a triangle.
Agott sat down and put her book in her lap with one hand on it at all times, feeling the comfort of it being there. The man smiled at her and looked to his friend who just looked tired of Qifrey worrying.
"Lets reintroduce ourselves. I am Qifrey, I passed the fifth exam last season, and this…" he gestured to his friend "…is Olruggio, my Watchful Eye."
Agott whipped her head so fast to the dark haired man, almost dropping her pastry. "Olruggio of the Torch? The master inventor is your watchful eye?"
She watched Olruggio groan in annoyance. It seemed like the men both knew this was coming.
"Aye, I'm the watchful eye of Qifrey's atelier… and I also am that, but I wouldn't say I'm a master inventor."
Both Agott and Qifrey scoffed at the same time, then looked to each other with a giggle in surprise. "Don't sell yourself short my friend, you are the best inventor of contraptions that I know!"
Olruggio groaned and dragged a hand down his face. "That's cause I'm the only inventor you know Qifrey. You don't know many other people." Agott watched Olruggio look at her with a small smirk and a wink, then look back at Qifrey. "Besides this isn't about me, this is about you and your new apprentice, sorry, your first apprentice."
Agott looked back to Qifrey in surprise. His first apprentice? The man looked at her with a sad smile and took a napkin out of his bag to put down his unfinished pastry. "Yes, you would be my first apprentice, if you decided to learn under me. I wanted to start off with letting you know that my atelier is not in the Great Hall…"
Before Qifrey could continue, Agott was nodding her head finishing off her pastry. "I have no problem with that, it would actually be preferred."
The men both looked at each other with concern but understanding. "Oh. Alright, the atelier is in the Naawakin Downs, about an hour outside of Kalhn by sylph shoes." She nodded along, knowing that all she wanted was to get out of the Great Hall. "The next thing is, as I said before, you will be my first apprentice and I looked at your file with admissions…"
Agott froze in her place, she knew that he would have heard what happened. He had to know about the rumor of her copying spells, but somehow he was still sitting across from her with a kind smile on his face. "So you know?"
He tilted his head in question and blinked out of the eye she could see. "About what dear?"
She stood quickly, with her hand curled into a fist and anger filling her body. "You are a smart witch, you have to know what they are saying about me, why I have disgraced my house!" She looked back and forth between the two men and saw no looks of recognition of what she was talking about until Qifrey sighed.
"My dear, I will never lie to you. Of course I have heard the rumors, but I also saw from your file that you have had exceptional spell work your entire life…"
"So do you believe that I did it?"
The man went silent for a moment, thinking about what to say. Every second that passed caused more anxiety to unfurl within her.
"Did you?"
She wanted to scream, she wanted to stomp away, but something in her gut told her to stay. Something about how long ago, he was so quick to help her find her mother, stuck with her today. Telling her that she could trust this man.
"No."
She watched the white haired man smile and shrug. "I believe you."
He held out a hand and she, surprisingly, stepped forward slightly before putting her own in his. His smile widened as he put is other hand around hers and grasped it gently. "I myself have dealt with rumors of the Great Hall. That is why Olruggio and I decided to leave and create our own atelier."
She nodded and he let go of her, letting her sit down again. She had heard some rumors on the walk over but didn't think about them until now. "I just want to study magic. I want to learn all that I can." She looked down at her book and grasped it tightly. "I must prove myself to my peers that I am better, that I am smarter than them."
She didn't see the sad looks that the men gave her and opened her book to show them neatly crafted spells with descriptions in her own hand writing. "I wanted to show you this as a portfolio. I have been told I have clean lines and almost perfect circles."
She handed the book to Qifrey for him to take and expected him to grab it, but he didn't. He just watched her face with a soft expression. She held it out more for him again and when he didn't take it, she put it on the ground in front of him, but he never looked away from her. "Aren't you going to look at it to see if I am worthy of being your apprentice?"
He shook his head and closed the book lightly, sliding it back to her. "Agott, you already are worthy of being my apprentice, but the choice isn't for me to make. Its yours."
She looked down at her closed book and back to him. "Mine?"
Olruggio, who had been quietly watching the whole time spoke up. "You always have a choice in your master, not the other way around. We are just here to make sure you learn magic safely and help you grow."
Agott let herself think for a moment… the choice was always hers. It wasn't anyone else's and it definitely wasn't her mothers. At the thought of her mother frowning at her choice of master she smiled and looked up at Qifrey. "I accept. I will be your first apprentice."
Qifrey smiled wide and clapped his hands together. "Wonderful!"
He moved to sit on his knees and pulled some papers out of a bag. "I already got everything together but wanted to get you a copy as well. There is a list of things in here that we need to acquire for you here in the Great Hall then we can head to your quarters to collect your things."
He handed her some papers with litigious jargon and she read through what she could. She didn't want to ask what some things meant, but the men clearly saw that she needed help, because after all she was still ten years old.
"Let us know if you have any questions about anything at all. I know it's a lot to read but we will be part of a pilot program, and the Wises in Principles and Teachings wanted everything to be very clear." She nodded along, wondering in the back of her mind why he brought the Wises up, but sat down with them and asked them about certain words.
They were very helpful, and kind throughout the entire paper, not telling her she was stupid for not knowing things. Eventually, they read through it all together and Agott signed her name at the bottom, next to Qifrey and Olruggio's signatures. Qifrey clapped his hands together in excitement and Olruggio gave the other a light punch on the shoulder.
"Now that we have settled that, I will take this back to admissions. I will also put in your paperwork for you to take the first test. I believe you could be taking it by the end of the week!" He held out his hand for the paper and she froze.
"What if I'm not ready for the first test? What if I fail?" She watched Qifrey drop his hand to his lap and she looked up to his face.
"Oh dear, I think you are more than ready for your first test. From the spells you brought alone I think you will pass without a second thought."
She scrunched her face and felt her hand drift to her spell book. "You didn't even look at it."
He smiled and fidgeted with his hands in his lap. "I didn't need to. Just from looking at you, I can see you are an exceptional witch, and I just hope that I can keep up with you."
She dropped the paper and lunged into his space, throwing her arms around his shoulders and holding tight. She didn't realize she was crying until he was hugging her back, patting her on her back in a soothing way. He stood up, bringing her with him and let her curl into him even more. She heard someone, probably Olruggio, picking up everything and bring it with them to the admissions office, where they turned in her acceptance letter and contract, and scheduled her first test.
They then went to the tailors, and she was still being held by Qifrey. She had stopped crying before they got to the admissions office, but felt so comfortable that she didn't try to leave, even though it was a bit embarrassing for her to be carried at ten years old. It was at the tailors when he finally put her down, stating that they needed to measure her, and she was quickly measured for her new apprentice robes. They tell Qifrey the order will be done by the end of the week and he thanked them.
As they leave, they go down back ways to the dorm that Agott was staying at, clearly trying to stay away from the main streets and as they got to the dorm house there was a person standing outside with a red cap, long black hair, and a spear with a long pendant. Qifrey stopped walking and stood in front of her quickly before addressing the man.
"What do you want Easthies?"
The Knight looked like he didn't want to be there. "I was sent by the Captain. She got word that you have an apprentice and she sent me to help with moving."
She felt the stand-off that was happening and jumped when Olruggio put a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Olruggio already crouched down, staring at her. "Do you want me to help you grab your things? Their cat fight is going to last a bit."
She giggled to herself and nodded, then they slipped past to go up the stairs, leaving her master and the knight. She got to the door and pulled out a key that was given to her. Unlocking it and opening the door, she quickly realized how much of a mess she has made over the past week of living here. At the desk was crumpled papers and letters of rejection, the wardrobe was open from her panicking to find something to wear today, and her bed had her suitcase trunks from her old home. She looked at Olruggio, embarrassed at the mess, but he just looked at the desk of rejection letters with a frown.
"How many did you send out?"
She didn't expect that, she expected him to get on her for the mess. "I lost count after the first hundred."
Before she could say anything else he pulled out his palm quire and finished a circle, causing a small pyreball to aparate in the air. "Well, best not to look at those anymore. Do you want to do the honors?"
She quickly saw what he meant and grabbed all the rejection letters to feed to the pyreball. They sat on the floor, away from anything else, and she put in one rejection letter after another, watching them all go up in flames then turn to ash. When the last one was thrown, it felt like a weight was off of her shoulders.
She watched Olruggio stop the spell and look at her with a smile. "Feelin better?"
She nodded and got up, brushing the ash off of her dress and turned around to see Qifrey watching them in the doorway. Startling, she jumped back and almost stepped into a pile of ash, but was caught by Master Qifrey. "Be careful! Don't want to get everything covered in dust." She watched him look over her shoulder at Olruggio with a stern expression. "And why are you burning things in the dorm house!"
She looked sheepishly at Master Qifrey and told him that they were just getting rid of the rejection letters. At hearing that his stern expression turned to one of understanding. He quickly drew a spell to clean up the ashes and turned to help her start packing up her bags.
It was quick, it only took half a clock mark to get everything packed and out the door to the street. The Knight, Easthies, was still standing outside, clearly waiting for them. Master Qifrey, without a word, handed off a large bag off his shoulder to the knight and picked up Agott so that she was sitting on his arm.
The Knight grumbled that he wasn't a servant, and Qifrey grumbled something she couldn't hear. The four of them made it to the window way and Qifrey put her down to put in the correct combination. She looked up at the knight who was only looking at Qifrey. She wanted to ask what was going on but saw Olruggio shaking his head behind the knight.
The window way opened and Qifrey let her go through first, letting her see the basement stairs that led up to the main area. Behind her, the three me followed and she turned to see her master asking the knight if he really needed to be here.
"I am to check the atelier for…"
Olruggio stepped in front of her so she wouldn't have to be the center of attention. "We have had Luluci walk through here and approve this space as soon as Qifrey passed the fifth test, we have done all the correct paperwork and if you are here by Captain Vinanna's orders than she and Bel already know about her. Nothing has changed in a season and you can clearly see we have this handled Easthies, if we need you we will reach out. Otherwise you don't need to be here and you know it."
She looked around Olruggio's robes to see the knight with a clenched jaw. "Fine." The Knight stepped back through the window after he put her bag down and turned to them again. "We will be talking if anything happens…"
"Goodbye Easthies!" And Master Qifrey moved one of the dials, closing the window way. The men let out a deep groan and turned to Agott. "Well, now that that's over with, lets give you the tour and show you to your room!"
"Lets move her things to the room, then show her around…"
She watched Qifrey clap his hands together and look to Olruggio. "Right, room first of course."
They showed her to her room that was split into two work spaces and showed her the stairs that went to her actual bed chambers. It was smaller than what she had in the manor, but that was because it only had a bed and a wardrobe. Her desk and work space was up the stairs so she put her spell book in the middle and left it there.
"The room has a lock on it from the inside and we will only ever come in if there is an emergency, other than that we will always knock." She nodded at her master and watched them put her trunk and bags in the room, then swiftly left to stand outside of the door. "I'm feeling a bit peckish, how about we get some dinner together, then we can show you around."
Qifrey begins to go up the stairs to the work room leaving Agott and Olruggio behind. Agott stood in her room, wondering how she was going to put everything away when Olruggio knocked on the door frame, making her jump in surprise. "You're in for a treat! Qifrey is a better cook than anyone in the Great Hall cafeteria."
Her stomach decided to growl in that moment and he laughed. She followed him up the stairs and he showed her to the big kitchen. Master Qifrey was humming to himself as he cut up a cooked carapace yam. "Olly, could you start the fireplace? I want to grill some Eldroxen steaks."
Olruggio sighs dramatically, but turns to give Agott a wink. "Why don't we let your new apprentice start the fireplace? Best to teach her early how to start it."
There was a clatter of the knife as Qifrey turned around suddenly. "Right, we changed that last week!" He walked to the fireplace up the stairs, telling Agott to follow. "We turned it into a contraption so that we didn't have to keep making small spells and shoving them in the fireplace."
He stopped at the empty fireplace and started to put some cut up logs in a way that left a small fire spell without the ring uncovered in the middle. On the side, there was a rack with some pokers and other instruments but the one thing that stood out was something that looked like a ring, Master Qifrey pulled that one and showed it to her.
"We made this out of steel dipped in ink so that there would be a small amount still in there for casting." The steel looked like it had a damascus finish with the black woodcruor. He handed her the stick with the ring on the end and pointed to the sigil. "If you place that on the bottom with the sigil in the middle for just a moment, a will cast the spell and light the wood on fire. Give it a try."
He took a step back and allowed her to do it on her own, which felt different. Not a bad different but different. At her family manor, she wasn't allowed to mess with the fireplace, it was all done by the attendants, and any fire magic she cast had to be under strict supervision. She shoved the stick into the fireplace and lined up the circle with the sigils and placed it down, causing the spell to complete and the logs to begin to burn. She quickly moves the circle away and heard a clap from both men behind her.
"Wonderful Agott!"
She pulled the rod out of the fireplace completely and put it back where she saw Master Qifrey take it from. "It was a simple fire spell."
Agott turned to both of the men who looked like proud dads, not that she would know. "But it was something new! So from now on, as long as someone is around, either in this room or the kitchen, you can light the fireplace on your own."
She looked between her master and his watchful eye then back to the fire. She didn't think it was a big deal, people used contraptions all the time. But they said that this was just installed last week, so it was installed specifically for apprentices that could get themselves hurt with fire. She nodded to herself then took in the rest of the surroundings as Qifrey and Olruggio headed back to the kitchen.
She heard them whispering about something as she peeked around the corner to see what they were doing, which was preparing dinner, then turned back to the living room and looked at the shelves. They had primers for apprentices and tomes for specific things, mainly light, fire, and water magic. She grabbed one of the tomes on light magic and opened it, finding advanced spells that could refract rainbows and warmth.
Agott didn't realize how long she was standing there, flipping through the tome until Olruggio came to the fireplace to set up the grill. "Oi!"
She jumped and closed the book quickly, shoving it behind her. She turned to Olruggio who had a smirk on his face as he set up a metal grate in the fireplace to put the steaks on. "You don't need to hide it. I just wanna know what caught your eye."
She brought the book out from behind her and went to hand it to him, but he shook his head. "You don't need to give it to me, just tell me what it is. Anything that we don't want you to look at is stowed away, so you can look at anything you want on the shelves."
She watched him put the steaks on the grate and stand up. "Come show what you found to Qifrey. He would love to know your interests."
"I would!" Master Qifrey's head poked over the wall that separated the kitchen and the living room. "What have you found Agott?"
She suddenly felt embarrassed and went to put the book back but Master Qifrey quickly told her to bring it to the dining table. "A light spell tome? How about this, find me a spell that you like and after dinner we can go through it. And maybe we can get Olly to cast it outside!"
The other man scoffed and went to cut up some vegetables. "Why me?" Her master shrugged and went back to making mashed carapace yam.
"You are better with those spells, especially the advanced things."
They turn to grumbling at each other, with a few laughs in between as Agott looks through the book. She begins to think to herself that these men are so… unserious.
From what she heard from the Great Hall and other students, Master Qifrey was an apprentice of Beldaruit, the Wise in Teachings. One of the most powerful mages of the land, and his apprentice lived out in the middle of the Downs, purposely cut off from the Great Hall. She had also heard the rumors of him only having one eye and didn't want to ask about that, but she will keep an eye out, no pun intended.
And then there was Olruggio of the Torch. A prodigy of Ghodrey, traded to the Great Hall for more witches when a beast attacked Noz. A master inventor who followed his best friend to the middle of nowhere to live together. Agott thought there might be more to that relationship, but needs to let the awkwardness of having another person in the room settle. She had heard of his inventions far and wide and even had a few in her bags.
She flipped through the book again and landed on an animal made of light. The chapter listed a few examples of animals and their sigils and she decided on an owlcat.
She didn't realize how much time had passed until a plate was set in front of her.
"I hope you enjoyed your reading, but one of my rules is no work as we eat at the dinner table." She looked up at her master who was setting down another two plates for himself and Olruggio. She put the tome to the side and pulled the plate closer to her. "We have some juices if you would like? Or do you want water?"
"Water please." She grabbed her fork and knife to begin eating but Olruggio stopped her.
"Let us sit down and say our thanks before you start." She put down her utensils with a pout and waited on Master Qifrey to come back with glasses of water. He sat next to Olruggio's left side, keeping her on his left.
"Well, since its your first night, why don't you say thanks Agott?"
She looked at her master with a questioning gaze and looked over to Olruggio for help. The man sighed and kicked Qifrey under the table. "Explain it Qif."
Her Master nodded to himself and began to explain. "My master would always have us say thanks to the providers of our meal, so for this meal we would thank the Eldoxen for its meat and the earth for its vegetation. Since I just did it, you can give thanks in the morning at breakfast, but for now we can dig in."
She nodded to them both and picked up her utensils again, cutting into the steak. Taking a bite, she realized that it was even better than what the cooks at the manor would make, and let out a groan of delight. The two men chuckled at her and she quickly apologized.
"I told you that his cooking is better than the Great Halls! He used to be a traveling witch and learned from all over the peninsula." Olruggio said before taking a bite of his own food. "He came back with so many recipes that he had to roll me to bed some days."
Her master groaned in embarrassment and put down his knife, turning his head to point at Olruggio. "That was only two times I had to carry you to bed and that was because you decided to try to out drink… nevermind… but yes I have traveled a bit. If you have anything that you want to try, let me know!"
She watched her master grab his cup of water and finish it off.
"I will."
She quietly ate her food with them and felt their eyes lingering on her. She didn't know what to say, she had a stressful week that thankfully turned into a dream, but she still had to find her footing in the new place. She had a main question on her mind that was about to burst out, and as they all were finishing their food, it finally did.
"Were you really an apprentice under one of the Wises?" She clapped her hands over her mouth as soon as she said it and went to apologize but Qifrey put a hand up, putting his fork down.
"I was. Is that going to be an issue?"
She shook her head quickly and let her hands fall. "No, of course not, you took me in after everything. Why would I care about what they say about you?"
She didn't realize what she said until she said it, and watched the two men tense at her words. Master Qifrey took a deep breath and let it out, closing his eye. "I assumed this would happen but I am surprised it was this quick." She watched him open his eye and become more serious. "I want you to trust me, and I want you to come to me with any questions, so if there's anything you would like me to clear up, I would be happy to do so."
She thought about all the rumors that she heard; his eye, his master, his friend, and decided that she would ask none of those questions.
"Did you make your atelier out here to get away from the gossip?"
He moved his head back, clearly not expecting that question and nodded. "I did."
Agott nodded to herself and smiled slightly. "I did too."
She watched her master laugh to himself and they finished their meal. As soon as the plates were lifted off the table, she moved the book back and flipped open to the page with the animals made of light and pushed it to where Master Qifrey was sitting. Olruggio looked over to see what the spell was and chuckled to himself before pulling out his palm quire and wand.
Master Qifrey came back and sat down to look at the tome as Olruggio finished the spell causing a small owlcat of light to jump onto the table and walk around. Agott gasped in excitement and put her hands to her cheeks, speechless. The two men chuckled at her awe and watched the owlcat come up to her and put its forehead to hers.
Agott almost cried tears of happiness, but held it back. "I… I…"
The owlcat began to fade away and left them all sitting at the table. "That was… thank you!"
The men looked at her with a smile and Qifrey closes the book. "Well I think I know what our first lesson will be tomorrow. Lets show you around the atelier and then get you to bed."
She is shown around and brought back to the living room where Olruggio was laying down on the couch. "Now if you need anything at all, please feel free to come get one of us. Otherwise, you can get cleaned up and head off to bed." She nodded and bowed to them slightly before going back to her room.
It was filled with all the bags and trunks from her old home, her family home. But instead of going through it all, she pulled out an empty notebook and a pen. On the first page she wrote in perfect cursive.
Observations Of The First Apprentice To Master Qifrey By Agott Arklaum.