Chapter Text
Coco was gone.
Only Agott had heard the scream, which had been quickly stifled.
"I- I was up studying, and I heard her make a noise," she had repeated for the nth time that day to the Knights Moralis. "I went to her room to check on her, but she was gone. And the windows was open."
Someone had kidnapped Coco. Snatched her in the middle of the night and taken her away.
The Knights had promised that they'd try to find her, that they'd do whatever needed to be done to track her down. Through all of this, Qifrey had remained silent, drenched in a quiet turmoil.
It was the Brimmed Caps. He knew it was. The Brimmed Caps had taken Coco and doing who knows what with her. He couldn't just sit here and wait for the Knights to try and do something.
Dinner the night after Coco's disappearance was a solemn affair. An empty seat where Coco was supposed to be, the sound of wooden spoons against bowls.
"I'm sure they'll find her, Master," Tetia said in a weak attempt to comfort him, the wobble in her voice indicating that even she didn't believe her own optimism.
Agott was dead silent, not even having touched her food.
"Eat, Agott," Olruggio said. "You'll feel better on a full stomach."
Gingerly, Agott picked up her spoon, raised it halfway to her lips, before setting it down again.
"I can't," she said. "I can't just sit around while Coco is in danger."
"It's all we can do," Richeh said, bringing her bowl to her lips to drink the last few drops of broth.
"But-"
"She's right," Qifrey said. "I don't want any of you getting yourselves tangled in this mess."
The 'I can't afford to lose more apprentices' is left unsaid.
The meal finished in silence, Qifrey being the first to excuse himself. A heaviness had settled in his chest. It had ensnared him. Brushbuddy wove around his legs, looking at him expectantly like he was waiting for Coco.
He'd given the Knights Coco's hat so that they might use it to find her. He hoped that they would actually care enough to find her. How many would be willing to let her slip through the cracks just because she was a former unknowing?
If he went searching for her, he would be putting himself in danger. He knew that Olruggio wouldn't want him to.
He did have one thing of hers.
A few days before she was taken, a button had popped off of her uniform. Qifrey had held onto it for her until she could replace it, but…
She's gone.
The Brimmed caps could give her everything she wanted; a way to save her mother, a way to save her friends, a way to make the world a better place. There was a fire in that girl's heart, one that could leave bodies in its wake if she was manipulated by them.
She could set the world ablaze, and she only needed a push.
Late that night, when everyone had gone to bed, he placed the button on the guidance orb they kept around. It was an expensive magical instrument, but one that Qifrey had deemed necessary to purchase when becoming a teacher.
"If an apprentice gets lost," he'd reasoned to Olruggio, "we'll be able to find them."
Her button kept tink, tinking on the glass, pointing north. Qifrey wrapped himself in a thick cloak and packed his tools.
"Just where do you think you're going?"
He whipped around to see Olruggio, bags under his eyes and his hands covered in ink.
"Oh, Olruggio, I wasn't expecting you to be awake!"
Olruggio gave him a look.
"Qifrey, the Knights are going to handle this," Olruggio said, inching closer, reaching for the guidance orb. "Please, don't put yourself at risk-"
"I can't," he said.
"The girls can't lose you, Qifrey," Olruggio said, his voice loud enough to get the point across while still below a shout. "You're their master. If you get hurt over some stupid revenge fantasy again-"
"It's not about that," he said. "It's about saving Coco."
He took the guidance orb from his hand. "Please, Qifrey."
He saw desperation in Olruggio's eyes. The same gentle desperation he saw at the Tower all those years ago. A spell lifted to his forehead, ready to take away his pain. And Qifrey did it again and again and again-
"Qifrey, are you listening to me?"
He hesitated.
"I won't have the right to call myself her master if I don't go after her," he said slowly, as if carefully choosing each word.
Olruggio sighed, and Qifrey knew that he'd won. He pressed the guidance orb into his chest.
"Promise me you won't do anything dumb," he said.
"Alright," he said. He took one step out of the Atelier, before feeling a warm hand grab his wrist.
"Promise me," he said.
"I promise, Olly," he said.
And with those words, he slipped out into the night.
Coco could've been anywhere in Zozah. Her button only gave him an idea of her general direction. It was more than nothing, but it wasn't much. Just going out into the night and hoping to find her wasn't exactly a good plan, but it was all he had.
As he flew through the night, he worried. Coco was in danger, and it was his fault.
As long as he kept blaming himself, he would be fine.
Eventually, he ended up at the coast, where an old castle was crumbling into the sea. The button in the guidance orb was pushing towards the castle.
The sky was just a shade lighter. Dawn would come in an hour.
The castle was surprisingly unguarded. No protective spells, not even a Brimmed cap standing watch. It had to be a trap of some sort, so he would have to proceed carefully. Palm quire at the ready, Qifrey prepared himself fot the worst.
He landed on the ground, legs tired and aching. He put down the guidance orb down, breathing a heavy sigh.
I'm coming, Coco.
He felt some shift in the air as he entered the castle grounds, like something in his body was withering. He stumbled, his body suddenly overcome with weakness.
A spell similar to that of Castle Ezrest?
The ceiling had caved in long ago, allowing Qifrey to stare up at the moon as it began its descent into the sea. His heart was pounding in his chest, as he pressed his way down, down into the castle's dungeons.
"Coco?" he called out foolishly. There was the light of a torch flickering down the hall, indicating that someone had been here. And that someone wouldn't leave a prisoner unattended.
His footsteps echoed against the stone walls, as he drew closer to the light. He was so close that he could touch it.
Then he heard a noise.
It was the noise a ratfly would make upon being discovered, a pathetic squek as it was cornered by an owlcat. Qifrey looked down to see-
"Coco?" he said, breathless and unbelieving. She was wearing her white dress, her shoes, cloak, and hat nowhere to be seen. There was a bruise on her cheek, close to her scar. Coco scrambled to the corner of her cell. "Coco, it's alright, you're safe now."
"Get away from me, Pointed cap!" she shouted.
"I'm not going to hurt you, Coco," he said.
"How do you know my name?" she said, cowering behind her threadbare blanket. "Who are you?"
Shock.
And then silence.
"Coco, it's…it's Qifrey," he said. "Coco, it's me!"
It was useless.
They'd wiped Coco's memories.
Qifrey started to hyperventilate. This wasn't happening. They couldn't do that to her. Not what they'd done to him; strip him of his identity everytime the Silverwood came back. They couldn't do that to Coco. How could they do that to Coco?
He heard footsteps rapidly approaching, and hardly had a moment to think before he felt a dagger stabbed into his side. He saw Coco recoil as the knife was ripped out of his flesh. His blood spilled out on the stone floor, sizzling and evaporating.
He looked up at his attacker. The one with the eye mask.
"I'm sorry I have to resort to such primitave methods," they said, letting the dagger clatter to the floor, just out of reach, "But the loss of magic goes both ways here."
The Brimmed cap stepped over his body as they made their way to Coco, gently wrapped her up in their arms.
"Hush now, child. I won't let the Pointed caps hurt you anymore."
"Coco, don't listen!" he gasped, clutching at his side. Coco kneeled down at his side, before Iguin pulled her away.
"He doesn't want to keep you safe," the Brimmed cap said. "He doesn't want to help save your mother."
Coco glared at him.
"Coco, don't listen to them, please!"
He forced himself up on his hands and knees, every action painful.
The injury wasn't enough to kill him, but damn, it hurt. The magic in this place was weakening the Silverwood, and his body along with it.
"They erased your memories, Coco," Qifrey said, forcing himself to slump against the wall. "They….they erased your memories and are trying to convince you that-"
"Don't lie," they said. "That is all you Pointed caps do, isn't it? Lie to your unknowing victims."
"Coco…" he begged. "Please, Coco, listen to me!"
He reached out for her, and she recoiled from him, afraid.
His hand found the dagger. The violence of the unknowing, all in his hand.
He stood on shaky legs, vision flickering. The Brimmed cap was reaching out for Coco, trying to take her away.
Leads be damned, he wanted Coco safe.
"Coco, please look away."
He plunged the knife into the Brimmed cap's neck.
Blood spurted over Qifrey's hands. He ripped the knife from their neck.
"Don't touch her," he said, stabbing them again for good measure. "Don't. Touch. Her."
Coco was backed against the wall, trying to avoid the growing pool of blood.
Qifrey's knees gave way. The mix of the burning wound and the withering Silverwood and the shock of seeing so much blood had taken its toll.
Poor Coco, she must have been so confused. But Qifrey could not live with this rage. They had hurt her.
Qifrey could not live with himself if he allowed these people to remain standing.
Shuddering, he curled himself into a ball. A few tears slipped through the wall he'd built around himself.
"Damn it," he said to himself. "Damn it all."
He felt something flutter over him. Coco had placed her blanket over him.
"Who are you?" She asked. "I want answers."
"My…my name is Qifrey," he said. "I'm your teacher."
Coco stared at him.
"I don't know who you are," she said.
Qifrey looked up at the slightest sound. Voices, growing louder.
He did not have the energy to deal with the Knights right now.
Yet, they rounded the corner, their red capes the only thing he could focus on.
"Qifrey?" One of the Knights said. Utowin, Qifrey recalled. He and Olruggio had come from the same village. His eyes scanned the cell, focusing on the dead body and the puddle of blood.
Coco was hiding again, clearly terrified.
"Are you alright, Coco?" Another Knight — Luluci — asked.
"Why does everyone know me?" Coco asked.
The Knights glanced at each other.
Luluci approached her, kneeling down so that she was below her. Unthreatening and docile. She was short enough to give that facade of kindness.
"Coco, dear, are you alright? Do you...do you remember what happened."
Coco nodded.
"He came in and Iguin stabbed him, and said I was his student."
"You are," Luluci confirmed.
"They- they said the Pointed caps wouldn't help my mom!" She said, voice raised to a shout. "So I had to help her myself! They were teaching me magic!"
Luluci furrowed her brow. "You don't remember anything before that?"
Coco shook her head.
"Why won't you help my mom?" She demanded.
"We will," Luluci said. "Of course we will."
Coco started to sob. "I don't know what's happening."
"They…took her memories," Qifrey said through pained gasps, forcing himself to look up at the Knights.
Coco squinted at him. "You were at the shop yesterday."
Yesterday? That was over a year ago.
Qifrey said nothing.
"We should get this one to a doctor," Utowin said, gesturing at him. "Her, too. Check for any injuries."
"I'm fine," Coco said.
"What are we gonna do with her?" Utowin asked. "We can't send a kid to Adanlee."
"You won't," Qifrey said. "I swear, if you send her away-"
"I said we weren't gonna," he said. "Calm down."
He grabbed Qifrey, draping him over his shoulder. It was humiliating, but nothing compared to the pain currently ravaging his mind.
They took Coco's memories. They took away her memories and manipulated her into trusting them.
It made Qifrey feel sick, like his own gaps in his memory were coming back to haunt him.
He was sickened by his own existence, by his failure to protect his pupil, by the blood on his hands and Coco's blank stare.
What kind of Master let this happen?