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Qifrey claps his hands over dinner like he’s got an amazing proclamation to make, which is Agott’s sign that she should’ve taken dinner in her room instead of letting Coco trick her into coming down to the table. Olruggio had rubbed his eyes in disbelief when he saw her, like he wasn’t sure if the sleep deprivation was finally getting to him.
Agott tries to make up for her earlier mistake by gobbling down the rest of her food and trying to beeline for the exit. Qifrey stops her with one outstretched hand because he’s gotten unnaturally good at Agott-wrangling in the past year.
“Stay for a moment, would you, Agott?” he asks and Agott bunches up her shoulders and huffs but she does, dropping back down onto the bench. She glares at Coco instead, who just looks back at her with big, sad puppy eyes like she’s not sure what she’s done wrong in the first place and the whole thing makes Agott feel itchy all over. “I’ve come up with an assignment for you all. I’d like you to work on a new spell centered around change.” Agott chews the inside of her mouth, thinking. It’s a broad theme but she thinks that one of the spells she’s been working on–
“And I want you to work in pairs,” Qifrey tacks on and Agott promptly takes all her spell ideas and chucks them out the window. Working with another witch is insufferable, like trying to cook a meal but someone occasionally wanders through and whacks you over the head with your saucepan, ruining your food and your concentration all in one go. Richeh would belittle her, Tetia would probably try and get her to do something egregious like smile more and Coco–
Agott risks a glance across the room where Coco is staring, wide-eyed, as Brushbuddy curls around her wrist, matching wobbly, huge eyes on the two of them. Agott gets so caught up in the similarities that she nearly misses Qifrey’s next sentence. Ugh, see this is what she means! Working with Coco would be too distracting.
“I’ll have Tetia and Richeh work together and Coco and Agott work together. Sound good?” Agott frowns and marches up to him.
“Why can’t I work alone?” she says and Qifrey sighs.
“Collaboration is a key part of spellmaking and I want you girls to get as much practice as you can.”
“L-Looking forward to working with you!” Coco stammers out, head bowed, and Agott jerks her head away before she does something stupid like blush.
“Fine,” she huffs and Qifrey smiles, relieved.
Over his shoulder, Richeh sticks her thumb out and then flicks her hand quickly downwards in a you’re-going-down motion. Agott’s impending migraine aches as Tetia, having caught wind of what she’s doing, scrambles to hide the gesture before Qifrey or Olruggio notices.
She manages to step completely in front of Richeh, blocking her with her body, before Qifrey turns but because Qifrey’s always had that creepy sixth sense for when someone’s up to something, he smiles at them, all scaly and fake.
“And one more thing. It’s not a competition, okay?”
“It’s totally a competition,” Agott tells Coco in their room that night, pacing back and forth between their beds. Coming up with a spell about change on her own in a week–maybe that she could’ve pulled off but coming up with a spell while Coco is distracting her every step of the way is akin to drawing blindfolded. Although she is getting pretty good at that…
“Really?” Coco asks, cocking her head. It reminds Agott of the baby deer they see sometimes out in the fields, tilting their heads this way and that. “But Master Qifrey said it wasn’t.”
“Did you see Richeh’s face?” Agott hisses because Agott will break every bone in her body before she loses and she certainly will not lose to someone who shoots her childish hand gestures from across the dinner table. “It’s definitely a competition and more importantly, Coco, we are going to win.”
“I’m glad I’m paired up with you,” Coco says, beaming up at her. “I’m excited to see what you come up with, Agott. You always make the most beautiful spells.”
Agott blusters like one of Olruggio’s devices on the first test run.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she huffs, tipping her face away. “None of my spells are good enough. I have to get better.”
“I think you’re plenty good!” Coco says because she’s naive and stupid and naively stupid.
“Like an outsider like you would know anything,” Agott huffs and scrambles desperately for a change in topic. “What about you? What have you come up with?”
Coco groans, pushing aside a stack of papers two inches thick.
“Nothing that will stick,” she says, sorting through the top pieces. “I thought there might be something with butterflies or butterfly wings because of the changes that caterpillars go through but I couldn’t come up with anything.”
It’s not a half-bad idea. It beats the metaphorical bashing-against-the-wall that Agott’s been doing all evening, rattling her good-for-nothing skull for a better alternative.
“That’s not awful,” Agott admits and Coco lights up like she’s paid her a hefty compliment. Agott practically has to squint in the sudden light.
“Thanks, Ago–” A yawn cuts Coco’s words off midway and Agott feels an unfamiliar wave of guilt crash over her. She turns away quickly.
“We’ll pick it up in the morning,” Agott says and tosses herself under her blanket without saying good night.
The idea strikes Agott an hour before sunrise. To make a spell about change, they need to see change, experience change, be change. Well… maybe not the last one. Regardless, observing the dawn might strike some inspiration in them.
She kicks off her blanket and goes to wake Coco but stops short a foot from her bed. Coco sleeps curled up in the fetal position, hands tucked tight to her chest. Her breath flows in and out of her softly and she looks peaceful, her eyes closed.
Agott’s hand stops dead in its tracks as she feels her insides turn to butterflies. So what if she’s waking Coco up at the literal crack of dawn? It’s for the assignment, the assignment. She shouldn’t feel bad or funny about it, even if Coco never looks this relaxed when she’s conscious, her brow perpetually furrowed as she scratches her way through the basics. Whatever, they agreed that they would continue their work in the morning and it’s sorta morning so she’s fine!
Agott jams her hand out and shakes Coco by the shoulder before she loses her nerve. Coco bolts awake like she’s been struck by lightning, and the way her pupils dilate, her breathing heavy until she takes in Agott’s presence, almost leaves her feeling guilty. Almost.
“Agott?” Coco asks, rubbing at her eyes with one hand. “What’s going on?”
“Get up,” Agott says, nearly reaching for her hand to tug her there herself before she thinks better of it. “And find your shoes. We’re going out.”
Coco nods and wordlessly obeys, shucking off her blanket and feeling around for her boots.
“Where are we going?” she asks as Agott throws open the door to their room.
“To see some change.”
Normally, Agott would fly there but since Coco has no sylph shoes, they’re left walking up the mini mountain and Agott’s actually sweating by the end of it. They make it with only a few minutes to spare and Agott grabs Coco’s hand and practically throws her at the base of the tree, any bashfulness having been shed on the torturous walk up.
“What are we here for?” Coco asks, breathing heavy. Agott turns wordlessly to the sky and points in lieu of a response.
The sun breaks over the horizon, pink and orange and red all spilling out into the sky. It’s a beautiful sight watching the world slowly stir to life, silhouettes of animals out in the distance turning into full-fledged creatures as the light washes over them.
“It’s beautiful,” Coco says, eyes wide. Agott turns to the side to consider her, face bathed in pink and orange and yellow.
“Yeah,” she says. “It is.”
“Thank you for showing me your favorite place to watch the sunrise,” Coco says and Agott jerks her head away, facing forward.
“I-It wasn’t for you, it was for the assignment!” she snaps and Coco has the audacity to laugh, a bright tinkling noise in the wind.
“Still,” she insists and tips her head. Agott studies the sun religiously as it rises and as she stares into the sky, she feels inspiration stir in her belly like a fire, her fingers already itching for a pen.
“I think I’ve got an idea,” Agott says, patting her empty pockets. Curse her earlier self for not thinking to bring a pen and ink.
“Me too,” Coco says. She stands up, brushing the grass off her skirt, and reaches one hand out towards her. “Let’s head back. We should probably hurry before Master Qifrey or Master Olruggio notices we’re missing.”
It’s a fair point. Qifrey had a meltdown the first time Richeh hopped into her magical pot and he couldn’t find her for the whole day.
Agott stares up at her, silhouetted against the sunrise and yet somehow brighter than everything else in the sky. She swallows, then she takes her hand, calloused and warm, and goes.