Chapter Text
“O, Rushing Wave. Bring to me the one I seek.”
A torrent of water drowns Sasaran and forces him to the lowermost layer, the spell working to pin him down to the paths of the Serpentback Cave. Qifrey stands before the brimmed cap with an indescribable expression, used glyph in hand. Blood continues to flow steadily down his right shoulder, but he pays no mind to it at this precarious moment. “At last, we come face to face.”
Sasaran coughs up water, balance ticked as he wobbly props himself on his elbows. “… how did you know...” he hoarsely questions, glaring at him from his hood covers his face.
“One could have supreme prowess over forbidden magic and still fall victim to the spell of the Romonon’s cavern. I simply splashed around in search of the connection.” He fidgeted with a thread.
Sasaran’s eye widened. Of course––his volley’s of water!
“The ragged edges are meant to conceal the thread that links back to you. The cape itself is but a contraption, not your true self. You simply sat back atop of the Serpentback Road, attacking us from afar.” He snapped off the strand. “Why reveal yourself if you truly had no form, unless you really had to do it. In hopes that your deception would cover that up… how unskilful. Even my apprentices would know this,” he scorns and grips onto Sasaran’s cloak before pushing him onto the very edge of the narrow path they’re on. The rough handling makes the brimmed cap’s hood fall, revealing a grotesque fusion of man and beast, making Qifrey’s eye narrow.
“Enough of that now,” Qifrey further straightens out his arm, sharp nails coming up at his forearm to hold on tight. “Speak. Do you know me?”
“…what?”
His patience wears thin. Qifrey sincerely does not have time to play games. “I am asking whether or not you know me!”
“I don’t–I have not an inkling of who you are!”
“Then what of a brimmed cap with the same mien as my own?!” The witch shouts, brow twisted and veins popping at his temple. Sasaran’s befuddled face transitions into uncertainty as he pauses. “We only converge safely behind brims. I’m afraid appearance is a poor clue to work with––“
Sasaran’s expression whitens.
His tongue goes limp in his mouth, and his ears fall behind his head, pupil becoming as thin as a blade. The very first thing Qifrey registers before he looks over his left shoulder is the oddly recognizable scent of smoke. The sound of fire crackling, the urge to cough. The same sensation he felt back then at the marketplace resurfaces, a queasy feeling that creeps inside him.
“W–what are you doing here?!” The feline man panics. “You aren’t supposed to be here!”
Over his shoulder, just a shy meter away from him, there’s a man. Another brimmed cap with flames draped over his hat like chiffon, a large cape that covers not only his back, but his front and shoulders, leaving the sides and disclosing an off-white blouse underneath. From where the sleeves bunches up to his elbows, it reveals tattoos across the man’s arms. He can’t see legs–either the wrap is covering them or they haven’t materialised fully.
Alarms ring in Qifrey’s mind. “You–aghk!” A grunt escapes him just as his mouth opens. Sasaran shoves him off and over the ledge where death waits for him. Just as the rock side of the cavern comes at him faster than thought –– arms close around his figure and he smacks into a person. “Qifrey! Are you all alright?!” A voice of a woman’s fills his ears.
“Alaira?”
Placing his cap back on himself, Sasaran readjusts it to his liking. He sends a sharp glare to the newcomer with a snarl, nonplussed at his appearance. “You allowed that witch to be distracted for a moment, a vital moment indeed, but you won’t be acknowledged for that.”
“…” The masked man doesn’t speak. Annoyance overcomes the man beast as he brings himself back to topic. “What a tiresomeness you remain…interrupting us from our goal.”
Back in Alaira’s firm arms, Qifrey stills and looks up. “Goal? Goal? What is this ‘goal’ of yours you’re speaking of? What are you here to accomplish?!”
Sasaran’s gaze locks onto Qifrey, and he grins predatorily. Just as he’s about to respond, an inked sleeve whips up and halts right in front of the feline brimmed cap. The tense atmosphere in the cavern slowly thickens as smoke and shadows all around seem to multiply. “You will not speak of such thing,” comes a deep, rugged voice from the masked witch. “Take your leave.”
“You? You think you can sp––“
His arm suddenly seizes Sasaran’s ring collar and his tattoos comes to life, turning into vibrant, ferocious hues of red. It’s immediate, like a Jumping Chameleon shifting colours. His fingertips threaten to kindle. “Cat skin like yours suffers immense burn damages at 60 Celsius.” The ends of the digits clutch around Sasaran’s wrist, pulling the creature forward to face him.
“Flames like mine far exceeds that pathetic amount.”
A widened, dilated eye flickers to his clawed hand. In the silence that befalls them, the sicking sound of skin sizzling was loud. Shortly after came Sasaran’s scream, a disgruntled and pained cry that echoed in the hollow cave. “AAGHHHKK!! UNHAND ME! –AH! “
Qifrey and Alaira couldn’t see it from where they were, sitting futilely from a lower vantage point and just staring in disbelief, but the masked brimmed cap brought his other hand to move his sheet of flames to show his face only to the screeching feline. It flowed as freely as drying bedsheets in the garden, wind making it rustle. There was something in the man’s voice that made Qifrey’s breath hitch. Familiarity struck him, but where was it from? Who was this man? Sparks crackled and weaved about, then Qifrey spotted the growing beard on the man’s chin, before bright flames flowed to conceal his face once more. “I will do as I please. Now leave,” he coldly said.
“I––“
“Leave.”
Without a second wish at being scorched, Sasaran swallowed his pride and turned around, curses streaming from his angry mouth as he swirled into a ring of cloth and disappeared.
Not even a moment later a shadow casted over the two Pointed Caps as the brimmed cap’s ebony cape shrouded them whole, widened eyes from Alaira and Qifrey having not enough time to cast a seal as they became nothing more but a mere sparkle in the air, then a lingering scent of smoke.
Euini jerked round and howled, jumping around and flinging Agott off of his back. Everyone watched in horror as the ropes of stone crumbled, untying Euini’s beastly limbs from confines. Tetia’s head flew upward at Agott’s declining figure in the air and leapt forward, grabbing her before her head could bash into the ground.
“Agott! Are you okay?”
“Forget about me–“ she dismissed, “–I’m fine!” she heaved, hand over her erratic heart. “What of Euini?”
Where they had cooked up a plan and built a tower of sand, the walls disintegrated and presented the boy; still as the black scalewolf as he was moments earlier. Their plan failed.
The Arklaum froze in her stead. Wind rustled through the cave and gusted against their fabrics and clothes, hiding away her tremor. “No..” he didn’t turn back. “Did I draw it wrong? Was I unprecise? Why––why didn’t the spell work?!”
Euini’s iris-less eyes flickered to Agott and roared loudly, kicking around to shake off the remaining ropes coiled around him. One cord lashed across her back and she cried out loud. Tetia grabbed onto her and threw the both of them back, clutching her glyph to make the ground pliable enough to be used as a shield.
From above, leaning against the cliffside –– Coco stared down in dread. They were stuck down there, suffering Euini’s attacks. What was she doing? Why didn’t it work? Reversing the signs on Euini’s seal should’ve worked! Is it that–
Coco’s eyes widened. “Can’t…can’t reversed seals cancel out the initial spell? Is it because it’s on a body? Normal spells aren’t enough to cancel out forbidden ones?”
She heard rustling of clothes before an eerie, gentle voice filled her ears, halting her train of thoughts.
“Precisely.”
Coco’s head whipped upwards. A brimmed cap loomed above her––the one with the eyeball mask––with fingers interlocked with each other. “Of course, a quick-witted girl like yourself figured it out so swiftly… or perhaps you already knew that, didn’t you?”
Her eyebrows curled upward in fear. “I-it’s you. It’s you.” The other flowed around before her and floated upside down in the air. “Iguin, at your fingertips.” The many tassels shielding their lower half of their face danced around, drawing Coco in as it dejected the laws of gravity. “Be not afraid, Child of Hope. I, the lidless one of the world, won’t harm you. It wasn’t our intention to bring anguish to your hearts like this.”
They flipped around, hovering upright in front of her, cape moving wildly. “As an apology, allow me to share a secret with you. A way to break the seal and save the boy.” Their hand outstretched. Coco gazed at it, standing flush against the wall where the stone beneath her feet would disable soon. The edges of the half circle powdered; the surface beginning to crack.
“And let me guess.” Her eyes narrowed in hesitant anger. “It involves forbidden magic, doesn’t it?”
“But of course.” Iguin moved. Their hands seized their cape and pushed it backwards, landing in front of the stone step Coco was standing on. “Be at ease, for your friends won’t know. I’ll keep my lips shut. No one will ever know. Besides, you’d like to save your friends, yes?”
A rough, scarred hand grasped her wrist gently, a feathered wand coming in-between her fingers. “Come, Coco.” They called, redirecting her focus to her palm quire. “It’s time to draw.”
The hold around her wrist tensed ever so faintly, and it did nothing to help with the fast rate of her heart. “The only spell that can save that boy is an ancient and prohibited one.”
“I…”
“Are you trembling?” Iguin abrupted her, tilting their head. The ornaments from the eyeball mask brushed against her green hair. “Do the forbidden spells frighten you? They are not far different from the spells you use in your everyday.”
Fright was not the word Coco would use. She is terrified, oh so horribly afraid. If Iguin saw it, they didn’t press it, they ignored it as they inched closer, whispering into her ear. “You shall learn them in no time. And I’ll teach you––“
“NO!!”
Iguin’s attention snapped below them and vaulted backwards just as Euini had climbed up the side of the cavern. His wolfish teeth caught Coco’s hood as he threw her over, a high pitch scream escaping her. “Forbidden spells… bad…!”
A heap of sand cushioned her fall, and she looked up from where Euini bravely saved her from the brimmed cap. “Euini? Are you in there somewhere? Our spell worked after all?”
“I wouldn’t quite say that––but it did not fail,” both Agott and Tetia popped behind Coco, the latter’s tone laced with determination. “He can communicate again, suggesting part of the seal was successful.”
“Besides,” Tetia stood up, glaring at Iguin who delicately glided with dexterity, “claiming only forbidden spell works is a falsehood! Every little adjustment unlocks new possibilities! If there’s a will, there’s a way! That’s how magic works!”
Iguin landed on top of Euini’s scales, hurdling over and landing elegantly on the ground easily before the beast even trash them off of him. “How marvellous… you nullified part of the spell by reversing the signs… my, my!”
An unsettling laugh escaped them, where it faded into a snarl by the last hitch of breath.
Iguin snapped their mask unnaturally over their shoulder, and the girls and beast watched in silence as the brimmed cap zeroed into the distance.
“You…” the glowering resumed. It was disturbing, truly so disturbing.
From nowhere, the scent of smoke became overbearing.
And suddenly, it was chilling as all four children felt the danger maximise before them. Four heartbeats raced, four times the casualties.
“O, by what means do you make your presence here, Witch of Ash?”
Euini’s instincts overcame him before he realised what they meant. Tetia swallowed the urge to cough as a single sparkle of fire crackled from where the brimmed cap was shooting piercing glares at, till a black sphere formed and materialized into a person.
Their arms shot out, sending their baggy cloak to swish in the air as two figures fell from each side––the girl’s faces contorting at the sight of them. “Master Qifrey! Miss Alaira!”
Their voices overlapped each other with panic, seeing yet another brimmed cap emerge from the depths of nowhere to torment them. Iguin seized the air like there was a counter before them, jumping up to levitate in the air in a crouch. With an arm propped on their knee, they rested their hand on their chin, robes rustling behind him like leaves in the summer breeze.
Judging by their body language, Iguin was not impressed.
The cloth-blaze masked brimmed cap dashed backwards, narrowly avoiding a tornado-snatching spell attack by the wind specialist as Alaira placed herself between the other witch and Qifrey, who was laying down, gripping his still bleeding shoulder with dilated eyes and groans. “What is your purpose here, brimmed cap?!” Her pen glided across her palm quire and spun around the paper, activating yet another wind seal as the brimmed cap avoided that one as well.
At the sidelines, the apprentices looked in alarmed amazement. Fire seemed to act docile around the new brimmed cap, stretching out the rim of his hat and concealing his face. For a moment, a pang of familiarity met not only Coco, but Tetia’s chests.
Had they encountered this man before? No, no… when could’ve that had been?
(“Had I known how to help properly…” Tetia looked down at her hands and clenched them, bringing them close to her chest. Shame swallowed her gut whole. “It would’ve served them a lesser injury.” As she had uttered those words, in full confidence to the other girl, a man suddenly left and flew away. Not alone, shame and paranoia swirled their way in her gut. Oh God, did he know?)
No… they can’t recall. Perhaps at a corner of a building somewhere, or in the woods.
VOOM!
Tetia’s head snapped back to the current fight. A ring of vicious fires surrounded both Qifrey and Alaira in individual loops. The brimmed cap made their way to the eye-masked witch. Wo-ah, her legs trembled weakly. They’re both here.
“I’m honoured my sheer presence irritates, no, angers you, Iguin.” The fire witch spoke, and the first the pink haired girl notes is the accent. A northern accent, distinctive from all their own.
Fright stuck her frozen solid. She can’t move. Her eyes trailed to both Coco and Agott, and them, too, shook and heaved with sweat rolling down their temples. And now, with her three ponytails on, no ideas came to mind.
She feels oh so useless. So incompetent. What can she do… she’s supposed to be helpful and make sure people are happy! What can she do??
“You know your presence isn’t welcomed,” Iguin steps down from his invisible counter and walks up to the fire witch, stopping at a few metres distance –– all in the meanwhile their Master and Guide screams at them to get to safety. The two brimmed caps ignore them, and strangely enough, silence befalls them.
“But why the visit,” Iguin’s tassel sway, disclosing his unhinged grin, “O, which flames are mere servants to thee, The Fallen Star of Ghodrey.”
The flames caging the Pointed Caps weakened vastly as the confines offered a see-through view. Alaira’s shoulders tensed, and her face paled. Slowly, her gaze averted and glanced over to Qifrey, who’s figure had gone still.
With a sweep of his wrist, the cloth of smoke and glows parts and dissipates into thin air.
A face of not only familiarity, but an outer shell of a past he used to live with. Qifrey’s throat constricted horribly as his blue eye wavered. Irises as blue as the deep sea, the same ones that threatened to consume him whole, yet Qifrey could allow himself to be safe within the other’s gaze, seek comfort, laugh and finally smile. A beard that flourished across his jawline and swept up his sideburns, near black strands covering his forehead, a blue glimmer bouncing off the otherwise ebony hair.
His hand trembled as he covered his mouth, in case anything would spill out. He wanted to throw up. No wonder he thought the other was familiar – he is.
Oh my God. It was Olruggio.
His visioned blurred, and Qifrey gasped, blinking away. Iguin teleported to Olruggio’s side, the damned eyeball mask whispering into his ear.
Pure rage and resurfaced hurt and betrayal rammed Qifrey all at once.
Olruggio’s face twisted and waved off the other, eliciting a wheeze rather than a laugh. Moreover, since he and Alaira were confined to a fiery cell, they could only be useless as the masked brimmed cap fled, leaving in a mere gas of asphalt black.
But before they did, the volume of Iguin’s voice augmented in the cavern; “Be careful now, for we have our Child of Hope. Go, collect your little one. I’m sure she’ll do great under your guidance.”
Olruggio stepped forward with a glowing right arm.
Adrenaline surged through them all.
Alaira screamed and Qifrey’s normally gentle, airy voice came out rushed and loud. Agott, Coco, and Tetia unwillingly motionless in place –– the brimmed cap charging forward and snatching of one of them. Agott’s throat dried out as she shrieked, demanding him to let the girl go as Coco’s figure trembled even more, breaths coming up in short, rapid huffs.
Even Euini roared and ran towards the fire witch, but before the beast could do anything –– a long rope of lit flames caught his limbs and sent him crashing down, a cry of frustration leaving the boy.
“No!––“ Tetia choked, a strong arm coiled around her middle, legs kicking as Olruggio had chosen her. “No–stop! Release me!”
“Listen closely, girl.” Hands seized her shoulders and the man kneeled before her, and Tetia did not flinch upon being stared so strongly at. Like the daggers were piercing through her. And then, out of the blue, the outside world became a blur, and the man before her was clearer than the reflection water mirrors back to you.
A cold sweat blossomed across her back.
Tetia!
“Guilt is a nasty thing, isn’t it,” his thick accent rolled from his tongue, and immediate warmth spilled from it. “a sickening sensation that crawls up your trachea, shame too.” Her hands dipped into his palms, and it was only then Tetia realised saw the intricate fire spell etched into skin.
…blood. His hands were dry with blood, revealing a shimmering white of a fire spell. Oh, oh my. “Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could help the one we love? Protect them from pain and hurt?”
Tetia!
Wh-what? Her eyebrows softened. “Wh-what are you talking about…”
“Oh, Tetia, I know you know,” the man tilted his head. “But fret not, for healing magic isn’t all that bad.”
Tetia!
Air knocked out of her lungs. Coco gasped in realisation as she struggled to find her voice––Qifrey’s booming command coming in her stead. “TETIA! Don’t listen to him! Every curative spells are forbidden for a reason!!”
“Oh, don’t concern yourself with that man,” Olruggio steered her focus away from the white-haired witch, and hooked her attention once more. “Wouldn’t be better? Or maybe not, for not only forbidden spells can be the answer. Little adjustments to existing, legal spells unlock new possibilities.” There was a haze in her brain. She, she had said those words to the other brimmed cap ten minutes earlier. No, stop. He’s messing with you. The distressed girl held her face in her hands and held her two ponytails. “No! No!” She relayed to him, fumbling to free herself from his grasp.
She had pictured her beloved cloud spell with a slight alteration, a way to aid the injured ones as they safely rest.
She snapped her hands free from his and held them to her own chest, heaving heavily. “No! They’re forbidden for a reason! I cannot lose myself to that!”
“Yet you want to be helpful.” His hand seizes her wrists once more, and this time, he stands upright and looms over her, a light source from above casting a terrifying shadow over his brim. “You cannot be of any help and not know any healing spells. Don’t you want to make many happy? Bring comfort–– be thanked in return for your efforts?”
Pang, suddenly she goes still. Of course, she won’t do it. She can’t. She violates not only the laws of The Pact, but the trust she has with her closest ones.
“Tetia, please––don’t do it!”
“Perhaps our first lesson shall be put in place. Observe, child,” Olruggio loosens his grip around her wrist entirely. He turns his focus to the white-haired male, whose face was ashen despite of the temperature that surrounded him, and let out a deep sigh.
The cage of combustions around her Master explodes, and they watch as their professor becomes one with the flames. A reverberating scream erupts from Agott as Coco watches, paralysed.
Hues of bright red and oranges fill Tetia’s world. She can’t breathe. She can’t breathe.
Before true panic and grief has its chance to settle, the flames dispel and Qifrey collapses to the ground, his robes and skin not even scorched. His chest falls up and down, lax in his expression.
“If you gander closely, the one open wound at his right shoulder is no more. I merely treated his injury,” Olruggio smiled, eyes narrowing at the sight of the white-haired male, zeroing at the peacefulness in his pain-free expression.
“Unconscious sure, but no more in discomfort.” He turned once more to Tetia, and this time, uncertainty and wavering principles plagued her. “So, I’ll ask you again. Do you not wish to learn healing magic, Tetia?”
Imagine all the people she’ll save.
This time, the thought of it didn’t seem so bad. Her heart rate spiked and sweat collected at her forehead. And yet…the thought of it didn’t make her thrash around like last time. Her eyes simply stared at Master Qifrey’s sleeping figure, finally pain-free and safe, and everything that changed.
She hadn’t even spoken. Her expression was defeated. Her lips barely formed the letter of y, and Olruggio’s smile widened. He drew her close and hoisted her up, alarming her as her hat knocked off––before both of them was engulfed in flames, till the aftermath of their silhouettes were nothing more than ashes.
The glyph of the fire finally released Alaira, and her legs gave way from beneath her. She landed in a heap of limbs as her fists clenched in anger, looking down at the failure of her protection. Her breath hitched. Before she could let that anger loose, she had to make sure the children were safe.
As she stood, her eyes fixated to the spot where the two disappeared. Qifrey’s apprentice’s discarded Pointed cap, and another item. Merigold irises widened once more. Damn you… Olruggio. Her eyes half-closed, and she knelt down to pick it up. “Still like this, huh?”
A medallion with a seal written on the back, soft, black ribbons tied together forming a bow at the end.
A kind-hearted guy. Alaira would’ve given that to him had he never turned into a brimmed cap.
And on most days, she wonders how it ever happened.