Chapter Text
Have you ever wondered what occurred to those that have scrapped their dreams? The poorest people of all, to have that ounce of great faith towards the hereafter, only for it to be abandoned because of their own imperfections. To the many that wished to become astronauts, only to fall from their intelligence; or those that had imagined to dance in front the soft curtains in dance, just to lose their skill of balance. And to the common that wished to sing their hearts, only to have the sound of a cracking branch.
Now, may you imagine the sound of a crying bell?
“Coco!” Tetia rocked the smaller girl’s body back and forth. “Wake up, you’re scaring me! You’ve been asleep this entire ride!”
The echo of the breeze outside the Pegasus Carriage entered the contraption from the outside in, Coco’s eyes sluggishly opened. Her eyes immediately blinked through the sudden greeting of the ray of light. She rubbed her face and surely got up with more or less of a sleepy feat.
“Give them a rest, Tetia,” Olruggio said, sitting across from the two apprentices. “A boring ride like this is bound to get one of you laddies out from being active.”
“We’re here now,” Tetia referred out towards the unclosed windows, the direction falling towards a great mound of sand layered on each other. Tetia’s own hands grasped as hard as they can on the rims around the window. She expressed that her tone was additionally softer after Olruggio’s utterances. Richeh was right next to Olruggio. Her head leaned on one of Olruggio’s arms. Her clothes were visibly larger than they should be.
“So excited to see something you’re not even taking,” Her sentence mutters across the wind. Richeh slowly turned her head at the window closest to her, staring outside the bright fields of sand. The place where The Second Test will occur; an apprentice must be able to pass this challenge in order to continue their apprenticeship at a higher level.
Richeh grumped, “It’s all nothing but sand out here.”
Qifrey was sitting next to Coco on the different flank where Tetia was, he gave the air his voice. “Sand has always been an off and on for you, Richeh."
Tetia begged to differ from Richeh's words, Tetia crossed her arms, a grin appearing on her face, “Don’t be like that Richeh! You’re the first one to take the test between all of us after all…”
Silence.
Tetia’s face dropped quietly, everyone in the carriage did. Her last words bore a sense of regret as her voice died out in the carriage. Everyone quietly casted looks at each other, then all to Coco.
The golden green hair child clenched her hands around her cape. The sound of the ruffling fiber was the biggest noise in the carriage. She couldn’t bring herself to look anywhere but at her own hands. Inside the carriage were only five people; Tetia, Richeh, Coco, Qifrey, and Olruggio.
There was no Agott.
Coco still recollected her memories from that one point in the past like it was yesterday, it was transparent as the clearest glass one has looked through. One wonders how much more she’d wish to spend more time with the one that fell in front of her eyes that day. In her heart, she still believed she was alive.
The Pegasus upfront would- before long- drift the carriage into a wobbly end. Dust surrounded the carriage, laying in the air around them for a still moment until it settled along the sand beds they were in. Tetia and Richeh were skittishly guided by Olruggio to step off first. Coco had remained in the carriage. Her body was in a squatting pose, she hasn’t been outspoken much since the disappearance of lost apprentice.
“Are you alright, Coco?” Qifrey’s hand gently landed on her shoulder, his eye being a soft comfort to what Coco was still immovably processing. It had been close to a year since Agott disappeared. A near year to The Accident of the Dragonic Labyrinth.
To this day, Coco was more than sure- it was her fault. Her fault, for not saving the one person she had grown to be more than friends to each other. Qifrey knew Coco’s feelings; and was aware of what she was thinking to herself.
”She would have taken and passed the test earlier than this,” Coco whispered, her head slanted to rest on her knees. “If I had paid attention for a second longer, she would still be here- with us- today.”
Qifrey lingered in silence for a moment, then. He stood up and made his way to kneel in front of Coco. He removed and meticulously place his hat from his head, and brought it down to the side of where Coco was sitting. The sound of cloth easing on top of the flushing cushions of the carriage.
”No one- carries a greater burden, than the people they were close with,” His eye finally met with Coco’s own. “But no one- should carry that burden with them for as long as they live.” He let his words fill the atmosphere, then continued. “Agott was the best above all of you, and that is an accomplishment Tetia and Richeh agree. We are all still mourning for her, I am especially.”
His head was high, and still was faced with guilt and shame to an apprentice who still saw it with clear relevance. “As your master and hers it was bitter to understand I didn’t make my decisions accurately nor fast enough that day. I couldn’t save her myself.” Coco swore she heard his voice cracking, underneath his brave persona to show his humiliation of failing to save Agott. “I never met such a young determined apprentice like her,” Qifrey delicately took Coco’s hands comparing his to hers, “That’s why I’m asking you here to become strong with us.”
Coco held her master’s hands back tightly. In her vision to save her mother once she passed the trials and challenges, a new motive stands along with her determination- with her passion.
”Master Qifrey, you did everything you could, and so did I,” Coco stated, her voice strengthened- shortly she was shaking in her words, but her aspiration remained true. “I want to make sure no one gets hurt anymore.”
The white haired witch twinkled in his eyes, he smiled faintly, his hands lowering to her arms, uplifting her from her seat and carrying her. He’d grab his own hat, topping it on his head.
”Then let us not give a second more for the others to wait for us, Richeh still needs our support, she’s taking the test with another apprentice from another atelier today.”
On top of a dune, Tetia was already laying on her belly, a white blanket was under her. Ahead of all the witches that were present there, stood a cave they saw earlier as layered sand- now as large as a grand hill. Far off to the mouth of the cave, Richeh and the other apprentice Qifrey had mentioned were already there. A grounded layer of diminished brick was both in and out of the cave entrance.
“They’ve started already?” Qifrey wrinkled his nose, he adjusted his glasses- squinting.
”Ay, Miss Alaria wanted to finish this as soon as she can for the apprentices,” Tetia sat upright, greeting Coco with a large wave of her hand. Tetia looked back at Qifrey. “Master Olruggio is also fighting right now… with the other apprentice’s Master.”
”Fighting?” Coco tilted her head, she got off Qifrey, brushing herself as she sat next to Tetia. Her eyes looming towards the three people far beyond her place, before she led herself to look back at Tetia.
Tetia waved her head like some kind of weed plant, “They’re over there-“ Tetia lifted her finger to the right, and not far from where they were standing- was the bearded witch, who was certainly scowling at another person. Their body scrawny to be considered being healthy with a face that was shaped like a crooked crescent of the moon. Their argument was a bit heard far here now that Coco thinks about it. Both apprentices swore they heard a visible sizzling sound from Qifrey; whether from annoyance or disappointment- they both couldn’t tell.
“You both stay here, it seems Olruggio has done some motherly scolding,” Qifrey hummed his shoes digging slightly deeper into the sand. Qifrey untangled his tassel from the top of his hat, which was wrapping around him like a vine. He turned to the girls promptly. “You girls have everything, right?”
“Yes sir, Master Qifrey!” Tetia grinned at him, carrying a vapor bubble while Coco held up a box of food and other trinkets that was in the container.
”Splendid, you both keep yourselves busy, and please do not go anywhere,” Qifrey skirmished away from the girls, a bit more instantaneous than what Coco and Tetia were expecting from him. Coco dropped herself to the left of Tetia, she crossed her legs and planted her hands ahead of her knees as she leaned forward. She could somewhat see more of who Richeh was accompanied by during this test. The apprentice whose eyes were covered by his hair, was quivering from the top of his hat to the bottom of his shoes. The Witch proctoring the challenge was dressed simply fashionable, her eyes so focused on the two right before her. Coco perceived her with an admirable look. Surely this was Miss Alaria the Witch Tetia was talking about, she was visibly shown to explain the instructions to the challengers. It didn’t take long before all of the three entered the cave, instantly disappearing.
Tetia soughed, abruptly rolling her body to face the cloudless sky above her. “I am sorry for what I said earlier in the carriage, Coco,” she awkwardly sat upwards, her hand on the back of her neck, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Coco frantically shook her head, her hands shifting up and down like gears to Tetia’s face. “Don’t apologize! I didn’t mean to act that way,”
”You have a good right to act that way though,” Tetia responded, she looked forward, “…I think we all agree she would have probably taken the test way before Richeh took hers.”
Coco halted her fidgeting self, her head slanted downwards to look at the sand in front of her. Tetia bit her bottom lip at a glance at Coco, quickly swaying her head away and her voice was none but thoughtful, “Do you think she’s still out there?”
“Don’t you?”
Tetia failed to not say anything further from that, she took her time, shortly replying with a near sense of ache.
“I do Coco, I really do,” she pivoted to look at Coco, her face was sincere, nevertheless, it carried that touch of doubt, “…but wouldn’t she try to come back to the atelier?”
Coco’s mouth stayed agape for several seconds, she snapped her mouth back closed. More thoughts barged into her mind. The muted sound of Tetia trying to reclaim or modify what she had said was lesser than a noise now. Coco’s conception of living through it, grew much more difficult than to bury it now.
If Agott was alive, wouldn’t she make her way back to the Atelier? Or at least, make some form of sign that she was alive. When the flying reptilian of the labyrinth was defeated by Qifrey, Agott fell from the tower she and the other girls were dwelling during this event. The staircase she stood broke out beneath her. When all things were said and done, the search for Agott began. In every threshold, in every cold mounted building, into the crevices of the sand marked by the waters of Qifrey’s spell- was the search for the lost apprentice. Yet, there was no Agott to be found. Not even a hint of her clothes, her tools, anything was found. To Coco, it have meant that Agott was at least somewhere out there, but not where Coco was. After that day, Coco snuck herself out the atelier- entering the alleyway that introduced her to the labyrinth.
Over and over again, she located new pieces and stones that were part of the sigil that got her into that labyrinth in the first place. All around the areas that were affected from the forbidden magic. In the course of four months and twenty seven days, Coco was making up excuses to see herself out of Qifrey’s Atelier. For every fresh piece she obtained that got her closer to opening the labyrinth, it gave her more reason to persist. Believing if she was just there in that endless maze one last time- she would be able to discover where Agott was- perhaps even find her alone. Unfortunately for Coco, not all things stand to be next to her, Qifrey had almost- at each time of a new discovery- halted Coco in her quest, pleading for her to stop. Though for every plea her master and apprentice-mates begged Coco to stop- it just became more reasons for her to continue.
Truth to Coco, she had finally stopped when her selfishness to find the lost became more self-aware. She had been eating herself bit by bit, and it took more than a toll on her and to those around her. Although she had at last agreed to stop her search- her aching need to prove and find Agott- was still in her.
Not long before for Coco to make a response to Tetia, who was still blabbering outside Coco’s ears. A silhouette on top of the cave caught Coco’s attention. She instinctively moved her entire body, her heart beating fast.
“Coco?” Tetia’s words broke through the muffled background, but Coco didn’t reply back to Tetia. She was looking at the entrance, the entrance of the hollow tunnel.
There- right in the distance- a shadow that felt too warm to be cold, strayed into the cave.
Coco immediately stood up, startling Tetia. Coco’s legs were shaking. A feeling of anxiety and something more rose inside her chest. Not a moment too soon, until Coco dashed straight towards the Serpent’s Cave.
Tetia’s eyes widened, she stumbled herself to get up, running after Coco.
“Coco! Wait! You can’t enter the cave while the test is still going on!” Tetia gasped, her warnings becoming mute to Coco. The descent to the flat level of the sand was breathless, Coco fell over herself, sand crowding inside Coco’s clothes and underneath. Still, she got up with a committed mind, not bothering herself to get the clingy sand off her. She dashed straight into the entrance with no hesitation, the shadows engulfing her to the interior of the cave.
It was only a couple seconds later before Tetia showed up inside of the cave too. Her clothes are additionally covered in sand as well. Their eyes adjusted slowly to the new light, more dim and definitely not as bright as they were outside. Though the same cannot be said to the bricks below them. The blocks that were once broken and ancient from the outside eyes of the world, were as new and fixed inside the belly of the cave. Tetia rushed herself, flipping a page out from her palm quire, her hands focused on drawing the sigil of light before it brightened aglow to a brighter view of the cave.
”We can’t be here- “ Tetia looked around in awe, her hand grabbing Coco’s. Her posture is rigid and unsure. “We need to go back, if we stay too long here-“
“Agott is here.”
“What?”
Coco stared back at Tetia, her face filled with a fiery sense of determination and certainty, “Agott is here.”
Tetia blinked rapidly, her hand that was trying to drag Coco out- was now suddenly the one dragging her further into the cave. “Agott?” Tetia spewed out, her bright pink eyes never failing to express her emotions. Her voice was with question and shock, “Here? How can she be here- did you see her?”
Coco at first: walked, then sped walked, and then started to run, her eyes were clearly seeing something that Tetia failed to center her own focus to.
“There!” Coco interrupted the silence, her finger darting to the continuous path of the brick road. Tetia did her best to survey the exact spot Coco was trying to tell her, but there was nothing but the path. Fortunately, her pace with Coco had equaled at this point, and the two ran together for what seemed like hours, before finally. They froze.
The track they were following unexpectedly spiraled upside down. Coco viewed the course with awe and confusion. She brushed her hands at the bricks that started to crease its way unnaturally upwards.
”Did Richeh and the others take this same path?” Tetia tilted her body, she was right behind Coco as her own pink cotton eyes observed the strange pathway in front of them. Coco got back onto her feet, took a breath, and then took a step forward, and then another. Not much later, she discovered herself to be upside down. The bridge followed its gravity, regardless of the direction it seemed to have gone. Tetia’s eyes shined with excitement, trailing the precise steps Coco took.
The dripping sounds of water were timed for every other step they were taking. There was nothing but more of the path in front of them. Tetia fooled around with her fingers, clasping her hands around her back as she leaned forward to face Coco.
“Are you sure you saw Agott, Coco?” Tetia questioned, it didn’t sound like doubt, more of an amber that wanted to be lit up too. Coco nodded, her face focused, she hummed the sound of agreement.
“Her shadow,” she put forth, “I saw her shadow on top of the cave.”
Tetia frowned, “So that’s why you went off without any telling,” she sniffed,”What a strange thing to do, why did she enter here? She could have just gone to us instead, right? Why-“ She interrupted her own sentences, the more questions she asked, the farther she got herself increasingly confused. She whined, attempting to shake her anxiety off.
“When we do find her-“ Tetia mumbled beneath her breath, “I’m giving her a piece of my mind!”
“You don’t have to wait too long for that,” Coco stammered. She quickly grabbed Tetia from advancing forward. Tetia stumbled back in disbelief, but her shock did not come from Coco’s action, it was what was in front of them. The path they took ended, only for about a few meters or so. In replacement, a massive gap among the cave dwelled before them.
Tetia covered her mouth, gasping.
Coco’s eyes widened with the least expected emotion she thought she’d bring to the figure that stood on the other side of the broken path.
Right ahead of them, dressed with a brimming hat of bells, their cloth of dark purple and gold- stood Agott. The Lost Apprentice.