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Coco’s heart was still, despite the speed of her travel. Her Sylph Shoes, tweaked with her specialty of straight lines, remained steady until she reached her destination. The young witch took a moment to look forward into the stone where she knew her mother’s body remained, ever still. Her eyes still burned every time she witnessed the tragedy her one and only use of Forbidden Magic left in its wake. “I’m home, mom.” Coco was so tired. She hadn’t been able to sleep last night. “I don’t know if this will work, but I’m going to try.” With that, she withdrew her magical tools and began crafting the circle that had saved so many on Silver Eve.
The Counter Clock spell. A relatively unassuming name for a spell that reversed the laws of time for a single day. A spell to manipulate time used to temporarily fix broken items had other, much darker uses as she’d learned all too recently. However, everything had turned out alright then, perhaps this was the chance she’d been so desperately seeking.
Coco chained the circles together, strengthened the seals in repetition and finally, with a heartbeat’s hesitation, she looked up at her mother’s form. Coco closed the circle.
A sad smile came across Coco’s face and she sat down, her eyes dry of tears. She knew it was too good to be true.
Coco didn’t know how long she sat in front of her completed circle, staring up at her mother’s petrified body, before she heard the rustle of cloth in the wind. “Coco? I knew I’d find you here.” Qifrey’s voice was kind, it was always so kind. Coco felt bitter, some small part of her wishing she had joined her mother in the petrification. She didn’t deserve kindness. She used Forbidden Magic, petrified her mother, failed to save so many people she wanted to save. Even as a witch, she couldn’t do anything.
Coco began speaking, not really paying attention to what she was saying. Of course her Master would be able to identify what she was trying immediately, if he thought it’d have worked he’d have done it himself.
Or would he? A part of Coco’s bitterness recalled her Master’s dark secret, the Silver Tree within his left eye and the seething, unending hatred for the Brimmed Caps that coiled around his heart. She didn’t even know why she bothered with this explanation. She felt a soft drop on top of her nose and looked up. It had begun snowing while she was speaking with her Master.
Coco tried to smile at the snow only to find herself sheltered by her Master’s cloak. Silence consumed the pair of witches for a moment. “Mom always hated the cold.” Coco’s voice was shaky as she leaned into Qifrey’s warmth, instinctively attaching herself to his side. “She’s probably freezing and it’s all my fault.” A sniffle escaped the young witch, her eyes burning with unshed tears. Darkness clouded Coco’s heart at that moment, if nothing had been done, that would be the day she looked back on as the moment she fell into the depths of Forbidden Magic’s clutches. But for one, simple, thing.
Coco looked up as she felt her Master shift his body, sketching a magic spell using his palm quire. A burst of warmth surged forth, encircling the petrified home sealed off from the rest of the world. “It’s not much, but it should help keep the snow from your house and your mom, for this winter at least.” Master Qifrey’s voice was so soothing, Coco’s eyes burned as she looked up at the sky, the snow melting before it could land anywhere near her mother. Her gaze shifted to her Master, the man who’d saved her life and made her a witch as she had long since dreamed smiled at her, the sun setting over the horizon, gently caressing the pair in its light, the shadows the setting sun cast far from their hearts and minds. “It’s the best I can do, Olly’s better at this sort of magic than me.” The smile shifted into something more melancholic, though Coco didn’t notice as she burst into tears and desperately hugged Master Qifrey.
She remembered the golden statues of the ancients in the Serpent Back Cave, she knew the type of spell that had petrified her mother had likely left her unable to feel or think about things like the cold. Just as it had for the golden victims of the ancient past.
Still, the small part of her remaining childhood innocence was scared her mom was cold. It was a basic, simple fear. One that many children had when they learned their parents weren’t invincible, a lesson Coco had learned earlier than most when her father passed. She had not been mocked for this fear, she had not been disregarded, she had not been chastised. Instead, she was shown kindness.
Her Master, ever kind, ever obliging, took it upon himself to cast a spell that they both knew was meaningless. Her mother could feel neither warmth nor chill, and yet her Master cast his spell anyway. The pair remained, embraced akin to a father and child before Coco’s petrified mother until the young witch’s tears stopped falling, protected from the growing chill by her Master’s cloak and endless patience as he held her gently in his arms.
The darkness shrouded the sky as the sun set, but the darkness in Coco’s heart had vanished the instant she saw her Master’s kind smile as he cast that ‘meaningless’ spell to keep her mom safe from the snow. Once Coco calmed herself down, the pair ascended to the night sky on a Pegasus carriage the way they had so many moons ago, traveling back to their atelier, their home. Where more lessons on magic awaited, where more struggles would need to be overcome. Where, although hope remained ever-distant, the kindness of her Master, their ever Watchful Eye, and her fellow apprentices would welcome her without hesitation.
Without their kindness, she feared who she could have one day become. Without their kindness, without the hope that remained within her young heart, the world could have become so much darker.
One little kindness had saved her. One little kindness changed her world. And it came from her Master’s ‘meaningless’ little spell.