The morning after the Consent of the Crown, Qifrey-sensei placed five metal discs across the study table.
They were arranged in the shape of a star.
Coco leaned over them so far that Brushbuddy had to climb from her shoulder to the top of her hat to avoid being pressed against the table.
Tetia reached out and nudged one of the discs slightly to the left.
Qifrey-sensei looked at her hand. “Was something wrong with it?”
“It wasn’t lined up with the others.”
“It was.”
“It felt lonely.”
Richeh sat by the window with her knees tucked beneath her robe. She looked at the disc, then at Tetia with a deadpan look.
“Metal does not feel lonely.”
Tetia smiled at her. “Maybe it does when no one asks.”
“Richeh does not ask metal questions.”
“That may be why it never answers you.”
Richeh considered that with complete seriousness.
Agott lowered her pen. “Can we begin before Tetia starts interviewing the furniture?”
Tetia turned toward her. “Thank you for reminding us.”
“I was not helping you.”
“Thank you anyway.”
Agott pressed her lips together and looked away.
I sat beside Coco, wearing the blue apprentice coat Qifrey-sensei had given me the night before. The hat still felt strange on my head. Its brim changed the shape of everything at the edge of my vision, and I had already struck it against two doorframes before breakfast.
Coco’s own hat tilted slightly to one side.
Agott had corrected it once.
Tetia had adjusted it afterward because she thought the first angle made Coco look too serious.
Qifrey-sensei smiled at us then placed one finger at the upper point of the metal star.
“The five trials are known together as the Pentacle of Proving. Every trial takes place at a different point of the Zozah Peninsula, the Land of the Pact.”
He traced the outline from one disc to the next.
“The locations form a pentacle across the peninsula. The trials measure a witch’s growth, but they also grant specific rights. Passing one does not simply mean you have become more skilled. It changes what you are permitted to do.”
Coco touched the first disc.
“The Consent of the Crown.”
“Yes. It is usually taken before an apprentice enters an atelier.”
Agott’s gaze flicked toward Coco, then away.
Qifrey-sensei noticed but continued.
“The candidate brings their magical tools and three contraptions from their own home, each one something they can already use. They enter the Dadah Range, reach the highest peak, and harvest a Diadem Herb.”
Tetia looked at Coco’s stitched cloak hanging beside the study door.
“You brought contraptions from our home.”
Coco glanced toward Agott.
“We did not really have another home to choose from.”
“The rule exists to prevent candidates from using devices they have never seen before,” Qifrey-sensei explained. “The purpose is ingenuity, not ownership.”
His eye settled on Agott for a moment.
“You were both given tools you could understand well enough to use. Barely.”
Agott’s shoulders tightened.
Coco rubbed the edge of her sleeve. “I nearly ruined the Sylph Shoes.”
“You ruined the glyph,” Agott said. “The shoes survived.”
“That is a very Agott way of saying everything ended well,” I said.
Her half-lidded eyes moved toward me.
“I was stating the condition of the shoes.”
“I know.”
She looked ready to defend herself further, then noticed Coco smiling and decided against it.
Qifrey-sensei tapped the first disc.
“The Consent may only be attempted once. Passing grants the right to choose a teacher and enter a formal apprenticeship.”
Coco blinked. “Only once?”
“Yes.”
Her fingers stopped moving against her sleeve.
“You didn’t tell us that.”
“I was not aware you would be taking it.”
Agott stared at the table.
Qifrey-sensei’s tone remained even. The disappointment beneath it did more than anger would have.
Agott drew in a quiet breath.
“I knew they could complete it.”
“No,” Qifrey-sensei said. “You believed they should have to prove they could.”
The room became still.
Agott’s fingers tightened around her pen.
For a moment, the proud answer seemed ready on her tongue.
Then she lowered her eyes.
“Yes.”
Qifrey-sensei did not press further.
He moved to the second disc.
“The Sincerity of the Shield takes place at Serpentback Cave on Cape Romonon during the migration of the Myrphons.”
Tetia immediately leaned forward.
“The white birds?”
“With the long tails, yes.”
“I saw a flock once. They looked like pieces of cloud that forgot to stay in the sky.”
Agott sighed. “That description is useless.”
“It tells you exactly what they looked like.”
“It does not.”
Richeh spoke without looking up from the disc.
“Richeh thinks clouds have no tails.”
Tetia’s face brightened. “Then I will have to make cloud magic with tails.”
Qifrey-sensei waited for the thought to finish travelling through her before continuing.
“During the trial, candidates wear Mirror Mantles. The seals cause the Myrphons to see the witches as part of their flock. The candidates must guide them through the caves to their breeding and wintering grounds.”
“What happens if the mantle comes off?” Coco asked.
“The birds flee. The candidate fails.”
“Can the seal be changed to make them easier to guide?”
“No. Removing or altering the seal also causes failure.”
I studied the second disc.
“So the trial tests whether a witch can help people without exposing the true method behind magic.”
Qifrey-sensei nodded.
“Exactly. Once you pass, you gain permission to cast spells in public. Before then, your magic is limited to supervised practice and protected spaces.”
Coco looked down at her hands.
“The Myrphons are like ordinary people. They can benefit from magic, but they cannot know how it works.”
“A simplified comparison, but a useful one.”
“And if someone fails?”
“They may try again after one full year.”
Coco winced.
“That is a long time.”
“It is meant to be.”
The third disc carried a shape like a key crossing an eye.
“The Query of the Qui Vive,” Qifrey-sensei said. “Its words are, ‘The key shall come to one whose path is right.’”
“What does that mean?” Coco asked.
“If the answer were given beforehand, it would be a poor trial.”
She frowned at him.
Qifrey-sensei smiled.
“Passing grants the right to challenge the Librarian’s Trial at the Tower of Tomes.”
My attention fixed on him.
“The Tower contains copies of magical texts?”
Agott looked at me before Qifrey-sensei answered.
“Every properly registered book concerning magic is reproduced there,” she said. Her voice had changed. The hard edge remained, but something hungry lived beneath it now. “Research, spell structures, historical records, discoveries, failures. The librarians preserve everything approved for storage.”
“Everything?” Coco asked.
“Everything they accept,” Agott corrected.
Her family had served there for generations.
The Tower was not simply a library to her. It was the place her family had told her she was not yet worthy to enter.
I understood why she spoke of it carefully.
Qifrey-sensei turned the third disc between his fingers.
“The Tower holds more magical knowledge than any one witch could study in a lifetime.”
Healing.
Curses.
Spatial glyphs.
The body-altering magic Qifrey-sensei refused to discuss in detail.
Perhaps records concerning conditions that crossed bloodlines and generations.
The mark at my temple gave a faint pulse.
Coco noticed where my hand moved.
“You want to go because of your curse.”
“Yes.”
Only partly.
The possibility of a cure drew me toward the Tower, but the idea of all that knowledge waiting in one place stirred something deeper, since I knew that only by truly killing Muzan would it be resolved at it's root.
I had spent my first life learning only what hunger and danger forced me to learn.
Now an entire world had built a tower around the act of knowing.
“I want to see what else magic can become,” I said. “We have learned a few glyphs, and already they produce light, wind, levitation, portals, and barriers. The Tower holds generations of witches asking better questions than I know how to ask yet.”
Coco’s eyes brightened beside me.
Agott watched me with a strange, guarded intensity.
Qifrey-sensei rested the disc on the table.
“You will not reach it by staring at the map.”
“No,” I said. “I will reach it by learning.”
“That was the correct answer.”
The fourth trial allowed an apprentice to leave their teacher’s atelier and become an independent witch. The fifth granted the right to accept apprentices.
Qifrey-sensei explained each one without revealing the trials themselves.
When Coco asked whether he had completed all five, his smile became quieter.
“I did.”
“What was your last trial like?”
“Long.”
“Was it difficult?”
“Yes.”
“Did you pass the first time?”
Qifrey-sensei gave her a patient look.
“You are trying to turn the lesson into an interrogation.”
“I have questions.”
“You always have questions.”
“That is because you answer them.”
His expression softened.
“That may be my mistake.”
After the lesson, he announced that we were travelling to Kalhn.
Coco needed a pen that suited her hand. She was more accustomed to the broad tools used in tailoring to trace lines, and the narrow practice pens forced her fingers too close together and made her tighten her wrist whenever she tried to draw a long curve.
Agott needed the Sylph Shoes repaired.
“They do not need repairing,” she said as we prepared to leave. “They need new seals.”
“The leather warped in the lake,” Qifrey-sensei replied.
“I can flatten it.”
“You can also take it to someone who understands magical footwear.”
“I understand magical footwear.”
“You understand the glyph. The shoemaker understands the shoe.”
Agott looked personally offended by the distinction.
Coco hesitated, then quietly slipped the Sylph Shoes into her bag while Agott was turned away, her fingers lingering on the worn leather.
Coco leaned toward me as we left the atelier and headed for a Pegasi carriage Qifrey-Sensei had called.
“She has been awake since before dawn trying to fix them.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“She had ink on her hand at breakfast.”
Coco glanced back at Agott.
“She really loved those shoes.”
Agott, walking just ahead, spoke without turning. “I was planning to buy a new pair anyway.”
Coco’s grip tightened slightly on her bag.
“She lent them to you anyway.”
Coco became quiet after that.
Kalhn appeared beyond rolling fields, its towers and crowded roofs rising around a network of bridges.
The city made it difficult to look in only one direction.
Umbrellas floated above the market, moving whenever the sun shifted. Bundles followed their owners on small enchanted boards. Water climbed a wall, crossed a narrow channel overhead, then poured into a fountain shaped like an open hand.
Coco turned so quickly to follow it that Brushbuddy nearly fell from her shoulder.
Tetia caught the creature and thanked it when it climbed onto her arm.
Brushbuddy stared at her.
“You are welcome,” she added.
Richeh walked beside us, apparently unimpressed by everything until we passed a window displaying tiny crystal buildings.
She stopped.
The buildings were no larger than her thumb. Transparent bridges connected them, each one made from interlocking ribbons of crystal.
“Richeh wants to see those.”
Qifrey-sensei looked back.
“We will stop on the return trip.”
“Richeh wants to see them now.”
“If we stop at every shop that interests someone, Coco will never receive her pen.”
Richeh stared at him.
Then she turned toward the crystal display and memorized it with the intensity of someone preparing to reconstruct the entire window later.
The shop we headed to stood above a short flight of stone stairs, set apart from the surrounding buildings and overlooking the quiet lake that bordered the witch district.
No ordinary people passed through this part of the city.
Inside, pens and bottles of ink filled glass cabinets beneath hanging lights. Magical components turned slowly inside cases, displaying every side without anyone touching them.
At the center of the shop grew a Silverwood tree.
Its pale branches spread beneath the ceiling, and every leaf reflected the room like a thin piece of metal.
Qifrey-sensei stepped forward with a small, approving smile as he gestured around the shop.
“This is the Starry Sword,” he said. “One of the finest places in Kalhn for magical tools and materials. If you want quality, you come here.”
He inclined his head toward the man behind the counter.
“And this is Mr. Nolnoa, the proprietor. He knows more about pens and ink than most witches ever will.”
Mr. Nolnoa greeted Qifrey-sensei with a laugh from behind the counter.
“You have multiplied.”
“Only slightly.”
Qifrey-sensei gestured toward us.
“These are my new apprentices, Coco and Haruya.”
Nolnoa looked at Coco and me.
“Nice to meet you, young fellows.”
Coco straightened and gave a small bow. “Nice to meet you too, sir.”
I inclined my head. “The pleasure is ours.”
A boy near our age emerged carrying a tray of pen nibs. His eyes moved from Coco’s hands to the ink stains on her sleeves.
“Tartah,” Nolnoa said, “help Coco find something suited for her.”
Coco followed him eagerly.
“My mother is a tailor. I used chalk and marking tools before I used pens.”
Tartah selected a pen with a wider grip.
“Then you probably guide from the elbow.”
“I think so.”
“Try this. Do not hold it the way Qifrey taught you.”
Qifrey-sensei glanced toward them.
Tartah looked alarmed.
“I meant she should hold this one differently.”
“I know.”
Coco tested the pen on a practice sheet.
Her first line ran longer and smoother than any she had drawn at the atelier.
She looked up at Tartah.
“This feels much better.”
His face brightened.
Tetia stepped beside them.
“Thank you for helping her.”
Tartah blinked.
“I haven’t finished.”
“Then I can thank you again later.”
While Coco tested pens, Nolnoa showed us how Conjuring Ink was made.
He cut a darkened piece from one of the Silverwood branches and placed it inside heated water. Black threads seeped slowly from the wood.
“The substance is called woodcruor,” he explained. “It is filtered, boiled, concentrated, and mixed until it becomes usable ink.”
I watched the darkness spread through the water.
“And only this substance can activate a seal?”
“Only woodcruor carries magic properly.”
Coco had returned close enough to hear.
“Why does the tree make it?”
Nolnoa smiled.
“There is an old story. The first Silverwood loved the first witch. It gave her its blood so she could draw magic and its branches so she would always have a tool in her hand.”
Coco touched the pen Tartah had given her.
“Did the witch love it back?”
“The story does not say.”
“That seems unfair.”
“Most old stories care more about gifts than what the person receiving them did afterward.”
The words stayed with me.
A tree offering part of itself so another being could create.
In my world, sunlight became steel to slay demons.
Here, love became ink to produce magic.
How wondrous it is to be able to live through all of this and discover such wonders.
I was examining a pen that drew two parallel lines when a window was knocked on.
Coco looked up.
Everything left her face.
The pen slipped from her hand.
Across the street stood a hooded figure.
The brim beneath the hood was broad, with a mask concealing the face, like a giant eye.
Coco ran.
“Coco?” Tartah called.
She was already through the door.
Tetia followed without hesitation.
Richeh looked once toward Qifrey-sensei, who stood near the back of the shop speaking with Nolnoa, then ran after them.
I crossed the room.
By the time I reached the street, Coco had disappeared around the far corner.
Tetia and Richeh were still visible ahead.
I pressed the soles of my boots together.
The levitation seal activated.
The ground fell away.
Several witches looked as I crossed above the market, but I kept low and descended beside the other two apprentices.
“What did she see?”
Tetia was breathing hard.
“I don't know, but I think I heard something about it being the person who gave her the grimoire.”
Richeh’s expression remained flat, though her eyes were sharper than usual.
“The mask was strange. Richeh saw it too.”
This could be the Brimmed Hats.
A cold feeling settled beneath my ribs.
Ahead, Coco turned into another street.
We nearly collided with Agott as she stepped away from the shoemaker’s window, her attention still lingering on the display.
She stepped back.
“What are you doing?”
Tetia caught her sleeve.
“Coco saw the witch who gave her the grimoire.”
Agott’s irritation vanished as she was dragged along.
We entered a narrow alley.
Mist filled it.
I slowed.
The day had been clear, with no real humidity. The fog had no reason to exist.
“Coco!” I called.
She was only a few paces from the hooded figure.
It stepped deeper into the mist.
Coco followed.
Tetia reached for her.
The fog swallowed both of them.
Richeh entered next.
Agott cursed under her breath and went after them.
I activated my boots and crossed the remaining distance.
Cold folded around my body.
The alley vanished.
My feet struck gray stone.
Walls rose on both sides, smooth and featureless, disappearing into mist above us. Coco stood several paces ahead, turning in place. Tetia was near her. Richeh touched the wall with one hand. Agott still held the package from the shoemaker.
The hooded figure was gone.
Coco’s breathing became uneven.
“They were right here.”
Agott moved toward her.
“You followed a stranger into an unknown spell.”
“I thought I could stop them.”
“With what?”
“I don’t know!”
The answer broke from Coco before she could soften it.
Agott flinched.
Tetia stepped between them without making the movement obvious.
“We can argue when we are somewhere that has a door.”
“Richeh sees no door,” Richeh said.
She pressed her palm against the wall.
“It is real. Or real enough.”
I activated Observe.
Observe
Location: Unknown constructed space
Classification: Sealed dimensional labyrinth
Magical Interference: High
Known Exit: None detected
A tremor passed through the floor.
Tetia stopped moving.
“What was that?”
Another impact followed.
Heavier.
Closer.
Dust fell from somewhere above.
My body straightened before thought caught up.
Danger.
The system appeared.
Quest Discovered: Escape the Draconic Labyrinth
Description:The user and four witch apprentices have been transported into a hostile sealed dimension. A dangerous creature is approaching.
Objectives:
Identify a viable exit. (0/1)
Escape or survive the dragon. (0/1)
Ensure Coco, Tetia, Richeh, and Agott escape alive. (0/4)
Exit the sealed dimension. (0/1)
Rewards:
Experience: 2,500
Glyph Magic: +5 Levels
Observe: +1 Level
Survival: +2 Levels
The mist ahead of us shifted and cleared.
Something breathed behind it.
The sound moved through the corridor and into my bones.
Coco froze in place.
Tetia stood rigid beside her.
Agott did not move.
Richeh’s hand hovered in the air, perfectly still.
A blue head emerged from around the distant corner.
One enormous eye opened in the mist.
Scales covered a long armored skull. Horns swept behind it, scraping against the gray wall as the creature advanced.
Its first pair of legs appeared.
Then another.
Wings unfolded from its back.
A second set followed.
The dragon filled the corridor.
Its head lowered until its gaze rested directly upon us.
I reached into Inventory.
My black Nichirin blade appeared in my hand.
Agott stared at the sword.
“Where did that come from?”
“A magic trick.”
“This is not the time to be joking."
“No,” I said, drawing the blade. “It is time to move.”
The dragon lowered its head further, its gaze fixed on us.
Tetia shook as Coco pulled her backward.
Richeh’s fingers closed and froze around her pen.
Agott opened her case.
The dragon inhaled.
“Run,” I said.
Its roar struck the walls like thunder.