AHHHHH DARN IT! WE HAVE TO WAIT TILL THE NEXT ONE!
And ohhhh booooyyyyy! As suspected, there was a fail-safe mechanism when it came to identifying the Brimmed Bottle spell. Makes sense, especially since they don’t want to be traced down. It also sure felt like it was almost as though it was specifically designed with Qifrey in mind (especially since he hates water).
Through that, we did learn something rather critical and worth thinking about. Qifrey couldn’t save himself in that situation because not only was there a lightning spell serving as a firewall, but water followed and he was unable to cast any magic while submerged. Makes sense given ink smudges and disappears when it gets wet. So unless you have the spell engraved into solid surface, like rings, swords and the coins we saw today, you’re kinda screwed– as Qifrey was today. That said, it did show the lack of foresight for the potential nature of the fail-safe spell,
But lightning and water? Way to almost kill someone if it wasn’t enough to kill them as it is. Qifrey was in a terrible state after that. He had to eat some herbs to recover of the severity of the numbness.
And that wasn’t the end of it. To add insult to injury, the Brimmed Cap guy actually showed up right in front of Quifrey to ensure he destroyed the Twinned Bottles and successfully retrieved the most critical lead Qifrey had gotten his hands on to date, the coin. However if there’s one thing to take away from this, ‘Eyeball’ certainly did not anticipate them to find out his shrewd trick this quickly.
Thanks to the failure to acquire the coin, we did get a little bit of crumbs in terms of why Qifrey is so dead-set on tracking the one he referred to as “The Eyeball”. He appears they took something from him, and he wants back. I kind of wonder if it’s something related to healing, knowledge or perhaps even his eye (seriously wouldn’t put it past them on that, especially with the particular mask choice too). Nevertheless, it stings a lot that the one he was looking for was just momentarily within reach.
At the time we also learned a bit more of ‘The Eyeballs’ magic. We’ve seen it here and there, but not with true clarity to so speak. In this episode though, it certainly seems to suggest that this fellow may also be a Water Master as well given how they appear to have the ability to travel from to one place to another through this manner.
Apart from that dramatic confrontation, it was great to see them address the rules around healing as soon as they did. Given what we’ve seen last week with the way Knight of Moralis refused to heal the kid’s legs, it was clear that they had to be rules to forbid them from healing the body. But while that’s understandably a grey area, it is rather insane to see them apply a blanket ban on it altogether. Hell, I genuinely didn’t think they would go as far to erase the knowledge from the Righteous Witches’ memories, all because they had fought the Three Wise Ones’ edict of forbidding spells cast on the body. That’s why Qifrey finds the situation to be quite ironic, that of all people, it’s the Brimmed Cap knows how to use the lost spell of Twinned Bottles, once practised among the witches who specialized in healing.
Geez! The more we learn about the Three Wise Ones, the more draconian it gets. It’s really bad. So here’s yet another perfectly justifiable reason why Qifrey probably doesn’t want to have his disciples be taught in such a stuffy environment! As for the Brimmed Caps, while do absolutely terrible things, it makes you wonder more about who’s in it, and more about their extremism approach to their grand ambitions.
Bearing all of that in mind, this also makes me wonder if there’s other affiliations like say the Righteous Witches that also exists to continually fight this draconian approach to magic. Entirely possible that there are some who managed to avoid being subjected to losing their memories, which means they’d have to constantly lay low to not draw attention to themselves.
Brimmed Cap and the Draconian laws aside, we did learn more about Witches’ disciple system as a whole, along with Tetia’s, Richeh and Agott’s dreams and mindsets. In order to become a fully fledged Witch, they must undergo the Pentacle of Proving, which consists of four major exams, the fifth being an optional post-graduate bonus.
- First Test: Consent of the Crown – Earn permission to become apprentice.
- Second Test: Sincerity of the Shield – Display your devotion and sincerity to Master
- Third Test: Query of Qui Vive – Prove your path worth and take up the key
- – Pass this, and you can take on The Tower of Tomes. (This is what Coco needs to pass.)
- Fourth Test: Goodwill of Her Grace – Grant a wish, and stand alone.
- Pass this, and you’re granted your Witch License so to speak.
- Fifth Test: Words of the Wise – Now you become a teacher. (AKA: Post-graduation exam.)
Among the four of them, Richeh is the only one who has absolutely no interest in any of the exams. She just wants to focus on the spells she enjoys the most, and isn’t particularly invested in wanting to learn something new, especially if it’s something she has no interest in.
Tetia has dreams of travelling the world to help people with her magic. It falls in live with her obsession of wanting to receive acknowledgements and gratitude for being useful and helpful to others.
Agott’s goal is to past the Query of Qui Vive so she can takes on the Tower of Tomes test to become one of its librarians. As it turns out, Agott’s family is descended from an apprentice to the Three Wise Ones. And every generation, members of House Arklaum serve as Librarians. So for Agott, passing this exam and becoming such would not just fulfill proving her worth to her family, but also continuing and participating in their tradition.
As for Coco, given she just started, her goal is pretty straight forward: Save her mother. What comes after that can be dealt with later, for now, she just needs to focus on mastering the foundations as quickly as possible.
The poor girl has really been going through the ringer. We’re starting to see the guilt devour her. It’s stemmed from a combination of feeling frustrated and helpless with the fact she knows she’s way behind the others, and she really can’t afford to take years like her peers had to master the craft. Time is of the essence if there’s to be any hope of saving her mother. Hell, we don’t even know the consequences of what could happen if left in that crystallized state for too long. And on top of that, even if they were to successfully identify the type of taboo spell that was cast, this may even circle back to needing to tap into Healing Magic to save her– which would be breaching the pact.
And now Coco has succumbed to a terrible fever (which for all we know, could also be potentially be ‘Eyeball’s’ doing), she needs to be rushed to the hospital. That said, it was pretty funny to see how though how Coco’s imperfect drawings of the spell turned Agott’s sylph shoes into a literal rocket! But hey, I guess that worked out well considering she needed to get to Qifrey as quickly as possible!
And now that Qifrey had to take her to the hospital in Kalhn, he ended up running into Tartah. The boy was a blessing considering he was able to guide them to their destination and fast, but it seems he has no intentions of shying away from confronting him, unless he has a different question altogether (perhaps whether it’s really impossible to become a witch). Regardless what happens, hopefully Qifrey won’t feel the need to mess with his memories too.
