Witch Hat Atelier 2
by Kamome Shiarahama
2019
At the end of the first volume of Witch Hat Atelier, Coco and the other apprentices were in town to buy new 'wands' (actually pens) when they were teleported to a strange new place by the masked witch. In this world, magic is drawn, so in principle anyone could use it, but that fact is a closely guarded secret.
Coco is a very rare outsider who has learned the secret of magic and been allowed to keep her memories, mostly because her teacher, the witch Qifrey, has kept Coco a secret from other witches, especially from the Knights Moralis, who have the authority to erase memories.
Coco learned about magic because she saw Qifrey drawing a spell when he thought he was out of sight ... and because she'd been given a book of spell diagrams and a pot of magic ink by the masked witch. Coco tried copying some of the diagrams from the book, and accidentally turned her mother to stone. Qifrey hopes to turn her back, but he'll need Coco's help, so she gets to learn magic for real now. (I'll try not to lead with such a long recap every time, but it's all relevant to this volume.)
Anyway, as I said, Coco and Qifrey's other apprentices got transported into a magic maze by the masked witch while Qifrey's back was turned. The maze looks like a city, and it's home to a hungry dragon! The best student, Agott, blames Coco for this. One of the other girls tries to cheer Coco up with a spell she's been developing - fluffy clouds for taking a nap on. That's the goal anyway, although for now they just end up surrounded by clouds.
This gives Coco the idea to make a large cloud that the dragon will want to take a nap on. The others realize they can grind the city walls into sand, then use the sand to give the cloud some solidity. It works! And the four girls find the return portal home, but not before the masked witch nabs Coco, puts her to sleep, and puts an idea in her head...
Back at Qifrey's atelier, we meet the witch Ulruggio. He mostly makes contraptions - objects with magic diagrams that anyone can use - so he's not as sociable as Qifrey. I credit Shirahama for her creativity. Once complete, magic diagrams are 'always on,' so devices that use them often split the diagram into two parts, so they work when the parts are pressed back together. She's come up with a number of cool uses, like the ubiquitous 'sylph shoes' worn by older witches that let you fly when you hold your feet together.
A few days later, there's a rainstorm, and a traveling merchant comes to the atelier begging for help. A bridge collapsed, and his wagon, with some family members still inside, is trapped in the river, threatening to get washed downstream. This will pose a challenge to the witches, because they're not allowed to reveal how magic works to outsiders, even to save a life. So they'll have to pull off the rescue while using a bit of showmanship to hide what they're really doing.
Agott sees this as an opportunity to prove herself. We eventually learn that while she's the star student of the atelier, she's considered a disappointment within her family.
The initial rescue goes well, and Qifrey and Ulruggio each take a student to go check up- and downstream for more danger, leaving Coco and Agott with the merchant. The dashing teenage son tries to rescue some cargo by rappelling down the embankment. Unfortunately, more of the edge washes away, and Coco ends up clinging to the shore next to the son, who's trapped under a large rock.
Agott wants to save the day, but she can't. She realizes what she can do is create a distraction, a bird made of light, that will get the adult witches' attention, and keep the family members looking away so that Coco can draw some magic to save the boy. Coco doesn't think she can do it, but combines several lessons from this volume to use many small sigils to turn the boulder to sand, then draw a larger levitation diagram on the inside of her cloak and float them both to safety.
Everything seems okay again, but then the Knights Moralis show up and arrest Agott and Coco for using forbidden magic. Somehow, a large and spreading area surrounding the original boulder is continuing to turn to sand. This should be impossible, but I bet it's related to whatever the masked witch did to Coco as she was leaving the maze. The Knights threaten to erase Coco's memories, although we'll have to wait until the next volume to see if they already did, or if we only saw them put her to sleep.
Coco is a very rare outsider who has learned the secret of magic and been allowed to keep her memories, mostly because her teacher, the witch Qifrey, has kept Coco a secret from other witches, especially from the Knights Moralis, who have the authority to erase memories.
Coco learned about magic because she saw Qifrey drawing a spell when he thought he was out of sight ... and because she'd been given a book of spell diagrams and a pot of magic ink by the masked witch. Coco tried copying some of the diagrams from the book, and accidentally turned her mother to stone. Qifrey hopes to turn her back, but he'll need Coco's help, so she gets to learn magic for real now. (I'll try not to lead with such a long recap every time, but it's all relevant to this volume.)
Anyway, as I said, Coco and Qifrey's other apprentices got transported into a magic maze by the masked witch while Qifrey's back was turned. The maze looks like a city, and it's home to a hungry dragon! The best student, Agott, blames Coco for this. One of the other girls tries to cheer Coco up with a spell she's been developing - fluffy clouds for taking a nap on. That's the goal anyway, although for now they just end up surrounded by clouds.
This gives Coco the idea to make a large cloud that the dragon will want to take a nap on. The others realize they can grind the city walls into sand, then use the sand to give the cloud some solidity. It works! And the four girls find the return portal home, but not before the masked witch nabs Coco, puts her to sleep, and puts an idea in her head...
Back at Qifrey's atelier, we meet the witch Ulruggio. He mostly makes contraptions - objects with magic diagrams that anyone can use - so he's not as sociable as Qifrey. I credit Shirahama for her creativity. Once complete, magic diagrams are 'always on,' so devices that use them often split the diagram into two parts, so they work when the parts are pressed back together. She's come up with a number of cool uses, like the ubiquitous 'sylph shoes' worn by older witches that let you fly when you hold your feet together.
A few days later, there's a rainstorm, and a traveling merchant comes to the atelier begging for help. A bridge collapsed, and his wagon, with some family members still inside, is trapped in the river, threatening to get washed downstream. This will pose a challenge to the witches, because they're not allowed to reveal how magic works to outsiders, even to save a life. So they'll have to pull off the rescue while using a bit of showmanship to hide what they're really doing.
Agott sees this as an opportunity to prove herself. We eventually learn that while she's the star student of the atelier, she's considered a disappointment within her family.
The initial rescue goes well, and Qifrey and Ulruggio each take a student to go check up- and downstream for more danger, leaving Coco and Agott with the merchant. The dashing teenage son tries to rescue some cargo by rappelling down the embankment. Unfortunately, more of the edge washes away, and Coco ends up clinging to the shore next to the son, who's trapped under a large rock.
Agott wants to save the day, but she can't. She realizes what she can do is create a distraction, a bird made of light, that will get the adult witches' attention, and keep the family members looking away so that Coco can draw some magic to save the boy. Coco doesn't think she can do it, but combines several lessons from this volume to use many small sigils to turn the boulder to sand, then draw a larger levitation diagram on the inside of her cloak and float them both to safety.
Everything seems okay again, but then the Knights Moralis show up and arrest Agott and Coco for using forbidden magic. Somehow, a large and spreading area surrounding the original boulder is continuing to turn to sand. This should be impossible, but I bet it's related to whatever the masked witch did to Coco as she was leaving the maze. The Knights threaten to erase Coco's memories, although we'll have to wait until the next volume to see if they already did, or if we only saw them put her to sleep.
Coco is basically an ascended fangirl in this story, someone who loved magic from the outside who unexpectedly gets the opportunity to learn it. She's curious, irrepressible, and modest (we'll have to wait to see if her esteem grows with her abilities) and the other students find her either endearing or annoying, though Agott seems like she's getting won over. If the stakes were lower, Coco's never-say-die attitude might be a little grating at times, but in both emergencies in this volume, that attitude has been key to making sure no one has actually died. I'm really looking forward to the next one!
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