Tartah Troubles.
So, following on the heels of last week’s episode, we get one largely focused on Tartah. Coco is badly ill, but shortly after Qifrey defers his questions and Tartah leaves, there’s a fire in town that both Qifrey and the doctors are summoned to help with.
Tartah, meanwhile, left his had behind in Coco’s hospital room. Since it doubles as his passport, he kind of needs it, and arrives to find Coco in bad condition with no one attending her.
Most of the effort is focused on Tartah’s attempt to help. He knows a lot of herb lore, it seems, including which plants useful for magic dyes can also serve as medicines, and for what. He needs a particular one, but none of the hospital’s medicines are labled as a primitive anti-tamper measure. He figures he can draw the water out of the vials with that water-collecting dish we’ve seen many a time, but though the residue of some is quite telling, what he’s looking for is a nondescript powder, and of course to his eyes they all look the same. Process of elimination takes him down to three candidates, but this is where Tartah seems to hit the wall.
That is, until Coco gets the bright idea, though barely able to do much, to reverse the wall-breaking magic to instead reconstitute objects from powders. Her first try doesn’t go so well, but as she’s able to explain the theory, Tartah finds that he’s able to refine the principle and actually draw magic of his own, conjuring the images of whole things from their ground remnants.
The herb he wanted isn’t in the room with Coco, so he proceeds to check the storeroom, finding it just before the nurse on staff finds him. She has some admonishments about not coming for help and tampering with medicine, but also seems impressed by his knowledge, like she’d be inclined to poach him for the hospital if he weren’t a witch apprentice.
With Coco medicated, come dawn Qifrey is able to get away from the fire site. He finds her mostly recovered, and Tartah having fallen asleep watching over her. This leads into everyone going home, with both Tartah and Coco coming away from the experience with a firm friend and a new hope: Tartah that he might be able to do things despite his disability, and Coco that reversing the sigils works and thus she should be able to undo the spell on her mother.
In the epilogue we find out our plot for, presumably, the final two episodes: our “friendly” Brimhat is joined by at least one new compatriot, who intends to strike when fledgling witches take the Second Test. Which, if you recall, Agott at least is scheduled for.
We’ll be following up with that next week!