So, it looks like we’re going for two more. Works for me.
This episode is largely focused on Richeh, in preparation for the second test. We find that her reluctance to study or, well, do things might have something of a deeper meaning, since she redoubles her refusal to do anything but what she wants and, aside from Coco doing hard work to make friend, we get a rather meaningful flashback.
In it, we see a younger Richeh encouraged by a beloved elder brother to stay herself, only for him to drift away from her, seemingly being worn down by witch society and molded into something else. This seems to inform Richeh’s displeasure with taking anything from anyone else, fearing it would somehow pollute her internal world. If this sounds like she needs to learn a valuable lesson or three, of course she does.
While this takes up more of the episode, we also get the outlay of the second quest. It’s every gamer’s least favorite – an escort quest. The witch apprentices need to guide their escortees through a hazardous path warped by magics of old, without being uncovered for what they are. The rub is that their escortees are yearling penguin-griffins (called myrfins if memory serves). Each witch has a cloak that will disguise them as fellow animals, and needs to not disturb the spell and thus out themselves as human while protecting the young Myrfins from the hazards of their migration. Lose your escortee or scare it off, you’re out for a year.
Agott, of course, is taking the test. Richeh is as well, which is rather sprung on her, though she’s at least willing to listen to Qifrey enough to grouch about it rather than throwing an outright tantrum. There’s another witch taking the test as well, the third time as his tired-to-a-fault and disrespectful master is keen to point out. Dude badmouths his own apprentice, who is clearly traumatized and internalizing the abuse, as well as Richeh, much to Qifrey’s displeasure. Much to the proctor’s shock, he also heads off and doesn’t intend to watch over the test, however distantly.
As Agott, Richeh, and the boy begin under the proctor’s watch, Qifrey begins to tell the story of the ruins to Coco and the episode cuts.
I kind of don’t want to say too much more. We’re in the endgame, and I’m spoiled with foreknowledge of what transpires in the Manga, which means that any questions I may have about this arc are ones to which I already know the answers. Anime-only viewers are a little different, likely wondering if and how Coco is going to get into the main action of this one, or what was with the Brimhats teased at the end of the last episode.
Instead, I’ll just let this one ride a week to really talk about the second test.