Notes
This book leaves me with a lot of questions, but is also kind of helping me connect some more dots re: the Hexenzirkel. Most of my notes are inline, but a few things upfront as a TL;DR:
- I think each chapter was written by a different member of the Hexenzirkel, back when they were more active — not including Alice
- I keep going back and forth on who I think the little witch is, but I’ve decided that I think the most likely answer is Alice
- I do have a secondary theory that the little witch became the cryo archon, but I’ll admit that one is farfetched
- One reason why it might not be about Alice: in The Mages’ Tea Party, there is a section near the end where Alice mentions, “Even the most frightening witch was once a little girl.” I think that’s gotta be the same little witch in this story, and it seems odd that Alice would be talking about herself that way.
- The little witch is also almost definitely the Boar Princess— one of the chapters here has a story that is very similar, and that same line from Alice above is accompanied a bit later with Boar Princess illustrations.
- Chapters of this book were written before, during, and after the Cataclysm — you can tell because of the author’s notes that mention “something” happening about halfway through
Contents
Part I
The binding and layout are exquisitely made, but the actual content is all handwritten. Judging from the handwriting, there is more than one author. “Don’t fuss about WHAT we’re writing, the cover needs to look good! That’s the only way it’ll give off that ‘masterpiece’ feeling.”
This is the story of a little witch who journeyed far and wide to find the “undying fire.”
The story begins as such, in the westernmost part of the magic continent, where a young witch was undergoing her “Witch Certification and Final Trial.” As per convention, one need only pass this trial to qualify as a true witch. The trial required lots to be drawn, and the results were completely random, a format which resulted in frequent accidents. But the magic continent was nothing if not firm in its adherence to tradition, and so, if you would believe it, they’ve stuck to the rules of drawing lots for trials since the very most ancient of times! There’s a law in the outside world known as “Morphy’s Law.” That’s how you write it, right…? Anyway! It means that bad things you worry about happening are probably going to happen. And thus did a completely unsurprising surprise strike the little witch!
Some of the tasks given to little witches were very simple: stuff like synthesizing the final solution to the material world, the Philosopher’s Stone, or perhaps finding a path to a parallel universe and finding a no-longer-extant grimoire lost to a great, ancient magical war… and so on and so on.
Jillian
okay so sounds like these are things that the witches have accomplished, lol. or tried to, at least.
But our main protagonist drew a topic of terrible, troubling tribulation — to find and bring back the “undying fire.” Perhaps her honored teacher might have an opinion on this subject?
Her teacher was just enjoying a most wonderful teatime with her friends, and she comforted her student. “It must be because you’re fated to become a really great witch, so, your topic’s a little harder than most. Unsolved mysteries are the most interesting, after all!“
Jillian
this sounds like something alice would say — we know how she likes her tea parties, too.
”Really?"
"That’s right. When you come back, I’ll be sure to welcome you with a tea party, one lovelier than this one, even!”
The teacher’s friends whispered to her: “Hey now, isn’t that a bit much? You obviously only made up that question because you couldn’t be bothered to think up a real exam question. If such a thing even existed, we’d have perpetual motion machines by now, don’t you think!? Couldn’t you have done something else — you know, made her prove the Grand Unified Theory based on the Unified Electroweak Theory or something?"
"Oh, don’t you worry! Life is full of a great many lies,” the teacher spoke brazenly, “and I did not lie, did I? I know that the ‘undying fire’ does indeed exist. That blazing star… Huh. Hang on, when did I see it again… Must’ve forgotten.” The teacher spun around to her pupil, saying: “Ahem! Considering that your trial is indeed quite challenging, you shall have three times the normal amount of time to complete it! Hehe, I’ll be rooting for you!“
Jillian
calling out that she “did not lie” confirms to me that the teacher is alice, the one who never lies.
Part II
”You’re more than halfway through and you haven’t even pushed the plot forward one iota! Why is it all about the setting!?” “And what would you know? Besides, this stuff isn’t fleshing the setting out. It’s elucidating natural science and other miscellaneous disciplines!”
Deep in the woods, nighttime.
The little witch soared upon her broom beneath the blood-green moon. Blood-green was regarded as a symbol of great change in astrology, though whether such change be for good or ill cannot be determined by any result. —Actually, that shade symbolizes the dominant race of this world, the Nephilim. They were the children of gods and humans, and so their blood, too, was the conflux between the red blood of humanity and golden, divine blood. And actually-actually, the green moonlight was the result of the moon’s physical composition, the distance between the planet and its moon, atmospheric scattering, and other factors.
Jillian
”blood green”? 😵💫 if you say so. i think the nephilim here is probably referring to seelies, but interesting to note that nephilim are typically giants. the seelies probably were much bigger before they withered, tho.
some thoughts on the green moon: if the crimson moon is a giant red eye, can the green moon be a giant green eye? (yeah i’m thinkin about fischl.) or maybe the green moon is just the inverse of the red moon, in this parallel witch’s realm or something.
Laura
One thought I have to add RE: Nephilim and giants, though I can totally see them being Seelies, is that the Hyperboreans were considered to be giants, and we’ve been getting lots of mentions of “Golden Hyperborea” in Genshin lore recently… not necessarily convinced this is the intended connection, but nevertheless… it is there.
Anyway, so the little witch was soaring upon her broom beneath the blood-green moon, and then, she met a young lady who claimed to be a “fortune teller."
"I wish to become a witch’s familiar,” said the young lady.
But before they could even consider that, the little witch had something to ask: “Can fortune tellers read the skeins of fate?“
Jillian
my guess is this fortune teller is barbeloth
The fortune teller then explained the underlying principles. Put simply, it’s something like this: In our world, the stars are the heavenly strings by which humans are bound. But in other worlds, the subjects of astrological study are the solar ecliptic energies, the various lunar energies of the satellites, the will-energy of the celestial rulers of the planets, the scattered interference energy of distant stars, and the dark energy that suffuses the pitch-black cosmos. Of course, it’s not like these things don’t exert influence on our planet — they have merely been greatly weakened by a giant sky-shroud. As such, astrology on other worlds is far more abstract than that which is practiced in ours.
Jillian
we love hearing about the giant sky-shroud — they’ve made it pretty clear at this point that there’s some sort of bubble (the false sky) around teyvat, and we know that alice is concerned with repairing it or something.
the extra-interesting part here is all the other stuff that “exerts influence” on this planet: solar eclipse, “various lunar energies,” the will of the archons, interference from distant stars, and “dark energy.”
Laura
Ok, for my own sanity, I actually kind of want to break down what the fortune teller is saying here. I guess I can be wrong, but this is what I’m taking her to mean…
Basically, she is saying that in “our world”, which sounds like Teyvat… even though a lot of other details of the story kind of make it sound like we’re not really on Teyvat atm but I digress… the “stars”/astrology quite literally keep humans bound to their fate. Then goes on to basically describe how Astrology works IRL—
- “solar ecliptic energies” —> The related path of the sun across the sky, aka the solar ecliptic
- ”various lunar energies of the satellites” —> energies associated w/ the phases of the moon
- ”the will-energy of the celestial rulers of the planets” —> in regular astrology, each planet has its own energy or influence, which is often personified as a “celestial ruler”, which affect events/behaviors. here though, i do imagine it’s this, plus also an “archon"
- "scattered interference energy of distant stars” —> even distant stars beyond our solar system have some kind of energy that can interfere or interact with events on our planet
- ”dark energy that suffuses the pitch-black cosmos” —> well apparently “dark energy” is the name we’ve given a hypothetical form of energy that is thought to permeate all of space and is the primary cause for the accelerated expansion of the universe… i wonder if in the context of this story, this is also meant to be talking about virtuals?
—and says that that is how it works in other worlds. And that those things still have influence on “our” planet (Teyvat), but the firmament causes major interference.
By the way, other planets refer to actual celestial bodies as an “archon” and a theorized one as a “virtual.” The planet the little witch was on was no exception. You see, we also call a will that comes down from the heavens an “archon.” They are normally planets that have sentient life on them, and they number seven, and therefore they are called the “seven archons.” As for the virtuals, their number varies between one, two, and four. The planet the little witch was on may well have been one. And in the case of such a world, the “virtual” would be the “dark sun.”
Jillian
the word “archon” isn’t always used to refer specifically to one of the Seven, but it seems like here it is. and it also sounds like we might be assigning each of the archons one of the seven classical planets. on the other hand, none of those have sentient life on them.
my head is swimming a bit with the “virtuals.” these could be descenders — what is a “theorized celestial body”? and are we saying that the planet the witch is on is a “virtual” celestial body? and it is the dark sun? help.
maybe we’re meant to look at it a little more abstractly — there are seven archons, but in teyvat there’s also that secret eighth thing. a false archon, kind of.
Laura
Ok we’re going to do a little lore math again and break down what miss fortune teller is saying. Again, for my own sanity.
”Actual” Celestial Bodies = Archon A “Will that comes down from the Heavens” = Archon “Normally” planet that contains sentient life = Archon There are 7 total Archons.
”Theorized” Celestial Bodies = Virtual They vary between 1, 2, and 4. (This might not necessarily be intentional but this is immediately giving me, like. 1: The Primordial One; 2-Piece Sets; 4-Piece Sets)
My guess is indeed that they are descenders. Similar to the Archons being wills that come down from the heavens, Virtuals are wills that can “theoretically” rival entire Archons’/worlds. Which is like. Crazy if true… Like. I guess saying that descenders have wills that can rival entire worlds and give birth to entire universes would imply that they themselves can host an entire world/universe, but for some reason it never really occured to me to think of them as a Celestial Body/Planet that could. Theoretically hold sentient life. Does that mean the gnoses, which are made of the corpse of the third descender, is like also just the corpse of an entire world? An entire theoretical universe? A dead star?
Astrologists and diviners are, in essence, performing weight calculations on the sky-shroud, the cosmos, and the “archon” and “virtual” celestial bodies, before deducing individual developmental tendencies from world to world. But the relative weight of the sky-shroud over our planet is just way, way too great, and so, investigating it already allows us to obtain very precise results. As for the world the little witch and astrologist were on, they would have to go through the entire formula.
After the little witch finished listening, she was very impressed by the fortune teller’s learning and technique. Now they could speak of the matter of familiarhood. To be a witch’s familiar was to share in her magic, and with magic, one could peer into more destinies. That said, becoming a familiar could have unforeseen side effects — it was hard to say what might happen. Yes! That’s what the blood-green moon means: great change, which can’t be judged as good or ill by the outcome. See how it all comes together? We didn’t go off-topic!
”It is a shame that I am still not a great witch. I can’t make you my familiar yet, ” said the little witch.
”I know of another way to establish a contract with a witch. It seems we must resort to using it,” said the young lady. This was the night bathed in blood-green moonlight, and it was also, coincidentally, the witches’ Night Carnival.
By the way, the Night Carnival is an ancient, taboo ceremony. Legend has it that at such times, the witches’ magical powers are at their apex. They hold rituals in secret, offering sacrifices and keeping the bonfires burning through the night. This tradition had been forgotten in the westernmost parts of the magical continent but, for some reason, it had been revived within the deep woods. Normally, this was an event that only great witches or figures greater still could be invited to, or invite others to attend. In practice, though, participation in a Carnival had a direct relation with a witch’s romantic or marital status.
Jillian
i am so curious about why marriage is such a big theme for the hexenzirkel. in joy above the clouds, alice mentions that when a witch gets married and goes off forever to live her little married life, the other witches invite her to meet up with them one last time. there was also that thing where one of the hexenzirkel killed her husband to end his misery. and really what confuses me the most about it all is that alice is currently off who-knows-where with klee’s dad, who we never hear much about.
In any case, for some totally unknown reason, the astrologist knew all about witches while the witch knew nothing about astrologists at all. The point is, they decided to go and check out the Night Carnival. Let’s just go with it being a way to deal with the anxiety the little witch felt over not being able to find the “undying fire.”
Under the blood-green moon, the great witches danced around the bonfire. The little witch and the young astrologist hid in the shadows of trees that grew so thick that even dense clouds couldn’t compare, and even the bonfire could not illuminate them.
Jillian
i wonder if this is the “dark forest” from The Pale Princess and the Six Pygmies.
”We just need to wait till the day after the ancient, forbidden night of revelry, when the dawn light first breaks and the various great witches depart.
”In the grey embers will be a flame that never dies. When a mortal takes this flame and offers it up, that is equivalent to signing a contract with a witch,” said the young lady.
Jillian
this sort of sounds like a ritual where the witches get together and call down a star from the heavens — like whatever caused the twins to fall to teyvat.
”Does this method always work?” The little witch asked.
”It’s possible a witch could reject the contract, but witches do so love their spirit mediums, and I’m not afraid of becoming a fearsome creature,” the young lady replied, her voice thick with yearning.
”In that case, isn’t this an ‘undying fire’?” Dark thoughts came into the little witch’s mind. “What if I took that flame for my own?”
And so, under the blood-green moonlight, the great witches sang their song: “If all things a witch’s opera be,” “Then nothing true worth mourning would the world ever see.” “Our festival has come to a fruitful end.” “The story shall not stay its feet,” “And every night hence shall also be the witches’ night.”
A sense of shame surged forth within the little witch as she listened from the shadows — it wasn’t out of worry that those present, great witches and greater still, might include her teacher, school principal, instructors, or anything like that. She knew everyone at her school, and she was sure no one familiar was present. By the way, while the official rules at the school she attended were lax when it came to governing teachers and their students, students of similar age would still be ranked against each other. Students of different teachers were also permitted to interact outside of classes. The creation of this system could be traced back to the rise of the Western witches, long, long ago. They did not shy away from exchanging secret hexes and rituals for their mutual benefit, which would also result in their swift rise in those days. Of course, the organization that the little witch belonged to was a direct successor of these Western witches. Also, this blurb definitely wasn’t just added in here because I forgot about this worldbuilding earlier.
Jillian
i don’t have many thoughts on this worldbuilding, but i do kind of think that this school is in a parallel world where all the witches are from — the same world that the shop from heart’s desire is in, and maybe even the same world we see in the book of revealing.
Back to the story. She said to the fortune teller: “Since we have this opportunity, go bravely forth, then! Once dawn comes, take that fire. If you should be so unfortunate as to become a monster, I will give you a quick end. You will not suffer.”
As a gift to commemorate this friendship, the young lady gave her treasured crystal ball to the little witch. “This crystal ball feels joy for all known destined paths, and its heart breaks for all unrevealed tragedies. If you ever feel lost, allow it to be your oracle!”
Actually, there’s a story behind this crystal ball. It—
Jillian
this has gotta be the same crystal ball from heart’s desire.
Part III
Some mysterious handwriting appears before the main text: “It’s so rare for R to be in her right mind for a spell. Should she really be wasting the precious little lucid time she has writing this?” “Don’t worry. For a witch, this is the most important thing.”
Jillian
i almost missed this! rhinedottir wrote this — or at least, she wrote this chapter of it. what on earth does “the precious little lucid time she has” mean? is it just referring to her mortality? or did something happen to her?
In her travels, the little witch encountered a group of people getting ready to kill demon kings. She decided to join them and go kill some demon kings. They told her: The more demon kings you kill, the greater your witch’s power will grow. This is, in fact, true. Then, they encountered a mimic demon king. After this whole affair, the little witch would write a “Demon King-Slaying Chronicle” each time she hunted one.
Jillian
i wonder if this is about the archon war — the demon kings are all the gods in teyvat that were killed, and the ones who killed them grew more powerful. the “mimic demon king” is interesting. maybe that’s one of the “virtuals,” the “dark sun.”
They encountered the mimic demon king in a run-down old house. At first, no one knew what was going on, assuming that the place had just gone moldy.
After breathing the mold spores in, her companions turned into the following respectively: A shoddy-looking ancient robot (which the little witch found really ugly and not up to snuff when compared to alchemy), a beautiful young maiden (this team member was originally male, leading the witch to initially wonder if this was some inversion of biological sequential hermaphroditism), and a pirate (she had no idea about this one).
After some time, everyone in the squad developed identity disorders. Considering that her three companions appeared to be of the same species, they should not have exhibited such different natures, while the symptoms were, by contrast, so similar.
Jillian
precursor to the curse of the wilderness? even though they look like the same species, maybe it’s their blood that causes them to react differently.
The little witch discovered that the mold had its own consciousness, and had a power that allowed similar lifeforms to turn into their ideal state. She did not change because she was already very pleased with herself.
The little witch decided to test the mold’s unique properties. She tried ingesting parts of it, finding it to be edible and without any side effects. Thus, it might have been a miscategorization to call it a mold, but since the mold in blue mold cheese could also be eaten, she decided to continue using that label.
Something worth noting was that after a chunk had been cut away, the other mold threads would immediately disappear. Possibly a sign of a rudimentary collective intelligence.
Jillian
of course there is a hivemind situation. i don’t know what to think about this yet.
To facilitate further communication, the little witch wanted to turn into mold — and so she did.
As it turned out, the mold colony only sent strange biological signals that needed deciphering. Through repeated observations, it seemed that their level of collective intelligence might be lower than she had previously thought.
In the end, the mold killed committed suicide. The little witch deciphered its way of communicating communications, and as it turned out, the colony experienced dissonance in self-perception and self-dissociation when it looked upon the little witch who had become just like them. The signals they sent had in fact been philosophical speculation “Who is me, and who am I?” Its intelligence was thus much higher than expected.
Jillian
this reminds me of a few things:
the end of the caribert quest, where both caribert and the traveler/abyss twin look into the mirror, see who they truly are, and have a little freakout about it.
caterpillar, and the questions that come up re: his identity. can he still be considered “carter” if he also has pieces of rene (and other souls) mixed into him?
Her friends recovered, and told the little witch that this was the mimic demon king. It was a species of demon king, in the same taxonomic class as standard demon kings but not in the same order.
Jillian
definitely sounds like one of those “dark suns” to me. i wonder what the real difference is — blood, again? from this world vs. not from this world?
Laura
Hmmm, interesting… I’m still more attached to the descender theory, but I feel like I can buy it as maybe a metaphor maybe? Or maybe the descender theory is just straight up wrong! Which it can be! But like I can definitely see this being the case, too. A hivemind basically is a “theoretical” planet with “sentient” “life” right? Or like. It’s mimicking sentient life…? Hmmge.
It was a shame. She wished she had a chance to observe more and make some more records.
Then, they encountered a chipmunk demon king, which her comrades had claimed beforehand was also a species of demon king. It was classified as belonging to the same class and superorder as a standard demon king but was part of a different grand order.
Jillian
i’m pretty sure we’re talking about the boar princess now — the chipmunk demon king should be “Woobakwa.” (i know Woobakwa is a squirrel in the boar princess but i feel like that’s close enough.)
The chipmunk demon king looked very fierce indeed, and the little witch suspected that this aggressiveness stemmed from behaviors acquired during the gestation period and while nurturing their offspring.
Infiltrating its old nest, they found that it was male. One of her companions was eaten.
Jillian
i will admit that this is a slightly different version of events, but the boar princess’ friends were eaten — it’s just that she fed them herself to the wolf pup.
It turned out that it simply had a bad temper. The little witch decided to report the findings of this investigation to prevent the tragedy from repeating itself.
They attempted to feed the chipmunk demon king seeds to lure it out. They lost another companion in the process.
It seemed that this creature was not a vegetarian at all.
Her final companion fled, having deduced from the pattern of events thus far that he was next on the chopping block. This was an incomplete logical induction — both the process and conclusion were mistaken.
Eventually, she used high-grade boar meat to lure the chipmunk demon king into a trap. The creature’s fat and fur made it resilient to fire and freezing. Though she had never dissected one, results indicated that it also had an organ enabling it to breathe underwater.
Jillian
hellooooo boar meat
A complete vacuum was used to dispatch it in the end. It seems that it still required aerobic respiration. Many demon kings seem very powerful, but they all have their weaknesses. The same is true for alchemical lifeforms.
Finally, the little witch had to face a standard demon king, a great demon king of the primate order.
Part IV
Some mysterious handwriting appears before the main text: “Tsaritsa be good, how are there this many unresolved plot threads? Please, have mercy on these old bones, would you?“
Jillian
tsaritsa! so whoever wrote this particular note probably lives in snezhnaya — and whenever they wrote this note, there was a tsaritsa. i guess we can’t be sure it was the same tsaritsa that exists now, but it probably was.
Laura
Am I insane like. The way I read this is as if they are addressing it TO the tsaritsa for leaving so many unresolved plot threads, as if she is writing this next section…
So, the little witch found the great demon king. I’m sure you all remember that killi— defeating more demon kings causes witches to grow stronger. As such, the little witch was actually already amazingly powerful now! The great demon king was simply no match for her.
Jillian
this is where i’m going to float the idea that this great demon king is Dodo King.
”Can you really kill a being that looks like a human and has intelligence?” Shouted the great demon king in desperation.
Jillian
weird thing to say. what do you mean by that.
”You’re right. I didn’t really intend to do anything to you anyway,” said the little witch.
”I’ve never forgotten that my goal is to find the ‘undying fire.’ Researching, observing, and defeating demon kings was never even a means to the end, but rather just the building of a basic level of power.”
Then, she used — sorry, I don’t know magic or mysticism — some super powerful awesome technique to bind the great demon king, and brought it back to the largest nearby city.
Jillian
maybe Dodo King is the Sinner? or maybe some other god that got sealed away — i wonder which city she went to.
As a trainee of the Western witches who had come out to take her exam, she naturally had credentials that proved her identity.
This provided her convenient passage through the many mortal kingdoms — such things were also proven to be immensely hard to forge, thus avoiding the possibility of any cliche plotlines. This actually presented the mayor of the city with a conundrum — ah yes, this is a good time to say that this nation was a loose confederacy. And since this was a mayor, there was no aristocracy or hereditary titles — for the handling of this great demon king was truly quite tricky.
Jillian
okay so obviously my first thought is: the mayor. i don’t think we can say the nation she went to is snezhnaya, since they obviously do have a tsaritsa. maybe it’s just referring to one city within snezhnaya, but even that doesn’t sound right to me. this mayor also isn’t pulcinella, but i wouldn’t be surprised if they have some relation to him, at least. he’s the only other mayor we’ve ever heard about in the game.
I’m sure you all remember that the dominant race of this planet was the Nephilim, a hybrid of humans and gods? Right! So, the race of great demon king is actually the demon king class, and so demon kings were thus a type of Nephilim. And of course, since they were the dominant race, this meant that Nephilim were on the whole much stronger than normal humans — and since this setting for this world has hybrids of humans and gods, this meant that it has gods too.
Jillian
if the great demon king is Dodo King, then the demon king class is the Dodoco — which (i am making some assumptions here) are worshipped by the hilichurls, which as we know are khaenri’ahns.
this is why seelies and hilichurls and klee’s Dodoco all have little rabbit ears.
i wonder what other “types” of nephilim there are, tho.
And taking a step back, the Nephilim also had a certain degree of legal immunity — If they had killed 5 humans or fewer, they couldn’t be judged by human laws, and had to be repatriated to Nephilim lands. And as it happened, this great demon king had only stolen and eaten several thousand boars and chickens each.
Jillian
something about this is sus to me but i don’t know why yet. maybe because there’s not much to convince me that the boars and chickens are any different from the humans. also maybe because killing animals in place of humans reminds me of ajax.
So this was fast turning into a diplomatic and political issue. Of course, the mayor could just stick the Western witches with all the blame, but that would offend every witch on the continent. Plus, the mayor was also a good friend of the little witch. She would never do anything that would hurt the organization of witches as a whole.
Jillian
that’s interesting to note — also how we know this mayor is not pulcinella, but maybe that’s a tradition that has continued.
Following some diplomatic rhetoric, some policies to appease it, and an explanation of the pros and cons, the captured great demon king accepted that retribution should only be exacted on the party who had done the wrong, meaning that his ire was now narrowed to the little witch alone.
But he could not defeat her, so that was the end of that, really.
Jillian
so the witch fought the demon king and potentially sealed him away in a nearby city with the blessing of the mayor, after making sure the demon king wouldn’t try to harm anyone but the witch herself. and then he couldn’t beat her — it would be interesting if this story was about the tsaritsa, actually.
think about it: the city could be present-day snezhnaya, before the tsaritsa became the archon there. this whole story does sound a lot like someone fighting in the archon war and becoming powerful enough to become one of the Seven. and i always kinda thought the boar princess was about the tsaritsa anyway.
this theory does get pretty murky tho — if this story is about the tsaritsa, then i don’t think The Feline Firm can also be about the tsaritsa. unless this story is about the first cryo archon, and the feline firm is about the current cryo archon. (okay yeah i kinda buy that, actually)
Finally, I hope everyone remembers that crystal ball, because the little witch’s goals had become foggy at this stage, so she decided to take it out and have a look at it.
Part V
The writing here is practically a messy scrawl. Perhaps the author doesn’t really write much, or perhaps something happened.
Jillian
it seems like each chapter was written by a different person — a different member of the hexenzirkel, i assume. which makes sense, because there are seven chapters, and eight supposed members (including alice, who i do not think was involved in writing this because of the note at the beginning of the next chapter).
anyway: i wonder what happened. the cataclysm?
A familiar face surfaced in the crystal ball. “This is your magic teacher speaking. The trial is over. You were unable to obtain your witch license.”
Part VI
”Is it still necessary to write this, the present moment being what it is?” “Allow me, then. Opportunities to return to this world are few and far between. Alice would think the same: If we don’t continue, then everything would have been meaningless from the start.”
Jillian
clearly something did happen — probably the cataclysm. the rest of this note is so interesting, tho. it almost sounds like they have to write this story so they can use it as a portal to return to teyvat, or something.
(maybe by writing down its history, they are allowed to return? or maybe it’s not about them returning; they have to write down the stories about this little witch so she can return, because she will be written into teyvat’s history.)
The little witch hurried to where her teacher was. She wanted question her teacher face-to-face about why the test had ended, and why she was not to be permitted to become a witch. She wanted to throw things to the ground in front her teacher — though of course, she would only chuck the ones that could survive the impact and that she could practically lift herself while avoiding her teacher’s favorite teacup. Of course, should the situation warrant it, she was even willing to smash her own second-favorite teacup to show how serious this all was. After all, she’d bought that one herself rather than it having been given to her by friends. She valued such gifts as much as the friends themselves, and would never use them as part of an emotional outburst.
Jillian
would love to know what the second-favorite teacup represents. also — this is the part that made me think this story is about nicole, because we always see her as a teacup. but i don’t think so — i think this story is about a more powerful witch, and nicole has her own little niche as a prophetess.
”Octavia’s back. Go catch up with her.”
That was what her teacher said calmly the moment they saw each other again. In an instant, the emotions that the little witch had stored up, brewed, fermented, plotted, and rehearsed pouring out countless times vanished.
Octavia was a good friend of hers, and a good friend also of the legendary old witch. Her home had been destroyed, but as she lacked the courage to fight back, she had taken up a life of eternal wandering.
Jillian
octavia might be one of the unnamed hexenzirkel members. i’m still assuming that the teacher here is alice, and not “the legendary old witch” that’s also mentioned, but i guess it’s possible that they’re one and the same.
anyway, i would love to know more about octavia’s home world. i wonder if this is a honkai thing lol.
She had seen many worlds, and had told the little witch many tales about the sky beyond the sky.
”The entire cosmos is going to die soon. Things peaked but not long ago, and are about to go south very fast.” Octavia was sitting in a yard swathed in flowing sunlight, pouring tea into the teacups she and the little witch loved most.
The little witch pulled a chair up and sat in it. “You returned so suddenly,” she said, “we didn’t even prepare a chair for you. You’re probably sitting in the old witch’s chair now.”
Jillian
could this be why there were only seven chairs at the tea party table in joy above the clouds?
”Many stars across the cosmos have gone out. I do not know how much time is left,” Octavia said, “so I wanted to come back to see you.” “Is that why my teacher and the others stopped all the witch tests? Because you came back and told them this?” The little witch asked.
Jillian
scary! i wonder if this is about teyvat, and is related to alice’s work repairing the sky barrier, or if it’s related to the parallel world we see in the book of revealing — maybe that’s the world the witches come from, and it’s already been destroyed.
”Perhaps. In such a world, all things lose meaning, and there is no longer any need for you to become a witch.”
Jillian
reminds me of the abyss, and the nihility from hsr.
”Then I shan’t be angry at my teacher any longer,” the little witch said.
”But will you be mad at me? I caused you to lose your chance to become one,” O said.
”I will, if you never return after leaving this time,” came the little witch’s reply. “I’ll go to the bedroom to get your chair."
"I can just sit in that old witch’s chair, can’t I? She’s too old to get up and come sit in it nowadays."
"That’s no good! That chair’s hers, just as your chair’s yours,” the little witch argued her case earnestly with O. “To each person a chair. That way, even if they are not present, their memories will be seated still. So we absolutely can’t use the wrong chairs.”
Jillian
the number of chairs and who sits in each one is important.
Octavia smiled helplessly.
And by way of apology for interrupting the process of the little witch becoming a proper one, she gave the latter a piece of news:
So “The ‘undying fire’ really exists. It may be found at—“
Part VII
The binding and layout are exquisitely made, but the actual content is all handwritten. Judging from the handwriting, there is more than one author. “I have already found the meaning of writing — that is to tell you: I do so wish you were here, too.”
Jillian
who wrote this note? and who is “you”? could it be that octavia wrote this about the little witch?
As she was buffeted by the waves of time, passing through the vortex where countless causalities converged, piercing countless threads of the weave, she missed a great many things. Even the memorial of the great witch she had so admired ended deserted, without her in attendance.
Whatever they were, the point is that the little witch passed through all manner of haphazard trials and challenges and nonsensical stuff before she managed to arrive before the old witch. Actually, it’s just that the little witch didn’t think those experiences were worth talking about, nor did she know why anyone bothered spilling so much ink about all that earlier stuff. When all’s said and done, the most important things were the witch’s tea party and the goal she was pursuing.
In truth, she had already seen it before her journey began. In a sky as dark as a sack of coal — or perhaps a cavern, for as we all know, there is no difference between the two — there hung a star giving off a weak radiance, resisting the world’s darkness as it encroached on every side. As the universe gradually grew dim, and all stars and stars known as suns were extinguished one by one, everyone agreed to call it the Star of Scorpio. The little witch remembered hearing about this during the witch’s tea party, but she only remembered the name and nothing else.
Jillian
reminds me of enkanomiya, which further reminds me of the parallel world in the book of revealing.
anyway, the star of scorpio — could be referring to antares. if we skip a few steps, we can very tentatively call it the “heart” of ishtar / istaroth.
Anyway, the little witch came before the old witch, who was actually the Star of Scorpio, that which burned still, even at the end of all things. However, her flame was very weak now, barely a faint ember. The little witch held her hand, which had become as dry and brittle as a withered branch. She remembered that the old witch was once a little witch as well, with pale and tender hands that once elegantly held teacups. Those same hands had been used to bring forth much magic, kindling the flames on many worlds.
Jillian
is it a huge, insane leap to theorize that the old witch is one of the four shades? i know i just mentioned istaroth, but this witch seems much more associated with fire, so i don’t think it would be her.
i don’t know — i’m thinking about how venti might be a shade of istaroth, so maybe this young witch (who might be powerful enough to be an archon) is a shade of another one of the four shades.
i always associated the red, fiery witch thing with alice, but maybe that was wrong. maybe this even has something to do with surtalogi. or maybe i’m getting too distracted.
The little witch said: “Looks like everyone doesn’t want the flame to go out, and I get it. It can’t be helped. The last time we said farewell — you were there too — the witches said that long-lived witches would lose many things as the years went by. Life, death, love, and hate would cease to have much meaning. But that isn’t true. Those are just words they used to comfort the companions who departed before them. Witches, in fact, treasure every infinitesimal flame and light that shines in this dark world bereft of hope all the more. They hold even the shadows that these flames would cast dear.
”You often said that you weren’t our equal, but I’ve always believed you to be the cutest, most powerful witch amongst us. You often said that you left little behind, but the stories you left to us hold countless worlds. Even should a hundred years pass, or a thousand, even if the apocalypse that a certain astrologer witch worried about comes, even if all the long-lived witches die, the little light that emanates from these little worlds will not grow dim. That’s right. You were the greatest great witch — far greater than us all. I miss you. Farewell.”
The old witch did not respond, for all that was left here was but an empty husk, no different from the many others that the little witch had encountered in her adventures — indeed, they were even made of the same basic material, with the only difference between those and this being the minuscule light of a flame.
And so, the little witch took the flame that was burning the old witch and set out on her homeward journey. Anyway, let’s stop the story here. The little witch’s adventures would continue, though, for she had already decided to bring the old witch’s fire across the universe, to light every last corner of time.
Jillian
okay, here i will concede that this doesn’t sound like the tsaritsa’s story. maybe this little witch is alice, even — we know she’s an adventurer, and she’s definitely associated with fire, and she is definitely a very powerful witch.
as for the old witch, i have no idea.