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"A witch that deals with truth contradicts their own existence." This line stated by Beldaruit the wise in teaching shows just how much of witch society revolved around deception and concealment of the truth. This is built into witch society's core from witches hiding the secret of magic from outsiders (some witches chant or make exaggerated gestures to show off magic) to them hiding knowledge of spells from other witches. The libarians work to keep information hidden, and the Knight Moralis work to keep the secrets of magic hidden. Each and every witches life revolves in secrecy and concealment as it is a mandatory part of the witches code.

Truth is a foreign concept to witch society as deceit is the norm. Without truth, one can't achieve justice. The Knight Moralis function on a strict 'act now and ask questions later' protocol that leads for their practices to be unjust and harmful to the individuals they intend to protect. The brimhats aren't absolved of this either. They also function in secrecy, choosing not to disclose their plans or the severe extent of the spells they create. The brimhats focus is simply gaining the ability to freely utilise forbidden magic; their intentions aren't to liberate and make the knowledge of magic accessible to all. This goes to show that the pointed hats and the brimcaps are truly two sides of the same coin, with deceit being ingrained into their behaviour as witches.

Through this established narrative, Tartah is a witch that fully commits to the truth by chapter 87. He is a witch that commits to the truth in technique, ideas, and purpose. The only two spells we ever see him cast are truth related spells: one is a truth seal he brands himself with, and the other is a spell that reveals the true form of medicinal herbs used in a concoction. His ideas and purpose as a witch revolve around the truth, specifically uncovering the truth. He wanted to know the truth about the silvertree. He wanted to know the truth about the mysterious loud noise and light at the shop. He wanted to know about the full truth about the spell he branded himself with. Tartah is a character that directly suffers from witch societies deceit, and he is a character who actively seeks the truth.

Ironically, this isn't the first time Tartah has contradicted his existence as a witch. From a young age, it was deemed as impossible for Tartah to become a witch due to his silverwash. However, we see him manage to overcome that with the help of Coco as they discover a method that allows for him to become a witch by accommodating his needs. Witches can't have bad eyesight, or they won't be able to become witches, and witches can never deal with the truth are two rules that witch society establishes, but Tartah manages to contradict both.

Imagine Tartah and Custas out on their own not wanting to trust staying with the brims so they have to find their own way to survive and decide to forage for food.

Tartah comes back with wild raspberries, dandelion leaves and buds, tries to find oyster mushrooms but isn't sure if they are too old now, got lambs quarters and he's proud he found things that can have medicinal uses as well! He brings them all, sets them down for Custas to examine and then suddenly Custas, with blood streaked across his face, drops a whole ass dead bird in front of him.

Tartah: ... Oh! Did you find the leftovers of a scavanger? I'm unsure if that's safe to eat--

Custas: I killed it.

Tartah: ... With what spell??

Custas: .... my hands?

SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA:

This is due to several ressons, but I think a major is how our view of him progresses throughout the story.

When we first meet him, we are lead to believe he is a very strict and grumpy man who happens to have a small soft spot for children. It's the first instance where Coco realises that she is an extremely unique case that is actively breaking the rules ofthe witches. Olruggio, at this moment, is reminding us that we need to be very scared about Coco's secret getting leaked.

Then we see him in more instances. He makes cloth and fabric as well, and grows attached as Coco shows genuine interest in his creations. He admires the passion that she has for it. He becomes more humanised andess of a threat to Coco's secret in our eyes.

This is also slight foreshadowing, seeing the sheer passion that Coco has for magic. I'd like to think of how this is in contrast to Olruggio who clung to magic as a way to save people because it was expected of him.

The more and more we see of him, we get to see how much of a silent helper he is. His actions often speak far louder than his words, and he will provide aid without questions or invitation. He cares for people deeply and even if he scolds them, you can tell it comes from genuine concern.

This all leads you to believe that Olruggio is a man who is deeply empathetic and kindhearted, though he goes about it in a rough manner that isn't verbal, often. Something in direct contrast to the mess that Qifrey is, who seems to remain hungover something from his past that we are initially believe were just regarding his eye and memories.

Then the recent chapters throw that all out the window, building up to the moment in Chapter 93 where we have to recontextualise how we see Olruggio and come to the conclusion that he is in fact worse than Qifrey, and also the main cause of anxiety in him, which is meant to keep the silverwood seed inside of him at bay.

His saviour complex is the result of being a gifted child that had to deal with the pressure of people's expectations that he never asked for, but still took in, because him being empathetic s his fatal flaw.

He is a weird amalgamation of selfish and selfless, because he want to save people so that he can make up for the time that he couldn't. But that guilt weighs him down so heavily because he cares. A consequence of his own nature.

I’ve seen a lot of people across different platforms make the assumption that he does, seeing as the two canonically spent a lot of time together back in Kalhan studying apothecary, but after rereading a lot of their scenes together across the Silver Eve arc, I don’t think Custas knows about Tartah’s condition, or at the very least he doesn’t know how it’s impacted Tartah’s life and his place in witch society.

For most of the time we know him, Custas has the “witches can have/do anything because they have magic” mentality that most outsiders seem to possess, which shapes his relationships with both Coco and Tartah from as early as chapter 43. He believes that their lives must be easy because they have magic, and that they don’t need to struggle to have a place in society like he does. Ironically, the two witches he displays this sentiment towards are probably the two who fit this idea the least within the current story.

For Coco, we know she wasn’t born with the privileged life of a witch like Custas assumes. We can see her struggle with this throughout the early Silve Eve arc. She cannot tell him the truth about her being born an outsider without exposing the secret of magic, but she cannot keep her past a secret without feeling hypocritical.

With Tartah, this juxtaposition between how he’s perceived as a witch by Custas and his actual relationship with witch society is perhaps a bit more subtle, as these moments rarely cut to Tartah looking horrified the same way Coco does. Unlike Coco, Tartah was born into the privileged life of a witch as Custas says, yet he’s also someone who distinctly sits outside of both witch society at large and the outsiders. His silverwash means that most adult witches will never view him as a “real” witch due to his inabilities, but his status of being from a witch family means he’ll never be an outsider to the world of magic. He’s in a limbo, too much of a witch to be an outsider, not enough of a witch to be “normal”

You’d think, if Custas was aware of this distinction between Tartah and “normal” witches to some degree, it would have some up at some point between his claim in chapter 43 and his apology in chapter 45—but it doesn’t. Custas remains as unaware of Tartah’s social outsiderness as he does Coco’s literal outsiderness.

While this could all just be interpreted as Custas knowing about Tartah’s disability but not the effects it has on a witch, I’d like to bring up his reunion with Tartah and Coco in chapter 51. After becoming a brimmed cap and realizing that there were solutions for fixing his legs with magic, Custas is angry at how his supposed friends were “keeping” the fact that they could have healed his legs from him. It stuck out to me even on my first reading of this scene that Custas never once mentioned that Tartah ALSO has a disability that could have potentially been fixed with magic, because this fact would contradict his argument.

If Custas were to acknowledge the fact that Tartah explicitly pushed the narrative that magic cannot heal people while also being disabled and having access to magic, his argument that Coco and Tartah were keeping this magic away from him solely because he’s an outsider would fall apart. If Tartah is both a witch and someone who suffers from a disability, why wouldn’t they use magic to fix it? Custas can’t maintain his argument without acknowledging Tartah’s silverwash, but since he doesn’t, it’s more likely that he just doesn’t know about it at all.

I also don’t think that silverwash in general is common among outsiders, or at least not to the level it is in witch societies. Coco needed Qifrey to explain it to her, and Tartah’s first mention of it towards the end of chapter 13 is very offhanded, like he assumed that Coco already knew what it was. This would line up with him not realizing she was originally an outsider until later in chapter 16.

Then as time goes on his little "Tartah knows everything and is really cool" turn to "hes amazing" with starry eyes. And your first instinct is to think, Oh, its puppylove, he has his first crush. Then Custas starts saying "Yeah Tartah saved my life twice now" (??? huh?) to "we cuddled today after falling asleep practicing reading". And you are now concerned about your sons wellbeing because??? who is Tartah?? how old is he?? Can I speak with him?

And you never catch Sight of Tartah for a While. You just hear about him, "Tartah knows everything!" or "Tartah held my hand today and he was blushing so bad!" and you are growing more concerned but you don't want to push and close your son off. You just have to keep an eye on it. You can be a cool, but secretly over-protective parent. You've earned that.

And then one day you see Custas flying. Days ago he couldn't even walk with assistance, and now he was free as a bird and he flies straight into your arms and you haven't see that smile in so long, you missed it so much, your darling son---

The butterfly effect of the sins between Qifrey and Olruggio is far worse than you may expect.

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.