whatever makes you happy

More behind the cut.

Welcome to Hadestown.

Where is the man with his hat in his hands?

Who stands in the garden with nothing to lose, singing:

💋💋💋

these tags by @vaguely-concerned cracked me up so I had to sketch it as baby Orufrey

sound on!! bbgirl watching his crush <3

happy 10 years to witch hat atelier!!! here's a repost of some art i made this year for it ◡̈

Like. Beldaruit loves Qifrey. There's no question of this. Just as there's no question that Qifrey's life is undoubtedly better because Beldaruit took him in, and he obviously respects him a great deal. But Qifrey has never been able to fully trust Beldaruit, and for good reason.

One thing that keeps me awake at night is that chapter 38 strongly insinuates that Beldaruit knows about Treefrey situation. Chapter 59 suggests that Beldaruit knows more about Qifrey's secrets that he lets on.

And I think we all agree that all of Beldaruit's cards are not on the table yet.

I do wonder if he wanted Qifrey to become his apprentice because he figured out the tree-situation early. Or maybe he figured out what happened to Qifrey after Qifrey was already living in the Great Hall. In any case he never talked about this with Qifrey.

As you said, Qifrey was allowed to become a witch because there was no sign of forbidden magic on his body. Beldaruit admitting, even to Qifrey only, that he knows the truth would only show more hypocrisy and problems Witch Society has.

And yet when Coco is hurt, Qifrey goes straight to Beldaruit. He asks Beldaruit to have an eye on her. After Easthies' accident during Siver Eve arc, Beldaruit wonders where Qifrey is because Beldaruit knows he can rely on him.

That said, I do think it's pretty unlikely for him to have known from the start. Qifrey is, as far as we know, the first attempt at this specific kind of forbidden magic - he slipped under everyone's radar because no one knew it was possible, and so didn't know what kind of signs to look for. Bel was also fairly young when he took Qifrey in and wasn't a Wise yet, so it seems like a stretch that he would have just guessed 'Silverwood parasite' off the bat. Seems more likely to be something he pieced together over their many years of living together, particularly after it fully sprouted at the Tower of Tomes and Qifrey had to start worrying about it being an on-going problem.

Fully 50 chapters before the reader is going to find out about the tree, Shirahama is heavily foreshadowing the connection between Qifrey and the tree by having Beldaruit talk about the tree to Rili and then think about Qifrey.

But the actual content of what Beldaruit thinks about Qifrey makes no sense if he knows about the tree. He's continuing his going concern from this entire arc that Qifrey is too obsessed with the brim caps and this is dangerous for him and potentially for his students, especially Coco. He considers whether Qifrey might think of the atelier as a place to settle and think of as home (in contrast to his youth of constantly running off) and he explicitly wants that for Qifrey. He expresses wanting Qifrey not to fuck it up by obsessing over the brimcaps and his past. If he knew about the tree he would know that it's life-threatening for Qifrey to feel that sense of comfort and peace and he wouldn't be hoping for it, unless you interpret him as having active malice for Qifrey.

I'd also note that a point is made when Custas takes root that no one but Qifrey knows what's happening to him. The implication being that witches, in general, don't know that the silverwood is parasitic.

There's a whole grove of silverwoods in the Great Hall, there's the one silverwood that Nolnoa's shop is built around, but we've never, to my knowledge, seen a young silverwood. We've been given no indication that contemporary witches are actively cultivating silverwoods, which seems like a massive omission given the tree's importance. Unless, it's just...not something that they do.

There are two different legends about magic being a divine gift from the silverwoods. Even Beldaruit, one of the three wise, talks about them growing anywhere as long as comfort can be found like another legend, not as practical, factual knowledge.