====== Inspector? I hardly know her. ====== Triplicate signs her name on the resignation letter. It's been a long time coming. It took her a while to find the right words: whilst she enjoyed the job, she always felt like there was something more to life than just endless bureaucracy (although she might still argue an appropriate degree of bureaucracy is helpful for you). Fortunately, she found what she was looking for in the form of a black cat in the Heartwood. Lily has changed Triplicate's life in more ways then one, and they're ready to embrace this change together. The walk to the Inspector's Office to hand in the letter was long and heavy, but the first steps outside the door are liberating. No more High Inspector Triplicate, now it's just apprentice to the good witch Lily Good-Witch. She takes her bags (filled with many bars of chocolate on Lily's request), and begins the journey to Heartwood. Lily's training is unpredictable and chaotic. The lessons are often unplanned and can consist of making whatever potion Lily dreams up on the spot. More often than not, Triplicate is left having to improvise and adapt to whatever whimsy Lily feels up to today. Triplicate enjoys it though, it's a refreshing break from the Inspector job and it feels like she's actually living again. Not just working under Lily, but not knowing what each day has waiting for you gives a new reason to wake up each day. Of course, it would be amiss of Triplicate to not attempt to use her skills acquired as High Inspector to try and get extra credit. She installs a new system to catalogue the stock of all of the reagents Lily stores (making sure to not mess with Lily's exact yet chaotic ordering of ingredients). She also sets up an ingoing and outgoing system, which allows for efficient viewing of new mail as well as seeing what commissions are currently due. Finally, she colour-codes certain reagents to their most common potions, making for efficient visual selection when another bulk order comes in. At first Lily was apprehensive of these changes, but she quickly grew to enjoy using the time saved for more naps. "You can actually be pretty smart sometimes" - Lily would say as she would curl up on Triplicate for her 3rd nap of the day. When they have potions to deliver together, Triplicate makes the effort to find a good date spot in each location. For the Sea of Light, the water was a no-go so they tried Jo's together. Not only did this quickly become one of their favourite spots, but Jo even started commissioning Lily for new sauces so now they receive free meals when they visit. When they visit Myddul, Triplicate takes Lily to a favourite spot of hers. It's a park not too far away from the Inspector's building. There's an ice cream stand which sells the most delicious ice cream, and there's a bench which is always illuminated by the sun rays that breach the canopy. They would sit on this bench for hours and just people watch and nap together. When they deliver to the Sunshade, they always make sure to have a detour through Khashi Kno's Entertainment Complex. Triplicate enjoys the games and picks up the rules pretty quickly, but as soon as Lily learns a new game she becomes a competitive force to be reckoned with. Their favourite game at the moment is a tie between Wimzi's bowling and the card game Sunsetting the Sunshade. The former is good for when they want to relax after a long day, the latter is best when they're both feeling competitive. Finally, there's the Lizard Fangs. One of Triplicate's former colleagues told her about this overhang in the Lizard Fangs, where you can you see the magma flow beneath you but you're sufficiently high up you don't feel scorched. Now every time they visit, she makes sure to take Lily to this spot. The magma is mesmerising, and before long both Triplicate and Lily would find themself dozing off to the warm magma and the rhythmic bubbling sounds. ---- Months pass, maybe years. Triplicate is still under Lily's tutelage, when she tells her there's an important delivery to make to Rute in Secha Town. It's right next door, so Triplicate says it can wait until the current potion finished brewing, but Lily tuts and ushers Triplicate out of the house with the delivery. "Tut tut tut, listen to your teacher, dear Cate!" Lily says as she closes the door on Triplicate. Triplicate sighs, but then starts walking towards Secha Town. She thinks of the first time she met Lily, not too far away from here. Lily had just had a close call with a vineling before bumping into Triplicate, Rute, Heralding, and Fig. She cringes as she walks, she was a bit of a creep back then. Triplicate always knew from her role there was something for her in the Heartwood, but she would've never seen herself being a good witch's apprentice. She arrives in Secha Town, but it's eerily quiet. Normally there's a few civilians walking about or a few stalls making deals, but it's completely quiet. She walks over to Rute's house and knocks on the door. It opens and it's completely dark inside. She takes a step and.... "Surprise!" - half of the population of Heartwood pops out and shouts. Rute turns the light on, and Triplicate sees it's all the people she's ever made deliveries too. Then, hopping through the window is a little black cat. She walks up to Triplicate. "Apprentice Triplicate, after a long and arduous witch's training programme, I can hereby announce that you have passed with full marks! I now declare you Triplicate the witch!" - Lily announces to the crowd, who immediately claps in celebration. Triplicate hugs Lily, whispering "Maybe one day I can be a Good Witch like you."