[Spoilers for Witch Hat Atelier manga up to chapter 97] I have many, many suspicions, theories and ideas about WHA's world, mostly in the realm of "is this something to be suspicious of or is this set dressing". One of these is dragons, namely how every animal is a clear fusion of real world animals but the dragons doesn't have any clear creatures it might have been fused from. We also know the first silverwood fairytale (branches and wands and blood as ink) is much more literal than anyone was first expecting, making the silverwood maiden and the star suspicious. How allegorical is it and, if it's not, is it possible between that and dragons that there are some naturally occurring magical things? The magical landscapes and animals have all been attributed to magic, but I can't help but consider the chicken or the egg idea about the silverwoods. They could not have been made without magic, but they are the cause of magic. wtf are these things.
Now, this could all be a case of set dressing, and not all lore needs to be explained. I won't be surprised if we never get any answers surrounding the pact or the silverwoods, but I also wouldn't be surprised if we did. Now, I did get a little side tracked with that theory in particular, but that's all just to lay the ground work for the fact that I have a LOT of these small suspicions that could be nothing or could be foreshadowing. My newest half baked idea comes from my most recent reread of the manga. See the panel below:
So... that's a kid in Thristas's arms. They're too small to be anything else. That child also has pale hair. Now look, I'm not claiming that is definitively Qifrey, but the more I think about the events of the night Qifrey was found, the more suspicious I become.
A brimmed cap is being chased through Thristas.
Beldaruit is coming this time? (Someone pointed out that Coco and Qifrey might be pawns in a larger game Beldaruit is playing and I've not stopped being able to think of Beldaruit just so happening to be there as really sus).
Qifrey's fresh blood is found. His eye's blood is fresh and blood coagulates quickly, meaning Qifrey would have been dragged through the forest not long before the knight's arrival. 10 minutes at most.
Qifrey has no memory of his eye being taken, but does say "a witch, he took it from me." Which means he knew the witch was a man, knew it was a witch and that means he must have had his memory erased after having his eye removed which we just established would have been right before the knights got there.
Instead of killing Qifrey, they leave him in a coffin. They could not have possibly expected him to go unearthed, especially since the brimmed cap would have seen all the blood. A witch has no reason not to have known, as Vinnana says, that blood is the strongest link to a person.
Qifrey has (presumably) never been recognised by anyone. The brimmed caps don't, the pointed hats don't, normal people haven't. No one has ever recognised him ever. This isn't necessarily rigid proof of anything, but it's an added layer of weirdness to this whole situation.
Finally, I have been thinking over the panels below a LOT and I haven't been able to come to any conclusion other than that the eye had to have sprouted in his skull before it was taken. Why would the witch have just taken his eye otherwise? What purpose could an eye have served unless it had already produced results?
To summarise my understanding of events:
Qifrey's eye was a test subject in some sort of new forbidden magic and only the right eye sprouted (apparently what they wanted). The eye was in his skull. A brimmed cap was being chased by the knights and took the time to pluck out Qifrey's sprouted eye, drag him to the coffin, erase his memories, bury him and run. Qifrey was then almost immediately found.
Why bury him? Why not just kill him? What is this whole silverwood conspiracy I am certain is happening? How is this connected to human hosts, Coustas, Ininia and Restys? How does this possibly connect to Iguin and the others? What does he mean when he asks about a brimmed cap who looks like him?
Why does no one know Qifrey? Maybe he was a brimmed cap apprentice, a child who was taken, a clone of Iguin, the child Thristas tried to revive or, fuck it, maybe he's a long lost member of the Ezrest family. At this point, that theory doesn't even seem that insane.
I have zero solid theories, so I want to leave on a couple of interesting points instead of a conclusion. What does this silverwood conspiracy (as I call it) mean in the context of the silverwood maiden? How likely is it that the brimmed caps actively want Qifrey alive? And finally, why do the brimmed caps want him alive?
