Sofia took a deep breath before opening the doors to her closet, which was, itself, larger than the room she and her mom had shared only a few weeks - wait, had it already been a month? - before.

To be honest, it was daunting, not that Sofia knew that particular word at the ripe old age of eight. Still, she powered through the apprehension and began her search through the myriad clothes here. Nearly everything was purple. Word had been sent to the castle tailors of her measurements, some general tendencies, and her favorite color before she arrived, so while all of these would fit, she hadn't seen most of them before. Mostly she just wore the same dress each day, the first one she'd found in here when she first arrived.

But she was going to change that, here and now. "Clover, Robin, Mia, Whatnot?" Sofia's animal friends came through the door with her, but acknowledging each by name felt like a nice thing to do. "Can you guys help me find something to go with this hat?" Sofia took the sparkly purple pointed hat off her head and showed it to her friends. "Mister Ceedric says I can be his apprentice! But I've gotta find something else to wear, there's no way this poofy thing -" Sofia gestured down to her usual lavender dress, " - is any good to have with all his dust and his mess I'm gonna help clean up. Or his potions! If we can find a real wizardy robe, that would be cool. Show I'm serious about being a sorcerer's apprentice and all, yeah?"

It took a while, but they did actually find a dressing gown that was almost the right color of purple. It wasn't quite perfect, if you looked really closely, and its hems were a slightly lighter shade that wasn't present on the hat, but it was a darn close match.

...But it still didn't look quite right. A few words with Clover and the birds, and some encouraging chittering from Whatnot, and Sofia was about to do another first for the castle: ring the bellpull to summon a servant to her room.

With somewhat alarming speed, Violet appeared in Sofia's doorway. "Yea, miss? Wha' c'n I do for you?"

Sofia let go of the rope like it was covered in spiders when she heard Violet, then looked down at the floor. "Uh, um, I-actually, you know, it's silly, nevermind."

"Oi'm sure i's not, m'lady Sofia," Violet said. "'S my job, aft' all, to get'cha wot you needs, 'tever it may be."

"You...sure? It really is pretty silly."

"Swear on me mum."

Sofia picked up the dressing gown. "Could... could someone make this all... sparkly? And how, uh, long might that take?"

Tilting her head to think, Violet answered, "Well, 'at really depends on in what way you mean, miss. If y' want embroid'ry, now 'at's gonna take a fine while. 'Specially if you want any specific designs."

Sofia shook her head no, "Doesn't need to be fancy. I'm, ah. Well, I'm trying to match this hat, right?" It took a moment of wandering, but Sofia found where she'd left the hat, and showed it to Violet.

"Oye, well if y'want it to do that swirly movin' thing, yer gonna need t' talk to Cedric, 'e's the only guy 'round here who c'n magic anything. An' even that's only some o' the time."

Again, Sofia shook her head. "I, I got this from Mister Ceedric, actually, but no, I'm trying to, like- make a good impression, y'know? Show up for magic lessons ready to start, but also not like I just didn't even care?"

Violet pursed her mouth. "Mrm."

"So, is there-I don't know, maybe just sparkle powder that could be dusted on, or something?" Sofia's hopes were wearing thin, but then again, the palace had all sorts of things she'd never have guessed existed - maybe they had some of the things she'd only dreamed of while in Dunwitty village.

Violet tilted her head the other way, and said, "Oh, aye, I c'n probably get that for ye, m'lady. Shouldn't be naught but a few mo! Well, except for the findin' of who t' do it, and the movin' it about..." As Violet continued, she stared off into space a bit and counted her fingers irregularly. Then she came back, "Well, at any rate, it should be back in a flash, miss. Not a literal flash, mind you, but so quick y' aint even notice it's gone."

Sofia smiled broadly as she handed the dressing gown to Violet and said, "Oh, thank you, thank you so much."