Nina knew that Emily could cast spells without an incantation. The fact that she’d used one now meant that she was attempting magic that required care and control.
“Spirits of earth! Heed my call and gather to me...”
The blacksmith goggled at her. “Eh?! Don’t tell me she’s double castin’?!”
“Is that very impressive...?” Nina asked.
“Impressive doesn’t cover it! Commanding two kinds of spirits at the same time is nigh on impossible. It’s the kind o’ thing bards sing about—I’ve only ever heard of it in epic tales!”
“Whaaat?!” Nina squeaked. She knew that Emily’s ability to wield Fifth Degree magic was a rare talent possessed by only a handful of people in any given country. Now it turned out she could also perform the extraordinarily difficult feat of double casting—that was why she’d used an incantation.
“Come to my fingertips and with thy spirit powers, pierce where I point thee.”
It sounded to Nina as though Emily was speaking with two voices. Was it the magic making that echo? Or something else?
“Oh?!”
There was a ROAR as a sudden rush of wind nearly swept Nina off her feet, but Tien’s hand shot out to grab her and pull her close, along with the old woman. The blacksmith was flipped over and tumbled away with a bellow. The earth shook, and a low, deafening scraping filled her ears while the howling winds swept sand and pebbles swirling skyward.
“G...!”
“...o...!”
“Wh...!”
Nina had the feeling someone was shouting, but she couldn’t make anything out over the cacophony. Though she could barely open her eyes, she squinted and just made out the figure before her.
Emily looked almost godlike as she stood there, power pouring off her, a mage in full command of her magic.
Amazing, Nina thought, and at the same time, She’s beautiful.
This wasn’t the Emily that she knew. In other words, Emily’s power went far, far beyond anything that Nina and the others had imagined. She just hadn’t revealed it to them yet—she hadn’t needed to. Nina trusted and believed in her regardless, and Emily trusted and believed in her too.
Emily’s magic, the wind, and the roaring noise lasted another ten seconds or so before subsiding. Every pebble and speck of dirt had been blown away, leaving the ground as bare as though it had been swept clean.
“Is it over...?” Nina, who’d been clinging to Tien beside the old woman, looked up.
“Phewww...” The source of the uproar—that is, Emily—slumped to the ground.
“Emily?! What did you do?!”
“Man, I’m beat...” she said croakily.
“The blacksmith said that you were using double casting...”
“Yeah, I’d never tried it before, but it worked.”
“That was the first time?!”
“The important thing is, I opened a hole in the rock. Tien, add another section to the pipe and let’s try inserting it again.”
“What...?”
She’d opened a hole? It took Nina a few moments to process what she meant. Emily had used extraordinary magic just to dig down a bit deeper to get to the hot spring.
Tien didn’t seem fazed. “Understood,” she said. She let go of Nina and the old woman, picked up the pipe, and began to lower it down through the crack in the rock.
“N-Now hold on, Emily!” the blacksmith shouted. “You can’t just go castin’ dangerous spells like that without say—”
He broke off.
The pipe was disappearing deeper and deeper into the crack. It had already passed the point where they’d struck the bedrock earlier.
“If it goes any deeper, Chi will not be able to pull it out,” Tien said over her shoulder to them. “We need to extend it more.”
“H-Hold on... She used magic to dig a hole?! But she can’t have!”
“Is it really so strange?” Nina asked hesitantly. That was what Emily said herself, and it seemed perfectly reasonable to Nina. But the blacksmith looked dumbfounded.
“Magic, as I understand it, works by controllin’ spirits,” he said. “So basically, you can light a fire or summon water, but beyond that, you’re at the mercy of the spirit’s whims. That’s nothin’ if you just use a little bit, but not so when it comes to grand enchantments—they’re big and messy ’cause the spirits can’t be controlled. You can’t pinpoint a crack in a bit o’ rock like that to dig out.”
“You mentioned double casting—”
“Right! That’s what I’m sayin’! Keepin’ hold o’ two different kinds o’ spirit is all but impossible—they fight each other, see. I’ve lived a long time, but this is the first time I’ve seen anyone pull it off.”
“Hey, quit gossiping and extend the pipe already!” Emily shouted. She still sat sprawled on the ground.
“Th-That’s not...!” The dwarf collected himself. “R-Right. You’re right. This part’s my job...”
He still looked puzzled, but once Tien had drawn the pipe back up, he set to work welding another segment to it.
“Emily, that was incredible!” Nina cried.
“Heh...” Emily sounded smug. “I mean, I am a genius. ’Course it might all be for nothing if we still don’t get the hot spring going...”
But as she looked at the crack in the rock, a smirk spread over her face.
Her magic had succeeded.
“Ah... Looks like it was for something after all.”
A dense plume of steam was rising from the crack.
The children did as Nina had asked. Rather than sell what they gathered that day, they left it at the huts, then all headed to the bathhouse.
“Why d’ya think she called us here, Panther?”
As far as they could tell, the bathhouse was as still and quiet as ever.
“Dunno. But that maid wouldn’t tell us to do nuthin’ bad.”
“Reckon she wants us to scrub the bath?”
“What’s the point in scrubbin’ a bath that’s got no water?”
“I miss the bath... I’d just sit ’ere til a grown-up paid for me to get in.”
“Children! This way please!” As they chatted, Nina appeared—not from the bathhouse, but the alley off to one side of it. “I thought you must be arriving soon.”
Panther and the others trooped after her to the back of the bathhouse, where they found a crowd of adults gathered around a cracked rock—the onlookers who’d dispersed earlier had come flocking back when they heard the explosion of magic.
“Wh-What’s goin’ on?” Panther asked warily.
“Just watch,” Nina told him.
A dwarf, the group of men assisting him, and Tien, wiping sweat from her brow, were lowering a very, very long iron pipe into the crack. Steam was rising from it. Steam they hadn’t seen for two years.
If there was steam, there was hot water. In other words, as everyone there knew, they’d reached the hot spring. The grown-ups were silent, but there was burning intensity in their eyes. As the children watched the work progress, they found themselves clenching their fists in anticipation.
“Easy does it!” the dwarf shouted. “A pipe this long might snap on the way down, and we sure as hell don’t want that!”
Tien, who was standing closest to the crack, nodded.
Slowly, steadily, the pipe disappeared into the mouth of the crack. Panther watched the full length of it get swallowed up with eyes as round as saucers.
“Chi thinks the end hit something,” Tien said. Her face was flushed and damp, whether from sweat or steam, it wasn’t clear.
“Can you keep going?” the dwarf asked.
“Yes.”
They lowered in another three meters of pipe. Then they stopped. Leaving two meters of pipe jutting out of the crack, the dwarf set up a base to keep it locked in place while the other grown-ups attached a hose to its end. It was made from tanned monster hide that was both durable and impervious to leaks.
“I’m gonna turn on the magical pump!” Emily called.