I squeezed through the narrow gap in the hollowed-out tree and nearly slipped onto my knees as I pulled myself free. After looking around for a few moments, I spotted Elye up a tree, hanging upside-down while shooting arrows at a target carved into the bark of a different tree, which stood over a hundred metres away. As she let loose her arrows, they curved around the trunks of the pines between her and the target, whistling until they slammed into the distant tree with an echoing thunk.

Renji was sitting on a stone that was half-submerged in the water near the little beach, while Emily had her arms out. Though I couldn’t see the effects of it, I knew she was using her magic.

“I’m back,” I told them as I came up behind where Emily stood facing out into the vast Altar Lake. No sooner had I spoken than I realised how strange my voice sounded. It was almost like speaking inside a well-insulated closet, the sounds not travelling very far.

“Are you trapping the wind in a bubble around you?” I wondered.

“She’s redirecting it slowly,” Renji answered, since Emily was completely absorbed in the task.

“Is it safe to practice like that?”

“It is,” he said. “She’s only using the Affinity Control right now, and only very slightly. The lesson I’ve been teaching her is to allow the element to reinforce itself. If you push something in just the right way, the natural correction to return to equilibrium instead becomes an over-correction. With enough time, that over-correction can pick up enough power to mimic some very intense Affinity Control, but without the Backlash such a thing would incur.”

“That sounds interesting.”

“It is of course slower and not worth much in a pinch, but given time, she could create a small cyclone this way.”

“I think I’m ready to try that thing again,” Emily said. Her aura was even and calm. It was clear she was in ‘the zone’.

“Don’t force it like last time,” Renji reminded her. “Picture it like you’re just adding a directional funnel to interrupt the flow and send it all into a fine point, like a spear.”

Without answering, Emily moved her hands around in deliberate and fluid movements, before quickly bringing her hands into her chest and then shoving them outward.

Trees creaked and pine needles were sucked from the ground nearby, before a colossal wind whooshed past my ears and flew in the direction that Emily’s hand’s pointed. Water shot forward and to the side as her carefully-gathered air condensed into a single spear, which, judging by the furrow formed in the water, flew for over fifty metres before dying off. The displaced water quickly returned to fill in the channel her spell had carved, sending back large ripples that turned to waves as they struck the tiny shore of the isle.

“Well done,” Renji praised her.

Emily let out a big sigh. “Thank you. It felt much better that time.”

Renji raised his hand in the air, then called, “Elye! I need an arrow!”

I didn’t even have time to turn to see the Elfin move before an arrow whistled through the air, only to be caught by Renji who hadn’t even shifted in his seat on the rock.

“This time, let’s try with a projectile.”

He stood up and placed the thin shaft so it was perfectly balanced on her palm. “Imagine that, as the wind begins to spiral around you, it moves over your hand and picks up the arrow. Try to release it so that it strikes that tree over there,” he said, pointing to the hollowed tree on the hill’s crest that hid the stairwell to the Necromancy Guild.

“I don’t think I can make it go that far,” she replied. I wasn’t sure exactly how far it was, but it was further than Elye and her target, and she was using a bow.

“If you can make the winds spiral and spin as you release them, then the arrow will fly much further than you can imagine.”

Emily didn’t seem convinced, but nonetheless turned to face the hill and its tree, before beginning to move her right hand around, compelling the ever-present wind to begin steadily circling her.

I went over and sat down next to my friend, while we watched her steadily build up the air into a spiral around her. Aside from the wind tugging ever-so-slightly at the corners of her white dress, it was impossible to tell that anything was happening.

“Have you been practising this whole time?” I asked.

“More or less. Are you done here?”

“Not entirely, Ludwig is gonna help me summon two new familiars.”

Renji’s eyes lit up. “Oh! I wanna see that!”

“Are they going to be as scary as that guy’s monsters?” Emily asked with her back turned. It seemed she was capable of multi-tasking, as her hand was still guiding the wind to swirl around her, despite being able to follow our conversation.

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“I can’t say for sure. One is supposed to be like a Wraith skeleton, while the other is a floating set of dancing robes.”

“Those sound nothing like the ones you showed me,” Renji remarked.

“Ludwig changed my mind,” I replied.

“I think I can deal with having to look at a ghost skeleton,” Emily said, “But the thing that follows him around is really awful.”

“He said it’s called a Finger Collector. It isn’t in any of my Encyclopaedias though. What does it look like?”

“It’s like a headless skeletal horse with arms full of many-fingered hands rising from its back. And it makes a clicking sound constantly.”

“You can hear it?” I wondered. “I didn’t think you could.”

“I can’t hear when Sera speaks to me,” she replied, “But I can hear what her fire sounds like.”

“Odd.”

“I also saw this really creepy white lady with long hair near a bakery when Elye and I were exploring earlier.”

“That’s an Obsessive Stalker. Apparently it is stalking that Baker, which is a requirement for him to be able to use its powers.” I thought about how weird it must be for Emily to be able to see all these incorporeal entities. Even I could only see my own, except when I used a Watcher or Observer. “Have you seen anything else?”

“Sometimes there’s a blurry knight following after you,” she answered, making my heart stop for a second.

“You can see Armen?? Does he have glowing eyes and what looks like armour?”

“I think so, but it’s hard to tell.”

“I can’t even see him myself,” I told her. “He hasn’t been able to appear for a while now. He kind of sacrificed himself to kill a really powerful monster called a Flayed Noble. If you see other ghosts and such, please let me know.”

She didn’t reply, but I could tell it was because she was concentrating.

As Renji and I watched, Emily lifted her left hand holding the arrow, and the wind, which was now spiralling her with quite some speed, lifted it from her palm and set it on an orbit around her. It spun and spun, picking up tiny increments of speed with every completed orbit, before she flung out her hands and released the air.

Whoosh!

Water, tiny pebbles and sand, as well as pine needles and earth, all whipped past us and flew in the direction her released wind travelled, the arrow trapped in the centre of the column of condensed air as it flew towards the crest of the hill. But the aim was off, so the arrow flew around the left side, though continued way past its intended target, the spin she’d imbued it with allowing it to fly in a straight line before sinking past the brow of the hill and vanishing from sight.

“Not bad for a first attempt.”

A thump sounded as Elye dropped from the tree she’d been climbing and ran after the arrow, like a dog playing fetch. As she ran past the hollow tree at the top of the hill, she narrowly avoided a head-on collision with Ludwig.

“Woah!” I heard him exclaim in surprise, before he followed after her to wherever the arrow had landed.

A couple minutes later, Elye ran back towards us, sliding on her knees down the slope of the hill, while Ludwig slowly wandered after her in the background.

“Do it again!” the Elfin encouraged.

She’s got chaotic golden retriever energy, I mused to myself.

“Y’all nearly took out my ‘ganic eye,” Ludwig called as he came within earshot.

“Sorry!” Emily exclaimed.

“Nice shot though. Did you do that without suffering a Backlash?”

“That’s right,” Renji answered on her behalf. “I showed her a simple way to build up a lot of power with the wind.”

Ludwig gave the Brawler a surprised look. “Huh. I totally had you pegged as the dumb and brawny type. Good to know there’s a brain between those ears.”

“Look who’s talking,” I joked.

The Incarnate smiled. “Hey, better people think I’m dumb and easy to fool. That’s at least something Owl nailed to a tee. Fat old bastard looked incapable of even wiping his own ass.”

And yet he was playing everyone to his own tune…

Ludwig quickly changed the subject, when he noticed praising my mentor had soured the mood, “Y’all ready to head back to Altar? I reckon Lady Spellhand here would benefit from taking on some quests.”

“I was thinking we should look for some open Extermination Quests,” Renji answered. “She’ll be able to take them with Ryūta and I in her party.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I cautioned. I could tell by Emily’s aura that she was apprehensive about the matter as well.

“How ‘bout we ask the Lady herself?” Ludwig said.

“I… I’d like to start with something easy,” she said. “Everything is still so new and I don’t have a firm grasp on my powers yet.”

The Incarnate nodded. “Slow and steady wins the race, as they say. What can you do with your Affinity thus far?”

“Renji taught me how to build up a strong blast by making the wind currents do most of the work. And Ryūta showed me how to make a powerful strike, though I only did it once and it made me pass out.”

“Have you found a Spell Tome yet?” Ludwig asked.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a way to store complex Affinity Spells, such that you don’t have to mentally go through all the steps every time you want to do something, like say, individually lifting twenty arrows from the ground and spinning them in a helix pattern around you.”

“I’ve seen Spell Tomes used,” Renji replied, “But I never actually got to understand how they work.”

Ludwig turned to face the Brawler who was still sitting on the rock in the water. “So, Spellhands have access to Invocation, which allows for complex Spells to be bound to a specific phrase. A Spell Tome is a way to store such Invocations and activate them wordlessly. And the fascinating thing is that, if you were to find such a Tome that’d been wielded by a different Air Spellhand, then she’d be able to use any of the Invocations within.”

“I thought you couldn’t sell or buy used Spell Tomes,” Renji replied.

“Well, yeah, okay, legally you can’t, since the Crown is a bunch of killjoys, but if you were to head to a place like Fortress Major to the northwest, you’d probably be able to buy second-hand Tomes without running afoul of the law, since that place is technically outside their jurisdiction.”

I shared a glance with Renji, who probably had the same thought as me. “Would they also have Encyclopaedias like mine?” I asked.

“It’s possible, but they’d probably cost you a fortune.”

I nodded to myself, considering it. “We might just go there then,” I said.

“Also,” Ludwig started, turning back to face Emily, “You ought to learn how to control the oxygen in the air. You’d be able to kill anything that breathes quite easily. And once your Trigger becomes really precise, you could even inject small bubbles into any creature’s bloodstream, killing them with ease.”

Renji’s eyes widened. “I never thought about that!”

“Eh well. Hang around Exorcists and Summoners long enough and you get some wicked ideas. Anyway, let’s head back, the sun will set in just a couple hours.”