I held Berla for a few moments before she let go and kept testing her new leg. “This is incredible...” she said, hopping up and down carefully.

Unable to concentrate on her tasks, Hayla walked over to us as well, to examine this miracle up close. Still in a daze, she stared at the empty air below Berla’s left leg.

“It’s as if her leg is invisible...” she said in wonder. “Can you... touch it?”

“Kind of,” I said. “The script creates a solid surface against the ground and the leg, but not to the outside. You will feel some resistance if you try to move something in between, but it’s not solid.”

Berla bent over curiously and tried it, giggling every time her hand reached the mana and slowed her movement. It was similar to waving your hand through water, creating a noticeable drag.

“This is... It’s... ridiculous...” Hayla stammered.

“Uh... Not exactly the reaction I was expecting,” I said.

“Don’t get me wrong, I mean that in a positive way. But... Berla, how are you feeling?”

“How do you think I’m feeling?” she said, sniffling through a wide grin.

“Sorry, that was poorly worded. How does it feel? What’s it like?”

“Hm... Do you know what it’s like if you try to walk around while your leg is asleep? It’s somewhat like that right now, but not quite as strong. I don’t feel it being there, but it does support me, and it moves how I want it to move. With this and a bit of practice... I’ll be almost as mobile as I was before!”

I was happy that she was happy, though I really wished I could’ve done a better job. It was far from perfect.

“And you did this in one night...?” Hayla asked me.

“It’s less impressive than it sounds,” I said. “I’ve been thinking about the problem before, but it wasn’t until now that I had all the pieces to actually do it. And at the risk of souring the mood, there are a few caveats...”

“I figured,” Berla said, but her happy expression didn’t change a bit.

“Well, actually it’s ‘just’ two things. First of all, it needs to be charged with mana regularly. If you run out, the leg will simply disappear. I haven’t done enough tests to determine how long it might last, and it will also depend on how much you use it, but I believe a day or two is probably realistic. Maybe three or four if you only use it when absolutely necessary. That being said... Aelene has more mana than me, so maybe we can get her to put a bit more into it. The other issue you’re probably aware of already. If this thing gets damaged, or the script gets blurred, it stops working as well. We should probably look into getting a metal plate engraved, instead of using carved wood... Maybe a leather strap instead of a string... And we could try tattooing the script onto your leg. That way—”

“That’s it...?” Hayla interrupted, perplexed.

“Huh?”

“Those are your caveats for creating a leg out of nothing? It doesn’t last forever and you might need better materials...” She laughed lightly at her perceived ridiculousness of the situation. “People have been... lost... because they couldn’t walk anymore. To think that you were able to do something like this at all... And so easily and quickly... It’s more than we ever expected from you.”

“We?”

“The king and the other Rulers. We saw you as nothing more than a fighter. But this is so much more than shooting out water. We were wondering whether there’s other applications for your powers of course, but...” Her eyes suddenly widened in realization. “Oh! Lilly’s blessings! Is that how they work? I’ve been wondering how you guys accomplished that. Did you build something to scare the beasts away?”

She’s very astute... Though it should be relatively obvious that we did something with scripts.

“Not exactly,” I said, “but something along those lines.”

“But then...” Hayla trailed off and you could practically hear the wheels turning in her brain, her head cocked to the side and her eyes darting back and forth. “What about Lilly?”

By mentioning “Lilly” all of a sudden, she took me by surprise yet again. “What about her?”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it you who did everything? You scared the beasts away, you took care of the new rituals, you’re the better fighter from what I’ve heard, and now this... It didn’t seem like it from the outside, but... Is she just playing the role of the leader? Maybe because you were considered criminals?”

It was almost comical how close to the truth her conclusion was, while simultaneously being far off the mark. Though if she knew about someone like me existing, a being controlling the bodies of others and even switching between them at two occasions, she might’ve guessed everything.

“It’s not quite that clear-cut, and there are aspects to it that you don’t know about,” I said, implying that our secrets would explain it all.

She understood that I wasn’t willing to share this information and nodded, seemingly content with the things she had learned just now. “I see.”

Meanwhile, Berla was still experimenting with her magic leg, currently practicing to stand on just it. While she was doing exceptionally well, however, she was a little shaky. There was something that could help with it, but it would require a bit more research.

“I’ve been thinking about adding a foot as well, but that would use a lot more mana...” I said apologetically. “Even without toes it would require at least twice the amount of streams, and the script would be longer as well.”

“Now he’s apologizing for the miracle leg not being miracle enough,” Hayla said in exasperation and left us to go back to work.

“It’s fine.” Beaming, with no end in sight, Berla didn’t seem the least bit disappointed. “This is amazing as it is. And I agree with Hayla,” she laughed, “your caveats can barely be called that. Even having to load it up with mana is a minor inconvenience at best. Though I hope you can do it a little bit at a time... Don’t think I didn’t notice it hurting you just now.”

“Got me again...” I said under my breath. “Yea, I should be able to put in smaller amounts whenever it’s convenient. Though I haven’t tested it extensively yet. We’ll have to see how it goes.”

“Can’t you use a water source?” Riala suddenly suggested.

“To charge it? I don’t think that’s... Although... Hm...”

Thinking about it, this actually seemed like a really good idea. I considered how unfortunate it was that me and Aelene were the only ones with a large enough mana pool to actually charge up a small object to such a degree, as well as how we would need to find some alternative to actually introduce magical items to the larger populous, but I hadn’t thought extensively about potential alternatives yet.

“Under normal circumstances, they just push out the mana if you remove the conversion, but if you manage to concentrate it and funnel it into something...” You might get a public charging station... That would be brilliant... “It’s a really neat idea, Ria. We’ll have to look into that,” I said, eliciting a proud grin from her. “Though I guess that will have to wait a few days, until we’re done with our other tasks.”

Trying my best not to lose myself in thoughts about citizens charging their magical appliances at water sources, I focused on what lay ahead for us and looked around the room. Hayla was getting busy, Berla would almost certainly want to try out her new leg some more, and Riala was wide awake by now. We were ready to start the day. The only outlier was Hati, who was lying on his back, his legs stretched away from him. He was eyeing us curiously, but didn’t even say anything.

He’s starting to act more and more like a pet dog...

“How about we get going?” I said to the other two. “We’ll have to visit a few people. And Berla, could you feed Hati and take him outside? You can get some exercise alongside him,” I teased.

“Sounds good to me,” she said, grinning.

“Food!” came an excited shout from the wolf posing as a carpet.

It almost seems like his vocabulary is going down as well...

***

Hayla watched everybody leave the office one after the other. Bringing up the rear, Tomar was the last to go, and she looked at him affectionately when he briefly glanced back at her before waving goodbye and closing the door. She thought of herself as a mostly rational being, and she hadn’t initially thought of Tomar as a love interest, but he intrigued her more and more.

The accounts she initially heard painted him as nothing but a confused boy. However, just two months later he returned as Lilly’s sidekick, in a very real position of power, all supposed innocence and confusion having vanished from his eyes. And now she had learned that he was essentially responsible for all of Lilly’s exploits. She seemed to be little more than a scapegoat, and Hayla was certain that Tomar knew exactly what he was doing.

People had actually been scared of him and Riala before—the ones who reportedly assaulted guards, stole, and broke out of prison. Putting a comely girl like Lilana Firela front and center, who’s only reputation at that point was the one as a bringer of blessings, was a work of genius.

The primary reason Hayla’s affection had tipped in his direction was the time they spent together the day before, however, as brief as it was. He had been genuinely sweet to her, and she had seen a side of him she wanted to know more about.

A smile on her face, she took several files from a stack and started browsing through them, to check if they were in order. The reports Tomar wrote on the rituals were much more detailed than the ones the temple sent to the Registration Agency in the past, which just listed the Calling a candidate got. In comparison, Tomar’s felt like essays on their families’ Calling histories.

She was delighted by the level of detail and skipped through them quickly. Certain that he wouldn’t make any grave mistakes, she was a little surprised to find an incomplete file at the bottom, however.

Ah, the healer, she thought.

Whatever happened during her ritual, the group had brought Shadi to the hospital right after. Figuring that Tomar simply forgot to complete the file, Hayla picked up the quill to add the last entry.

Calling: Sourcerer

Nodding in satisfaction, she closed the file and moved the stack over to the ones that were ready for the next stop on their journey. She was about to keep going when a thought popped into her head. What if there was more to the reports they received in the past? If something of note happened, would the High Priest have documented it? That stood to reason. However, would he have forwarded it? Past evidence suggested otherwise.

Hayla immediately looked down at the desk’s drawers and opened the largest of them, intended for storing documents. Well organized as it was, it took her mere seconds to find the one she was looking for. Flipping it open curiously, it appeared fairly typical on the surface, except for one key piece of information.

What’s a Split One?