Abi wanted to look for Countess Niwa in the miasma of defeatism and self-doubt she had sensed earlier. With the ghost wires gone, Nin was happy to look anywhere. Nhao shrank to kitten size and jumped into her arms. Nin thought that was the most amazing thing ever.
"Though I still hope we can find Countess Niwa."
They reached the miasma.
"Oh," said Nin. "This is the boy's locker room."
"What a coincidence," said Edrus. "Did you really sense a miasma here, Abi?"
"Can't you feel it!?" demanded Abi.
"The house only has boys now," said Nin. "Except for the big ladies who cook. And of course the giant lady who is in charge. The cooks are nice. They leave treats for me. The giant lady has only left ghost wires, though I don't think that was for me. We've come to an understanding."
"What understanding is that, Nin?" asked Abi.
"I don't make trouble. But that's easy! I don't like to make trouble anyway."
Richan suggested it was fun to make a little trouble. Nin confessed that sometimes she helped the boys with exam preparation by acquiring paper and brushes and cheat notes from neighborhood boutiques.
"But it isn't stealing!" Nin insisted.
"It sounds a bit like stealing," suggested Edrus.
"No!" said Nin. "I leave coins behind! Shiny coins! Like this!"
Nin produced an astral representation of a shiny coin. Edrus admitted that leaving coins behind was kind of the little girl. Unfortunately, the merchants might not be able to see ghost coins. Nin insisted she left real coins for the merchants.
After all, she was buying real paper and brushes for the students.
"Our Nin looks small," said Abi. "But she's a remarkable little ghost!"
"Thank you, Abi!"
"Your coins come from the end of the Autumn Blossoming Dynasty," said Abi.
"That's your Dynasty, Abi!" said Hermes.
"Even one is worth a lot of brushes and paper," said Edrus.
Nin insisted that the value of the coins proved she wasn't stealing.
"You're not stealing," Edrus agreed. "But I hope we're not in the locker room because …."
Abi's astral form turned fifty shades of embarrassed.
"This is a miasma of defeatism and self-doubt!" she insisted.
"Are we going to ameliorectify it, Abi?" asked Hermes.
"We are!"
Unaware of the ghosts, starving students went about the task of uncomfortable bathing. Each student avoided bathing for as many days as he could. Eventually, however, all of Madame Wu's tenants found it necessary to sit on old wooden stools with cracks that pinched sensitive skin, lift leaky buckets over their heads, and splash themselves with freezing water.
At least it was summer.
"I don't understand," said Hermes. "Why hasn't anyone cast a hot bath spell?"
"I know, right?" asked Nin. "I always took hot baths. Just not in this room. This room used to be for the soldiers. Come to think of it, I don't know if they took hot baths. That wasn't very considerate of me."
"Most people expect to go their entire lives without a hot bath spell," said Edrus.
Hermes recoiled from that revelation in horror.
"You could cast a hot bath spell for them, Abi," he suggested.
"You could too, Hermes."
"I think that you should do it," said Hermes.
"Why should Abi do it?" asked Nin.
"Her hot bath spell has music," said Edrus.
Nin thought that sounded amazing. Abi twisted bashfully.
"It is a little embellishment I've worked up," she said.
"Abi added a sagaphonium to her spell," said Hermes.
"A saxophone," corrected Abi.
Nin had no idea what a saxophone was. Abi cast her hot bath spell.
At first, only a few students realized the water was getting warmer. It didn't take long, however, for all of them to start pouring bucket after bucket over themselves. Eventually, they started pouring water over one another.The air became steamy; and the steamier it got, the more sultry the saxophone music became.
"Everyone is so much friendlier!" said Nin. "Is that what a sagaphone does?"
"Yes," said Abi. "But it's a saxophone."
"We defeated the miasma!" said Richan. "Where should we go now?"
"I wouldn't mind seeing these gold coins," said Edrus.
Nin was happy to show her new friends the coins. They were sealed in a room which had no doors, but that wasn't a problem for adventurous astral phantoms. The gold coins were neatly stacked in heavily reinforced chests — and there was a great abundance of chests.
"Marquis Yue was doing well for himself," said Abi.
"Did you know my daddy!?" asked Nin.
"I did not," said Abi. "But I'm getting a picture of him."
"His picture was very handsome!" said Nin. "And everything was going well. I was so happy! I would have felt bad for the soldiers taking cold baths though. I didn't pay enough attention. And my brother Jacob teased me a lot. That was mean. But I was still pretty happy. Then I remember everyone getting worried because the Emperor changed. Sure enough, right after that happened soldiers showed up and killed everybody. But they didn't find the treasure!"
Nin giggled.
"They killed everyone for treasure?" asked Richan. "What despicable people!"
"Despicable!" agreed Hermes emphatically.
"Treasure was not their primary objective," said Abi.
"What was their primary objective?" asked Edrus.
"Killing everybody," said Abi.
"Even more despicable!" said Hermes.
Nin thought so too. Abi wasn't yet able to say why everyone in Marquis Yue's family had to die. It had a bit to do with treasure, yes, but not the gold coins. It was some other treasure. There was also a fear about black magic.
"Black magic!" gasped Richan. "Do you know black magic, Nin?"
"I don't think so!"
"This room is fascinating," said Abi. "But there is no sign of Countess Niwa. Where do you think she might be, Nin?"
"Someplace I haven't looked yet," said Nin sagaciously. "It's an unreasonably large house. My mother always complained about that. Why couldn't we have a normal mansion like the other noble families in the capital? The deep basement is too scary to search, though. I don't go down there. If Countess Niwa is in the deep basement, I'll never find her. That would be terrible, Abi! Countess Niwa has been alone all this time."
"I think Countess Niwa is under the roof," said Nhao.
"Really?" asked Nin. "Hmmm. That makes sense. I've never been up to the roof! My mom didn't like me climbing ladders. She didn't like it when I hid on the balconies and threw candies down to the soldiers practicing in the courtyard — and that's only one floor!"
Taking hold of Nin's hand, Abi floated toward the roof.
Then she followed Nhao sideways. Then down. Then over. Nhao stuck his kirin nose into a gap between a beam and the roof pediment's masonry. Then he pulled his nose out and insisted he had found something interesting.
"Are there spiders?" asked Richan.
"I don't think so," said Nhao.
Heroically, Edrus reached one of his long, skinny arms into the gap. Nin looked at him with great big adoring eyes. When Edrus pulled his skinny arm out, he had a bundle of fabric in his hand. Everyone leaned close to watch him unwrap the fabric.
Inside was a beautiful antique doll.
"Countess Niwa!" cried Nin, elated. "I've been looking for so long, and you guys found her right away! Thank you so much!"
Nin became a bubble of happy tears.
"Nhao is very good at finding things," said Abi.
Nin hugged the fluffy kirin puppy.
"How did Countess Niwa get here?" asked Edrus.
"Like I mentioned," said Nin, "my brother Jacob was always teasing me. One thing he liked to do was hide Countess Niwa. But he always left me clues to follow, so it was like a game. When he hid her this time, however, the soldiers showed up. Jacob didn't have time to leave me any clues. He tried his best to protect me. My brother was one of the best fighters in the world. That's what the mystics said. Jacob killed an awful lot of those soldiers before they killed me. Why did I have to get hit with a sword, Abi? That hurt. I never did anything. What could I do?"
"Unjust bad things happen too frequently to little kids," said Abi. "Hermes got poisoned."
Hermes and Nin hugged one another supportively.
"That shouldn't have worked," said Abi. "But Hermes likes to play along."
Hermes nodded enthusiastically. Blond curls flopped everywhere.
"Edrus and Richan also had an older brother," said Abi.
"He got poisoned too?" asked Nin.
Abi nodded.
"There are a lot of bad people out there," said Abi. "Is Jacob still here with you?"
Nin shook her head.
"He got caught in the wires," suggested Edrus, "and then taken away by the shinigami."
"That's right!" said Nin. "Jacob was always playing tricks. The lady giant didn't like that. He had tried so hard to save us, he was pretty angry at everything. But all he wanted to be was a hero."
Nin sniffled.
"He was a hero," said Edrus.
"He was?" asked Nin hopefully. "Do you really think so, Edrus?"
"He saved Countess Niwa by hiding her up here."
Nin's eyes got so big, they were almost bigger than her. The crying started all over again. But this time, each tear sparkled with something like hope.
Nin hugged Countess Niwa and twisted from side to side.
"Jacob really was a hero, Countess Niwa," she said.
"If you forgive him for teasing you," said Iba Algi, "that will help a lot."
"Will it?" asked Nin. "It's not too late?"
"It's never too late," insisted Iba Algi. "If you tell Jacob you forgive him, maybe he can come back for a little while."
"Really?" asked Nin.
Iba Algi insisted it was true. Hermes concurred. Timidly at first, then with conviction, Nin held Countess Niwa, bowed, and told Jacob that she forgave him for teasing her — and that the Countess was grateful for being saved. Several quiet moments passed.
The fabric of reality tore open.
Terrifying demonic arms shot out from the rift and tried to pull it shut. Nin would have run away, but she felt protected by her friends. The ghostly body of a boy fell through the rip in reality and lay on the mansion's rafters. He was an older teenager — and in bad shape. Bruised, battered, burned, and starved, he had filthy hair and a terrible stench.
It was much worse than the ordinary stench of just being a boy.
"Jacob!" cried Nin.
She rushed forward to put herself between her brother and the hands trying to drag him back through reality. Hermes pointed a finger at the arms.
"No!" he said sternly.
The arms twitched in shock — and retreated. As they fled, they pulled the crack in reality shut. Jacob rolled onto his back and struggled to open his eyes. Nin knelt beside his head.
"Nin?" said Jacob. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop them. I tried."
Nin hugged him.
"Thank you, Jacob," said Nin. "You're my hero."
"Silly girl," said Jacob. "I've never been a hero."
Nin held out her doll. Jacob eyes tried to focus on it.
"You saved Countess Niwa," said Nin.
"Silly girl," repeated Jacob. "I don't think that counts."
"It counts for me," said Nin.
Abi insisted that it counted. Hermes agreed. Jacob closed his eyes.
"Goodbye, Nin," he said. "I'm glad I could be your hero."
"Goodbye, Jacob," said Nin.
Jacob's body grew dull and claylike, then collapsed into dust. For a few moments, he was a sad, strange blotch of grey on ceiling boards and rafters.
His dust lifted into the air, sparkled — and vanished.
"Did we help?" asked Nin. "I hope we helped."
"We helped," said Abi. "Jacob has a strong soul. Strength is a curse for people who don't know how to use it. Your brother used his strength to build a prison for himself. He forgot why he should fight, so he just kept fighting. But you rewrote what happened, Nin."
"Me?" squeaked Nin.
"Now that Jacob has become a hero," said Abi, "those meddlesome gods are required to give him a chance to do better next time. Maybe he will even become a handsome swashbuckler for Jian Peak Abbey."
"I hope so!" said Nin.
"We saved Countess Niwa!" said Richan. "Where do we go next?"
"We'll investigate that deep basement," said Abi.
"It's so scary!" said Nin. "But I feel safe with you guys."
"You are safe with us, Nin!" insisted Richan gallantly.
"Before we go there, however," said Abi, "we should take Nin back to our house and ask Madame to give her some ice cream. I think she's earned a bowl."
"I think she's earned several bowls!" said Richan.
It was agreed.