Packing both the invisible wall and the water conjuring into the same ward wasn’t impossible. Difficult maybe. Especially for someone who had only been in the class as long as Eva. But probably difficult for others as well.
With the staggering amount of wards and shackles around the place, Eva couldn’t imagine that they would have gone with the more complicated and more time-consuming route of wrapping both effects up into a single spell. They would have built everything within the last hour or so, or people might have noticed. Two people did all that. Maybe a few more if they had recruited the hunters who were attacking Nel and Ylva.
They had to have made mistakes in their castings. Eva doubted that the water conjuration was supposed to have given time to escape.
“Maybe it will run out of magic soon,” Eva said, mostly to herself.
Apparently Juliana heard. “I’d rather not take that chance.”
“Right.”
Eva considered going back up the stairs and finding a decently sized bit of rebar and having Juliana smack it against the top of the shell for a while. But if the shell and the water were separate as Eva suspected, the shell could last for a very long time before running out of magic enough to release Juliana.
She would have to try deconstructing the ward.
It was simple in theory. Being able to tear down their own thaumaturgical wards was one of the first things taught. Otherwise the teacher would have to go around and dispel everybody’s practice wards every single time they went into class.
Professor Lepus had warned them never to tear down other people’s wards. It was possible to build traps into the things that activated upon attempts to break them. From simple things such as alarms to full on explosions.
But in the hunters’ haste to erect these defenses, would they have put more time and effort into trapping them?
Eva reached out again, keeping her hand hovering just above the bubble. She channeled her magic through her fingers as if she were conjuring a fireball. Instead of flames, she forced the magic into the shell.
All while focusing on the level of the water.
The water did not significantly rise from her added magic.
“Excellent.” She could toy around for a moment without accidentally drowning Juliana.
Forcing her magic into the bubble again, Eva waited just a moment before yanking it back. Much like removing excess hair with a strip of hot wax paper. Or so went the example Professor Lepus had used; Eva had never had a bikini wax in her life. They sounded painful.
Also, since about a half an hour ago, entirely unnecessary given her lack of hair.
Eva held her breath, waiting and watching.
No explosions. She was taking that as a good sign.
Trying again and a third time, Eva smiled.
A leak had formed in the shell.
“I see the water going out,” Juliana said slowly, “but it’s up to my shoulders now.” Her voice had just a tinge of panic in it. “And still rising. I can make my pedestal bigger, but not by much.”
Eva grit her teeth.
“Just hold on a minute,” Eva said, pouring more and more magic into the shell.
She tore it all away, peeling it back. More cracks were forming. More water escaping.
“My chin, Eva.”
As she had said she could do, Juliana’s pillar stretched, growing slightly narrower at the top. The water level moved from her chin back to her shoulders as her head bumped into the top of the ward.
“Working as fast as I can,” Eva said, continuing to rip apart the shell.
“Eva…”
“When this thing shatters, try not to get washed into another ward.”
“Gee, okay. That’s first on my priority list at the moment!”
The water had risen back to her chin despite the additional cracks in the shell.
“If you get washed into another one, I’ll have to do this all over again. And maybe it will be fire instead of water.”
Juliana grimaced without speaking. She had to tilt her head back to try to keep her mouth above the water line.
As she continued ripping apart the ward, Eva considered something. It might not have been designed to speed up because she was ripping apart the barrier. The fact of the matter was that the shell was in the shape of a sphere. Beyond the half-way point, for every inch the water level rose, less water would need to exist to fill the next inch.
That didn’t really help much, but at least she knew that she wasn’t fueling some trap.
Feeding in enough of her magic to detonate several of her most explosive fireballs, Eva tore it away in a single jerk of her hands.
It started around the middle. Water exploded outwards in a ring. The rest of the water held its shape for just a moment. All at once, that sphere failed. The ring traveled upwards and downwards, letting the water collapse in on itself as it rushed to fill the rest of the first floor.
It was enough water to almost knock Eva off her feet.
