The ringing of the church bell drew Alma's attention from her youngest granddaughter. She watched in bemusement as the churchmovedto a different spot.

What? Who…who asked Luisa to move the church? Why? It was fine where it was…

…isthatway she was always late to mass?! No wonder she always had trouble finding the church…

Disgruntled, Alma huffed in annoyance as she continued on behind a frantic Mirabel, who was trying to catch up with Luisa.

"Hey! Luisa, wait up!" Her granddaughter cut through the alley of two buildings and had to stop to climb over a low wall.

Alma winced as Mira tripped, face planting into the dirt. Undeterred, she immediately shot back up and after her sister. As she made her way through town, the people's requests began catching her attention more than Mirabel.

"Luisa? Can you reroute the river?"

Why? The river doesn't need to be rerouted…

"Will do!"

"Luisa you don't-" Alma began.

"Luisa, the donkeys got out again!"

Again?"Then fix your pen." She stated simply, starting to get annoyed.This is what they asked her granddaughter to do? Luisa has more important things to-

"On it!" Luisa began collecting the burros who were lazily scattered around town.Relegated to fetching loose animals?

As she and Mira passed the owner of the donkeys Alma leveled him with a disappointed look, frustrated that she couldn't be seen.

Her nieta had three burros piled onto her back by the time Alma and Mirabel caught up with her.

"Luisa! Wait up!" Mira herself struggled to keep up with Luisa as she marched forward, while Alma struggled to keep up with both of them. "You have to tell me about the problem with the magic!"

"Not here Mirabel!" Alma pleaded with her nieta.

"What's going on? What are you hiding?" Mira pestered.

"Nothing."She grunted as she adjusted the weight of the animals on her back. "I just…got a lot of chores so…maybe you should just go home." With the way her eyes shifted they could both tell she was lying.

"Luisa, my house is leaning to the-" With a swift kick the problem was fixed and Luisa continued to stomp on.

At least that was a reasonable request…

"Dolores says your eye was twitching and itnevertwitches." Mira darted in front of her sister, running backwards, so she could look her in the eye. "Something'smaking you nervous."

"Move, you're gonna make me drop a donkey." Another kick and fourth burro was added to her load.

"Careful! You might hurt them." Alma was getting exasperated.

"Luisa would you just-" Luisa quickened her pace, trying to get away from Mirabel."Justtell me what it is!"

"There's nothing to tell."

"You're-" with the quickened pace, Alma had trouble keeping up, their movements pausing to wait for her. "-obviouslyworried-"Ay, these nińas…"-about something!"

"Nothing's wrong."

"Luisa,if you know what's hurting the magic and it gets worse because you won't tell me what's wro-"

"NOTHING'S WRONG."Luisa whirled around, a tight, frazzled, wide-eyed expression on her face.

The intensity of her insistence froze them in their tracks. Both Alma and Mira held identical looks of surprise as they stared at Luisa, their eyebrows in their hairlines.

Realizing how she sounded, Luisa stuttered out an apology. "Wow, sorry, that-uh-that snuck out there." Even the donkeys looked surprised. She set the burros down.

"Luisa?" Alma's brow creased in concern. It wasn't like her nieta to yell, she was much like her father in that way, far too genial and even tempered. "What's wrong cariño?"

"What I meant was, everything's fine." Luisa tried to brush off her outburst. She lifted Mirabel out of the way and brushed some dust off of her sister's shoulder. "The magic's fine, Luisa's fine…I'm totally not nervous."

She placed her hands on her hips and gave her hermanita a determined smile…but her twitching eye gave her away.

"Your eye…it's-it's doing thething." Mirabel pointed out timidly, making Luisa's face crumple.

For a single moment, before she turned her face away, her granddaughter looked absolutelycrushed.

It's not just Mirabel…

"Luisa?" Alma asked quietly, suddenly veryverynervous about what was about to happen.

Letting out a pained yell that startled Mira and her, Luisa sent her fist through a boulder making it crumble on impact.

Slowly Mira inched toward her sister. "Luisa?" Her older hermana twitched at Mirabel's voice. "Are you okay?"

It was a few moments before Luisa whispered."I have to be."

"No? You don't?" Mirabel replied, confused. Placing a single hand on her shoulder was all it took to take down the last of her sisters' resistance. Scooping up her little sister, Luisa buried her face in Mira's curls.

The sight of her strong and capable granddaughter…breakinghad tears running down Alma's cheeks.

"Not you too."She croaked.

"Luisa?" Mirabel's voice was muffled from being pressed into her sister's shoulder.

"Are you ok?" She asked again, a little more gently.

Taking in a shuddering breath she finally admitted."No."

"What's wrong?" Mira squeaked as the hug tightened.

"I'm supposed to be thestrong one…everyone looks to me to get things done and I do everything that's asked of me without question, without fail but…but what happens if I do?" Luisa spoke quietly into her sister's hair. "It's such astrain…sometimes I just wanna take a break…b-but I can't let Abuela and the Encanto down! Ihaveto be here for the town, everyone relies on my gift, it's my job to take care of the community."

"No!" Alma reached out to comfort Luisa, but her hand fell through her nieta's face. "It's not your job cariño, it'smine. You are allowed to sayno."

You told her to be useful…so she made herself useful…

"Sometimes I wonder…if I didn't have a gift…would I be consideredworthless?"

"NO!" Mirabel and Alma shouted at the same time.

Squirming in the tight hold her sister had on her, Mira leaned back so she could look her sister in the eye.

"You arenotworthless! Even if you ended up like me…you'd still beLuisa, the best big sister in the world." Luisa gave her a watery smile. "And I'd fightanyonewho says otherwise." Tugging her arms out from where they were pinned at her sides, she threw them around Luisa's neck to return the embrace. "I love you, mi hermana."

"I love you too, Mirabel." They snuggled into one another.

"I think you're carryingwaytoo much."

"Maybe I overdo it…"

Mirabel nodded emphatically and Alma sighed, agreeing with the sentiment. Alma was relieved to know that Mirabel was at least here for her sister…butdevastatedthat another problem had been right under her nose.Luisa shouldn't have to hide anything…why didn't she ask for help?

"There is something you should know." Luisa pulled back just enough to look at Mira. "Last night, when you saw the cracks…I felt…weak." Ashamed to have uttered such a word, Luisa cuddled Mirabel closer for comfort.

"W-w-what,what?"Mirabel's eyes grew wide.

Eyes widening, Alma suddenly realized.Casita was cracking…because her nietas were cracking…who else had she failed?

"Luisa! The donkeys." Just like that the moment was broken as Luisa set her sister down, mask firmly in place.

"Fetch your own donkeys!" Alma yelled over her shoulder, angry that her granddaughter was being led around like a pack mule.

"On it!"

"Wait, wait,wait.What do you mean? What do you think's hurting the magic?"

Picking up a burro and throwing it on her shoulder, Luisa turned back to Mirabel. "I don't know, but I heard the grownups once, before Tío Bruno left. He had some terrible vision about it."

"Tío Bruno?" Mira whispered to herself.

"What was in his vision?"

Why was everything circling back to Bruno?

"No one knows. They never found it." Luisa began walking off to collect the other donkeys. "But if something's with the magic, start with Bruno's tower. Find that vision."

"No!" Alma started at Luisa's suggestion.

"Mirabel, don't eventhinkabout it. I can't believe you would send your sister into dang-"

"Wait,how do I find a vision!? What am I even looking for?!" She called after her hermana before she could get too far away.

"You'll know when you find it!" She launched the rest of the burros onto her back. "But be careful, that place is off limits for a reason."

"A VERY GOOD REASON!" Alma hollered at Luisa's retreating back. "Mirabel, I forbid-"

Mirabel turned around to head back to Casita. "MIRABEL MARIA MADRIGAL!"

Alma could only follow her nieta as her words fell on deaf ears. Crossing herself she fervently prayed for safety as they made their way back home.