Nusina had been busy fiddling with the temple and consulting with other mages and some would-be machine builders, much as she'd been doing with the Inheritors over in Starshore.

Ruyo came away from the training without a ready method to solve everybody's problems, but she still welcomed Nusina back to her side with a smile. "It sounds like the food solution will be to get some mass-produced glop generators, so that famines won't need my personal attention."

Nusina floated along while Ruyo, wearing her fancy blue dress, browsed the market. "Saves you a few hours a day of casting, huh?"

"That too. But ideally the answers to problems like this won't come from me. A lot of other people will decide for themselves what they need." She examined some bottles for sale. "I mean, I never dictated how much glassware should be bought and sold. That's decided by a lot of individual makers and traders."

Nusina followed, lost in thought. "If you're taking the route of not announcing how to run things, then won't you be the one taking orders instead?"

"Listen to yourself. Right now we've got whole city-states negotiating with us. If we keep being useful then before long, not even the threat of a few shrines getting smashed can force us to do anything we don't want to."

"I suppose," the spirit said.

#

Elly showed up by ferry from the east, still under the Witch Hunters' guard. They met at Ruyo's temple, which as Elly explained, was just about the only place she could shoo the guards away.

Elly said, "Your parents say hi. And this came for you." She set down her backpack and pulled out a tunic in watery blue-green with matching pants.

Ruyo held them up and admired them. "The uniform I ordered. Nice!" The material was slightly enchanted cloth, extra durable, with a water-drop emblem on each sleeve and white trim like sea foam. Ruyo changed into it right away and studied her reflection. "The tailor did good work. Think I'll order a whole set for the group."

Elly's own outfit was a fine and practical setup of violet and dark leather, as though she planned to burgle her way into a high-class party. She said, "You'll need to be more fashionable than me to keep your followers from defecting."

Ruyo laughed. "I can think of worse ways for the gods to fight. Where is everyone?"

"Tamur and three people whose names I don't know are out shopping and will show up soon. One of the westerners fell in love in Starshore and says he's staying, and Roland the horse groom is studying medicine over there."

"Good for both of them."

Elly said, "With four basic shrines running, I'm beginning to catch up to you. Watch this." She held her hands together and nothing happened. She frowned. "I may need to do this one outside your dedicated zone."

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They stepped out to the plaza, where several dozen people had gathered due to the guards and whatever attention Elly had attracted personally. Ruyo waved to the onlookers and murmured to Elly, "It's good to be seen together. Show off for them."

Elly looked nervous. First she created a tiny black cloud floating between her hands, shot through with silver sparks.

"Lightning?" asked Ruyo.

"That's basically decoration. But now..." She concentrated, and the spell expanded into a pillow-sized blob.

"Dark fog? Also, speak up."

Louder, Elly said, "I call it nightfog. First of all, it floats." She let it drift. "It's also slightly solid, not just an illusion or a curtain."

Ruyo poked the cloud. She met resistance as though touching water, but her fingers sank through. "Would you make this into barriers or something?"

"Maybe. For now it's a tool." She stepped away, ran toward it, and leaped. In midair she grabbed the cloud and swung from it like a handhold. It shattered into nothing and she staggered, about to fall until Ruyo propped her up. But she'd changed direction slightly.

"Hmm. A movement tool, maybe. A way to fall safely?"

One of the townsfolk said, "Uh, Lady Elinor? That looks like fun. Can you give everybody a power like that?"

Elly hemmed and hawed until Ruyo nudged her. "Y-yes! After several training steps. If anyone wants to come to my shrine I can get you started today."

#

Ruyo met up with Nusina, Tamur and the three westlands adventurers still wanting to follow her. Elly now had a simple shrine in the Glasstown district, outside the city walls. The site was chosen to be a good distance from the Bastion, the center of government that might soon double as a more advanced temple for her. Over there, Ruyo inspected the simple and dull night-themed hut with a carved, shadowed pillar inside. She silently offered a prayer for Elly's success even though it'd probably do nothing.

Nusina floated between Ruyo and the others. "What's the plan?"

Ruyo said, "I can't solve the resource problem but I made headway on it while training here, and improved my enchanting skill a bit for time and mana efficiency."

"You should make sure to practice with more materials so you don't carve too deep a channel focused on a narrow range."

"Good point. Anyway, I'm not going to do anything special for Trueharbor yet beyond continued resource support. I'm heading to Port Desire to finally make peace with the Mendrettos family; they told me a while ago that they had a shrine to activate. That will get me more power to churn out supplies for them, too. It sounds like the town is hurting, and leaning on its neighbors too hard." Ruyo looked around. "Anyone coming?"

Tamur nodded. "It will be new to me, and I'm told there are skilled fighting men."

"Me!" said Virid, arriving with two men from the household staff. "This ought to be safe, and there's rebuilding to do. These two have been studying earth magic with me, using the talent you gave them."

Ruyo blinked. "I thought that with my shortcut you still needed months or years to learn another element well."

One man said, "We only know the basics of it so far. We're construction support, basically."

"Oh, let me tell you about a building technique I was working on in Starshore. But Virid, have you got your mother and brothers' permission for this trip?"

"He does," said the other servant.

But the boy was avoiding Ruyo's gaze. Ruyo tapped one foot. "Virid..."

"I'll, uh, go make sure." He ran off.

Ruyo asked his companions, "Did Elly get you her brand of magic? It might help."

"Not yet. From what we've heard, Lady Elinor's magic blessing doesn't do much yet. It's like your first level, fun but not very useful."

Nusina put in, "I'll be curious to see if it helps people master other elements. What I've seen so far suggests not."

Ruyo added, "Her personal powers are at a higher level than what she can grant yet. That's true for me too."