Ruyo slept on her rickety bed after a day of tinkering and magic practice. It was quiet now that the repairmen had gone.

Nusina woke her up with a silent message. "Milady, someone's here!"

Ruyo was groggy, and there was no light in the shrine-cave. "Huh?"

"Ssh. The lock's been picked. Prepare yourself!"

Ruyo's eyes widened and her heart beat faster. As quietly as she could, she untangled herself from the sheets and poured water into Nusina's grip. Working quietly in the dark, she conjured a third one of the Glittering Foebound Quills to lurk on a wall. Too many to maintain easily but the mana drain didn't matter right now.

"I'll glow brightly on command," Nusina said.

For agonizing seconds Ruyo waited in a corner. She heard nothing and imagined a thousand enemies sneaking in. Another wait. Was that the door creaking?

Nusina said, "Slinky man heading for your bed. More coming in slowly."

That meant the intruder was almost within arm's reach! She felt a presence dangerously close by. Then she saw a little circle of light on the floor, moving, searching, as though cast by a tiny lantern. It fell upon Ruyo's empty bed. And from the angle it swung from, she made her guess... and kicked. "Now!"

Blue-tinged light flashed across the cave. Ruyo averted her eyes as she struck. Her foot connected with the face of a lean, quick killer she'd last seen in a seedy bar. These were the same men she'd provoked while trying to get kidnapped.

As Nusina's light dimmed to a tolerable level, the man hopped back and hurled a knife at her. She sidestepped, whipped a lead bar up from the floor, and swung it at his neck. The blow sent him reeling and gasping for breath.

While she was doing that, three men in dark leather had run in, abandoning stealth. They cornered Ruyo, and she saw little more of them than wicked blades and dirty smiles.

The one-eyed, heavyset man from the bar was right behind them. He took one look at Nusina and swung his axe at the spirit. The blow tore through her, shattering the water in her grip. Her light sputtered and went out.

"Nusina!"

"I'm fine, milady! Give me a few moments to reform."

Chunks of ice exploded from the ceiling and walls as the three guardian Quills ambushed the thugs. They reeled from the sudden assault but still had Ruyo cornered. The only real victim was the speedy lock-picker, who took a heavy chunk to the head and crashed to the floor. The elementals' bodies shined now like shifting sculptures of candle-lit ice. They cast flickering shadows of angry men.

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Ruyo furiously lifted shards of ice from the floor and hurled them at the enemies' faces, while the Quills shot out more. Battered and scratched, the men held their ground. Behind them, One-Eye smiled and brandished his axe, saying, "We're gonna have a good time with you."

Nusina pushed back into reality, first in her ghostly form and then gleaming right between the thugs. The goddess rushed forward and slashed wildly with more ice in her hands. She caught a nose, an arm. An elbow strike sent her reeling but she used her momentum to crash into another man, knocking him hard into the wooden table and down to the stone floor. She stomped him savagely, stood up straighter, and got grabbed by the back of her shirt.

One-Eye had her now, and his axe in the other hand. Ruyo said to Nusina, "Can you make my voice echo?"

"Yes."

Ruyo turned her head, grinned, and spoke in what she hoped was an otherworldly voice. "You dare lay hands on a goddess?"

Her words rippled and echoed with unnatural loudness. The hardened thug looked like he regretted his decision.

The gang's leader stepped in, just a shadow at the cave mouth. He was holding something that flashed red. Ruyo's eyes widened as a gout of flame poured into the cave. She shoved One-Eye right into it. The blaze engulfed him but started to flare along Ruyo too. It felt like being boiled alive and made her choke and stagger.

Nusina called out, "Water, milady!"

Ruyo conjured a cloud of water like a shield, enduring the worst of the flames, but the smoke was getting thick. The fire blast failed just before her barrier did.

Nusina swooped past the burning, screaming One-Eye to wrap the head of one bandit in a ball of water. Suddenly choking, he tried to dodge out of it but the spirit followed his every move. His still-standing friend barely dodged another shard of ice. Seeing the slow death that awaited him next, he fled for his life. The leader clotheslined him and forced him to stay, with a knife in his trembling hands.

"You want more?" the leader said.

"Nusina, echo again." Ruyo shouted, "You will kneel before me or die!"

"Come out here and say that! You, get her!" He shoved his remaining thug forward.

The man was obviously frightened, charging at Ruyo more to force her out of his way than to strike true. She sidestepped. How dare these bastards seek out another fight with her! She ran forward, screaming, flinging a blast of water ahead of herself and hardening it into ice around the leader. He had one arm free and used it to try freeing himself, striking at his frozen prison.

The frightened man was noisy as he turned and tried to stab Ruyo in the back. Nusina called out a warning. Ruyo whipped around and backhanded him across the face with a hand that sprouted jagged claws of ice for a moment.

Nusina flew away from the man she was choking, and appeared at Ruyo's side. "What do you need?"

The gang leader's struggles only made him topple, half his body encased in ice. He whimpered. "Lemme go! I'll never bother you no more!"

Ruyo glared down at him. "Some of your goons might be alive. Would you rather I spare them, or you?"

"Do what you want with 'em. I swear I'll just go and mind my own business!"

Nusina said, "How do you want to handle this, milady?"

"His business is robbery and murder. If it's not me he's picking on, it'll be someone weaker. No." Ruyo conjured water in each hand, and forced it in a ball around the leader's head. He gagged and began drowning, there on the grassy ground...