"Nope, you're done. Get out. You're fired."

It was a new experience to get physically butted around by a water spirit. Ruyo felt Nusina pushing her back toward the entrance of the sacred cave, though there was hardly any force to the shoving. Ruyo said, "I thought you didn't like talking about fire."

"It's a negative word. I can't believe you! You're the new God of Water and you can't swim?"

"I was meaning to ask for lessons! There's just been so much to do."

Ruyo was officially a deity now, but had barely had time to learn the trade. She was dressed in a brown linen tunic that'd been dirtied, bloodied and burned in the last few days. Her long brown hair was tied back with a bit of green ribbon left over from her last trading run. She said, "I'm still more of a merchant than an avatar of all things wet."

A plain woman named Cydi stood on the cracked mosaic floor of the cave, too. She could only see Nusina because the spirit was spending power to be visible at the moment. Cydi shook her head gravely and said, "A flaw like this might echo throughout the ages, miss goddess."

Ruyo took advantage of Nusina's material state to snag the watery guardian like a ball between her hands. "Well, droplet, whose job was it to teach me the basics?"

Nusina's glittering pearl-like eyes flicked through her body to face the other direction, avoiding Ruyo's gaze, to focus on Cydi instead. "I'm sorry, Cydi. The glorious Ruyo needs to dismiss you from her radiant presence so she can learn beginner skills."

Ruyo said, "It sounds like duty calls. If you'll excuse us?"

Cydi smiled and bowed. "I should head home anyway. Please keep her from drowning, Nusina."

When she was gone, Nusina started tugging Ruyo toward the cave's hidden back door. Ruyo said, "All right, all right. Save your energy, though."

Nusina dutifully vanished from the material world, remaining as a translucent watery orb few people but Ruyo could see. "Downstairs with you! Ahem. Milady."

Ruyo snorted. "Seriously, how can I practice? It would take me a long time to fill the shaft down there, and I don't know how to destroy water or where to put it afterwards if I flood the place."

The spirit paused. "You did bring rope. Between that, the ice-platforms trick, and the Glittering Foebound Quills" -- the newly made ice elementals guarding the cave -- "we can get you down safely to the bottom."

Last time, Ruyo had descended using a series of improvised ice ledges, and it had been terrifying. "I don't want to fool around with a method that unreliable, again, and the Quills don't seem to do much but lurk and attack. Also, Quintus the mason-mage wants to see the crystal down there and can you picture him riding ice monsters and slippery platforms?"

Nusina gave a bubbling giggle. "I can, but it'd only work if he were too distracted to notice gravity tugging him down. All right; fine. We can save the lesson until you have the power and control to use this shaft safely."

"How about going to the baths in Averell?"

"We've been asked to avoid the city for a bit, remember?" The authorities were grateful for having that kidnapping resolved, but it had pointed them toward bigger problems.

Ruyo nodded. "There's a pond at Sor's Hill. Let's go there tomorrow. Besides, I have a horse to return and I want to ask about that wandering beast." There was a wagon near Ruyo's cave, showing signs of having been attacked by a supernatural creature.

Nusina said, "A good idea. And today, the door?"

Ruyo looked at the iron fittings and lock she'd bought, and then at the cave tunnel she'd have to install a door in. "That's going to be the limit of my divine power for today."

Nusina's glittering eyes darted around her. "Hey, did you notice? It's not dusty in here anymore."

The air now was stale and chilly, but clean. "I'll wash the floor too. It'll be practice."

First she used her power of Flotsam to make things. She conjured up wooden planks, making glittering raw mana appear between her hands and then fashioning it into real objects. She lacked the control to make more than the simplest shapes of some common materials, though. With basic boards and a few tools, she set about trying to make a door. Fortunately, she'd gotten the wizard Quintus to use an enchanted chisel during his visit. He had tapped a few holes into the stone walls where Ruyo would need them. Ruyo was proud of herself as she managed to build a crude but useful front door to keep intruders out. The project took much of the day, though.

It was good to build something, to shape the world in a way she understood. The door swung tolerably well on its hinges, and resisted one woman's shoving when locked. She nodded in satisfaction. "I'll feel a little safer sleeping here alone tonight."

"You have me, too."

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Ruyo appraised Nusina. "Do you work as a pillow?" She tugged at the spirit's edges and mimed fluffing her.

"Regretfully, milady, I don't have the energy to stay material all night."

Ruyo slept on her uncomfortable nest of blankets, with Nusina intangible but cuddled against her chest anyway.

#

She woke up sore and groggy. "Need a proper bed," she muttered. She had only a rough pile of sticks and leaves and scraps of cloth, with blankets from her merchant supplies.

"Some swimming will help! Can we show off for the villagers? I don't mean your swimming skill, obviously. But you should start winning them over."

The thought of convincing people to pray to her still unnerved Ruyo. She didn't deserve praise, not yet. On the wall of this ancient ruin hung a fragment of a beautiful aquatic mosaic, made by someone's patient and holy effort. To pray before it was to send spiritual energy to Ruyo, not to the dead goddess it was made for. It felt like cheating to have this fine artwork.

Yet until she grew stronger, she might die if anyone wrecked it. She was an art collector by necessity.

Ruyo said, "It's not safe to start bringing villagers here to kneel and pray. Even if they were willing to do that in return for a few bits of free metal and cloth like what I can make."

Nusina bobbed in agreement. "Not yet. But you can take another step toward establishing mythos. The more that people have some idea of your identity and symbolism, the closer you'll be to having widespread power."

Mythos, Nusina had explained, was partly who she was and partly what people thought of her. Her every action might shape the sort of powers she'd gain and the best form for divine relics, shrines and prayers.

Ruyo went outside to check on her borrowed horse. The mare looked pleased, having found some tasty flowers within reach of her rope. Ruyo patted her and told Nusina, "I shouldn't be keeping a horse out here while a dangerous beast is around."

The spirit left the cave's defense to the mindless elementals and iron lock, and hovered along with Ruyo as she rode. The ride east to Sor's Hill was pleasant, filled with chat about magic theory.

"It seems quiet on this road," Nusina said, as they passed an especially tall oak.

Ruyo said, "One of the westward routes has been blocked by ice all winter. The sun and the mages will have it clear about now, though. See these ruts? They're from the heavier wagons."

At Sor's Hill, the mood was subdued. Ruyo found Henrik the injured hunter and returned his horse. "She's saved me some time. How are you doing?"

Henrik was walking with a cane and with a splint on his leg. "Still trying to stay off it, which makes me pretty useless. The missus isn't happy."

They stood outside his tiny cabin, hearing clanking noises from inside. "We're fixing up my traps," Henrik explained.

"I can get you some food if you like."

"That'd be helpful, ma'am."

"A chance to show off!" Nusina commented.

They went inside to a home smelling of wood, leather and fur. A lantern hung from a set of antlers on the wall. The hunter's wife was tinkering with springs and metal jaws, nodding briefly to Ruyo.

Ruyo went to the table and said, "Watch." She waved her hands, hummed, and created a biscuit that dropped onto a plate.

Henrik said, "How'd you do that?"

With a bit more effort she made another one. "I'm learning spells. This one isn't usually possible, I'm told."

Now the wife was really paying attention. "Can you do meat as well?"

"So far, no. Later...?" She looked to Nusina.

The spirit said, "Probably not unless you work on the versatility. Maybe fish."

"Not soon," Ruyo said.

"We're not in competition then; good."

Henrik said, "Thank you, however you did that. We don't have much and I'd rather not lean on my neighbors."

Ruyo pushed herself to keep going, but felt worn out after making four of the small loaves. She leaned against the table, strained in a sort of muscle that didn't physically exist. "Best I can do today."

"What brings you here again so soon, miss Ruyo?"

Ruyo said, "I want to learn to swim. Also, there's a more serious problem: somebody's been attacked." She started talking about the wagon she'd found, in a pit that seemed to have opened suddenly beneath it.

Henrik's wife interrupted. "Oh, that! I knew that poor man. He was hoping to start a new home in the west."

"Would've been a very small start; there wasn't much in the wagon but fodder and fruit-tree saplings."

"He was making several trips. Had one too many disagreements with his neighbors, and the hunt incident was the last straw."

"What did happen in that hunt, exactly?" She'd heard that the villagers were after a dangerous beast recently, but they'd been tight-lipped about it.

Henrik muttered, then said, "You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me. I've seen strange things lately."

The hunter slicked back his hair. "Where to begin. For years there's been trouble with a certain family. Not Naveen's. They're a little clan of herb-pickers and potion-brewers. They're useful but have never been fully trusted. You may've done business with them."

Ruyo nodded, having bought some medical ingredients for sale east. She vaguely recalled a stooped-over figure in a dim hut smelling of cut grass.

"Well, we had a monk over here from Brotherhood, and between him and Naveen's hunting party we tracked signs of the beast that'd been killing livestock. The funny thing was, there were pits and tunnels involved. Something digging under our fences, collapsing the ground. So we should've guessed what was coming, when we tracked it down to the alchemist's favorite grove." Henrik spoke quietly and tapped his injured leg. "By we, I mean the hunting party. I didn't see this myself. But I'm told that the ground opened up and swallowed the group, and that a monster used the confusion to tear at them. Skin like a boar, claws like a mole."

"And they killed it?"

Henrik gulped. "A man and a boy died slaying it. And then they saw the beast was a man, too, one of the alchemists. Whose own sister had been in the hunting party and gotten slashed up by his claws. So that's why things are quiet here, now. We've got one of our own who turned out to be a monster. His sister's half-dead, and her brother's finalized his plans to move out of town. And now it sounds like the brother's dead too."

His wife said, "But if he got attacked afterward, there's more than one of the beasts!" She held one hand edge-forward over her heart, and Henrik imitated the gesture.

Ruyo made the same sign of the Steadfast Church, though she now felt guilty about it. She turned to Nusina for advice. The spirit said, "Ask about the body. And can we help the wounded?"

Ruyo asked. Henrik said, "The monster, you mean? Ugly thing. I saw what was left of him. We'd never noticed the claws and all before, so I guess he changed, somehow. Must have been hiding what he really was. And maybe the whole family is monsters too. There's some worry that everyone who even got scratched or bitten in that brawl might be cursed the same way."

Ruyo went pale. "Thank you, Henrik. It sounds like I ought to get involved. Maybe I can see to the wounded sister at least."

"But you're an outsider. A merchant."

"I'm more than that, these days, but we can talk about that later. Good luck, Henrik."