Ruyo, novice Goddess of Water, stared at the man who lay beaten at her feet. "You tried to kill me as a test for hiring me?"

An archer woman moaned in pain from behind a log. Ruyo had speared her with two chunks of ice. Now Ruyo winced at the sound, and took her eyes off the disarmed thug beside her. Only for a moment, though, and he didn't use the chance to attack.

"Can you help her?" Ruyo asked. The man nodded. She said, "Go."

Ruyo was in pain now that the fear of combat was wearing off. The woman had grazed Ruyo's left arm with an arrow and the man's axe had bitten into the back of her right leg. Hot blood trickled down her skin.

The one assassin helped the other. Ruyo limped ahead to follow at a distance, churning inside with anger and sympathy. Behind her stood the entrance to her cave, her personal shrine.

Nusina floated through the air to guard her. The pearly eyes of the hovering water-ball flared white as she glared at the two intruders. But she spoke into Ruyo's mind, saying, "Milady, tend to your wounds!"

Ruyo held out her hands and concentrated, pulling raw magical energy outward from a single point. The gleaming mass faded into a real, solid object as it stretched. It became a long bandage, which she wrapped tightly around her leg.

"You're not going to kill them, are you?" Nusina asked.

Ruyo shook her head and answered silently. "After killing that gang boss, I want to be more selective. But they'd better have a damn good explanation or... or I might do it after all."

She watched the man at work. The woman she'd fought had a sharp ice chunk through her chest and another in one arm, and it didn't look good for her. He had bandages of his own and a hip flask but not much else on him.

It shamed Ruyo to think she might have condemned the lady to a slow death. The hunter Baris had told her about his own ideal of slaying prey instantly when he killed at all.

Worse, Ruyo was helpless here. "I'm a goddess and I can't whip out a healing spell, even for myself."

Nusina said, "You've had many other urgent things to study. Do... do you want to play at doing miraculous healing, to try to calm her?"

Ruyo nodded, and stepped closer. She said, "Let us at least bless her."

He scowled up at her. "We don't worship you."

"You wanted a god's attention. Accept it or get out of here."

"Fine! Do what you can for her."

So Ruyo and Nusina did, but it was just stage magic. Waving of hands, and in the water-spirit's case, hovering and glowing with vague benevolence. They'd tried it before and had probably done some good.

The woman shuddered, her face unnaturally tinted by Nusina's light, and reached up with her good arm. She choked out a few words Ruyo didn't hear, and then fell back, dead.

The man took it well, crouching beside her and shutting her eyes. When he finally spoke aloud he said, "We knew the risk."

Ruyo shouted at him, holding her fists at her sides. "Why? What did you throw yourselves into battle for? You said you wanted me to fight and kill some monster for you, and you decided not to try asking me to help?"

"It was a risk, ma'am. The best way to be sure you could help us was to prove you could fight us. Which meant one of my people had to die fighting someone we want on our side."

Ruyo swore at him for ambushing her, for drawing her out by threatening to kill the people still sleeping just outside the cave, for fighting to the death, and for being the third group of people picking a fight with her in the last few weeks. When her throat was sore and he only crouched there meeting her gaze with forced calm and a clenched jaw, Ruyo paused for breath. She made another bandage for her bleeding arm; her leg still throbbed.

Then she paid attention again to the sleeping figures in their flimsy tents and ramshackle shed. None had woken during the fight. "What about them? Did you drug them?"

He said, "Something like that. They'll be fine. Ma'am... may I stand?"

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His axe and the woman's bow lay on the grass. She nodded.

He showed his empty palms. His eyes shined with tears. "The town of Brotherhood began as a monastery, as jailers for something evil. Our church is built around the suppression of dark magic. We wanted to find someone who could end the threat of the Unspoken One forever. Come to our home and help us."

Ruyo ran her hands through her long brown hair. "What is this Unspoken One?"

"Even I don't know the full truth. If you come to our home, our elders can explain. I swear on my life that you'll be free to come and go in peace."

Ruyo told Nusina, "I want to hug him and throttle him. What do we do?"

Nusina bubbled, her eyes dimming. "You promised to go east to Averell, not west to Brotherhood."

"More obligations, too quickly. Before I even have the skills I need."

Nusina said, "There's your answer, then."

Ruyo told the man, "I'm not in any condition to kill a monster that your entire fellowship is afraid of. Not yet. I badly need more skill and training, and there's something I've promised to do before running off on anyone else's quest. The most I can offer is to let you leave here alive, and that I'll come to your village when I'm damn well ready."

"But you will come, soon?"

Ruyo sighed. "Yes. Now get out of here. Unless... you want to bury her. I can freeze the body if that would help."

"I should bring her home."

"Then look on the downhill side of the road. I hid a cart there that a man can pull if it's not carrying much. Best I can do." She described the spot. "I sent two men off to your town to ask for peace; did you see them?"

"No, we stayed off the main road."

"Maybe they can help. I can give you bread and of course water."

He said, "Then I'd better get going." He hesitated, looking pained as he made himself add, "Thank you, ma'am."

As he turned away, Ruyo told him, "It wasn't a total waste, sir. You got my attention and convinced me it's important."

Ruyo took the assassins' weapons and trudged back into her cave, where an ancient mural of fish and waves was still partly intact. Ruyo climbed back into her improvised bed. "There's work to do in the morning."

Nusina said, "Sleep well, milady."

In spite of all her worries and injuries, Ruyo did.

#

She woke up with the world still dark. She conjured a little orb of rippling, blue-tinged light to hover above her. She changed her bloody bandages. The wounds still hurt but the worst bleeding had stopped. She stretched her aching limbs and looked around. "Any trouble, Nusina?"

"I'm down in the shrine machinery. Do you need me?"

"Not now." Ruyo stood shakily and hobbled toward the cave entrance. Her guests were still here: a few students from Averell and her three teachers, all of whom planned to leave in the morning except for one young man who had a crush on Ruyo. The three men she'd recruited as bodyguards were still there. "Come to think of it, we didn't show the inner workings to any of these people."

"No, but some of them must know about this hidden lower area, from asking around at Sor's Hill." Workmen from there had helped do makeshift repairs.

"May as well show the place off to that noble, Anemos, when he gets back."

One of the guards turned over and groaned in his sleep. That was more motion than any of the group had shown since being drugged somehow last night. Ruyo went back to sleep.

#

In the morning, the people outside woke up. One of the guards was the first to say, "Blood! There's blood on the dirt!"

Ruyo heard that and went out. "I got a visit from Brotherhood last night. We dealt with it."

"And you're hurt!"

"I'll live." Her wounds didn't look infected but Nusina couldn't guarantee perfect healing yet.

The little crowd stared at her and Nusina, asking six questions at once. Ruyo said, "One of the... visitors is going back to his village to tell them to leave me alone for now. Hopefully he'll run into Anemos and Baris on the way."

The guards, former bandits, shared a worried look. They'd grasped the implication of just one intruder going home.

Most of her guests offered another prayer at the shrine to help refill Ruyo's mana reserves. As they did, the smith (who'd abstained) said to her, "Do people often try to kill you?"

"It seems to be part of the job. I'm told it wouldn't even do them any good, in terms of stealing my powers."

The enamored man finished his prayer and came up to Ruyo. "Could I stay a while?"

Ruyo wasn't very interested in him and didn't want to string him along. "I'm going east to Averell soon, so I won't be here."

"But not for a few days, right? I've studied magic theory a little; we could talk."

"What I really need now is medical training. Any at all."

The man made an inept attempt to claim he could teach her that. The smith interrupted, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You haven't got time to apprentice as a healer, though, miss Ruyo. If you can, humble yourself and spend a few days helping a professional and watching him work. And then, watch a butcher. Cut some meat, see some blood."

Nusina commented aloud, "Both would probably help develop your skills toward having some healing magic. Water is the best starting point for that anyway; humans are mostly made of it."

The smitten man said, "I know someone in Averell who can help with that. When you get there maybe I can introduce you?"

"I'm going to be pretty busy."

He was still eager. "But you need training, right?"

The smith bit his lip.

Ruyo blushed. "I suppose. Yes, we can meet up once I'm in town."

The suitor said, "Great! I look forward to it."

The smith said, "For now we'd probably best give her some space."

Reluctantly he let himself be led away. The wagon departed, so that the only people left were Ruyo, Nusina, and the three guards.

"Another day alive is good," Ruyo said, glancing up into the sunlight. "By the way, I sent a letter along with them, to forward to my parents."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" the spirit asked, in the tone that made it clear it wasn't.

"Oh, I didn't give details. 'Some extraordinary things have happened lately, good for me overall. I have magic now along with some new profit opportunity. Under a lot of pressure though. Hoping to write more soon.'"

"Vague enough. You really could do with a vacation at sea."