Traveling just offshore was easier. Faster, more mana-efficient. Ruyo leaned forward on her wave and fell sideways as fast as most ships.

"Jump!" said Nusina.

Startled, Ruyo leaped. She wobbled and came down hard, sinking a foot into the water and almost crashing straight through. "What's wrong?"

"This is practice!"

She tried it again, then some backward sliding and recovery from deliberate splashdowns.

Worn out and laughing by sunset, she trudged ashore to flop onto a patch of bare sand. That was when they spotted a small cargo ship following them along the northbound coastal route. "Can you go ask if I can get a room aboard for the night?"

"It's a little far for me."

Ruyo poked her. "Practice your range!"

Ruyo felt the stretching of the magical tether that Nusina used to draw on Ruyo's power.

The spirit apparently made it to the ship but was out of contact until she drew closer to shore again. "They're confused, but they'll take you aboard."

Ruyo hadn't met this ship's crew before, so it was another chance to perform and to pay in goods. She slept in a hammock, watched over by Nusina.

#

They made it to Follyport, at the river mouth, and jumped ship just long enough to leave an update for an Averell agent. She continued north to Trueharbor.

There, she was glad to find that the town had shooed most of the destroyed village's refugees off to go rebuild on their ravaged land. The smith looked overworked but had taken two apprentices from the loiterers, and Ruyo had been supplying them with raw material. That iron and their labor made for tools, and she found people going to and from the village site with carts and grain.

"Is it all going reasonably well?" Ruyo asked the port town's headman.

"It would be, but we're getting demands from the north, over in Port Desire. They want our grain and other supplies, too, and we're hard pressed as it is even with your deliveries."

Ruyo sighed. "I've already been requested there. Who actually rules this area?"

The mayor scowled. "That's part of our problem. This place and some of the nearby villages are officially independent, but really when either Averell or Port Desire 'asks' us for soldiers or money or food, we don't have much choice. They'd cut off magical help and trade, or worse."

"I can help with the magic part."

Nusina said, "I'll use the shrine here to check our status." She zipped away.

The mayor said, "I don't know if I'll ever get used to seeing spirits talking with people."

"There aren't many of them that can talk, yet. What I can do is grant you spell access and generate resources. But it's already becoming a problem for me in terms of the time and mana commitment. I can't support whole towns."

"Wouldn't want to depend on you that much anyway, no offense."

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"Can't blame you."

"Can you teach us that spell to make food and wood and iron, though?"

"I'm going to have to study that. It's outside of normal magic."

She excused herself to visit the shrine. Nusina was floating above the pillar in the back of the two-room cabin. "I've been tapping into the temple network from here. It's not as easy to read as from the fancier temples, but I'm seeing steady prayer income including a trickle of a few dozen offerings a day from here."

Ruyo shared her ongoing worry about handing out food-making powers that could bankrupt farmers, versus the immediate need.

Nusina rippled thoughtfully. "I still believe that if you tune the Sorcerous Initiation so that anybody can tap into your item-making powers, that will stunt their growth in conventional magic. You might be better off having the temples themselves generate things -- which this place is too basic to do. It only serves as a target for your spells."

"I need somebody besides me casting." Ruyo looked around at the temple. "I'm getting a bit more intent from this place. It's clearly here because the people want prosperity, as opposed to magic or Brotherhood's thing."

"But it's not fancy enough for you to tap into that intent and add powers to the place."

Ruyo frowned and ran her hands along the rough walls. "Regular magic is useful enough that I'd rather give people that than a weak version of my personal tricks. It's time for me to study enchantment some more and figure out some indirect approach. Maybe a wand that casts the bread spell repeatedly. In the meantime, what could the locals do to upgrade this place, so that I can give it a useful enchantment? And tie it into the postal network while we're at it?"

Nusina's pearl eyes darted around as she focused on the temple's spiritual reflection. "It's not terribly less advanced than other shrines, and what you are to these people is a helpful source of wealth. We might tap into their wishes and desires. But without it being based on an existing working with a special purpose like Brotherhood's, we do need more research."

"Um," said a young voice from the doorway.

Ruyo spun. A boy of around twelve stood there, holding a spiral seashell. "Are you the goddess? Oh, and it's you, the ocean spirit!"

"Well, not specifically ocean," Nusina said. "What can we do for you?"

"My pa's a sailor. I was wondering if you can bless a thing so it protects him at sea. He made it through the war, but it was a near thing."

It wasn't the first time Ruyo had been asked for blessings she didn't know how to give. To promise someone safety, luck, general good health, or children was an act of showmanship on her part. Worse yet, she didn't want to assure the boy that his father would be fine, only to crush his hopes when events went beyond her control.

She said to Nusina, "At times like this, I wish I weren't a merchant god who has a limited stock of goods. I could turn wishes into results directly."

"Then what can you give him?"

"The truth."

Ruyo took the shell from his hand and crouched slightly to match his height, with her hands on her knees. "There's only so much I can do. I'd love to be able to make him safe no matter what. But I can't control all the storms and pirates in the world. What I can do is train you or him in magic so you've both got more power to protect yourselves and others. If you get good enough you can do things like breathing underwater."

"But that's a wizard thing," he said.

"It can be for everyone who works for it, now."

The boy looked back and forth between her and Nusina. "Then, I should learn it and get Pa to learn when he's back."

His prayer at the altar felt like curiosity, a desire to spin and toss a new toy and see what it did.

She gave him the first magic blessing and invited him to find her again later. Before giving the shell back she held it in an orb of water, using it as part of her magic demonstration. But she also willed it to be an item of protection at sea, impressing a thought on it. As far as Ruyo knew, that had no real effect, and she didn't claim otherwise. But the kid seemed pleased when she handed it back.

"Thanks!" he said. "Um, miss spirit, can I pet you?"

Nusina obliged.

"Oh, and... what's special about Brotherhood's magic? You said they had a special shrine there, too."

Ruyo and Nusina had been speaking aloud when he entered. Ruyo said, "Each shrine is sort of based on what the people wish for. There are people just like you in other towns who want things, too."

"Even that far away," he said to himself. "Well, that means there are a lot of people for you to keep safe. I hope you learn how, but for now I ought to get good at magic so I can do it!"

When he'd gone, Ruyo said, "I wonder if we can rip the power of Protection away from our 'friend'."

Nusina studied her. "You did make a proclamation that 'divine power is best used to create, improve and protect'. I don't think supernatural luck and titanic barriers are 'you', though."