Ruyo sat on a boulder outside the cave. "A vacation? Heh. Once I can resolve what everybody wants from me."

One of the ex-bandit guards approached. "We're making progress on construction." He pointed out a second shack in progress, a little sturdier looking than the first which was still incomplete. "Could we get more lumber?"

Ruyo looked pointedly at the forest around them.

"I know. But having pre-made boards saves a lot of work."

Ruyo wore herself out making some boards. From her limited carpentry experience it seemed like pine wood, nothing fancy, but sturdy as the real thing. By the time Ruyo's muscles trembled from the effort and her wounds throbbed again, she'd only made enough wood for maybe half a wall of the one-room building.

Nusina chided, "You shouldn't strain yourself while hurt." Quietly she added, "Your 'helpers' might get ideas."

Ruyo nodded and retreated to the shrine to rest. "For this Flotsam power I need to work on quantity, not just quality. Also variety."

"Which is your priority?"

"None; I want some basic healing and better defenses so I can leave here more freely. About Flotsam specifically though, I most want higher quality. I'm still bothered by the cloth and paper I make being junky. I'd have more goods worth selling, if I could solve that problem."

Nusina rippled thoughtfully. "Would you like to do something non-divine for a little while? I have an idea." She explained, and Ruyo approved. So it was the spirit who led the way and appeared to the three ex-bandits, saying, "Business idea! Come have a look."

In the cave, Nusina showed off Ruyo's first crude attempt at printing. Ruyo had bought ink off the Averell guests and used that with poorly carved lead letters "I" and "X", and her low-quality paper. The result was a mess of irregular scratch marks.

Ruyo said, "The next attempt should be better." She had gotten a basic smithing lesson, so with the right materials she at least had a chance of making molded lead blocks without hurting herself.

"Do you see the idea at least?" Nusina asked, explaining what they could do with more letters and better equipment.

Two of the guards looked unimpressed. But the third, the one-time farmer named Hastro, rubbed his chin and asked to handle the lead blocks. "So you would make a hundred copies of any one page you can string together, and sell those?"

"That's right. Do it again and again to make a whole book, or make single-page things like a sheet printed with the latest exciting events."

"Like a contract. I imagine some bureaucrat having a stack of standard forms for something instead of writing it out by hand over and over."

"I suppose that's one use." Nusina hadn't been at all subtle to Ruyo about wanting to use the printing device to advertise Ruyo's glory. Selling automatic paperwork didn't accomplish that, but it could be a good way to test the device and make money.

The Khyberian cook said, "If you think you can build one of these, we could try running it. If we're paid of course."

The ex-farmer said, "We'd need a sturdy frame, and... wait a minute. Why not a wine press?" The others looked confused. "A contraption that squashes berries and fruit. Miss Ruyo, get us one of those and some more wood and nails and lead, and we can play around with the thing."

Ruyo said, "I can supply some materials. But Nusina's the one to talk to about the details." She sat back and let the spirit work out some ideas. It was nice to see her companion having a project that wasn't specifically about the divinity business.

When the talk died down, Ruyo said, "So, you three. I need to do some travel in the next few days, depending on how negotiation goes with Brotherhood. If you want to just go in peace, I'm prepared to give you as much food, iron and so on as I can make before I need to leave. And to give you all that second level of magic. That means you'll get the power to create water and little lights, like you've seen -- as a permanent power. And if you're willing to watch the place for me while I'm gone, I'll keep paying you in kind and will probably come back with better stuff to offer." She paused. "I don't think you've got any reason to backstab me."

The trio looked uncomfortable, not surprising considering that she'd killed their bosses. One-Eye's former minion said, "So room and board and the promise of magic and better stuff, if we hang out here for another week?"

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"And if you end up living here long-term I won't object."

The men conferred, and agreed.

Ruyo said privately to Nusina, "We lucked out. Not every goon can think far enough ahead to see the value of honest work."

Nusina said, "You're basically paying them to hang out and look tough, with the option of getting rich with the printing idea if it works out. Easy offer to take. But I wouldn't count on them to stand up to any serious opposition."

Ruyo nodded. "My main worry, other than someone killing me directly, is still that someone will want to deface the mural. If somebody just plain loots the cave and steals my furniture and the odds and ends, so what?" Ruyo paced. "So I'm mainly worried about Brotherhood in the short term. If we can get that resolved, I'll be free to travel. Just need to spend enough energy on giving the men food, trade goods and construction supplies."

Nusina said aloud, "There's something I've been wondering about. Why are there any nobles? Why would anybody live on someone else's land if they can come out here and start building on unowned land like this place?"

Ruyo said, "I can answer that. It's mostly about what the noble families do for people. The priesthood; magic for improving the soil, building things, and so on; plus organizing craftsmen and big projects. This part of the world had the best, most fertile plains occupied first, so that land got carved up already. Over time people have trickled away from there to build more homes in the woodlands and hills. Which also means the nobles generally can't get away with being too awful, or their people walk."

One of the guards snorted. "'Generally', she says. But also, farming's not easy. Better to get a job where you can wake up after dawn, even if you're paying taxes."

Another of the ex-gangsters said, "Or, you know, working a job where there aren't any taxes."

#

The next few days passed peacefully. The guards were bored and practicing with clubs and staves, while Ruyo tried repairing a broken iron knife. Mostly she just wasted charcoal but it was practice, at least. Her wounds healed quickly. Nusina pointed out that the healing was a function of her "divine form" resetting itself to whatever Ruyo considered proper, rather than being directly useful to anyone else. "Although you could hurt yourself on purpose to study the process."

"Ruyo, Goddess of Ow! No thank you."

When she got around to upgrading the guards' magic, they pointed out, "You haven't been teaching people how to make ice."

Ruyo blinked. She'd mainly been teaching spells that the scholars formally called Shape Water, Create Water, and Light.

Nusina appeared and said, "It's a little tricky. Ruyo has gotten the most use out of it, ah, at home." Ruyo sensed she was trying not to spell out the idea of the shrine's location being critical. "But we can show you."

Soon two of the men figured it out, and held chunks of ice in their hands. Ruyo said, "So now you can be navy caskmen, and popular anywhere that the beer is warm."

The man from Khyber, named Khulis, grinned. "Ah, I see. There's an ice monopoly in Averell; that's why we didn't hear anything about teaching more people how to make it. And since most of the iron comes from near my homeland, the leaders don't mind if you supply all the iron you want."

The man who'd been raised by One-Eye was the one who hadn't mastered the ice spell. "In fact, what about the, what'd you call them, elementals? We hardly heard a peep about them."

"Tougher to make," Nusina said.

Creating elementals was such a new and unheard-of kind of magic that the only users Ruyo knew of were herself and Virid, the noble boy. And whoever or whatever had created that fire elemental a while ago. That meant it wasn't special "divine" magic, just rare. And probably about to get a lot more common, as people studied the technique.

The guards seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Probably very interesting to the high-and-mighty nobles. Can you teach us that one?"

The Khyberian winced. "I remember the ice darts."

Nusina said, "Probably once Ruyo raises her own magic skill and improves the initiation again."

Ruyo shook her head, adding that to her ever-growing list of tasks. "It also sounds like some basic healing will be part of that next level. And you could train to do other kinds of spells."

The ex-farmer asked, "What about teaching us that spell to make things? Flotsam, you called it. I'd rather have free stuff whenever I want it, than to ask you for it."

Ruyo looked to Nusina for advice. The spirit said, "Also a tough one. So far the Sorcerous Initiation of Ruyo just grants normal magic, not any special powers. A wizard like Anemos or the smith-mage already has spells equal to Ruyo's in at least one element outside his specialty. But she could adapt the Initiation to handle powers like Flotsam, at the cost of slower progress toward ordinary spells."

"This is getting over my head. So basically 'not soon'?"

Nusina said, "Right. But more raw magic power can come soon."

#

After a long wait, Baris returned alone, calling out. Ruyo looked up from her item-making and went to greet him.

Baris said, "We ran into that Witch Hunter, pulling the cart."

Ruyo told him about the latest attack. Baris cursed. "More killing in my territory!" He slicked back his hair and said, "Not your fault. You just attract violent people."

"They were shooting and slashing at me. I stopped when they cried mercy."

He paced. "Yes, yes. We heard some of it from the man we passed. Anemos is hours behind; I rushed on to find you."

"So you went to the village, and they had already sent their assassins after me. What happened?"

"They delayed us and just said they'd like to meet you. And then we met that cart-hauling killer and bounced back to ask some pointed questions of the monks. That just led to them saying 'come have her visit us', a little more politely. The only good thing that came out of that meeting was they loaned us a spare horse. Anemos has been whining about being tired but he's coming over here with a mount for you."

"Well, take a break, Baris. Thanks for making the trip. It sounds like I have to go in person after all, and soon."