Ruyo thanked everyone for coming, then headed out to dinner with her parents, priest Miras, and Roland the stablehand who'd been using his new freedom to study medicine. They had picked up more copies of the nice watery uniform robe Ruyo had been wearing, designed by the local tailor. Ruyo told everyone in her private gathering about the latest events, then said, "It seems I'm going to visit the moon next."

"Oh, is that all?" said Dad. He looked the dining group over. He'd been told that Ruyo faced two major problems, and that the brief war with Khyber had solved one. "I gather that the war was about controlling whatever force empowered Elly. Was all of the destruction worth it?"

"I hate to say so, Dad. But yes. It's the reason Elly was performing for our city, instead of an enemy general with his army."

Mom looked grim, too. "Is Elly someone we can trust with your kind of power?"

"I've trusted her with my life."

"What about her sister? She hasn't been here lately."

Roland said, "May I speak?"

"Of course," Ruyo said. The young man had also fought beside her.

"Well, Lady, and sirs. The sisters don't seem to get on well right now. Not after Elly..." The stablehand frowned. "Really it started before that. Lisette is sweet on one of your tamed bandits, and didn't want Elly throwing herself into danger anymore. And what did Elly do? Not only keep at the fighting, but go to war and come back with power her sister can never match."

Nusina bubbled in a sigh. "There's a certain distance between gods and everyone else. I'm sorry that it ended up pushing those two apart."

Mom said, "Ruyo, what about you and that hat-maker from Averell? Have you traded him in for the barbarian?"

Ruyo coughed on her drink. "That's really not something I have time for right now! I have a --"

Nusina mentally poked her. Ruyo stopped herself from saying a god to kill. Instead she said, "A thing to do, still."

Dad said, "Which requires you to fly to the moon?"

"Not necessarily. It might help, though."

"But you can't tell us why."

"Well, that I can say. When Elly got her powers she said the remains of the old Night God told her some secrets."

Nusina added, "Which she immediately forgot."

"But one of them was that the old Water God had something waiting for me there."

"Do you have a way to get back?" said Dad.

"Still working on that."

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

#

The next morning, Ruyo was consulting with Magus and several more scholars including a group from the Inheritors. The stamp of boots announced the arrival of Elly's guards. The Lady of Night herself arrived looking better rested than usual. She said, "Ruyo, a word?"

Ruyo got some privacy in a side room, and Elly beckoned Nusina to come too. Then she pulled back her dark hood. She now had the long, fuzzy ears of a black-furred rabbit on her head, replacing her human pair.

Ruyo stifled a giggle. "Magic accident?"

Elly was blushing and her ears drooped. "The audience was watching me leap and bounce around, and there was this one kid with a toy bunny he wanted to show me. And then I went to sleep and did some intensive dreaming. Woke up like this."

Nusina said, "In all seriousness, the fact that this can happen is a good sign. You can undo it by mentally asserting your proper shape; won't take more than a day."

"Um. Probably ought to find that kid; he'd get a kick out of seeing me like this. First time I've had an obvious physical sign of my new job."

Ruyo gestured to the door. "The others will want to see. Those ought to get you a stronger reputation as a miracle maker too."

"You call these a miracle?"

"It's something no mage knows how to do. Even I barely know how, yet."

Nusina bobbed. "Both of you might benefit at this point from studying the medical pattern tablets in more detail. Learning more about body-shaping and advanced healing."

Elly asked, "Don't we have a portal to try using?"

Ruyo had been talking about that. "The reason I've been planning to jump in is to get any advantage we can for the Brotherhood project. But given how much we're learning and the demand for our services, we might be just as well served watching the portal experiment go without us the first time, then taking a month to do other things while it recharges. What do you think?"

"I want to hear from Magus and the other researchers."

"May want to kick the guards out of the room first. I figure they want you to hurry like a quick little bunny."

Elly sighed, and shooed the Brotherhood men off when they returned to the table.

#

Ruyo and Elly soon found themselves underwater, in the Lunar Transport Station. They were there to observe this time. With them were Nusina and --

"Who's Hyde?" asked Elly.

One of the Inheritors pointed to the water spirit that traveled mutely with them. This ball of damaged magic had been watching them all, and was currently powered by the cultist -- er, researcher. "We've been learning from the little guy. Made the name up."

Ruyo said, "How much can you get from studying one who's that limited?"

"Maybe more than from looking at Nusina herself. If you want to understand architecture you don't begin by studying a complicated palace."

Nusina wavered, and Ruyo put a hand on her wet surface. The spirit said, "I don't think I lost much but memories and my command of the old language, but there's probably a wealth of basic information missing from me. Things you should know, that might save lives."

"You're not to blame. And my precursor did a good job by preserving anything at all." Ruyo looked to the Inheritors again. "Have you learned anything relevant to fixing the weakened one? Ah, Hyde?"

Hyde's keeper rattled off some magical jargon Ruyo would need to quiz him about later. "I wish you'd let us examine the third-tier elemental you showed off in town."

"Sure thing. We can even have it battle one of the fire cats."

Nusina scolded her, but Ruyo held up one hand. "I mean it as a friendly sparring match this time. But for now, let's see about this machine."

They walked through the transport hub, examining things while Magus ferried a few rich townsfolk down here to watch. Ruyo had made sure she added Miras the priest to the guest list. Several people went down to the basement to pray at the little shrine there, keeping this power base of Ruyo active.

Ruyo tried to make any sense of the complex machinery in the far room, surrounding a platform with glass walls.

Nusina said, "You're probably better off studying the platform itself. You and Elly are physically held intact partly by your magic now, which should overcome the, ah..."

One Inheritor said, "Centuries of maintenance backlog?"

Ruyo grimaced. "I still want to see this tried with something other than me, first."