A rider came that evening from Averell, saying, "Your first students will arrive in the morning, miss Ruyo."

Ruyo eyed the handsome, sturdy-looking messenger, who had a hatchet and bedroll on his saddle. "All right. Will you stay the night? A reliable, armed man in the camp would make me feel safer."

"I was planning to camp here, ma'am. Thank you."

"Good timing," she told Nusina. She asked the rider, "Is anyone important to the Council in the group?"

"Yes, several sons and daughters of the nobility, and three tradesmen. Also Marcellus of Anemos."

Ruyo rubbed her hands together. "Excellent. Are you interested in the magic blessing as well?"

He shook his head. "I'm a devout man, miss, and don't know what to make of you. I won't go whoring myself out to get special powers." He paused. "Though that's my private opinion and I'm sure the nobles have pure reasons."

"All right," Ruyo said, ignoring the sting of his honesty.

Dinner was largely conjured bread, which she could do at respectable if bland quality now, with wild dandelions and blackberries the men had gathered. "We have blackberry bushes here?" Ruyo said.

"And probably a bear," one of her hirelings said. "Everybody watch yourselves."

The men had begun putting up a simple shed out of boredom and desire to practice an honest trade. The frame wobbled in the chilly wind, but they had plenty of free boards and nails to train with. They took a break from the work and shared gossip with the messenger, while being vague about why they were "visiting" Ruyo.

Nusina materialized, to the messenger's surprise, and kept away from the campfire. They all ended up talking about the Lost World and about construction techniques. Nusina said, "I'm glad to know your people know about waterwheels and pumps and pulleys. Not starting from zero."

Ruyo explained, "Nusina has a personal project of reviving some lost technology, not just magic."

"Why?" asked the rider.

"Because the world was better once."

"Yet it seems to have destroyed itself."

"That can happen to anybody. It's less likely if you have machines, food, tools, knowledge."

Nusina added silently to Ruyo, "I'm detecting energy from Sor's Hill now as well as Averell. Good. Though they're both going to want a payoff from it."

"Working on it," Ruyo answered.

After dinner, Ruyo said to the guards, "Do you want that magic now? You've behaved yourselves. Tomorrow I'm expecting some training, so stick with me a little longer and I'll have more to pay you with."

The three of them agreed. And then when the messenger was away for a few minutes, Ruyo said, "I'm planning to kick down a door in Brotherhood and convince them not to try killing me. Taking along as many armed and important people as I can get. Mind coming along?"

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The men looked uneasy, but said, "If it's not just us, then all right."

She spent an hour learning some basic melee with them, swinging sticks around and using her own elementals as targets. Yet another area where she just didn't know enough, yet.

#

Ruyo got up early the next morning and washed, then made some sample materials to show off. The party from the east arrived before noon. Three carriages, fancier than anything Ruyo had ever owned, reached the stream and struggled just uphill before stopping. Out of them climbed eleven men and women dressed more for a noble court than for hard work. Most looked skeptical, a few excited.

The mighty wind-mage Anemos was there in a fine yellow cape, hanging back while the others introduced themselves. The six students were young adults from important families, and the three teachers were a bewildered smith, a weaver and Vissio's cook, roughly as requested. The last person was an elderly, stooped scholar who wouldn't take his eyes off Ruyo.

That man approached Ruyo and bowed. "You are a fascinating subject, already the center of several arguments."

"Ah... thanks?"

His gaze drifted toward Ruyo's shoulder, where Nusina hovered invisibly. She hadn't yet introduced herself. He said, "Pleased to meet you as well."

Nusina appeared. "Few people seem to have your gift, sir."

"And gifts are to be used to aid one another, are they not? Tell me, miss Ruyo; can you handle this?" He offered her a Steadfast Church pendant of smooth stone, shaped like a tower.

Ruyo hesitantly took it. The rock had no effect on her. "It seems so. There was one that I touched a while ago that tingled unpleasantly. It was made with more care, I'm told."

"Is that so? Why do you think it harmed you?"

"It wasn't harm, really. We think there's a distinction between ordinary magic, and mine."

"Then what about this one?" the old wizard said, holding a nearly identical charm.

Ruyo touched it like an animal that might strike her. Then she took it in her hands, passing it back and forth but making herself hold onto it tightly for a few seconds before showing her open, unharmed palm. Truthfully she answered, "It doesn't burn me or anything, but it's... sharp, sort of. Buzzing."

A few of the students murmured. Anemos put in, "Ambiguous result?"

The old man turned to him. "Well, she's no demon. Unless she's also extraordinarily powerful, which I doubt, or our high priest is lacking in the faith to make a proper spirit-repelling artifact with his own two hands."

Ruyo asked Nusina, "Something like the ring of runes containing that fire elemental we fought? I never got a good look at that trap."

"Could be. Careful, milady; this isn't just a magic lesson. I don't know if a ritual circle could hold you."

The sage said, "I'm not yet convinced there's a true separation between normal and divine magic, but this test shows that particular mages can detect a type of mana configuration that even masters cannot." He nodded politely toward Anemos. Then he ran Ruyo through a simple test of putting one pendant in each of her hands while she had her eyes closed, and saying which was which. Easily done, repeatedly. He concluded, "Something unusual is here, I can say. And consistent with certain other observations we discussed. I have shown my proper diligence."

Anemos said, "Then there's much work to be done. Ruyo, we ask that you use your powers to grant magic to our six students, here, and any interested teachers." The smith waved off the offer, and the cook already had it. "They know what it requires of them. And in the process, I and Darius here, hope to coach you in magic to the point where you can raise them a bit higher. A two, say, on that zero-to-ten scale. Any head start helps."

The elderly Darius said, "Here's something I've been eager to ask of you, spirit Nusina. In the old days, did everyone fling spells around? It seems that sorcerous initiation is a simple thing for those with the right helper, rather than being mainly luck of birth."

Nusina seemed flustered to be quizzed directly by a scholar. "I don't remember much of that time. But yes, I think simple magic was a tool as common as knives or writing-slates are to you. No one had to die of thirst for one thing. Not that many people were masters; it's a skill like any other."

The smith said, "No need to transport vast amounts of water or have dedicated mages just for that..."

Ruyo said, "I've been on a ship before, and seen a caskman whose job is to keep the water barrels full by magic. I could do that easily now, but can't quite unlock that ability in others. That's a 'two'."

The old man said, "Then let's get 'two' it."