The sisters wandered off to meet Virid at the Vissio estate and catch up on news with him. Ruyo and Nusina went to her official home here.

There were people at the Temple of Ruyo today. Twenty or so, sitting at hastily installed benches and being led in an old local song. In the back was priestess Tulia in her fine new robe. There was a gap in the seating arrangements, because one corner was apparently reserved for the shaggy, unwashed man there with his mace and camping backpack.

Tulia spotted her and looked relieved. When the song ended she said, "We are blessed with the presence of the goddess herself! Hail Ruyo, the Lady of Waters!"

Ruyo tried to look nonchalant as she strode up the chapel aisle like she owned the place. The people applauded, though they looked curious and puzzled. She caught snatches of whispers: "Is she really? What's with her hands? She's the one who --"

Taking a spot at the priestess' side, Ruyo said, "Thank you for your service, Tulia. I've been traveling across the land, on a quest to find my lost friend stolen by the same people who attacked Averell. Thanks to my friends, the worst of that gang are in your city's dungeon now, and the survivors are going to work for your benefit. Please welcome Nusina, the guardian spirit!"

The spirit materialized in a gratuitous flash, bobbed in midair, and spoke with an echo. "Greetings, patriots of Averell and followers of the Lady of Waters! We've been to Starshore, exploring a dangerous Old World ruin and gathering help for you. Would you like to hear about how the Lady battled her way to an island of villains without a boat?"

"Oh, now I have to tell the story?" thought Ruyo.

"You ought to!"

The audience looked impressed. Story time was bound to be more interesting than singing. So Ruyo told it as well as she could, trying to make Nusina and the sisters look good. "And so, we brought them back in chains and handed them over."

Someone called out, "I thought you were against chains."

"Save as just punishment," Nusina said. "These people were wanted criminals."

"What about slaves?" a woman asked.

Ruyo said, "I want them to be freed, but we're working with your leaders on that. Please give them time."

"Is it true you give people magic?" Several people joined in to clamor that they wanted it too.

"It's true!" Ruyo said. She thought at Nusina, "Am I going to be able to do all of them?"

"Should be, for the first level."

"Come forth, then, and if you have prayed, I can start you on the way. On another day, I can take you a little farther than that."

Tulia whispered to her, "Do you mind if I leave?"

"Not at all. Thank you. Lunch?"

"Going with Quintus."

"Nice."

She went through the Sorcerous Initiation for sixteen people in quick succession. She got to meet each one in person, ask their name, look them in the eye, and grant them a channel for the flow of magic. There was one man who waved her offer off, saying he already had the knack.

And then there was that strange man in the corner who only watched her. Ruyo should have asked about him.

She walked them through the most basic spell, and soon they were all flinging water around over their heads like a ball game. There were splashes and laughter as a few people dropped their supply. Ruyo told Nusina, "And that's why I said no carpet."

One of the petitioners caught her attention. She said, "Can you bless people for other things?"

"Like what?"

"I, ah, would like to have a child. A healthy one. But so far, no."

Ruyo blushed. To Nusina she said, "Would it be worth trying?"

"Right now it wouldn't directly help, but try."

She hid her uncertainty, and gave the lady a hug. She tried to put magic into it, though without the focus of a proper, real spell. "May you be blessed soon with a wonderful, healthy family."

"T-thank you, Lady!" the woman said, blushing too. She hurried away, leaving a few other followers looking like they wanted to ask for things but weren't quite willing. Instead they thanked her and filed out, giving her sidelong glances on the way.

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The other man finally stood, alarmingly tall and muscled. He wore a crudely stitched vest and leggings made of deer hide, and wore a necklace of assorted teeth, scales and claws. Some of these decorations' owners had made the scars that marked his arms and neck. He left his iron mace and backpack behind as he walked closer to Ruyo, looming over her.

"Can I help you?" Ruyo said.

His words rained down like boulders. "I have heard you need fighting men. I want new foes, meat, drink, and a fire. I have come here for five days and heard only promises and music. Did the fortune-tellers speak the truth when they said, 'Go to Averell'?"

"Well! Um." Ruyo gathered her thoughts. "I'm going soon to a dangerous ruin, to find lost treasure. I'm leaving tomorrow for my home, first, and I'm told there might be some angry men there. If you can meet me at the cave west of here, in a few days --"

"Angry men who might need scaring off?" he said, showing a fierce smile.

"Actually... yes. Come with me and I'll see you're fed and have a place to sleep, and within a week, probably something new to fight. Here's money for a good meal." She offered him a few coins. "What's your name, sir?"

"Tamur. I will go now." He turned, hefted that heavy mace in one hand and his overstuffed pack in the other, and marched out.

Nusina splashed Ruyo, making her sputter. "Milady, I agree he's a good hire for the hospital expedition but you have other things to do now."

She'd been staring at the space where he'd been. "Right! Right. Business." She walked back to the altar and touched it. Nusina joined her, sitting atop it like a living splash.

Ruyo said, "First of all, now that we're back in contact, can you tell if Wellspring is safe?"

"Hmm. It seems to be. I detect no damage, which tells me that the team of researchers or tomb robbers or whatever they are, isn't much of a threat. Of course your enchantment on the cave helps with that. No sign of anyone breaching the lower level either."

"Good news. And our power level?"

"Yours, milady! It's been growing. The Averell shrine has drawn... I don't have the numbers but I'd say hundreds of casual worshipers and at least a hundred daily. Your name is known throughout the city as well as in Sor's Hill, Brotherhood and to a small extent Starshore. Energy is coming in daily from each site except the last."

Ruyo snorted. "I'm least well known in my hometown?"

"You don't have the government encouraging people to sing at a shrine to you. Maybe soon though, and the shrine over there should be done soon."

"What do you think of this building?" Ruyo asked.

Nusina's eyes flicked around. "It's functional. I liked the personal touch they had in Brotherhood better."

"Me too. It works as an advanced shrine I can target with spells like Brotherhood and Wellspring, though. Also there's a bedroom upstairs."

"Oh?" Nusina floated off to see it. Ruyo vaguely recalled she'd left the room unlocked and the key with the Vissios.

Ruyo shut her eyes and concentrated. From here at one of the hearts of her power, she could sense the other shrines more easily. She had begun to have a net of influence.

Nusina splashed back down. "Decent. I like the fish pillow."

"That's new. Wonder who left me that. Now, I should be able to somewhat shape what my own powers are in these shrines, right? I mean, the things they can do?"

"Yes; why?"

"I want a way to communicate with them. They're connected in some sense, so why can't I talk or send a note from one to another? That even fits with a theme of trade or commerce."

Nusina retook her position on the altar. "You now have three advanced shrines and two smaller ones, spread over a substantial area. Do you see this communication as more written or spoken? Which feels more natural?"

"I'd say... written, sending notes."

"Then I think you can add that ability to this shrine. Sending, I mean. Visit each of the others to add it there, too."

Ruyo let her awareness of the real world fuzz out, meditating, seeing the view of her own present and future powers. The way it all appeared to her, now, was more like a rippling sea than a sky. The shrines themselves appeared among the possibilities. "It looks as though I could also make the shrines do other things, like generating a small amount of food or a lot of water on their own."

Nusina said, "Not many special powers at once, though, unless it's a very elaborate temple. If what we passed on the way here is an old water shrine, it might've once been an example of using a shrine to generate air underwater."

"Air? Isn't that stepping on the toes of another god?"

"Remember that there's some overlap in how you can do things. If you wanted to try it I'd say, have an underwater shrine 'purify' the breathable part of the water and push it into a sealed room."

"Interesting. I'd like to try that someday. But for now, let's make it possible to talk." She mentally pushed a bit of her will into the mental schematic. It felt like part of a puzzle locking into place, a satisfying thing.

Ruyo remained in her meditative mode. "Now, it would be nice to push the Initiation a little farther. Seem reasonable?"

Nusina studied the phantom sea. "You've reached roughly the fourth level of power on that zero-to-ten scale. But the Sorcerous Initiation of Ruyo only goes to the second. A third level should give your followers easy access to water purification, basic healing, current creation, and a little of your floaty dodging ability. You need a good name for that by the way."

"The sisters already figured out the Current spell."

"They're smart and we've been coaching them. I'm talking about what powers your followers will be able to develop very quickly, not their upper limit. Oh, and the power increase naturally improves their use of elementals and other spells. And as you've seen, healing and the other tricky parts still will take some mundane training."

Ruyo laughed. "Complex! But useful. It will be a major thing to give people." She exerted herself a little more, and felt another branch of her power extend outward in a nameless direction. The feat wore her out, and the trance broke. "Whew. Enough planning for now."

"Did you want to try sending a message?"

"Give me a bit. Need to grab some of that ink I bought, anyway."

She went upstairs and smiled at the cute fish-shaped pillow somebody had left here. When she lay back on it, though, something hard poked her in the back of the head. "Huh?"

It was held together with buttons. She undid them and pulled out a rock... with a paper note attached.

The note said, "We believe you're acting in the best interests of Averell and the allied city-states. Please keep it that way. We'll try to watch your back. -BRC"

"The Black River Crew," Ruyo said. "You met one of them, didn't you? Yes, you were with me down in the sewer."

Nusina eyed the note and the pillow. "Not the friendliest way to send a message, but at least it's efficient."

Ruyo just shook her head.