The escorts gave a friendly wave. Ruyo returned it. When they got close she saw the leader of the town's "Witch Hunters" there, wearing an enchanted sword much like the Veilpiercer. He said, "Did you set up a second shrine?"

Lobb the monk said, "It's ready for her."

The men helped a black-clad Elly down. She stumbled, looking exhausted. But she looked up at Ruyo and smiled. "Hey."

Ruyo hugged her. "Congratulations. We had to haul you back unconscious before you could tell me the secrets of the ages."

The chief Hunter said, "We expect great things of her. Elly, go and activate the shrine."

She had to be helped to walk over to it. Ruyo commented quietly to Nusina, "So this is the effect of having only one minimal shrine. Even the barely-working Wellspring saved me from being this badly off."

"And you were still drained at first."

Elly tapped the new altar and said, "I accept this." A shadow fell across it from nowhere, then ended but left it still subtly dimmer even in the sunlight.

"Best we could do in a hurry," the monk said.

"Thank you."

The Hunter told the gathered crowd, "You can now offer prayers at this shrine. Please go ahead."

Khulis said, "What do we get?"

Lisette told him, "You get my sister not collapsing."

Elly waved dismissively. "You don't have to. Nobody has to, okay? If you do, I'm going to try the same deal Ruyo's doing, once I'm up to speed. You get powers."

Most of the group agreed. The traders who'd stopped for the night were confused, though. Lisette did the explaining: "She is another goddess like Ruyo, and offering her your good wishes and support will help her grow."

They looked uncomfortable. Their wagon-driver said, "This isn't really Steadfast Church sanctioned."

"It will be, very soon."

Ruyo said, "It's up to you, sirs, but I'm pretty sure we're all on the same side. Have you ever heard the religious tales about 'Night's Glittering Fastness'? That's directly related to her new powers."

The driver said, "All right, I'll see where this goes." He and his companions touched the shrine and gave a brief prayer for the health and growth of the "Lady of Night".

Ruyo looked to Elly, who still looked badly in need of a nap. "Can you enter my shrine? You're always welcome, if my permission has any magical effect."

They tried it. Elly was able to walk right in, though Ruyo felt a faint fuzzing of the magic here. "It's like people trying to bring fire-aspected magic items in. You might be at a disadvantage here, and it's a little distracting for me."

Elly sat down heavily in a chair, having heard nothing Ruyo just said. It was just the two of them in here plus Nusina. "So hi. It's been a rough few days. Anything horrible happen lately?"

"Other than my friend getting stabbed? Not much."

Elly laughed weakly. "I'm told he got pretty close to killing me, even with all the healing magic. The monks were actually happy about it. But you know why."

Ruyo nodded. "We did get another clue about the Light God." She explained the air tank contraption.

"That's neat. Mind magic for a good cause. Guess old 'Zovvah' had enough useful tricks that his followers didn't go around boasting about how evil they were. But yeah, the monks told me something like that when they explained light magic to me."

"Oh? They never told me much about it."

"Zovvah taught the basics to some of the monks before they all panicked and quit asking for favors. So some of the older ones still know spells of it; they just don't use it anymore. It includes making light, obviously; the info-glyphs; protective wards; and something about ritual dancing."

Ruyo guffawed. "He's the god of Dance?"

Elly shrugged. "Apparently they all had hobbies. The Shroud told me that I'm taking over for a guy called Tekinan, and he was the god of Night or Darkness, Dreams, Secrets and Games. Zovvah was something like Light, Mind, Protection, and I guess Dance."

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"Good to have more of a lead on what we're up against. Can you cast any spells yet?"

"In here? I don't think so. But I learned to make a little ball of shadow between my hands." She scowled. "And that's it! I completely lost all the stuff I'd been training in with you and your teachers."

Nusina commented, "It was good practice. Averell wants to study you. And to have you start blessing people with magic."

Elly groaned. "When I have any idea what I'm doing. Unlike Ruyo, Night magic isn't even defined yet, at least as far as anyone knows."

Ruyo said, "That's interesting. The Shroud was some holdover of the god's power. If that element is a sort of blank slate now, then are you going to try imitating those dream-world powers?"

"I don't know. I've barely been awake and the monks are suddenly paying me ten times the attention they ever did before. I don't think the Witch Hunter squad outside plans to leave me alone."

"Then what we need is a road trip. We'll pick up a few more shrines for you and raise your abilities until you're clearly useful."

She waved her hands in the air. "I don't look forward to telling people 'look at me, worship me'."

"Welcome to the club. So, before you passed out, what was it you said about the Light God's shrine and a palace on the moon?"

"I got quizzed about both. I barely remember."

Ruyo smacked her forehead. "Working on that cryptic mistress of secrets theme?"

"Give me a break!"

"All right, all right. But tell me if any of that comes back to you."

#

Elly slept just outside, under guard this time. Ruyo had a tougher time resting. "The spirit of the Shroud didn't tell me much, but hinted that the gods had treasures related to their hobbies. The Shroud itself, for one. So maybe there are ancient boats to find, or bows. Is there some infernal Dance Hall of Light to find?" She imagined one of those eyeball-wheel elemental monsters dangling from the ceiling, blasting light beams everywhere.

Nusina floated in the shrine's center. "We've been assuming the equator, because I vaguely remember bright sun. What if it's just in a desert?"

"Maybe, but we need a narrower search area. I'm not ready to tromp all over the world. Once Elly is empowered a bit, she should be able to hammer a few more nails into the wards keeping Zovvah down."

#

Ruyo called for volunteers to go east. The wanderer Tamur was first in line, saying, "This new sorcery interests me, and the girl is flimsy."

Lisette's expression was strained. She wasn't coming along. Ruyo got the impression that she was upset about Elly's ascension. And with Lisette remaining in Wellspring, promising to continue praying at Elly's shrine, Hastro was staying too. The would-be smith was spending more and more time with her. Ex-bandits Khulis and Nodens also stayed to work on their own business of establishing a tavern.

So that meant Ruyo and Elly, Tamur, spirits Nusina and Pir, the four Witch Hunters, Roland the horse groom, and (once the hospital expedition got back) Tulia and four westlanders who wanted to see the coast. They still had their spare horses, acquired on campaign, and were planning to sell them. Sensibly, they'd pooled their money to buy a little wool from Frostcrag for trade.

Ruyo sent them west to buy cheese from Brotherhood with her money. That took up a few days while Ruyo continued working at home. By then Tamur was antsy and bored. Elly had recovered enough to be awake for half of the day and was diligently practicing magic whenever the monks quit leaning over her shoulder to watch. While they stared, she refused to perform.

The night before the group planned to leave for the east, Elly called for Ruyo. There was a dark hut where she'd had moss and mud stuffed into the many chinks. "Shut the door."

Ruyo joined her in the near-total dark. "What's up?"

"I figured out my version of a light spell." She clapped her hands together, and after a long wait, a dim violet light cast an eerie glow on the two women. "Seems to be an any-element spell. I used to do your water one, and Virid had been teaching me his green-tinted earth version."

"So far, so good."

"It gets more interesting. Someone happened to be keeping a collection of odd rocks in here. When I was fooling with the spell, there was a version of it that seemed to do nothing -- but watch this." She made her dim light vanish. Instead, one of the stones glowed pale yellow.

"A light spell that doesn't shine but makes other things shine?"

"I'm not sure. Feels like the spell is coming from a light orb -- haven't quite got it to float around like yours -- but it only affects the rock."

"That might lead to something useful. We'll get you some tutoring in spell control."

#

They set out. Their spare horses were loaded with goods, not that the short path east would bring them much profit. Ruyo talked about the usual trade route she had done in her short merchant career.

The westies talked about their lands. Ruyo knew something of their forested home, a hilly country lightly inhabited and not fully explored. To them it was a place of beauty and fortune interrupted by monsters. Hungry crow-things and blade-backed serpents lurked in the woods.

"Now that I've seen your spirit friends," said one man, "they're a little like the element-touched animals we deal with sometimes. Possessed critters, maybe."

Nusina said, "You're probably right. We had to fight a man who was possessed by one. He still looks like a mole or a boar."

"What about the thing you're doing with your arms? Is that useful or are you still just playing with the powers?"

Ruyo looked at her changed hands. "Still experimenting. We know that spirits can change people but haven't yet tried major changes beyond wound treatment. I've been asked about regrowing fingers."

Elly said, "I'm going to find a way to fly. Not sure how, yet. Maybe growing wings."

Roland said, "That seems like more of an Air God thing."

"When we have an Air God, he can fight me for it."

Ruyo said, "You're welcome to snatch Archery from me. You're better than me with a bow."

Elly yawned, slumping on her horse. "I don't think it really works like that. You never had an Archery theme and Healing isn't natural to you either, even though you're doing it. You're setting out on your own by becoming known for other things."

The Witch Hunters interrupted. "This talk isn't appropriate for the public, miss Elly."

She grumbled.