Ruyo made a stop at Brotherhood House, a meeting hall in the Glasstown district that hosted several groups. It was also an outpost for Brotherhood, coexisting uneasily with the Steadfast Church and preaching similar doctrine.

A woman answered the door: the wife of the priest, dressed in a leather apron and with her hair tied back. As soon as Ruyo introduced herself as "a mage who's been working with your village", the lady's eyes went wide and she ushered Ruyo inside.

The meeting hall was a plain one, with exposed wooden beams and large tables. At the moment the only occupants were a group of students from the college who were playing an elaborate board game. The woman told Ruyo, "We've gotten word already that you're a friend."

"That was quick." Ruyo introduced Nusina, then said, "I have a possible problem, ma'am. The Church might threaten to shut down the shrine in town, and I need people using that to fuel and improve my powers."

She nodded. "We have some influence with the Church. I'll ask my husband to lean on them. Would it help if we offered prayers ourselves?"

"Certainly. My local priestess Tulia is trying to gather some people today."

"I'll try to add to them. It would help matters if you spoke to the assembled group and made it sound like you support the Church, though."

"I'm afraid I barely know what to say."

"That's easy. Not that I entirely agree with this, mind you, but..." The priest's wife explained what would make for a short, wholesome sermon. "The Church can't object to that, so long as you don't focus too much on yourself."

It sounded reasonable to Ruyo. "Thanks. I take it you'd like to be included on the list to get magic initiation?"

"Oh, I already know a few tricks." The woman concentrated, holding her hands together, and a flame danced between her fingers.

"If you can do that with water, too, then I can't help you much right now. Sorry."

"I can. Don't worry about that, though; it sounds like you're helping the people of Brotherhood and Averell and that's good enough for now."

#

At the Vissio estate, it was Virid who answered the door, excited to see her. "Miss Ruyo! Nusina! I've been studying. Come and see!"

Ruyo shrugged toward the servant who'd come to the door just after him. She and Virid went to a storeroom that the boy had turned into his play area. At his command, a head-sized rock rolled around the room. He shut his eyes and got it to bump against each of their feet. With some obvious strain in his voice he even got it to keep moving around while he walked and read aloud from a magic instruction book. "What I can't do is make it fly like yours. Maybe because it's rocks. Oh, and watch this." He balanced a few smaller rocks around the big one and made a crude figurine with a "head" and "arms" that stayed in place.

"That's fancier than anything I can do," Ruyo said. She showed off her simple water-ball type, and strained to turn it into the ice-spike kind but couldn't sustain it long enough to be very useful.

She compared notes with the kid, trying and failing to take control of each other's creatures and then having them bang into each other and try to push each other around. Since his capture and rescue, Virid had become an avid magic student, especially interested in elementals. "And we know it's possible to make one that's like an animal," he said.

Ruyo made another water-ball and tried shaping it to look more like a midair fish. "You haven't seen any fish lately, have you?" said Nusina.

"It's a start."

Nusina said, "That settles it. Rockball versus flying fish, live battle in the garden!"

Virid grinned. "You wanted an audience, right?" Then he said, "I'd also like to do water magic. Can you zap me with that teaching spell, please?"

Ruyo was taken aback. But Virid understood why: "I've been praying for you already. I want to, and I know it makes you tougher. I want to see you do better spells!"

"I want to ask your brothers first."

"You can ask me," said a wrinkled woman in the doorway. Birdlike, obviously the mother of Virid and his older brothers. "Do I understand that he's not forced to continue this... hero worship to get or keep powers from you?"

Ruyo bowed slightly. "That's right, miss. I apologize for not meeting with you sooner; I've been mainly dealing with your sons."

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She waved off the comment. "I leave operation of the family business to them, and focus on the household and on other things. Such as the Church."

Ruyo groaned. "I'm trying to ease into helping them. Beginning with studying the scriptures and a possible way to make copies of them easily."

The lady of the house said, "I want Virid to have every possible advantage, and he's already paid your price. So go ahead, please."

Ruyo nodded, and took Virid's hands to perform the Sorcerous Initiation. "There; that's the first level of it. It seems I have to wait at least a few hours to give you the second, which is my limit for now."

Nusina said, "Milady, I notice people are eager for more magic. Standard spellcraft hasn't been your focus, but it might be time to concentrate on that, both to boost your own power and to improve the Initiation."

"I need more training. I can call on another expert, I suppose."

Nusina said, "How about going to the bathhouse, finally?"

The elder Vissio smiled wickedly. "You know what? Because you're a water specialist, you should go to the bathhouse... but first, see the sewer."

It was a disgusting idea, but Ruyo had already been lectured to at length and did need a variety of experiences.

#

So Madame Vissio sent for an unusual assistant: a member of a city maintenance group called the Black River Crew. The hunched-over man joined in that afternoon when Tulia called for a gathering. The priestess had called it a storytelling group, a magic demonstration, and a supply of free snacks (to be paid for by Ruyo, who hadn't been asked first). Anything but calling it a prayer service.

Ruyo had saved her magic power by buying some ordinary fruit tarts, and she felt ridiculous. She told Nusina, "Hi, I'm the Goddess of Water, and this is my favorite pastry shop in the city."

Nusina giggled. "Study the taste. Maybe you can replicate it."

"You're missing out on the ability to eat, aren't you?"

"I hadn't thought much about it, but there's a way to share sensations if you want to. I'll show you at some point if you want."

"Sure."

Ruyo went back to the noble estate, to its garden of fragrant orange trees. She found Tulia working a crowd. "And when its venomous fangs closed in, she flipped backward out of the way and -- oh, here she is now!"

Ruyo waved and set down two boxes of tarts. Over a dozen people had come, and a few more were trickling in. They came through a back entrance to the garden, to the annoyance of one of the Vissio brothers who was conspicuously watching at a distance.

She spoke as the Brotherhood woman had proposed, inoffensively backing Church doctrine about the value of honest work.

Then Tulia said, "She can awaken the magic within you, if you offer her thanks."

Ruyo said, "I can only handle a few people at a time, for now. Draw lots, please?"

Part of what visibly unnerved the Vissio man was that of the twenty or so onlookers now crowding his private garden, most were slaves and other lower-class people that Tulia had gathered. The city's elite already knew about Ruyo but the people most comfortable with tutoring her or asking for favors had already done so.

The sewer worker had sat through the little sermon and was impatient. "You say you're some kind of god? Prove it."

Ruyo said, "So far I'm not a terribly powerful one. But I do have a few unusual tricks already." She steadied herself, took a deep breath to make sure she didn't mess this up, and floated into the air. Her splashy dodge ability was easy to maintain for a few seconds if she didn't move. She conjured one of her usual biscuit loaf things, then summoned Nusina, trying to wrap up her display with a bit of showmanship.

"Hail to Ruyo!" Nusina said in her best mystical, echoing voice. "Those who support her will benefit both themselves and their fair city!"

One guy in the audience said, "That's no big deal."

Another said, "I've never heard of a wizard doing that."

Nusina added, "And can an ordinary wizard grant the power of magic to anyone with a touch? Shall we pick a volunteer at random?"

The lucky winner learned right away how to wield the most basic water-shaping spell.

Ruyo said, "And now, as promised, we have a little magic duel to show you. Virid?"

The kid hopped up gleefully to put on a battle with her. The duel of elementals was little more than marionettes swatting drunkenly at one another, and the onlookers laughed at it. Ruyo took that as a cue to ham it up, making mighty gestures of power and then having her water-ball swat the rock-figure and try to dance away. Ruyo switched to the flying water fish, a tougher type to control, and then to the spiky ice creature Nusina announced as the Glittering Foebound Quill.

"Careful with that one!" Nusina warned Ruyo.

In fact she'd gotten carried away and nearly made her creature fling a spike of ice through the air. She warned Virid to scoot to one side and then fired the ice at a safe angle, crashing it into an orange tree.

It was a decent show, if she'd been simply been trying to collect a few coins and some applause. Prayers, though? She had the mysterious appeal of Nusina, the surprisingly adept public speaking of Tulia and the social value of visiting the Vissio estate. Really though, she got the sense that the prayers people offered at the shrine were mostly to thank her for the snacks and entertainment. What emotional connection she sensed was mild curiosity and gratitude.

She said to Nusina, "I need some way to keep people coming back. The promise of a cooler elemental fight next time isn't enough."

Both of them thanked Virid and his older brother who'd been watching. Once Tulia had left, needing to get back to her duties for Quintus, Ruyo asked about the problem.

The elder brother said, "I'm not sure of the value of having this shrine on our property. Some of the other families are whispering, and it's not clear whether they're jealous or hostile."

Ruyo talked about being in contact with the Church. "Is there something I could do that would help your family, the Church or the city, in a way that would get people praying on a regular basis?"

The nobleman was quiet for a long moment. "I'm not the right person to ask. What I would suggest looking into, though, is how to support a large group of people at once with their material needs. Tools, clothing, food."

Virid said, "What if you could give everybody their own elementals or teach them how?"

"The spell for that is tricky," Ruyo said.

"Maybe make magic items so non-wizards can summon 'em? Then they'd pray a lot to get more."

The elder brother said, "Yes, I'm sure that would be well received too, if they were at least as useful as that ice-spike creature."

Nusina shot up into a narrow line, like an icicle herself. "Oh, coal. They really are preparing for war."