Ruyo called out, "These are dangerous lands, sir. We've been in a few scrapes lately."

"Any mages?"

"I'm new at the art but have some power, yes. The others each know basic water magic."

"All of you?" He looked them all over again. "Wait here." He slipped back into the trees.

Hastro muttered, "Friendly bunch."

The scout returned soon with two sturdy men caked in rock dust and wielding picks. He said, "Surrender your weapons if you want in."

Ruyo said, "All right." Disarming made less of a difference for her than for the others, if trouble happened.

Khulis said, "If it's the same to you, I'll wait out here."

Ruyo, the sisters and Hastro came forward unarmed, leaving behind their small treasure supply in bags and backpacks. Ruyo wondered, not for the first time, if she could trust Khulis not to run off. She had to trust in the former bandits' long-term desire for more magic and wealth.

The village of Frostcrag consisted of no more than ten buildings she could see, though three were long woven halls in a westlands style that would hold several families. Most perched near a pit where a hillside had been quarried, exposing its south face. Pale stone shined wherever sunlight got past the hill.

"Have you been having trouble with bandits?" asked Ruyo.

The hunter said, "You might say that." The quarry men knocked on the door of one hut.

A smell of dried flowers wafted from inside as the hut opened and a scrawny man looked out. "What do you want?"

"Fixing this outsider up," said the hunter, pointing to Lisette.

"Get in, then."

Elly followed Lisette before the healer could object. Ruyo said, "May I watch? I want to learn."

"Fine."

Hastro said, "It looks crowded in there. Need extra hands to swing a pick for an hour or two?"

The quarry men looked surprised, but one of them said, "If you've got a strong back, sure." They led him away.

In the hut, the healer fussed over the broken arm, grumbling all the while about careless outsiders. "At least I don't need to snap it again. Hold her steady, other girl."

The healer did some prodding and pushing that made Lisette whimper with pain. Ruyo started toward them by some instinct to interrupt, but held back. "How do you do it?"

"Hmmph. There; that was the most painful part." He patted Lisette's head, then made his hands glow with a soft blue-green light. "Now this is the part that impresses people, even though it's less important than making sure the bone is where it should be. Observe."

Ruyo tried to follow what he was doing. He went slowly over the bruised skin, affecting it with some kind of knitted-together threads of mana. She asked technical questions and got curt, somewhat helpful answers.

"You fancy yourself a wizard?" he asked. "I sense some raw power."

"Yes, but it's not as important as getting Lisette patched up."

Elly looked reluctant as she said, "Can you do anything for a bad bruise?"

"Show me. Hmm. I've seen worse; hold still. Watch this, mage. See what I'm doing? Try that spell on the other half."

With this coaching, Ruyo helped treat Elly's extensive bruising from the earth elemental's fist. The black and yellow didn't fade, but Elly said it hurt less. The medic said, "Give it a day. You with the arm, you'll probably be fine in a week. Find help if there's a fever."

His work completed, the healer washed his hands with some water he conjured. He then looked the three guests over and said, "What did this harm to you?"

Ruyo wanted these people on her side, and the ancient hospital was sealed against casual intrusion. "We were exploring a ruin. Several old guardians attacked."

The man laughed like a crow. "What? You lot are tomb-robbers and ruin-chasers?"

Ruyo blushed. "We're all fairly new at it. But we came back alive, which is more than some can say."

"True." He fiddled with some bottles of medicine. "Our mayor is going to give you a story about bandits, but don't believe it. We've seen a few in our time. This was something else. A true monster."

"You got attacked by something?" said Lisette, testing the motion of her heavily bandaged, splinted arm.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Months ago, back in the winter. We lost several sheep, and a hut got knocked over and looted."

Ruyo asked, "What makes you say it was a monster?"

"Whatever beast it was roared terribly. Scared off the man who was supposed to be tending the barn."

#

The mayor pulled Ruyo's group into his own house afterwards. His home was the upper floor of a tall wicker basket of a building, slathered with mud on the outside and lined with benches inside. Cold wind blew through gaps in the walls.

He offered them chewy dark bread. "Is healing all that brought you here?"

Ruyo told him, "We've become explorers, and were looking through a ruin near here."

"The old room in the valley, right? We found it first. So there's a way to open the door?"

"There is. I have a unique method."

He leaned closer. "What is it, girl? Spit it out."

Ruyo conjured a glass bottle from a glowing orb of mana. "I'm the heir of the goddess who was recognized as having authority there."

The mayor startled. "The heir of... How did you do that?"

"An ancient divine power. I am, technically, the new Goddess of Water. I can already do useful things for people willing to help me." She offered him the bottle.

His expression was guarded as he took the gift. "That's quite a claim. But you opened the ruins? What's in there?"

"It's a Lost World hospital. Huge, and dangerous. We started to explore it but turned back after some close calls." Ruyo took a breath and launched into a sales pitch. "I now live at a site called Wellspring north of here, across the hills. We're available to trade with. We can provide glass, iron, cloth --"

"You mean you personally! Who is 'we'?"

"I'm building a small settlement. The man and women with me are helping. There's a way to be trained in the basics of water magic very quickly; I'd be happy to show you there."

"We use earth and water magic here for the stone-cutting. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pry a well shaped block off of that cliff, especially the back edges?"

Lisette said, "I'd wondered about that."

The mayor nodded toward her. "The method involves water, sand, and patience. My skill is part of why I'm in charge here; I really ought to get back to that. But if you could get that technique into more of our people's hands, that'd help our work. And you say you have iron?"

He largely ignored her claim of godhood, but was willing to set up a little trade in wool and mutton, to be delivered by someone wanting magic.

Finally he said, "If you're fighters, maybe you can help deal with another problem. Recently we had a raid on our sheep from one of the villages to the south. Maybe you could teach them a lesson."

"Your healer seems to think it was a monster. Couldn't it have been a wolf?"

"Bah. We hear tales of supernatural monsters every year, but have you ever seen any?"

"A few." Ruyo conjured an elemental to float beside her. Nusina would have been more impressive!

He looked skeptically at the waterball. "Fancier use of water-shaping than I'm used to."

She exerted more effort and turned it into a Quill class beast of ice, scooting along the wicker floor. "Imagine something like this, bigger and made by a fire mage instead, trying to kill you. Ask the next travelers from Averell about recent events."

The mayor leaned slightly farther away from Ruyo's group, giving them all a long look. "You aren't run-of-the-mill grave-robbers, are you."

Elly smiled. "We're adventurers."

#

They met up with Hastro just after noon. The guard was worn out and only clean by virtue of having learned to wash by magic. "They have soap here."

Ruyo had a tiny personal supply but couldn't create the stuff. One of the stonecutters was still escorting them, so she said, "I'd be eager to buy some of that before we go. We need our weapons back too."

Lisette took Ruyo aside and said, "The mayor didn't press us about the bandit problem."

Ruyo whispered, "And I'm happy not to add that to my plate right now."

Soap in hand, they got escorted back to Khulis, who was whittling while sitting on his chair. "Took you long enough. Everybody healed?"

Lisette gingerly patted her arm. "As well as we can be."

"I was thinking, Ruyo. Can't you learn to patch people up instantly?"

"I'd certainly like to."

Elly said, "There was a whole gigantic hospital. So even the ancients didn't know how to cast a spell and fix everybody instantly."

Ruyo nodded. "It's possible that the old gods knew how, but they couldn't spend all day casting that spell. They had to delegate to people with machines and offices."

As soon as the escort left them alone, Hastro said, "By the way. I spent the morning swinging a pick not just to get a good meal, but to gossip. They haven't got a smith, and the 'road' east to Averell is so bad they sometimes detour northwest to Brotherhood when carrying stone. What else... They think the monks are hiding something. And a murderer got jailed in the westlands instead of being killed."

"Any idea why?"

He shrugged. "Must've been well connected or been more useful alive."

Ruyo figured there was a market for iron tools here, and the suspicion toward Brotherhood wasn't surprising. "Good to stay informed," she said. Then she looked at Pir. "Did anyone react to this guy?"

"No."

"How are you feeling, Lisette?"

"Better. If I can help at the ruin..."

Ruyo said, "We need to head home first and send a report. That includes working with Pir. The next trip can come later."

#

As they hiked back, they kept trying to coax information out of Pir the fire spirit. The creature followed along, now "carried" by Lisette's mana. It, or he, could recite words written on paper in the old tongue, but he didn't respond to questions in modern speech even with much gesturing to make it simple. Pir wouldn't even name ordinary objects in his language. It seemed the only way to interact was to learn bits of the language and try to put together questions in it. The group found it easier to master a few words after hearing them aloud instead of having only abstract written marks.

"This would be so much easier with Nusina finding some way to translate," Ruyo said.

Lisette said, "She doesn't know the words either. We're doing the best we can."

They stopped briefly to build a fire and play the music box again. Pir seemed delighted with both, hovering in the flames and echoing the old music as though singing along.

"We need to get you to Virid," said Ruyo. "Oh, we're near that old power box, aren't we?"

A few minutes away, they had Pir look at the writing there. He recited the words and Ruyo dutifully wrote down the pronunciation. But wasn't there more to learn here? She touched the box and carefully spoke ancient words: "Power connect?"

"Yes." They'd figured that word out, anyway. He added one more word and "Active."

Elly guessed, "'Not'?"

"Not active?"

"Yes." And one more unfamiliar word.

Elly grabbed the notes, then touched the marking that for some reason mentioned money. "Money... not active?"

She listened to the response and laughed. "Ruyo, I think that means, you have to pay that much as punishment if it's broken."

Hastro said, "I'm not too scared of that threat."

They couldn't find a way to say, "Can you fix it," or much else. But to know a word meaning broken, destroyed was probably relevant.