She met with the Inheritors too, the group now serving as her personal research cult. They'd been studying artifacts from the ancient hospital and one of them agreed to be Elly's priest, going through the trouble of the consecration ritual in return for being the first in town to get her blessing. The chosen site was a disused tunnel where miners had been digging for the milky-yellow crystal called calamine, used for making brass.

Elly went into the mines as the ritual wrapped up, to see whatever the city had built. A few of the less important Councilmen watched from outside, talking among themselves. Ruyo had a gaggle of the Inheritors to talk with meanwhile. They were outside the city proper, a good hike from shore. They stood around by a cluster of moldering old sheds. Hardly a glorious religious site.

Ruyo said, "How have your studies been going?"

One of the older men in the group said, "We had some luck at studying those black tablets. The ones you said were for transforming people. I personally went all the way out to the hospital while you were away, to have a look at the machines they went with."

"Anything useful?"

"The slabs are etched in a way we can't understand. But they're labeled by element and sex, and that gave us some ability to spot the differences in the spell structure." He talked about advanced details.

Another researcher said, "Although it's like comparing a palace and a warehouse from a distance. We're seeing only the most obvious differences."

"I'm still a novice enchanter," Ruyo admitted.

"These might help you learn," the older man said.

The other said, "Besides that, the nearby miners found an interesting breathing device that seems to explain how it's used, just by looking at it!"

Ruyo tried not to show her worry. "I request that you not focus on that topic just yet. There's a certain problem I'm trying to resolve first."

The pair looked at her strangely. "Is this related to the random attacks on you?" One of the other Inheritors slinked to the back of the group, and only then did Ruyo notice he'd tried to kill her -- while under brief mind control.

"Yes, something like that. I don't blame anyone here for the attacks. Please make this one a low priority for now."

"Why, though?" said a woman who'd been making bicycles.

"Sorry. I appreciate your curiosity, but it's just going to lead to people getting killed. Drop it. I'll explain later."

The lady pouted. The very thing that made these people useful would drive them to keep asking themselves about mind magic and how to get it.

The lead Inheritor said, "We'd like to have another look at the spirits, of course, including the nameless water one."

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Ruyo pointedly looked to Nusina, who bobbed in acceptance. She'd been taking an interest in making sure neither Pir nor her fellow aqua-orb got mistreated.

Elly's ever-present soldiers walked out of the mine, and one beckoned to Ruyo. She approached and he said, "She's requesting you."

Ruyo apologized to the Inheritors, left Nusina behind, and walked into the tunnels with a blue floating light above her. This was a crude and worn tunnel sloping downward and braced with wood. It smelled of dust and old filth. A signpost pointed to a right-hand passage that ended in a round room, recently dug bigger.

Elly paced, looking at a mural of moons and stars and a bat along part of the wall. "Are they following?" she asked.

Ruyo checked. "I don't see anyone down the tunnel."

"They're probably around the corner. Keep your voice down. Ruyo, I don't like this."

"The shrine?" Ruyo found that her watery light worked just fine in here. "You haven't accepted it?"

Elly pointed out the simple carvings in the empty room. "Everywhere we go, I'm trying to get people to treat me as a god. I'm a joke. These drawings are from strangers shrugging and making up 'something nocturnal' because they don't know me and I haven't done great deeds."

"Lady Elinor, you missed my first month or so as a god. I got heaved into a fountain, accidentally sprayed beer onto a gangster's food, got kidnapped, killed somebody I really would rather not have..." She shook her head, shutting her eyes.

Elly startled. "That bow I found. That was a Witch Hunter bow, and you had it."

Ruyo nodded grimly. "They attacked me to get my attention. Said it was a test. If they'd just asked for help, damn it... But I killed a woman who should've been on our side."

"They never told me about that!"

"I'd rather it not become part of my mythos. I hope you can forgive me."

Elly looked rattled, slicking back her hair. "I can't blame you, if that's how it happened."

"Our job involves getting people to see us as amazing. I started off bumbling and I'm still hardly an unstoppable force."

"Well yeah, but you've only been at this for months and you've done a lot."

Ruyo smiled. "You were along for a lot of that. Does this mural show the part where you jumped into the water to stab a magma shark? Or where you went into a huge ruin and found ancient seeds and writing and medical machines, while fighting off a horde of killer robots?"

Elly blushed. "All that was just part of being your bodyguard."

"But you still did them. You didn't have to jump off that ship. You didn't have to track down Nusina's kidnappers, or face off with an underwater gator tribe, or help figure out what happened to the old gods."

The Night Goddess studied the generic starry markings on the shrine walls, then the altar that was just another slab of rock jutting out from the back. "I don't see anything like that here."

"Then these people underestimate you. You underestimate you. Some of what I do is just showmanship because it has to be. But the better I do, the less fake it gets."

Elly looked down at the floor and sniffled. Ruyo hugged her. Elly said, "I guess I have to follow through with this."

"We did warn you about the job."

"I can live with it. But I meant, I have to poke this shrine and turn it on."

"I don't think you do, not like this. Go tell them it won't work, and why."

"But I've got soldiers pushing me every step of the way to hurry this up. Get the powers, join you on that smiting job."

Ruyo shook her head. "What do you want to do with your powers? You've talked about flying; what else do you have in mind? Do not put all your effort into how to fight and kill monsters, even if the Witch Hunters would like that."

"Well... I'd imagined being the Dream Goddess. That was something the old god did, but I got to play with that a little while I was inside the Shroud and I liked it."

"There you go. Maybe try something with that, and explore something you want to do. Don't let anybody push you into being a weapon. Dream powers might even be a product that people would pray for."

"Hmm, maybe."

"So get out there, tell them to go back and make the shrine more personal -- and let me see the look on their faces when you tell them."

Elly giggled. Ruyo patted her on the back as they went out.