The next morning she set about handing out more magic, and a note arrived on the floor. Tulia had sent it! "This looks handy," she had written. "Averell lost control of those northern villages it took, I'm told, but looted them on the way out. I hope this arrives. May I tell the Council?"

Ruyo sent off a reply saying yes and explaining she'd soon add Brotherhood and Starshore to the network. When she showed Tulia's message around, the explorer was especially interested. He said, "I'd like to be known as the first person ever to send mail commercially by magic. May I send a message to Averell before I go?"

"Sure, for a few coppers. Second level of magic if you pray again, too."

He paid her in both forms, and handed her a folded note he wouldn't let her read. She'd peeked while he was writing it though; something pompous about a new age of learning, which he obviously hoped would appear in official histories someday. Ruyo sent the note along, thanked him, and said, "You can pick this up at the temple."

"It's addressed to the Council."

"Then hopefully Tulia will know to deliver it."

Finally he left for points east, taking his sons along. They'd made themselves useful for construction, but the man had been cagey about what ruins he knew of.

The merchant couple continued on to the west, promising to take word of Ruyo to the westlands.

With the camp a little smaller and quieter, Nusina remembered her machinery projects. Ruyo was glad to help. It wasn't her show but she made more iron and wood, doing her best to make shapes and sizes that would be easy for the others to cut into what they wanted. In the process she found she could make a chunk of iron hollow enough to serve as a small cookpot or a pan, but still had trouble adding any sort of handle or hook for the thing. She could at least make the general shape and have a proper smith finish it, saving him some labor.

Today, though, the main project was what Nusina called a bicycle. Similar to what the Inheritors had been experimenting with, the group assembled a wheeled seat that the rider could pedal using rods attached to the front wheel. They couldn't figure out how to put a metal rim around the wheels, so it was a bone-shaking experience to ride the thing even on level ground.

"I missed the part where they were doing the rims," Nusina said. "Could we meet with a wheelwright?"

Lisette said, "Maybe it would ride better with a bigger front wheel. Easier to pedal."

It was a good chance to play with messaging again. Ruyo sent off a note to Tulia asking her to find a wright and quiz him.

The printing project was coming along, too. It was obviously going to take more work to do well, but the creaky press could now make several identical pages with two lines of nonsense text. Something about a quick brown fox. "We need to make many more copies of the letters," Hastro explained. "It's tedious work."

She made some spare lead. "Get the newcomers to try it."

#

In the next few days of peace, everyone worked and practiced. Baris stopped by, then another merchant wagon from the west. One of the ex-slaves went east as a courier for the latest supply of enchanted sticks and a fresh batch of non-magic ones to use next.

Baris said to Ruyo, "I've been asked to keep watch on the woods north of here for Khyberians. There's a real possibility at this point that they'll find out about this place and strike."

"I know. I don't want to make this place a military camp but might have to."

"At least get yourself a sturdier gate."

Averell's mages were busy at war, but they spared Quintus for a little while. The peevish mason-architect was in a good mood that Ruyo suspected had to do with Tulia. He had an escort of twenty citizens, half soldiers, who Ruyo was supposed to train up in return. While Ruyo worked on that, accepting their prayers and unlocking their magical potential, Quintus straightened out the stone of the cave entrance and got two men to install a heavy, slightly enchanted door of wood and iron.

He explained, "The door is reinforced to resist burning as well as bashing. You really ought to have more of a fortress, though. Walls, towers, a portcullis!"

"I can't afford my own castle, Quintus."

"You should, regardless. Make it all out of ice, I suppose."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Ruyo turned to Nusina. "Is that at all practical?"

"A whole castle? Not soon, milady. But if you can grow more powerful you might expand the cave or add a little keep outside it. Your magic could keep ice walls frozen but it would be magically costly."

Virid was listening in; he'd been training with Quintus in earth magic. "Miss Ruyo, can I have some scrap wood and paper? I want to fool around with ice like what you said you'd made by accident on the ship."

"Help yourself."

#

They ended up with a somewhat more practical bicycle thanks to the mix of skills among the latest magic-seekers. Apparently the trick was to heat up a metal hoop to make it grow, then let it shrink into place around a wooden wheel. That and some seat-padding made it tolerable to ride. The men got started on another one right away. They and the sisters looked happy. Free food, plenty of things to work on, and an increasingly pleasant place to rest their heads largely thanks to their own efforts.

And they'd made her take another cooking lesson.

Tamur said, "Fighting your magic monsters is good, but you have real foes. When will I see them?"

He'd been training with the elementals and sparring with anyone else who dared. She feared he'd knock somebody's head off. The smiths got a practical lesson in whether their improvised shields and armor could take a blow.

"I should go soon to the hospital ruin, and I want you along. It's definitely dangerous."

"Good."

"Let me visit Brotherhood first."

#

She set out on horseback with Elly, Lisette and the monk. Along the way they speculated about building an inn, a proper smithy, a shop for making books, a true village. It scared Ruyo a little but excited her too. She had imagined settling down someday and opening her own shop.

In town, the monks wanted to meet right away. The sisters ran off. So Ruyo and her companion went to the main meeting hall and reported on all that she'd done.

Keeper Matthias, silver-haired and kindly, offered beer and cheese. "Progress. You seem to be spread thin, though."

"I'm getting more energy to spend. You'll be able to contact your friends in Averell quickly, and soon anyone you have in Starshore."

"You should hire a regular courier, if you're going to be providing that service. Someone to pick up and drop off mail for the shrines."

"It all has to go through a priest, like Brother Ecumas." The man wasn't an ideal candidate to serve Ruyo as her representative; she had the sense he didn't even like her. But he was apparently doing the job. Commerce was like that.

Matthias nodded. "What can we do for you?"

"I'd like to speak with your best weaver, and before he says it" -- she elbowed the monk at her side -- "a cook. Just more training. Besides that, would you happen to have any of the material that the Wellspring crystal is made of?" The monk helped describe the stuff, and the explorer's interest in it.

"We do, in a way, but it's part of the chief Witch Hunter's sword. I suspect it could harm even your spirit companion."

"That's it? This was a powerful and important material, and all you have is one tiny fragment?"

"...Yes. It's precious and clearly more valuable than most people even know."

Matthias' hesitation told Ruyo something. She knew they had some kind of artifact that they used to suppress magic in this area, to help imprison the horrible God of Light. She didn't know where it was and didn't need to, but now she had a good idea of what it was made from.

"We've put a good deal of trust in you, ma'am," said Matthias. "We hope that will be repaid."

#

Lisette and Elly met with her for dinner. Ruyo had been helping in the kitchen and trying not to make a fool of herself. They introduced her to their parents, serious farmers who grilled Ruyo about all the trouble she'd put their girls through. The sisters came to her defense but Ruyo still felt interrogated.

Afterwards, she went to the temple just southwest of the village, outside the magic-repelling field. It needed some cleaning.

A dozen villagers including the sisters' parents showed up to pray and be awarded magic. When that was done, she touched the altar and reached into the building's spiritual aspect.

The temple was a one-story wooden structure with a sloped roof, with a practical meeting room in the front and an altar room in back. When Ruyo looked more at the magical node that the place anchored to reality, she gasped. The people of Brotherhood had decorated the shrine with sky-blue cloth, painted scenes of waves and fishers and boats, and a deep blue sky with glittering glass. But seen on a spiritual level, it was a true monument. The curiosity and cheer of the ordinary villagers intertwined with the monks' inner circle and their devotion to protecting the world from evil magic. She'd been told that the Witch Hunters didn't see their work as a grim job of slaughtering the wicked; they and the monks did their jobs so that others could live in peace. Their wishes showed up here as walls that looked like carved pillars of ice, motes of light drifting through the air of a room that felt boundless, and artwork that moved as though alive. It wasn't the same imagery she might have chosen for herself, but it was what her followers wanted and hoped for.

Adding the power of message-sending to this place was easy, and felt like an afterthought. The real might of this place was what the villagers had put into it, concentrating it here as an unspoken wish. To her surprise, that desire was waiting to be shaped and put into place by her. Its use seemed so obvious she needed no training to do it. With only a gesture she lifted it and pressed it down into the altar and into the ground.

She stepped outside to the small crowd that lingered there, and glanced back to see the building shimmer as though underwater. That spiritual view of the world wore off, but some of that shine was real. The intent and goal of the shrine was now part of the facts of what this place was: a powerful snare shielding the world against the Unspoken One. If the people here continued praying, some of that power would act as another lock on the door.

"What did you do, ma'am?" a farmer asked.

It seemed obvious; it was their idea more than hers, but she willingly accepted it as part of her charge. She said unto the people of Brotherhood, "Divine power is best used to create, improve and protect."

#

They rode back east to Wellspring. The sisters had missed the show. Elly said, "So it's glowing now?"

Ruyo blushed. "I didn't do that deliberately. It was just... The builders wanted something specific, and I think I just partly delivered. Don't ask exactly what."

Elly studied her face for hints, but Ruyo said no more.