Out on the waves, Nusina sounded amused. "Next time they'll want something from a volcano. Ready to dive?"

Ruyo was walking on the water next to a borrowed rowboat she hoped to load with salvage. She let her spell drop and crashed into the water with less dignity than she'd hoped. Switching to breathing water still wasn't easy for her or comfortable. She managed, though, and let the salty sea flood her lungs. "Don't know if I'll ever get used to this," she said without breath. Her webbed hands helped her glide smoothly along.

Nusina went deeper as a shimmering blue light. "Practice while I search."

"Sure. Keep an eye out for more giant burning sharks."

"I said I was sorry about the last time."

The harbor and the water just beyond it were deep enough for large ships and had been stripped of the most easily caught fish. She scowled at bits of trash in the water like a discarded shoe, and tried not to think about the water's cleanliness. She practiced trying to create a basic light spell while maintaining the water-breathing. That was a mental balancing act! She gagged and nearly began drowning but managed to get the light flickering into place along her left hand. Bravado aside, if a shark did attack her she'd need to use the knife at her belt or get to the surface.

Nusina said, "Found a sunken ship about eighty feet down. Hasn't been here long. No hazards."

"How about vengeful gods? Necromancer lizardmen? An intelligent board game that eats people's brains?"

"I'm seeing mostly just barrels. I may be able to lift some without you."

"Flooded? I could come down and destroy the water in them."

"Sure."

Ruyo swam into the darkness, growing nervous and making herself keep going for practice's sake. A wooden ship loomed below, cracked in half. "Do you suppose that breathing device from Frostcrag would let anyone come down here?"

"Probably. I only vaguely remember that problem it was warning about, where compressed air can hurt you. Shouldn't be a problem for you but I'd advise further study before having Elly or someone join us in the deep."

Ruyo passed through the broken hull and looked at the cargo of barrels. One had broken and, improbably, set a pile of ceramic dishes neatly down on the seafloor without a crack. Ruyo said, "Elly? Will she ever be able to breathe underwater?"

Nusina flitted around, checking for danger and shining light everywhere to help illuminate the cargo. "Like yours, her body isn't quite mortal anymore. You're much farther along at becoming physically sturdy and malleable, though. She probably won't get this specific power but might learn to imitate it with a bubble of airtight shadows or something. And she had her heart set on flying, so she probably cares more about that."

Ruyo examined the barrels. Some had been damaged enough to leak, but that gave her access to destroy the water inside and make them become buoyant. They also began to creak alarmingly for some reason so she did only a little of that. "Grab two or three at a time?"

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"Sure." Nusina helped corral two barrels out of the two dozen and heft them upward. At the surface Ruyo tried destroying the water again and found the cracked barrels now accepted the spell without complaint. She re-sealed them with ice. Without bothering to start breathing air again she said, "That should keep them floating."

Nusina zipped toward shore to tell the townsfolk to come fetch the floating barrels. Ruyo went back down to repeat the process. "So what I'm going to do is, configure this shrine to generate food and iron on its own."

"You're going to get a bare-minimum shrine of the second level. Not something you can add special features to, only good enough to use as an item-summoning target. These guys can't manage anything better in a hurry."

"I can still keep my promise at least, helping to get farming and trade moving again around here."

The two of them swam up and down, fetching a dozen barrels before bothering to inspect them. Pots and plates, knives and ladles. Nothing critical to human survival but certainly things people valued. "No skeletons, I notice. Glad for that."

When the job was done, the headman looked impressed. A small crowd had gathered to look at the salvaged treasure and start cleaning it off. He said, "Thanks, ma'am. We don't have much right now, but what's your offer? We build you some little holy house and do a ritual there, and then what?"

She explained. "Here's my idea. You build the temple, and pray at it regularly. You give the refugees most of your spare seeds and make them some farming tools, and keep sharing your fish supply for a little while. In return, I use that prayer energy to send you more iron than you need for the tools, and some food and miscellaneous blankets and things to share. That way you can get the refugees to leave and start rebuilding. I'll also come back later and hand out some magic; I can set a few of you up today just to prove I can do that. How does all that sound?"

"Can you improve the fish catch?"

"Not yet; sorry. If you need some rope or something before I go, I can supply that too."

The leader shrugged and turned to the other townsfolk. "You guys willing to put the work in for this? How about you, smith?"

"May as well," said a man with charcoal dust on his sleeves. "I'm about out of raw material."

Others said, "If nothing else the building can be a shelter. We'll get the outsiders to do most of the work."

"Thanks," said Ruyo.

#

They had to wait in town for a few days, which became awkward when a small southbound ship arrived and was ready to leave without them. Ruyo went to the captain and discovered he was with the Mendrettos family, the same rich clan she'd had some very unpleasant encounters with lately.

The captain balked when he realized who he was talking to. "Last I heard, they still want to meet you in peace."

"I plan to visit. I need to attend to a few things first though. Could you wait around for another day to carry my group?"

She had to pay him in iron, several rounds of orange juice for the crew, and a week's worth of her stipend from the southlands city-states. But he delayed long enough that the shrine got finished. The headman himself reluctantly did the several hours of prayer that the consecration needed.

Elly joined her to inspect it. This one was a wooden cabin with a magic-shaped stone foundation. Similar to the Brotherhood structure, it had a front room with space for a small gathering, and a back room with a stone pillar.

Elly's comment was, "They didn't much care."

"It was built by people who don't really know me and have urgent things on their minds. Right now I'd call this place's flavor weary desperation."

"Flavor?"

"You'll understand what I mean when you start getting more than a rock with your name scrawled on it." Ruyo touched the altar and said, "I accept this." Around her the building shimmered.

"Oh!" Elly turned around. "Now there's a sort of spirit copy of this place."

"Like an echo, yeah. Check out my place in Brotherhood for a clearer example. That place was built with a specific purpose."

The travel and rest had been good for Elly. She found the strength to laugh. "I guess you and I will have a while to compare designs."

"I hope so! Don't worry about starting small. I had no idea what I was getting into."