The Harbor Lord picked up on the idea of granting magic to the masses. "Which means improved seafaring, better defense and construction. That benefit will be spread out over all the various guilds and industries, and the Order of Magi will still have its traditional rights over the more powerful workings. I see no problem here, only opportunity. What deal can we make?"

The most honored of the Honorable Tanners said, "Can you create leather?"

"Not yet. I'm interested in learning new materials, so I could try --"

"No!"

The Wailer snorted and the head City Watchman rolled his eyes.

The Magus said, "Miss Ruyo, would you join the Order?"

Ruyo had never imagined she'd be invited to join a guild of wizards. She answered carefully. "I'm not sure, ma'am. I don't want to be told I can't offer my services or must charge a certain price."

With equal care the woman tapped her fingers on the table, thought, and replied. "We would try to avoid that, due to your special situation. We would most like to get first claim on studying your powers and comparing notes, and maybe call on you for help here and there. Yes, I know you've already conferred with Brotherhood and Averell. But you're a promising mage of Starshore, and shouldn't your title and affiliation reflect that?"

"Thoughts?" Ruyo asked her guide. "I think yes."

Nusina said, "So long as it doesn't conflict with your other needs."

Aloud, Ruyo said, "It probably should, and I'm eager to learn from the experts."

"Then I think we can work something out. Let's speak later."

Ruyo nodded.

The City Watch representative spoke out of turn. "I can't believe you people. We're overlooking that she wants to have a shrine built in her honor, and for people to pray to her. This is blasphemous."

The Cobbler razzed him. "You're just sore she borrowed one of your guys and solved a crime under your nose."

"No, I'm concerned with the physical and spiritual defense of my home. There's a war on, and we've barely moved to help our allies."

Ruyo asked, "What has Starshore done for Averell so far?"

The Harbor Lord looked to the man at his right, who spoke up. "Because this was a sudden campaign, we didn't have much of a force to send. But we already help fund mercenaries in the north, and have ordered them to help."

The Magus said, "Several of our more combat-inclined members have gone as well."

Ruyo wasn't sure "several" would make a big difference. "They could use all the help they can get."

"We'll do what we can, but it's their war. Why does it matter to you?"

Ruyo had a reason to want Averell to win -- the recapture of the Night God's relic -- but she didn't trust even her home Council with that information. She said only, "Khyber is an ongoing threat to the whole region, and the Averellians see this aggression as part of a long-term problem."

"We'll keep that in mind," said the Wailer. "For now, we should concern ourselves with prosperity and grow stronger. Fellow Councilmen, do we have any reason to restrict Ruyo's attempts to gather prayers and skill here?"

The chief guardsman looked sour, but saw he had no support. And so the Council passed a flowery resolution that Ruyo was a citizen of Starshore (which she already was) and ought to engage in trade as she saw fit.

It was good news, but Ruyo worried that it meant another claim on her.

#

After the meeting but before she could get out the front door, Ruyo faced a gaggle of representatives and secretaries who wanted to talk to her about private deals. Joining the Order of Magi, granting spells, something about the elementals and spirits, and talk of stockpiling iron. Ruyo mostly fended them off but agreed to meet with the Order at their tower and to pay the Enlightened Masons some raw metal and eventual magic in return for help with the shrine project.

Back outside and seemingly alone, she leaned against the hot stone wall and sighed. "That went pretty well. Be glad you missed the meeting in Averell."

Nusina said, "What's next?"

"I'd like to train before I get back to the enchantment work and trying to improve on that. I think it's time I work on water magic along with improving the Initiation."

"You still haven't learned to breathe water."

Ruyo laughed. "The water in Wavebound Harbor is... not entirely clean."

"Bah. It's not likely to hurt you. You have innately good health plus some water purification."

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"Let's practice that part first."

Ruyo went to the beach and sat in the wet sand. There she picked up a handful of it and tried to separate the water from it by magic, like a sieve. It trickled upward instead of down, forming a ball above her handful of dry sand flecked with salt.

Nusina inspected it. "Not bad. I'm not sure you're getting... oh. Oh!"

"What?"

"Milady, could you smack my forehead for me?"

Ruyo mimed slapping the upper part of the spirit's rippling body.

Nusina said, "Ahem. The world is full of tiny living things, smaller than the eye can see, and some of them cause diseases. They're basically everywhere. This is part of basic education... or was, and it's secret lost knowledge now."

Ruyo looked skeptical. "Invisible creatures?"

Nusina bobbed enthusiastically. "Yes! You can see some if you arrange pieces of curved glass in a tube. Um, I can't recall the exact setup but it's another thing to teach to the Inheritors. This is very important."

Ruyo wasn't sure how yet another kind of mysterious spirit mattered, but wanted to encourage Nusina's projects. Especially if those gave the two of them control over the beheaded cult. "If you're going to work with them, it'll be good to have more ideas to awe them with. How can I use this info myself?"

"Very fine filtration. To really get the water clean, try to push out absolutely everything beyond the tiniest specks of water. Not just grains of sand."

Smaller than sand? That was hard to do, but Ruyo worked at it. She didn't see much difference in her next attempt. Maybe she'd gotten a little more silt out. Nusina judged her work and said, "I can't see the little critters myself, but practice again."

Ruyo tried again and again, straining herself. "I'd rather just make pure water from nothing."

"Right, but you want to be sure what gets into your lungs is pure. Though again, I think you'll be fine even without that."

Ruyo didn't like the idea of having waterlogged lungs at all. She stood up and began walking along the water's surface, thinking she'd at least get farther away from land. "By the way, the cult leader had a staff that seemed to control fire creatures. Could it control you?"

"Ugh, that thing. He had a water version of it too. It felt like it was tugging me around, but I was able to resist it. My judgment is that a device like that staff can only steer the basically mindless elementals or distract spirits like me. You might want to give some to the Averell people who work with elementals. Analyzing them would help you too."

"I bet the local Magi already snagged the staves and other magic equipment from that island." Ruyo admired a sailing ship that was heading in that general direction. The air out here smelled of salt and fish.

"By the way, do they make salt by filtering seawater around here? They should."

"Yeah, that's a standard trick. No need to mine the stuff." The supply also made the export of salted fish easy.

"Here's a different spell, then. Can you fill the space around you with mist?"

Ruyo raised up great globs of water with both hands, making them float irregularly around her.

"Mist, not floating tubs."

Ruyo strained. "On average it's about right!" But she forced the blobs apart into smaller wobbling chunks.

Nusina sat on the water's surface like a couch and looked up at her. "No, no. You're trying to control all those pieces. What you want is just a little control over a whole area around you, not domination of everything."

Ruyo lost her grip, then tried again. On the fourth attempt, Nusina squeaked, "What's that behind you?!"

Ruyo turned around and saw only a distant island. The waterball she'd been holding dispersed, still airborne but with a ragged edge where it diffused into a vague cloud.

Nusina managed to look smug. "Now do that on purpose."

Water swirled around Ruyo, and then without falling back into the sea, drifted apart into a haze. She walked along, trailing mist that the wind caught and blew away. She did it again and had trouble holding the fog in place without constantly making more.

"Yes, wind counters that one. It's a good passive defense against fire though."

"How do I defend against having big rocks thrown at me?"

"Mostly, don't be there. Practice your dodging. Now!" She flew at Ruyo, and Ruyo fell over backward and smacked onto the ocean's surface as though on a hard mattress. "Again! And give me some elementals to fling at you too."

Ruyo dodged, running and jumping along the water. Sometimes she tumbled and let the waves kick her back up to her feet. A waterball smashed into her from behind and she yelped. "You're enjoying this a little too much," she said, out of breath.

"I've been cooped up too long! En garde!" Nusina lifted some water up from the sea directly and flung it at her in a block, like a stone.

Some practice later, Ruyo was worn out. She weakly splashed Nusina and said, "I surrender! Let's go back."

"Oh, fine. Do mist again on the way, though."

#

Physically and magically exhausted, Ruyo went home to take a break. Nusina said, "I'd like to wander around on my own if you don't mind."

"Can you? And aren't you worried about more goons coming after you?"

"I'll stay invisible, and if any more people see me I'll be nice."

"If you're sure, go ahead." Ruyo worried for her but Nusina had been shaken badly, and needed to rebuild her own confidence.

The sisters were back at the shop, looking healthy although their clothes were torn and singed. Ruyo's mother saw her looking at them and said, "That reminds me. Could you make some cloth?"

"I've never known you to do much sewing."

"Nor will I. I'm planning to trade the stuff for finished outfits for the girls." Elly protested that they were fine, but Mena would have none of it.

Ruyo pushed herself to make the largest bolt of fabric she could, maybe enough to cut a whole shirt out of. The material wasn't her best quality but was the canvas-like sturdy kind that offered a little protection.

Mena said, "Undyed?"

Ruyo bowed. "It is but a blank surface to showcase the brilliance of your dyes."

Mena snorted. "Flatterer. You want to run the shop now?"

"I need to work on the sticks again. And before that I need a nap."

#

A faint thought from Nusina reached her. "How about now?"

"Huh?" she thought back.

"Oh good. I'm fine; just testing my limits. I can get about a mile away from you, and you hear me at half a mile."

"All right. See you when you're back."

Ruyo had been camped out again in the storeroom, and that was getting old quickly. She'd have helped build the new shrine but the thing wouldn't count if she made it herself. She peeked outside. It was sunset and her parents were just closing up for the night. "I'm going to find an inn," she said, hefting her backpack and its supply of unfinished sticks.

Mena hadn't complained, but looked pleased that Ruyo was moving out again. "I'm going to see about putting the sisters up in the Coopers' spare room. You remember them, right? Do you know how long you're staying in town?"

Ruyo paused in the doorway. "Good question. I should go back to Averell if Veneri and the other criminals are put on trial there; they might try to break free. I ought to check on Wellspring too. And there's a ruin to finish exploring. I can't get fully up and running here until there's a shrine. I'll need to be here to poke it once it's finished."

"Couple of days, maybe?"

Ruyo nodded.