Ruyo felt confined to her room, because Tulia was doing the ritual out there in the garden, within earshot, and Ruyo didn't want to hear it. A droning prayer that went on and on, praising Ruyo the slayer of evil, the open-handed, walker with spirits. There was kneeling and kowtowing involved. Ruyo lay in bed with her nice new pillow over her ears, feeling queasy. She said, "I want future rituals to be more like parties."

When it was done, Ruyo sensed a faint connection to the shrine a stone's throw from her room. "There," she said.

Nusina said, "Congratulations. Your first modern shrine!"

"Hooray. We're safer now."

"It's a start. And before long you'll start being able to use the shrines as listening posts, targets for magic, even places to travel to instantly."

"Fast travel?" she said, interested now. "That's another 'impossible' kind of magic."

"Right now your body is basically mortal. It follows the limits of normal physics. But that can change."

Ruyo shivered and looked at her hands. They looked normal, still bearing a few little spots and scars. She got up, found the house cook, and asked him for a lesson in bread-making.

#

It came time for the next magic lesson. A slightly different group of scholars had come to see and instruct her this time, including both Quintus and the smith-mage from the college. The Vissio family had made sure young Virid could attend and listen. Quintus said, "It seems we're starting our own university."

Somebody cuffed him. "That's not funny. We're not indoctrinating people into serving dark powers to burn our enemies; far from it."

Several noblemen attended, mostly in silence. Ruyo saw an opportunity to get missing information. "Speaking of enemies, has the problem with the occupying soldiers been resolved?"

"Yes, they're leaving," said a scowling mage from the river docks. He didn't offer more detail, even when the garden fell quiet.

Quintus clapped. "Well. I believe it would help if we all used the new shrine before proceeding. 'Let all work be properly shown.'"

Several of the group objected. One man said, "I'm a good Church man, ma'am. I'm going along with this experiment but that doesn't mean joining a new sect for your convenience."

Ruyo nodded politely. "It would help me, but it's up to you."

Quintus and three others went to the shrine and made some sort of devotion. She could vaguely sense both the trickle of power from it, and a flavor of skeptical respect, like a customer paying in advance for something he might not get.

"I intend to deliver," she said.

Nusina appeared briefly to greet the mages, then continued speaking and listening while invisible. Their reaction to her was as guarded as the prayers; nobody asked to touch her and one of the more devout ones, clutching a Steadfast Church tower pendant, asked pointed questions about where she came from. Nusina and Ruyo refused to answer in much detail.

The lesson went on for a while. Then the Church man said, "We heard this morning about an incident with spirits in Sor's Hill. When were you planning to mention that?"

Ruyo's cheeks burned. "I wasn't looking to brag."

"Oh, just to get a shrine for yourself here and one over there? That's not bragging."

"I'd like to focus on what we came here for, the magic lessons."

"Are you a threat, miss Ruyo? Is your spirit guide there going to possess anyone, to kick us all while we're down?"

"Absolutely not!" Nusina said aloud.

Ruyo said, "No. I may not know spellcraft, but I probably have the most direct experience with spirits of anyone in this garden. Can any of you say otherwise?"

The smith-mage said, "I drink a lot."

"More than the water mage, I bet," said the lone female mage. "Can you make beer?"

Ruyo said, "No, but you're the second person to ask about making specialized liquids like lacquer. It's a possibility later. And based on what we're seeing about my skills, I'll have to train in those fields to do them well."

They were able to move back to coaching her in beginner spellcraft. They were telling her how to do things she could already do, like shaping water, but for the first time there was an explanation of why and how her will could manipulate mana and make things happen. "I really appreciate the lesson," she said. It would have been quite a feat to hire all these experts to teach her, normally.

"Don't thank us yet," said the Church man. He called out to one of the Vissio staff, "Fetch my boy, will you?"

The "boy" was a grown young man, a slave in a plain tunic and sandals, smelling of hay. His owner explained, "I've never given him instruction in magic, and as far as I know he has no talent for it. He handles my stables. See if you can kindle magic ability in him without making him endure days of lecturing."

Ruyo said to him, "I think I can help you, but do you want this?"

The man's eyes were downcast. "I am commanded. Please go ahead."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

"That's not what I asked."

"It's not my place to have opinions on this, ma'am. Do as my master commands."

It was an especially distasteful way to give a gift, because the wizards had forgotten a step. Ruyo said, "I can only use this power on my official followers."

The master said, "Then get on with it, boy; go to the shrine over there and praise our lady of water. Say she's great. Ask for her power. Call her pretty or something."

The slave dutifully knelt there, at the far end of the garden, and spoke quietly for a minute. Ruyo felt leaden duty, no enthusiasm. This was the feeling of plodding along through the rain because he had to get somewhere.

She headed for the shrine and intercepted the man on his way back. Quietly she told him, "You don't ever have to do that again."

He met her eyes for the first time; they were large and brown, rather like a horse's. "If you say so."

"Give me your hands."

There was a faint connection, made easier to notice because her new follower was right there with her and next to a shrine. She took his calloused hands in her smaller ones and shut her eyes, concentrating. A little of the mystical might she'd gathered flowed into him like cool water, but it was a good bargain: a spending of one fleeting batch of prayer energy to work a permanent change. She got the sense of something unlocking inside him, a new flow of mana beginning. She let him go and said, "Let's see if that worked."

They had a cup of water ready for him. Ruyo explained the basics of the simplest spell, water-shaping, and coached him. Within five minutes, the slave's eyes widened and the whole contents of the cup splashed upward into his palm. He shook it and half the water wobbled next to his fingertips. He stared at it and transferred the water to his other hand, but dropped it to the grass.

"Impressive for a first try," said the smith-mage. "You are now a beginner magic-user."

The master had the new trainee gather more water and try again. "It definitely works, and quickly." He added to Ruyo, "Normally, once we identify someone with the natural talent, it can take a month of lessons to get even this far. You seem to be a quick learner yourself, and you can apparently hurry people through the first bit of training."

Nusina said, "For now it'll only help him use water magic. Now that he has the knack, he can learn to do more advanced spells and probably other elements. I would say he's now a one on a scale of zero to ten."

"One," said the slave, barely audible.

"You may go," the Church mage said. When he'd gone, the mage said, "Proof of concept, done. Her powers work as a quick initiation. Now, can she enhance the skills of someone who already has magic?"

"Who will climb the tower for this one?" asked the smith. "I'm a little worried it'll interfere with my fire and air work." He glanced toward the man from the dock district.

"Oh, fine. It will either do nothing, or help me."

Ruyo spoke silently while they talked details. "Nusina, I think I want to fail at this."

"And not impress them?"

"Small benefits for now. I can 'discover' the secret later."

Nusina spun thoughtfully. "I'm not sure the enhancement would even work with this tenuous a connection. I mean, these people have mostly only prayed once. If you want to make sure, 'accidentally' skip that cycling step we discussed. It'll hurt a little."

The mages were looking at her, having heard none of that. "Well?"

"Sorry; I was just thinking about how to do this. It's different than starting from nothing. Volunteer, please give me your hands."

Ruyo flubbed the ritual on purpose, and it sent a cold shock through her arms like being shaken. She staggered back.

The mage looked like he'd felt it too. "Ugh! I can recognize amateur mana use even with your style."

"Try again?"

"No, thank you. Learn what you're doing first before you turn me into a toad or something."

"That's impossible," Quintus commented.

Ruyo bowed. "I'm sorry, but it looks like I'm unable to boost someone much more skilled and trained than myself, at least not yet."

That seemed to mollify the water specialist. "You'll improve, I'm sure."

The Church man said, "Then that was the other thing we needed to know. Your best use to us right now is to accelerate training for magic students. We can subsidize you to get them up to basic level, and we'll take it from there."

Ruyo said, "All right. If I have books or more lessons, that might help me jump them ahead further."

"I'll have to consult privately with others about that."

"Where would you say I am on the scale?" asked Ruyo.

Nusina said, "Maybe a three. Just starting to get to the interesting stuff. You're short on theory mastery but you're obviously fixing that."

Ruyo wrung what further instruction she could out of the wizards before they left, especially Quintus who had a number of wild theories. One or two hit the mark and got Nusina to talk about the implications.

He said, "You know, it could just be that you made a beginner mistake while trying to enhance my colleague's magic. I've seen similar spell failures."

"I'll work on it."

Virid came back from a break. The boy looked worn out from sitting through the lecture, but was in good health again. He dressed in a simpler version of his older brothers' poofy black tunics with white stripes. He said, "Did you meet Tiro, the cook's son? He's been asking about magic. Maybe you could teach him too."

"I'd want to ask his father first."

"Is it the praying that bothers you? I heard two of the mages call you a witch, but I think they're jealous."

"They forced that slave to do it. I didn't even get his name."

Virid waved one hand. "Oh, my brothers plan to make the whole household use the shrine once in a while. That'll help you, right?"

Ruyo winced. "No! I mean, I don't want the kind of worship that happens by threats. That man today... it felt wrong."

"I'm pretty sure some of the teachers weren't serious either."

She sighed. "I'm a merchant, understand? As much as I might like finding coins on the street by chance, I don't want to beat the money out of someone."

"Is there a difference to the power you get, other than how it feels?" The boy stood his ground. "If you got a thousand slaves to pray, imagine what you could do!"

"Yes; I could drown the world in blood. But I'd rather not. Excuse me." She turned and headed back to her room.

Soon there was a knock on the door. Ruyo groaned and opened it, prepared for an argument. But it was only the cook and his son. The father said, "We heard about what you did, today and back west in that village. If you've got magic to offer, we'd both love to sign up."

Ruyo composed herself and slicked back her hair. "I can try, but I'm sorry; it seems to only work on people who've prayed."

They both looked uncomfortable at that, but the father said, "It's a fair price."

"And your son seems to have magic talent already, just not unlocked yet by training."

The boy waved to Nusina. "I tried to hang around in the background today, but didn't hear much. We can't afford to hire trainers."

"Books?"

The father said, "The brothers have a few, but servants aren't allowed to borrow them. There was an incident with a few getting stolen."

Nusina appeared and spoke up. "Excuse me, but I remember something. Do you know of a device called a 'printing press'?"

"Hmm?" said Ruyo. The others looked confused.

"Oh ho ho," said the spirit.

"What?"

"All shall be revealed in time! Now, if you're willing, milady, can you grant them magic?"

The two household servants, freemen who'd been with the Vissios for generations, prayed at Ruyo's shrine. Here was a flavor of simple curiosity, pleasant this time. When they returned, Ruyo sensed the connection to them. "All right, here..."

In minutes the four of them including Nusina were playing a game, tossing around a ball of water. Father and son laughed. Ruyo said, "I don't think this much magic will be more than a toy for you, but it's a start. More later if I can manage it."

"I may have some use for it in the kitchen," the cook said. "Thank you! I know you've got some agent or other of the Council watching you come and go, so we won't take up more of your time."