It bothered her to learn that Averell had spies in Starshore at all, but she should've known even allied city-states would keep tabs on each other. She had a specific clue now. Building a shrine would have to wait, so that she could keep a low profile for the moment.

Clovis re-opened his shop and Ruyo returned to the world above. Elly and Lisette were trying to calm down a frantic sailor who was jabbering about fire.

Oh. Pir was floating next to Lisette's shoulder, and the man was pointing at him.

Ruyo said, "Can I help you, sir?"

"Can't you see that!? It's a monster! We need to warn --"

Advertising Pir in the wrong way was another chance to expose her presence too soon. She cursed silently. "I can explain, sir. It's harmless. A magic project my friends and I are working on." Ruyo conjured up some water and splashed it around in midair between her hands. Pir flicked backward in alarm.

The sailor just looked more alarmed by the magic show. Ruyo could probably calm him down with some more impressive tricks of exactly the kind she wasn't eager to show off in public. Instead she opened the shop's hatch again and said, "I can explain, I said. Please go down there and we'll talk."

"I'm not going down some dungeon hole!"

"It's a tackle shop, damn it. Elly, Lisette, can you please get him to climb down in one piece?"

Lisette said something to Pir. A few other people were in sight, looking on in confusion, as the sisters tried with strained patience to make him go down the little staircase.

Instead, he ran off. Ruyo sighed and spoke to the onlookers with a deliberate stress on her local accent. "He panicked at seeing one of our props for a magic show we're setting up. Guess it looks like a monster if you're a drunken sailor." The people looked at her skeptically but moved on.

Clovis called up from inside his shop. "What's the commotion?"

"An insufficiently mysterious spirit. Tell you later."

Ruyo's group wandered briskly off, toward home. "Lesson learned," Ruyo said. "Don't try to be discreet while there's an ancient elemental fire guardian on your shoulder."

Elly said, "It's not Pir's fault."

"It's mine. I should've guessed a random bystander might be able to see him. How did this not happen in Averell?"

Elly looked embarrassed. "We did get an occasional odd look, but one time a guard was with us and shooed the guy off. And for a while we dropped Pir off at the Vissio place where they know what's going on. I think he was mostly hanging around in the oven or getting snuggled."

Lisette suggested, "We could have your mom power him while we're out and about."

Ruyo changed directions, heading toward home. "Right."

So they explained the problem to Mena, and coaxed her to let the fire spirit draw on her for sustenance. She seemed to find it less taxing than the girls, and was interested when they taught her a few words of the old tongue. Pir looked curiously around the shop. Ruyo just hoped the little guy wouldn't wreck anything.

"We need to get the search moving before too many rumors spread," Ruyo said. "Mom, how do I stalk whoever's buying all the brass around here?" She told Mena and the sisters about the brass situation.

Mena laughed at her. "You? You can't even swipe a cookie from the counter without being caught."

"You _counted_ them," Ruyo said, blushing at a very early memory. Lisette snorted.

"If your scheme can be thwarted by a merchant knowing arithmetic, it's a bad one. Instead, you need to hire someone less likely to get recognized by the people you're chasing."

Elly raised a hand. "Announce you're selling a lot of brass, wait for someone to show, then nab 'em!"

Mena said, "Not quite. You need to find out where they're going. But do you know how most major purchases work around here?"

Ruyo saw where her mother was going with this. "Lisette, Elly: here's how it works. Remember the big warehouse? If you're just buying a fishing rod or a bottle of dye, you pick it up at the shop. But if you're after whole crates and barrels of anything, generally you get only a sample up front. And a claim ticket to pick up the rest from a particular warehouse lot. Convenient for loading onto ships; sometimes goods come in and get shipped back out without ever seeing the city proper."

Elly pondered. "So if somebody's got brass, the cultists buy it and then they go to a certain room to pick it up. Probably a dim, cluttered room where a mysterious stranger can lurk in the shadows, spotting the villains as their hoods fall back and they discuss their secret plans in the darkness!"

"There're skylights. Usually some moonlight in there and magelights."

"Close enough."

Lisette asked her, "Where are you even getting that idea? Anyway we need a merchant with the right material, and then we have to wait for a buyer and find out where it's stored."

Ruyo said, "The ship I came in on was carrying metal, apparently to wait for rising prices. But they wouldn't have brass; they'd have copper that gets smelted here."

Mena nodded. "We can work on a plan. And you, dear, need to stay out of it so you don't get spotted. Leave your bodyguards to do the sneaking."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

She didn't want to be left out of potential trouble, but she did have another contact to meet. "Will you two try that?"

Elly said, "You can count on us!" Her sister saluted.

"Then I need a boat ride."

#

That part was easy. There were pilots for hire across the harbor. Ruyo decided to try Corner Island first: a small sandbar village she'd passed at the harbor ring's edge. Two other travelers, both locals, were going the same way. "Do you live there?" she asked.

"Yep."

"Would you happen to know a man named Aristes?"

"What's it to you?" asked the older of the two; they looked like father and son.

"Trying to find a friend of mine, and I heard he might help."

"He's always got his eyes open, that one."

Ruyo quietly rejoiced; it sounded like she was on the right track. She rode along, enjoying the fresh air, but looked toward the harbor's center. What had _happened_ here so long ago? Nusina believed there was a mighty city here, destroyed, but why and how? And however bad it'd been for the people back then, it was an opportunity now. Come to think of it, maybe that odd feeling she'd gotten meant something interesting was underwater along the northwestern route. Now she wanted to sail over the center... but that could wait.

She arrived on a low, silty beach where a dozen shacks stood next to fish drying racks and a watchtower/lighthouse consecrated by the Church. Hardly the most important village in the ring, though the whole set of them added up. The wind smelled of salt and fish. The fishers had mentioned where to find her target, so she went right there. Her boots sank into the wet sand.

The spy probably was out fishing during the day, she realized, but she was in luck. He was just offshore, starting to paddle outward and humming to himself. Ruyo decided to show off for him, setting one foot and then another on the water to reach him.

It was easier than she'd expected to walk out to him, even though it was saltwater and moving. The water beneath her was a patch of calmness that held her up with hardly any urging. Ruyo soon walked more confidently up to the rowboat and said, "Hello. I need your help."

The fisherman looked impressed but tried to hide it. "Seen that trick before. Yeah, I know who you are."

Ruyo bowed slightly, keeping her balance. "Can you tell me anything?"

Her contact looked away to the east and grunted. "It was a smell that got my attention. Wind's tricky around here. The other night, the breeze shifted and I caught a whiff of some herbal stuff that's used for burns. Odd to be shipping that at night, enough of it that I noticed."

"Where?"

"I didn't follow, but there was a boat heading south, maybe southeast. I wouldn't put too much stock in that, but -- well, you're local."

"Hmm. There's not much out that way but more fishing villages. That does sound suspicious. Anything else?"

"One thing. You're a ruin hunter and you can go underwater, right?"

"Not yet. It's certainly on my list of things to learn."

"Huh, I thought you were more powerful. Anyway a few water wizards have gone diving around here and found things. I'm guessing before long, you'll find stuff nobody else has. Are you gonna share?"

"With Averell?"

"Them, yeah, but everybody. If there's an intact sea palace or something under us, I want to see it. I'm mostly just curious, but the scholar types ought to see it too and learn."

"Fair enough," said Ruyo. "And I'm already sharing magic with people. Once I get a shrine up and running, stop by while I'm there."

"The magic's just for the people who help you?"

She threw up her hands. "I'm doing the best I can. I have to do the little ritual for each person separately, and they have to have prayed at least once, and it costs me energy. So I can't grant power to everybody, even if I spend all day trying."

Her contact chuckled. "Fair enough."

"Thank you. I should get going. When's the next boat back?"

"Probably dusk. Or hey, you could walk."

"That _would_ be good practice. But I'm trying not to show off much until I'm done with the cult problem."

"One cult at a time, huh? I'll row you back."

#

She helped, figuring out how to trail her hands in the water to create a powerful current that sped them along. She slowed when they started to be back in the thick of boat traffic. Her ability wasn't unique, though. A boat of richly dressed tourists in vivid, fluttering westlands clothing rode a boat with a water mage in even flashier robes, who was rushing the craft along to awe them. Ruyo liked his style and expected to see him as a "customer" soon.

"Can anybody learn to do that?" asked her own pilot.

"I think so, soon. Some friends back north are working on a way to make books cheaper, too, so the study material will be easier to get."

Ruyo set foot on dry land again, and was at a loss. This was home, but it wasn't where her obligations were right now. That was back at Wellspring, where she had people officially working for her. She was also needed in Averell, where she'd promised to deliver piles and piles of enchanted sticks until further notice. And Brotherhood, where she needed to come back with more power and knowledge, probably to then head to the world's equator and shut off an ancient temple of evil. And an unknown island somewhere near here -- she hoped! -- where Nusina was trapped. This place didn't need her. But it still deserved what help she could give, and it was fair to seek out some of the power she needed.

For the moment she went home to work on dozens of the bread-creating sticks. Mena was tending to a customer, selling him an expensive little bottle of perfume. Ruyo waited.

Mena finally told her, "While you were out, a woman with bat wings stopped by to ask about magic horses."

Ruyo startled. "What?"

"Ha, you need to be more skeptical than that!"

Ruyo folded her arms and scowled. "I didn't expect my own mother to try tricking me!"

"It was practice! Anyway, there was a courier from Averell looking to pick up the latest batch of sticks. I quizzed him and he seemed legitimate, so I handed your supply over and he dropped off more blank ones. I hope that's not a problem?"

"It's fine. Thanks." She explained the information she'd gotten on the island.

Mena stretched. "Mind running the store while I take a break? Your father's conspiring with the girls and he'd like to know what you found."

Ruyo looked the shop over and felt at a loss. "It's been a while since I did this full time." She grinned. "The counter and the shelves were a little higher."

Mena smiled, but froze for a moment. "Actually, you are a little taller than I remember from last year. And, more, ah..." She hefted her breasts.

Ruyo blushed. "This isn't a power I've put a lot of thought into. But apparently there's some innate shapeshifting and healing."

Mena laughed at her. "Nothing to be ashamed of! But you're just fine either way." She hugged Ruyo. "Now, mind the latest price list over here if anyone comes while I'm gone, and shake that mixture over there once in a while; that's an experiment of mine."

"All right."

As Mena turned to go, she said, "I've been wanting to ask. How important is all this, really? Are you going to be a professional magician and make some money, then do something else in a few years? Or is it something really big?"

Ruyo tried to look confident. "The second one. There'll probably be a hundred more magic users in Starshore within weeks -- including you if you like. I'm apparently feeding an entire military unit. Books are about to get cheaper and I'm not even in charge of that project. The Lost World language is getting translated at last. There's at least one new kind of magic now, the elementals. And there're a few things I can't even tell you about."

"About the war?"

"That's part of it, yes."

"It's probably coming here, you know. The northerners have ships too. You didn't cause it, did you?"

"Not at all. Averell just wants help for winning it."

"Glad to hear that. Well, then, we need to be ready for trouble." Mena's smile was uncertain. "At least we have a goddess on our side!" Then she was out the door and gone, leaving Ruyo in charge of minding the shop. And the next batch of enchantments. And apparently, the defense of her hometown against a possible invasion.