Baris put a warm hand on her shoulder. "Whoa, there! You look about to tip over."

Though uneasy about being handled by a stranger, she didn't shake him off. "I'm all right, thanks. I'm not used to any of this."

They stood. Baris said, "What happens now? If you'd been a common bandit I would've known what to do. I wasn't expecting any magical disasters or, or whatever this is."

"You said there was shaking and mist outside?" asked Ruyo.

"Yes. Not many travelers through these parts, so I don't know if anyone else saw. I have a job to get back to, but what about that magic lesson?"

Ruyo asked Nusina, "How are you on energy now? Can you give him spells too?"

"That would be something you'd have to do, once you're strong enough. But you will be! I could manage to appear to him for a moment though, if you'd like."

"Yes, please."

Nusina seemed to grow more real, and with a splashing sound she pushed farther into reality at Ruyo's side. The air her pushed outward in waves. "Hi! I'm Nusina! I can't manifest for long yet but it's nice to meet you. If you come back and offer another prayer soon it would really help. Goodbye for now!" She faded out again.

Ruyo could tell the difference now between her ghostly form and the more solid (or at least liquid) one. She passed a hand along Nusina but couldn't feel her as more than a cold prickle along her skin.

Baris stepped backward, but stopped himself. "So the cave-woman isn't just talking to herself!"

"No she is not," Ruyo said, hands on her hips.

"It sounds like I should come back later. You don't live here, do you?"

"Like I said, that's my wagon out there. I'm a trader. I was just on my way east to Averell when I noticed signs of a recent big storm, and wandered off the trail out of curiosity. I figure the cave just got uncovered or you'd already know about it."

"Likely. Lucky find, ma'am. I'm worried now, that someone more reckless will find it too and try chiseling bits out to sell or something."

The spirit said, "I hope not!"

Ruyo echoed her. "I hope not! It's home to someone who knows more than anyone else about the Lost World."

"Well, I'll try to make sure nobody wrecks it. This place is a treasure. It probably ought to be studied by professionals. But... you should have first crack at it, since you found it. So long as you don't loot it."

Ruyo said, "Thank you, Baris. I'll teach you some magic as soon as I can. How do I find you again?"

He said, "I operate out of a cabin just off the road. You passed it an hour or two back if you came from the westlands. You're welcome to visit. But I'm going to be busy soon; I'm getting married."

"Oh! Congratulations." With some humor she added, "May the water goddess bless your happy union."

He chuckled. "The two of us can use all the blessings we can get. Her folks don't approve."

"Old, old problem, I bet."

He eyed the murals again. "I hope you manage to pick up more of that magic, ma'am. Would you like me to send word about your find, or keep it to yourself for now?"

Ruyo glanced at Nusina and said, "We should probably not tell many people until we're better set up."

The spirit nodded in agreement. "You should show off for any friends you trust, though."

Ruyo told Baris, "Keep it quiet for now, please."

"All right."

"Thanks again, Baris."

He saluted and left. Ruyo sighed, then turned back to Nusina. "That could've gone a lot worse."

"He even prayed!"

Ruyo had more practical concerns. "Without my horse I can't get my cargo to market. Would it be all right if I moved the rest of my things in here for now? I can drag the empty cart somewhere and hide it."

"Of course, milady! The cave's yours to use as you wish. The hidden area might be useful for storage too. But how are you going to hide when we need people to pray?"

"I'm worried about you. Aren't you in danger if someone defaces the cave?"

"Right now, yes. So... you're right I suppose. Best to only let people in if you trust them. And the device below will only collect power from people who pray here in person, in its broken state."

Ruyo got to work unloading and hiding the cart, hauling things into the cave. It was tough work and her powers didn't help. After some sweaty effort she said, "I need a bath. Is it about time to learn that water creation spell?"

"I'm sorry, but I think we're still too weak. You could try to fling the sweat right off you. Or I could fetch some water from below; your canteen's empty anyway."

"Please."

Ruyo stripped and used magic to wash, which was a very new experience. The water flowed all along her in any direction she wanted, tickling her skin. "That was... refreshing," she said, using her hands to repel the water until she was dry. "Something's been bothering me, Nusina. What makes me special? Was I just the first person to come along and find this cave?"

The spirit took a while to answer. "Mostly, milady. I had barely enough power to sense someone was in the shrine, and appear, and then start the flow of what was left. If you hadn't agreed, I would've had to hope you could talk someone else into coming here soon."

"If you were that desperate, wouldn't you have just jumped me and forced me to accept?"

"No! No, why would you have such a terrible idea?"

"Sorry. It just seems like something a god would do. Not the kind I'd want to pray to."

Nusina said, "Then what kind would you worship?"

"A nice one, that doesn't demand too much and puts all that divine power into making people fed and safe and happy. It sounds like this magic you've got works almost like money, so I'm judging a god like a king: is he spending the gold on palaces and feasts for his friends, or on roads and markets and festivals?"

Nusina said, "That's pretty mercantile of you."

Ruyo shrugged. "It beats the kind of king who spends gold and his people's blood on pointless fighting. If the relationship isn't an honest one, where 'I do this for you, you do this for me', then what is it? I don't mean a god necessarily needs a ledger and a price list. But if somebody doesn't want to be a 'customer' at all, that's a good reason to leave him alone."

The spirit swam around Ruyo, inspecting her. "What if the god says she's doing too much and wants people to keep praying while she goes on vacation?"

Ruyo found herself on the other side of an earlier argument. "Well, a god ought to earn his keep. Can't rightly expect to be hailed for nothing. I guess the god and the believers need to work out what's fair, and not expect too much from each other. How did it all work back in the old days, with your boss?"

The spirit ignored the question. "So ultimately, should being a god mean that mortals are here to serve you, or vice versa?"

"Ha. I'd worry about any god that thought he was owed a prayer. That's as bad as a conqueror or that time I grabbed a customer by the collar and said 'you idiot, buy from me!'." Ruyo scratched one ear and glanced aside. "Not a proud moment in my trading career. But like I said about having magic, it's wrong to expect somebody with power to take on crushing responsibility just because he's got it. I'd trust a god the most if he occasionally told me to back off."

"Does that mean your answer about who owes who is 'neither'?"

"I think so. Maybe there's a god so inhuman that it doesn't need anything and it's just toying with us mortals for fun. Otherwise, there ought to be some give and take."

Nusina said, "I don't remember the old goddess as well as I'd like, but I think she would've approved."

"Thank you, I think."

"There's much more you can learn. Eventually you can even change your shape if you like."

A sneaking suspicion had come over Ruyo, and that last point touched it off like a drop of water overflowing a cup. "Nusina? I need you to be honest with me. Now that the shrine is partly running again, what do you want from me? You said my prayers won't help. And you haven't talked outright about bringing your goddess back. And you're concerned about increasing my powers. Are you trying to make me high priest of a religion with an absent god?"

Nusina coalesced into a ball of water that hovered in front of Ruyo, tightly coiled. "No, milady. I was hoping to ease you into the truth."

"Which is?"

"There's a new goddess. You."

#

Ruyo sat there stunned, but her thoughts raced. The spirit had been hinting, and she'd missed it. How was she supposed to know that was even possible? What did it mean?

"Milady? I didn't mean to deceive you. I'm sorry. But this is a good thing!"

There were upsides. "But I'm not qualified to be... that! I don't know anything. You want people to start praying to me? In fact, you tricked that man Baris into praying to me, didn't you?" The idea made her queasy. "I'm not some all-knowing, virtuous hero!"

Nusina said, "Does your era have perfect gods already?"

"Some of the people believe in one."

"That's not what I asked, Ruyo. Do you know anyone working miracles using the power of people's belief, who's morally perfect?"

Ruyo shook her head. "I've prayed at what shrines we have, but never got a response. Much less a history of this world's past."

"Then why not you? You know you can do useful things for believers, even if it starts out as nothing but a magic show. And there's so much more you could accomplish."

"To do what? Take over the world?"

"No, just what you said a god ought to do! I wasn't speaking hypothetically. And those things your precursor did, you could do too."

"By starting a cult."

"Whether the 'cult' is a bad thing depends on whether you make it one. What's the alternative? Assuming we could transfer your role to someone else, which might not even work at this point, who's going to do the job? Someone who doesn't have any doubts about being able to do it right? Or, do you want to walk away and let divine power go to waste? You're potentially immortal!"

Ruyo winced. "That wasn't fair to bring up."

"Why not?" the spirit said.

"It's a huge thing to throw onto the balance scales, to get me to help."

Nusina hissed like water thrown into a hot pan. "Don't you see? You're not purely thinking of this job in terms of personal gain. You're worried you might not do it well. You don't take prayers for granted, and you're thinking about how to be fair and useful. That makes you better qualified than most!"

Everything Nusina was saying seemed reasonable. Ruyo paced. "If I do this, am I supposed to go around telling people to pray at me? You said we'd have to bring them here, and I haven't got much to offer yet. I'd have to tell Baris to pray to me." She blushed and spread one hand across her face. It was worse to think of having a specific person fawn over her than just 'people' in the abstract.

Nusina said, "Offerings work too. Anything given to you symbolically to help you, if it resonates with who you are. I don't think blood and skulls will do much for you."

"I would hope not." Ruyo tapped her chin. "Baris' wedding would be a good excuse to ask for help. I don't think a blessing from me would really do anything yet though."

"You'd be surprised. Mortals' belief is about more than the actual magic that comes from it. If you tell people a goddess has blessed or cursed them, that really does something even if it's just words." The spirit's color lightened. "I remember priests doing that for followers. It really made their day."

"So... I could really start blessing people with nothing but a few magic tricks that don't bring good fortune?"

"Yes, and it would help them for real -- and lead you to the point where it starts meaning more." Nusina loomed close. "Will you try it? Will you give yourself a chance at being a hero everyone looks up to?"