Ruyo nodded, accepting the monks' offer of alliance and information sharing. "In fact, that's the other thing I wanted to discuss. Because I've been constantly worried about the main shrine being destroyed, and it doesn't sound like I'm strong enough to survive with just the little new ones, I'm limited in how much I can travel. If I could get reliable guards who know how important the place is, yet won't try taking it over, that would make it easier for me to get things done."

Nusina said, "Supplying your followers is going to be a problem, until they start proper farming. You should ask for a little food. There's another option, too."

Matthias was saying something, but Ruyo had missed it. "Sorry?" she said.

"I said, we can supply a few guards, at least over the short term, if you'll let them live in the cave for convenience and supply them with magic."

Ruyo smiled. It felt now like she was throwing weights and measures onto a balance scale, discussing prices. "I can do that. Though that means they'd have to pray too. By the way, three single men are now living nearby and hoping to stay and make money as tradesmen, so if you've got any adventurous women they'd be especially welcome."

Nusina asked, "Going for a love-goddess aspect, are we?"

Ruyo snorted.

They shook hands all around, and it seemed that a basic deal was done. Nusina, though, remembered something else. "Milady, about the matter of supplies. One advantage of having a high-quality shrine is the ability to target it with your spells remotely."

"You mean, while I'm out here I can splash someone in the face at Averell?"

"Only at a better shrine, which right now means only at our headquarters, the Wellspring cave. More usefully, you could do your food creation trick there, from elsewhere."

"That sounds useful. Any reason to hide that information?" Nusina said no.

Ruyo explained the idea to the monks. She added, "Even so, keeping my little entourage fed and supplied by you would be helpful. Nusina, can I gain that ability yet?"

"Not right this minute, but practice magic before you leave, and again at the Wellspring."

#

Ruyo spent the next day training at Brotherhood. Meanwhile a magic-wielding monk and a pair of restless young women headed eastward carrying food, wood and iron parts for a printing press, and bedding to spare.

Ruyo's work served double duty. She learned a bit more about medicine and smithing by watching the experts, and practiced her magic. But the training wasn't just for her benefit. The monks did something they didn't let her see, and adjusted their mystical ward so that her specifically divine power was a little harder to use than before. Not a major victory over the Unspoken One, but it might buy time.

Because that evil being was hoarding its power, and even the monks' fear of it was a form of unintentional worship.

As the sun set, Keeper Matthias found her eating dinner with the village's best weaver. He said, "Miss Ruyo, are you leaving tomorrow?"

"That's the plan."

"May I pull you away when you're done here? Meet me in the same cabin."

So she did. Once they were in private, Matthias and six other monks greeted her. The Keeper said, "Do you want to see the Unspoken One?"

Ruyo had been avoiding any mention of it. "I probably should. But seeing it means it'll see me and guess what I am. And won't it try to tell me its name, if that helps empower it?"

Nusina said, "I would rather not see that creature either, milady. If you want me along, though..."

Ruyo sighed and told her, "If you think you can handle being there, please come."

Matthias held out an embroidered black headband. He said, "We use these when we must approach the Unspoken One. This item will make you deaf to its voice. But you'll be able to see what we're dealing with and know the truth of it."

Ruyo reached out for the cloth, but the monks said, "If you will join us in meditation?"

"A prayer? To what?"

"Well, you don't know the words. Please listen though."

The monks bowed their heads. Ruyo did the same, and listened as they began a somber chant in a language she didn't know.

When it was over, Nusina commented, "I don't recognize it. One of your people's languages, I suppose."

"Are you sure it's not your own lost language? Say, the same speech the Unspoken One uses?"

"Hmm... I'm sure. It doesn't sound similar."

Matthias explained, "Ancient words for: May my eyes and ears be closed to wickedness, and may I shun evil. In greater detail. We aren't praying to a specific god; like the Steadfast Church our beliefs are more abstract. But our prayer focuses the mind."

Brother Arneson said, "And we now have further evidence that it really does have spiritual effect. Please take this ribbon, miss Ruyo, but be on your guard anyway."

#

The temple at the center of the monks' cabins wasn't a place for happy worship, but for containment. The single-story building of local stone had a locked door, a storeroom, then a single room with a stone altar covering a trapdoor. Matthias and Arneson pushed it aside, took up a lantern each, and created a pair of light spells hovering beside them as backup. A dark stairway was below the door.

Ruyo said, "If there's a God of Light, does that mean that light is a magical element too? The mages I talked with only described the four."

Arneson was trying not to show fear, but a genuine smile lit his face. "We think so! There's a theory that it's sort of a secondary element. Maybe darkness as well? But there was what you call a 'Sorcerous Initiation' from that god that granted access to some light-related spells."

Matthias said, "Arneson..."

"We don't try to get that power anymore, for obvious reasons. Only a few of the first-generation monks had it."

Ruyo turned to Nusina, who said, "Besides being something I don't want to think about, this strikes me as advanced magic theory that I don't remember. That makes me want to say that yes, it's distinct from the other elements."

Ruyo relayed that.

"Fascinating!"

"Let's go," Matthias said.

They went together down the stairs. The three of them all wore headbands. Around them the walls were roughly built from brick, and the air smelled of dust. Ruyo said, "Is this part of the ruin?"

Arneson said, "No, we built the brickwork and stairs around what the first explorers found, so that..." He froze. "This staircase is too long."

Somewhere in the depths was a yellow-white glow like a sunny day. Ruyo said, "Are we in danger?"

"Yes. Let's leave."

They turned around, climbed the stairs, opened the trapdoor, and found themselves in a gigantic city. Buildings towered over them like trees, each one a round white tower with irregularly spaced windows. The streets were each wide enough for a mansion. Overhead the sky was a bright cloudless haze.

Ruyo cursed. "Does this happen often?"

Nusina said, "Milady, this is no illusion, unless it's so good it's fooling my magic sense. Or... wait, no. Some of it's real and some isn't. Should I appear? This place is soaked with mana."

"Go for it. It seems our host knows something special is happening anyway."

Nusina appeared, shining her blue-tinged light around. Ruyo conjured a pair of simple hovering elementals to float beside her. To her surprise she found it was easy to empower them to be the ice-shooting spiky guardians she kept in her cave, though they then had to scoot along the ground.

The men drew concealed knives from their belts, which made her raise one eyebrow. Matthias said, "It's comforting to be armed down here. Or... up. It's played this trick on us before."

Ruyo bared her teeth at the empty city. "You, prisoner! If you want to see me, come and have a good look."

The city flickered. For an instant the ideal, giant towers were only cracked stone with glinting facets, and the floor a dull and dusty grey. But it flashed right back to the illusion.

Arneson's knuckles were white on his knife. "It can shift things around. If we take those stairs again they won't go anywhere. The real stairs leading back up are somewhere near here, the same but hidden."

Matthias said, "I should have known it would try this. It's only happened twice before, this Pale City."

He led them toward the nearest tower. Its glass door whooshed to one side as they approached.

Where there should have been a building interior was only grey stone. The illusion was wrapped around one of the pillars: just a rock with the impression of a building a little larger than it.

Ruyo fed a stream of water to Nusina as ammunition, and gave her mental command of the elementals. "Why is it doing this?"

Matthias shrugged. "Its excuse before was a desire to show us part of the Lost World. But it looks false to me."

No people, no filth on the streets, no shop signs. "The buildings look almost identical." The group stuck together and opened a second door that opened only onto more stone. "Nusina, is there a way to reveal --"

The illusion flickered off and on again. Ruyo turned around, looking for evidence of the stairs leading out of this distorted space. She asked a different question: "Do you know anything about shifting locations around like this?"

Nusina said, "I think your ancestor did it too. We're not in the mortal world right now; think of it as a ruin floating above or below reality."

They tried another door without success. Matthias said, "The Pale City isn't very large. It was a little fancier before, according to our records."

Arneson looked warily through the latest doorway, pointing out that the stairs might be built into a pillar on the opposite side of the door concealing it.

They were exploring yet another dull, featureless tower. "It's only a stage set," Ruyo said.

Another brief flicker of the illusion. Arneson pushed through the tower wall to get out, and said, "It's not even completely solid."

Ruyo glanced toward him, but then a stunned feeling from Nusina made her turn around. Just arm's length away, a wheel covered with fire and eyeballs had appeared in midair!

Nusina shouted a warning, but the creature shined. Rays of light shot out from three of its eyes and flashed across Ruyo like the swipe of claws. She staggered, feeling like she'd been physically struck. The monks shouted, "Stay back!" and held out their hands in a warding gesture.

The wheel spun, new eyes opening and lancing outward at her. She ducked, but a second volley blazed across her chest. Smoke rose from her robe and she felt like she'd been outside on a mercilessly hot day. Nusina rushed in, refracting the next stabbing light through the glob of water she carried.

The monks shouted something in their ancient tongue, and a rippling wall of distorted air appeared in front of them. Where the beams struck it, they splashed and what got through was harmless.

"How do we stop it?" Ruyo said. She flung a spray of water at it and tried to freeze it in midair, but the chunks of flying ice bounced off the wheel. It seemed to be made of pearl, or maybe bone or horn.

Matthias grunted. "Find the stairs!" Even his moment of distraction was enough for one of the wheel's beams to get through, stabbing his shoulder and making it smolder. He ignored the pain and renewed his spell.