They made it back to the Wellspring by sunset. Ruyo had handed over her key to the Brotherhood party coming this way. So she wasn't surprised that the whole group had gathered inside the cave to avoid the rain.

"That's going to be a long-term problem," she thought. "I have to get people tromping in and out of here to use the shrine, so it can't easily be my home." She had her makeshift furniture in here and was annoyed that one of her guards was sitting on the bed.

Nusina said, "We need serious construction work to do what you had suggested about expanding the place."

Earlier, Ruyo had proposed turning the shrine into a game. Setting the cavern up with a much more elaborate network of tunnels, packed with non-lethal elementals and other little traps. Charging admission, for people looking for a ruin diver experience. It still sounded like fun, but she couldn't make the shrine hard to reach and still get the full benefit of it. So for now, the best she could do was to keep her guards happy.

They greeted her, saying, "The food's running low."

Ruyo said, "Glad to see all of you." There were the three former bandits, and a party from Brotherhood consisting of a mage and two restless young women willing to hold a weapon and look protective.

The older one had brought a homemade wooden sword along with a practical spear. She bowed to Ruyo and said, "Thanks for this opportunity, ma'am. We haven't been introduced yet; I'm Lisette and this is my sister, Elly."

The other girl bounded up to Ruyo the moment her sister shut up. A fancy cloak trailed behind her as she moved. "Hey, magic lady! So there's a ruin inside here?"

"Ah... yes," Ruyo said. Elly could have stuck a knife in her just now, had she wanted.

The mage-monk had been waiting patiently, reading one of several books he'd stacked on the table. "I'd like to see it too. How did your training go, ma'am -- to the extent you may speak of it?"

Ruyo looked at the robed monk, a sunburnt man who looked capable of defending the cave with his fists as well as magic. She said, "If I may take you aside for a moment?"

Outside the cave, she spoke quietly to him. "Thanks for coming. Your leaders showed me around, and I agree with what you're doing. We have the beginnings of a plan. A few more people from Brotherhood are coming sometime soon to look around, I'm told. About the sisters, are you able to keep an eye on them and the men?"

He said, "They've gotten along so far. I can try to keep order; the girls are my neighbors."

"Good."

Back with the full group, Ruyo offered to show everyone the hidden ruin. Nusina said, "It would be easier if you were to pray, first, to give us a little more energy."

Everyone here had agreed to do that anyway, and wanted water magic. So they made their devotions while Ruyo politely waited outside. The flavor of the prayers from this group was open, eager, curious. Then she thanked them, and waved goodbye. The tour was Nusina's show! The spirit opened the hidden door and led the guests downstairs, excitedly telling them about the ruin and the way to ride up and down.

Ruyo stayed at ground level. The cave was messy from people hanging around in it, but they'd had the sense not to mess with the all-important mural. Ruyo touched the ancient mosaic of waves, clouds and fish, wondering who'd built it in the first place. There was no direct image of the old goddess, only people and creatures enjoying the element of water. At one broken edge, part of a sailboat was visible, and above it there were people riding on a cloud.

The tiles were cool against her fingers. According to Nusina it would do no good for Ruyo to extend the art by herself; it had to be done by someone else to count. She murmured, "I hope I'm doing a good job for a beginner."

There was no answer. The closest thing left to a voice of the old goddess was Nusina, who carried only fragments of the past. Maybe deliberate hints and warnings, as though she'd been stuffed with information in the hopes that some of it would survive the end of days.

The goddess' servant wanted to help Ruyo, but was just as eager to start rebuilding the world in general. That was much better than a minion devoted only to defense or obedience or slaying her enemies.

They just needed to protect this old bit of masonry, for long enough to grow some more and become less dependent on it. Ruyo had claimed it; it was mystically bound to her. If she was learning to sense the shrine remotely -- and yes, she'd begun to feel its presence now that she'd arrived again -- then could she guard it remotely, too? Exert her divine power to make the colored tiles stay, the walls stand strong, the ceiling resist intrusion. How dare some mortal with a magical shovel break in and ruin everything? Ruyo had recently felt the presence of another god, its space-shifting magic, and the way it had made illusions like a shell around reality that could still serve as a solid wall. This place was her home and headquarters; it needed to be both welcoming and strong!

Light streamed around her in waves and ribbons, rippling along every surface. A lantern on the table went out. In the sudden mad shadows Ruyo turned around, disoriented. Then the spell around her stabilized like water settling at last into a basin. The cave was softly lit from all around, now, and the mural had a faint new shine. On the walls abstract patterns danced like the sun glinting off the ocean.

Nusina sent a feeling of alarm. "What did you do, milady?!"

"Have a look."

Nusina abandoned her tour group and rushed up to see the main cave. "I like what you've done with the place. But was that deliberate?"

"I was thinking about improving and strengthening the room. Hey, wait... it's even shaped differently."

She looked around. It had changed subtly to have straight walls a bit farther outward, encroaching on the natural cave. Two doorway-sized indentations had been made in the side walls as though in preparation for digging out side passages. The mosaics on the walls and floor were unchanged, but with more light, it felt less like a ruin.

Nusina burbled. "Well, you just blew your entire spare mana supply, and the power drain over time increased. This looks like an ongoing enchantment."

"The light, you mean?"

"That, and I can sense that the important stuff is a bit sturdier now. Too early to tell but I'd also expect a slight efficiency boost, though not enough to make up for the strengthening spell."

"All right! Less danger to the place, then?"

"Yes. I'd expect it to take serious effort to break the art or the roof -- so you can quit worrying so much, finally!" Nusina butted her. "How does it feel?"

"More like a home. I don't suppose I can magic up some side rooms, too?"

"Not likely. You're no earth god. But you seem to have instinctively set up some general areas where a mason can do it more easily. Sort of stole the strength from certain patches of stone and gave it to the outer walls. Though a proper magic teacher would slap me silly for describing it that poorly." She sounded a bit cross as she added, "Now can you share your personal mana with me so that I can be sure of ferrying everyone back up? I don't want to drop anyone, and we really are close to empty."

Ruyo held Nusina in her hands and hugged her, making the spirit squeak. She felt her own small, self-generated magic supply leaking away. "Am I still getting prayers regularly from Sor's Hill and Averell?"

"A few, yes. We're in no immediate danger, but take it easy." Nusina flew off to rescue everybody below.

Ruyo lay back on the bed. She felt drained physically and not just magically. She was vulnerable. But that was all right; it was good to get reminded of what she was. When her guests came back up one by one, she waved feebly to them and said, "I need rest. Can you clear out and meet up tomorrow?"

Once she was alone with Nusina, she found the cave's light dimming to a faint blue glow. Experimentally she managed to change it at will, but only sluggishly in her drained state. She pulled the covers over her and muttered, "Safe."

Nusina floated nearby; she'd finished ushering everyone out. "If you don't mind, I'll take a break too." She flattened out into a puddle that any intruder would step in.

Ruyo didn't even bother locking the door. "You've earned it. We need to get going to Averell soon, but let's take a day or so off first."

#

Ruyo woke up in her crude bed, still dreaming faintly of temples and treasure. She yawned. When she recalled she was the Goddess of Water, she laughed. "Back to the adventuring."

She brightened the cave with a gesture. Her clothes were charred and torn, again. So that was on the shopping list for Averell along with, oh, everything needed to set up a small village.

A puddle on the floor rose up into a familiar orb whose glittering eyes wandered into position. "Good morning, milady."

"Sleeping like that can't be comfortable."

"I should get you to try it sometime! I'm happy to report several prayers' worth of energy have come in, so we're not completely drained."

"Good. We've got work to do. Has Baris been by?" The hunter and his wife were welcome visitors, checking on the place.

"I'm told we just missed his last visit."

The camp outside was still quiet. At Nusina's suggestion, Ruyo walked out to the hillside and concentrated, trying to cast a bread-making spell but target the shrine at a distance. Back indoors, she was pleased to find a vegetable loaf sitting on the stone floor. "I should probably put a cloth out."

"Go back out and make one!"

She went a hundred paces from the cave and created some cloth from back there. Nusina floated over to check and reported success, so Ruyo walked a little farther and made a long-distance breakfast for seven.

"That's the strangest archery I've ever seen," Ruyo said. "But this means I can actually start keeping some promises, and supply people. Let's try water next."

The campers were waking up. While Ruyo was away, they'd used the small supply of lumber and metal fittings she'd left them to get a bit farther at their projects. The first rickety shack stood abandoned as just a roof to keep the rain and sun off, and the second was currently a roof with two walls. The guards had cut down a few small trees for more wood. Four sticks in the ground supported a canopy made from several of Ruyo's shoddy sheets. So the group was still mainly living in tents and sleeping bags when not occupying the cave, but they did have something better than complete wilderness already.

Over breakfast, the guards said, "We need more lead and paper for the printing project."

"Lead I can do, but we'll need to get decent paper in town. Any of you men want to come along? I'll be selling iron again along with odds and ends I brought from Brotherhood, and I'll split the cash four ways."

They planned. Each of the guardsmen and the newcomers prayed, which gave Ruyo the power to bless the Brotherhood girls with beginner magic and have mana left over to stockpile a little more wood.

The Khyberian-born guard, Khulis, said, "Are you ever going to make more things?"

"I've been trying to work on quality. If I added another kind of material to my list, what would you want?"

Iron and lead, glass, paper, cloth, wood; all were at least vaguely nautical cargo, which Nusina said helped make the spell possible for her. But she was still a merchant and not purely a water specialist, so there ought to be room to expand.

The man rubbed his chin. "Copper, silver, gold. Gemstones. Incense, if shiny things are off limits."

Another man suggested, "Leather. Clay."

Nusina said, "Leather? That's an interesting one. How much do you know about it, milady?"

Ruyo said, "Not much, so I likely can't do it well. Since I can do multiple metals, maybe I can manage copper? Or tin for that matter. What I'd really like is to get this area equipped with some decent comfortable houses, not raw loot."

The Khyberian said, "Get enough money and that becomes easier."

Ruyo experimented with forming and shaping mana between her hands. She just couldn't seem to force it into a new material beyond what she'd managed before. She shook her head. "I may just be low on power. For now I'm going to focus on quality and quantity rather than on making my own coins."

Nusina quietly added, "What's easy or difficult for you is in tune with your own nature. You clearly are developing an aspect of Wealth or Bounty or Craft, but it doesn't surprise me that you're failing to jump to conjuring money."

"Why's that?"

"Because your trade isn't actually about the coins, is it?"

"No. It's about going places and getting people what they want. The profit just measures how well I'm doing and fuels the next trip."

"Then your power will reflect this attitude."

Ruyo asked, "Is that good or bad?"

"Not necessarily either. A pile of gold coins would make some of your problems easier, but you can't eat them or live in them. Personally, I like that you're developing power with long-term value instead of immediate riches."