For a supposed goddess, Ruyo wasn't all-seeing. Elly, bravest farmer of the boring town of Brotherhood, prowled around the mystic hillside cave one evening while Ruyo was trying to cook.

Elly hadn't figured the new boss out. Ruyo was officially a goddess with mystical command of the concept of Water, and could do things no ordinary wizard could. Yet she just wasn't all that mighty. You'd think she'd have no need for mere mortal guards. But here Elly was, with her sister and a couple of scruffy men, hanging around so that nobody hurt her. Meanwhile, Ruyo had the power to create food but was intent on the campfire, learning to cook the normal way.

Which meant the cave was unguarded. Elly slipped in through the crude wooden door at the entrance and walked down a tunnel. Lately the cave beyond glowed with its own blue-tinged light that rippled like a river. Elly emerged into it and admired the place. A roughly rectangular room stood here just underground, its floor and walls partly covered by a damaged old mosaic and mural of watery things. Lots of magic here. But it was also an improvised home for Ruyo, with a crude bed and table and some piled-up boards and other supplies. Part of one bare wall had been chiseled away by a monk from home, starting to carve out a new side room.

Elly's eyes widened as she saw the back wall. As she'd suspected, the hidden door had been left open.

There were stairs leading down from there to the lower area, where the really powerful ancient magitech was. A secret passage! Elly had known about it but not seen it herself yet. Wouldn't hurt to peek. She crept downstairs and shivered. She stood on a platform looking over a deep metal pit with a door along the bottom. So this was the real power source for the god, more than the mural above. Old machinery that nobody understood anymore, not even Ruyo's spirit guide. Elly wanted to go down there and have a look, but had no way to scale the nearly smooth walls.

What kind of adventurer am I without climbing tools? she thought. But she really was new at this job. Just starting to see the world beyond her dull home village.

She turned to go, and spotted a few small bags and boxes on the stairs. From this angle something stood out: the curve of a bow. Elly snorted. What, there was a good weapon here and Ruyo had been holding out, letting Elly use her crude homemade one instead? There was even an axe sitting next to it.

Elly nudged the quiver aside and picked up the bow. Her fingers froze as she laid eyes on it. Carved wolf-heads marked each end of the fine multi-layered body. This design was made for the Witch Hunters, Brotherhood's dedicated monster-slaying team. The group Elly had been working up the nerve to try joining, when this water-goddess business started.

How did Ruyo get one of their weapons?

It wasn't right to keep such a thing hoarded, not when there was someone who could appreciate it better. Elly took the bow and quiver and made her way quietly back up and out. In the distance Ruyo and the monk still sat around the campfire, stirring a pot.

Lisette, Elly's sister, was sitting in one of the crude shelters the men kept redesigning. This one was a partial shack with a cloth canopy. Elly joined her on the blanket that served as its floor. "Look what I found."

Lisette was quiet as she looked the equipment over. "Did the Hunters hand this over? Ruyo's no archer, though I've seen her playing with a crossbow."

"I don't think they just give out equipment. Lise, why are we cooperating with her? The monks, I mean. Is it just to get magic powers?"

Lisette shrugged. "The monks don't tell anybody much. But they obviously think Ruyo is important. I'm glad to do something exciting for a change."

"Important why, though?"

For that, neither of them had an answer.

#

Soon the two of them were with Ruyo on a real ruin quest, exploring tunnels. Both of them tried not to show they were scared, even when they got attacked in, of all places, an ancient restroom. It was Elly's fault that Lisette got her arm broken. But Lisette refused to make everyone stop exploring for her sake -- and her bravery paid off when they found a musical spirit.

Hastro, one of the guards, had the right idea when he thought the spirit might be able to make him a god, too. But he didn't know the right wording, and they weren't in the right place for it. Elly exchanged a look with Lisette, wondering when they'd find a temple like Ruyo had done. And which of them would get to claim it.

Because if it was possible to get genuine godhood, why shouldn't they be the ones to take it? There'd be time to learn how to do it well. Ruyo had put lots of time into training in magic and other skills and she wasn't an innately magical genius. So Elly was going to keep her eyes out for chances to get the same kind of job. Or were demigods a real thing? Was it possible to get immortality as a sidekick to a real god? So far, nobody knew. All the more reason to stick around and be first on the candidate list.

#

Back at the cave, the monk got everybody to lower him into the hidden well of machinery to look around. When he got back he looked excited, but chased off the people who'd just rescued him from the depths. No fair not to tell them what he'd seen!

So Elly snuck in. The door wasn't locked very well, after all.

From the cave tunnel, she crept up on the shrine cave to listen.

"Could you do it?" the goddess was asking.

The monk said, "...Like the music player you found... probably a very skilled mage... specialized repairmen for these things."

"What would that do to me?"

Elly pondered. She knew the facility was really old, and partly broken, but no repairmen would be around anytime soon. Was it breaking down completely? Didn't sound that way. The speakers didn't seem afraid.

The monk said, "...Put extra effort into the shrine at Brotherhood. But if you had only one working shrine, do you see...?"

Ruyo sounded intrigued. "Very interesting to your order, huh?"

"Oh yes."

The monks back home told the laymen and even their own junior members very little. They were protective, they liked hard work and fighting evil magic users, but why they didn't just join the Steadfast Church she'd never been sure. Maybe they wanted Ruyo's help to understand more about magic. Elly risked a few steps closer to listen better.

Ruyo said, "...Can't be sure there's only one shrine left for your 'friend', but that's worth trying. So then we need the right location, and the right tools to shut it down."

Wait, what? thought Elly. They were talking about shutting down a shrine on purpose, and not one of hers. So whose, where?

She retreated as quietly as she could, hearing only something about a "best candidate". Your friend, Ruyo had said, sounding sarcastic.

Brotherhood was a boring town, with nothing but monks praying, farmers tilling, and the Witch Hunters doing exciting things but off in the distance. Could it be that the monks' secret had to do with a second god, one that they wanted to replace with Ruyo's help?

Footsteps behind her. Elly moved aside, then realized her mistake: she'd left the cave's door open.

The monk spotted her, and his expression was horrified. "Elly! Come with me. Now."

He'd been sent partly to keep an eye on Elly and Lisette, but Elly barely knew him. She whispered, "Are you going to shut me up?"

"What? No. We need to talk." His bulk and serious look got her to comply, heading off a little ways from the cave and the camp. He looked around for more eavesdroppers, then said, "How much did you hear?"

"Nothing." Under his withering gaze she looked down and said, "Shutting down a shrine. Only you don't know where, and it's not Ruyo's."

The monk cursed. "Bad things could happen if the wrong people find out. That means telling nobody, not even your sister."

"Why has she got a bow from the Witch Hunters?"

"That... now that I think of it, you took it, didn't you? It's a gift to her."

Elly stamped the ground. "No. You're flustered by that. If you're letting me in on the 'higher mysteries' --"

"We never agreed on that!"

She barreled on. "Then you should tell me the truth so I don't get the wrong idea."

He sighed. "Again, if you tell anyone you're causing serious problems for your home, your family, really everyone. There's at least one cult out there that..." He looked aside and ran his hands through his hair. "Look. Ruyo has guards, but they're in it for the money. She needs people who will take protecting her very seriously. She needs to survive and grow, so she can solve a serious problem. The kind worth killing and dying for." He met Elly's eyes again. "Either go home and be content, or be ready to guard Ruyo with your life. Ahead of anybody else including yourself."

Elly shivered. "I've got to stick together with Lise."

"Then go home."

"No," she said again. "We... we'll protect her, until she does whatever it is you need her so badly for."

"You're going to tell Lisette the secret the moment my back is turned, aren't you?"

Her cheeks burned. "I promise not to. I'll just say you gave me a really good reason."

"I'll have to trust you on that. We're trying to lie low by not sending a slew of our best fighters to protect Ruyo, so a small force that isn't obviously connected with our order will have to do. Good luck."

"All right. I'll help, and not blab. But sir, are there other gods or god fragments out there waiting to be claimed?"

He answered carefully. "I don't know the whole truth, and what I know I may not say."

That sounded like a yes. All the more reason to go along with Ruyo, then. She might be the key to getting the most amazing treasures of all. One of which, Elly began to suspect, was hidden right beneath her own hometown.

~ Arc 3: Wavebound Relics, End ~