Ruyo was alone now with Nusina. "Busy as ever, eh?"

"We'll get things more sorted out soon. And there's no fighting to do." The water spirit floated through the back wall and down into the vertical shaft to inspect it. Speaking remotely while Ruyo remained in the main room, she said, "All is in order here. Elly will need to start with a minimal shrine like the first Averell one. Won't have the raw power or mana storage that you do."

"That's the downside of her position. To appease Averell we should encourage her to learn a magic-granting power like mine. But I don't know what Night or Darkness even does, as a magic element. That and Light don't fit neatly into spell theory."

Ruyo sat in the cave and meditated. She'd begun finding it easy to slip into a frame of mind that showed her a magical side to the world. The shrine stood out around her despite her closed eyes. At the same time she floated on still water, surrounded by irregular icy pillars. "All that fighting experience still doesn't make me a battle goddess, but it did give me the closest practice I'll ever have to wielding multiple elements."

"Unless you someday absorb another god's domain," Nusina said.

Ruyo nodded silently. "For the moment I'd like to learn more about shapeshifting. It might help defend me, impress people, and upgrade the experiments we were doing on granting fast healing to soldiers." She pointed out a branch of her powers that stood beside her like a small frozen column.

The spirit answered, "I remember a little of your precursor's use of that, now. Breasts as vast as the ocean, with shells covering only --"

"Nusina!"

Her companion's giggling was a burble of water.

Ruyo snorted, trying not to snap out of her trance. "And now you've got me thinking about it."

"More seriously, you've had practical experience in mending wounds. If you'd like to make your body more adaptable, that has several uses."

Ruyo mentally fussed with one of the pillars, making it crack and re-freeze in a new and slightly larger shape. The process was instinct these days. A variant on the channel for magic that she knew how to carve into her followers like a river through stone. She said, "The way I'm doing it should help me lend some of that flexibility to others, I think."

"You'll need to practice, of course."

Ruyo recalled the changes she'd already made to herself: transforming her hands to give her sleek grey skin with webbing between the fingers, and grey that extended up to her elbows like a long pair of gloves. "I want to visit the coast again, and meet more dolphins."

When she finished flowing some of her power into that new direction, she opened her eyes. That happened just in time for a scroll to materialize in the air beside her, condensing from mist into a solid form that dropped to the floor.

Ruyo took it and read. "It says, Lady Ruyo will report immediately to the Council of Averell to explain recent events." She shivered.

Nusina had come back, adding her glow to the room. "So the soldiers got home and the nobles realized their treasure is now useless, as expected."

"I'd be more scared, but what can they do? Kill the lady they've publicly called their patron goddess, who's proven she has unique powers, over an artifact that most believers don't know exists?"

"They could smash the shrines."

Ruyo shrugged. "Which would hurt me, but accomplish nothing for them. There must be an angry argument going on right now over this topic. They imagine they could somehow shake me upside down and make the Night God fall out of my pockets. The fact that they sent this letter before rushing an army to my doorstep is a good sign. It tells me they're venting."

The spirit said, "We know at least one Council member wanted us not to hand over its power, and that there's likely a traitor in the group who started this whole sorry business about Khyber demanding the Shroud. What we need to do is present them with an awake Elly, ready to help them."

Ruyo had Nusina bring her friends back in to give them the news. "I don't expect a fight, but you all may need to stand around looking tough. Let's arm the former slaves too."

Several cast-offs from Averell now lived at the camp. She had been working to end slavery in the city-state and the result was an incomplete victory. Some of the former servants were now in the army, fighting for their freedom, and a few unwanted troublemakers had been dumped on Ruyo's door, as her problem. One of these was the scrawny medic Roland, who'd proven himself useful to her already. Now she made sure they had weapons from the camp's cache of amateur-made blades and spears. For now, the handful of Averell guards were on their side.

#

She spent the evening helping out with the wounded westlanders, partly for practice. She tried to conserve her strength.

That night, Ruyo locked the door and rested in the cave's one bedroom. It held a bed of wood, ropes and cloth that she'd built herself from conjured materials, with some sewing help from Baris' wife. The room was otherwise pretty bare, with walls of rough stone cut by an enchanted chisel. For the last few years she'd mostly lived on the road, so she was used to simple living, but by necessity this site was her headquarters now. She ought to make it more of a home. She held her hands together and with a glow of energy, conjured up a new rug of thin cloth. She frowned at the simple, near-useless covering.

Then she laughed. She didn't need gold and ermine robes. This stuff would do for now. Besides, the whole group needed more furniture and housing, not just her. She dimmed the cave's watery light by an act of will, and slept.

A jolt of disrupted magic startled her awake. She staggered out of bed and pulled a long shirt on. "Nusina, what?"

"Checking!" The spirit zipped out of the cave just as Ruyo reached the main room. "No obvious enemies. No shrine damage."

Ruyo knew the stab of pain that came with the destruction of a minor shrine; this wasn't it. She hurried back to put some pants on, then cued the lights and conjured a pair of basic water elementals to float beside her.

Nusina said, "Elly!"

Ruyo ran outside. Under a dim, cloudy sky, the camp was springing to alertness. She headed toward the hut where Elly was being kept. The shine of several people's magic lights, floating beside them, revealed a man with a bloodstained sword in his hand.

Ruyo rushed him and shoved a waterball at his face to choke him to death. He dropped to his knees, gagging. She yelled obscenities at him and it took Nusina a mental shout to get her attention: "Wait!"

Ruyo released the grip holding the water around her target's head. "Where's Elly? Is she alive?"

Nusina pushed fully into reality. "Barely!"

"Somebody restrain him!" Ruyo said, and hurried into the hut. Elly lay there unconscious and bleeding from a stab to the chest.

Cursing, Ruyo tried to remember how to heal. A Brotherhood monk nudged her aside, saying, "Let me." She narrowly avoided attacking him. A second monk joined him, followed by a wide-eyed Roland.

"How bad?" said Ruyo.

"Give me a minute!"

They worked on her, trying to stop the bleeding. Ruyo clapped her hands and forced mana between them, shaping it as through with a sieve or a forge. The raw potential rippled and became a long strip of canvas cloth. "Bandage."

"Hold her blood in, Lady."

Ruyo turned her attention to pushing on the blood inside her friend. It wasn't as easy to manipulate as water, but with so much of it exposed to the outside world she had disturbingly direct access for forcing it to stop leaking. The medics tried to repair the gouged flesh and pull out the bits of cloth and bone. After several frantic minutes a monk said, "That's the worst of it. Bandage her up."

Gingerly they patched the wound while Ruyo kept up her blood-holding spell for several minutes. She released it gradually. The cloth was bloodstained already but that was fixable. "Can I step out?" she asked.

"All right."

Ruyo walked out of the tent and looked around. Her followers and the Averell soldiers had faced off. The city troops were guarding the young nobleman who had blood on his hands, against the wrath of everyone else. Between them lay not just any sword but Veilpiercer, a magic sword recently crafted to fight spirits.

One of the soldiers said, "Before you attack, ma'am, think of who you're trying to kill."

Ruyo had already raised her hands in preparation to magically drown him. "Want to argue that you're not guilty of attempted murder?"

The noble's hair was plastered to his face and his clothes dripped. "You betrayed us, Lady of Waters! You gave the power of the Night God to one of your friends!"

The group erupted in confused questions and shouts. Ruyo rose a few feet into the air on a cushion of water that appeared for just long enough to lift her, and said, "Enough. I'm happy to talk about what I did afterward, but I don't hear you deny that you stabbed a young woman just now! A woman under the protection of both me and Brotherhood!"

"It had to be done. There was a chance I could undo what you stole, and give the power back to its rightful owners."

"Liar! You were hoping to take it for yourself, weren't you?"

The de facto guard captain looked back and forth, a blade in his hand. "Lady, what's the meaning of this?"

So Ruyo had to explain. "Taking advice from certain authorities in your city, I allowed a follower to try accessing a magic artifact of the Steadfast Church. The artifact accepted her as the new bearer of its power. I didn't decide that; I only gave her the chance. I am the eager patron of Averell and the other southlands states... and so is Lady Elly, the new Goddess of Night."

The announcement didn't quiet people down. Ruyo gave them a minute to sputter and shout.

Nusina said quietly, "I'm keeping an eye on Elly. Seems stable. What do we do?"

"If I'm not going to choke this man to death --"

"Please don't do it, milady. It makes things worse."

After the first shock Ruyo had calmed slightly. "Then I want him as a bargaining chip when the city knocks. We may need to take him by force. Good enough?"

"All right. Please, words first."

Ruyo grimaced. She shouted for attention again, then said, "There's no doubt this man attempted murder. I'm arresting him pending a meeting with the Council and with Brotherhood."

"On what authority?" said the captain.

"Mine. This isn't Averell land and it's a criminal case involving both towns and your recognized patron goddess. Leave him here and I'll let him live so that your superiors can decide what to do with him. Or do you want to resolve this without any trial?"

The prisoner said, "I have a right to trial by nobles."

Ruyo floated closer. "Did you just call me a commoner?"

"No, no, you're in another category."

"The sword is right there on the ground. I'll let you pick it up and try attacking me, if you're brave enough. Or do you only like your women unconscious?"

He squirmed away, and the soldiers restrained him. Ruyo said, "Thought so." She turned to the guard captain. "This man doesn't have much fight in him. So shall we agree to keep him here until a Council delegation arrives?"

The guard assessed the men with him. None were the toughest front-line troops; those were still in the field. Ruyo's gang wasn't all amateurs, they had weapons in hand plus a fire spirit and an alleged goddess, and the highest-ranking Averell man had just disgraced himself. He said, "Fine. Stand down. Let's put him in one of your huts, under guard. And bound. Is that enough?"

"That'll do."

The nobleman made a break for it, throwing off the guards and running. But his escape lasted for only a few seconds before they caught him by one arm and hauled him back, cursing.

Ruyo said, "Thank you, everyone. That could have gone worse."

Ruyo checked on Elly once more. Still out, worse off than when she'd arrived at Wellspring. Nusina silently said, "They'll probably let him go."

"It burns me. This way we're at least using him in trade. I want Elly gone at dawn, as planned, to get treatment back home."

"That probably means Lisette too."

"That's fine," Ruyo said aloud. She crouched by Elly's bed and brushed the young lady's hair. "Elly, when you're back from dreamland, the world needs you. Sorry for the rough intro to the business."