Elly was shaking her. "Come on!"

Ruyo was dazed, drained. Nusina wobbled drunkenly nearby. Elly's shaking was vigorous enough that... no, the tower around them was also moving.

Ruyo broke free and staggered to her feet. Elly was already heading down the stairs, and she tripped but caught herself. Nusina shined overhead, saying, "It's breaking?"

Elly reached the bare second floor and kept running. "Put bigger windows in the next temple!"

Ruyo was about to answer when a stab of pain shot through her. She fell down the stairs to the second floor and struck hard, barely cushioned by Nusina. Elly saw her and turned around, but Ruyo said, "Run!"

Then the floor began crumbling, dropping Ruyo to ground level. Nusina grabbed her safely this time but now the whole building poured in on itself, tons of stone raining. She fled to the door and found Elly already there, failing to shove it open.

Ruyo tried to conjure an umbrella of water against the falling debris, but the spell fizzled and her effort made her whole body burn and her skull throb. The altar... it'd been cracked in two, and a chisel and hammer lay right beside it.

Ruyo said, "Nusina, I can't cast. Open it!"

The spirit cursed, a rare thing for her. She flared blue-white and exploded forward in a blast of icy water that sent shards flying.

But the shrine's sturdy door didn't break. She switched to being a shield of ice and water held above them, as it all collapsed. Ruyo tried to add to the barrier but her power was not only drained, but scrambled.

Rocks crashed down. Nusina strained and Elly was using a blanket of shadows. Ruyo felt small impacts and collapsed, shielding her face.

With a pained-sounding splash, Nusina let a pile of broken stone slide off her into the massive pile that surrounded them. Then she pushed aside a head-sized chunk that'd landed on Ruyo's legs. Dust hid the world.

Fortunately the wreckage and fog also spoiled the volley of arrows that came next. One pinned Elly's cloak to a rock but fell free. Ruyo stood up, her right leg burning but more intact than it had any right to be, and saw ten or so people with bows and clubs.

Just then, a man from the Witch Hunters rushed in and ran one of them through. More people were running from several directions. The Hunter shouted, "Stick to cover!"

Ruyo pulled a knife from her belt. "Elly, Nusina, shield us!"

Another three arrows came at them, two shot down by Nusina's jets. The third hit Elly in the arm and she screamed, falling.

Ruyo's cheeks burned. She wasn't helpless and she could recover from injuries. She leaped up from the rubble, staggered, and ran at the mob. "I'll drown you all!" she said, forcing what little power she had into a spell in her free hand.

The angry crowd was so startled that the Witch Hunter kicked a man to the ground and slashed the chest of another before they could react. Then two more of the guards arrived with swords in hand, shouting, "Surrender or die!"

A pair of arrows flew. A thrown rock struck Ruyo in the chest, making her stagger back in pain but saving her from a club swing. What power she could muster became a blob of water that she forced around the face and down the throat of the nearest attacker, a woman with a bow.

Despite having an arrow in her flesh, Elly was inspired enough to push herself too, dodging attacks and getting in the face of a shocked man far taller than her. Blocks of shadow appeared like stairs beneath her feet and let her leap high enough to kick him in the head.

Nusina said, "That is not sticking to cover!" and flowed to shield Ruyo as well as possible.

A jet of flame shot over the crowd and a man said, "Enough! Stop!"

The power of it made even Ruyo pause. A furious man in disheveled clothes had come with several of the city's own guards; this was Lord Mendrettos, holding a firewand. He said, "Lady, this is not my doing!"

Ruyo hadn't had time to blame anyone. She began to speak, but the woman she was drowning collapsed, still caught in the spell. Ruyo glared at her.

The nobleman gulped, still shaking with anger. "Please, Lady, there's no need for that now."

Though she was bleeding and arrow-shot, Elly shouted back, "We were using that tower!"

Nusina spoke quietly to Ruyo. "A reputation for wrath, milady, or mercy?"

She was leaning toward wrath right now. She could hardly stand, her friend was hurt, and she'd just been ambushed. Damn it. But the fighting had stopped for now, and Nusina was usually right. With a flick of her hand she made the water glob tear itself out of her foe's throat. The drowned woman lay there coughing and rasping.

Ruyo also noticed the man who'd been less lucky, getting a sword through the chest. She said, "Medics. Now."

The noble nodded vigorously. "Of course. Lady Elinor first."

Elly's knuckles were white on her knife in her good hand. "No. Him first."

Ruyo and Elly stepped away from the shocked and bloodied mob. Ruyo said, "I never thought I'd get to say this, but -- Guards, seize them!"

#

Mendrettos apologized for the sixth time while Ruyo and Elly sat around in his war-damaged mansion. A doctor relying more on ordinary medicine than magic was tending to Elly. The lord's son paced, angry and sullen.

Ruyo was glad she hadn't needed serious magic. That one spell had left her with practically nothing, between the temple's destruction and the major drain of expanding her powers. Even the timing of the attack had hurt her by interrupting her. "If it wasn't you, then who and why?"

The noble said, "We had them arrested and questioned. They're bitter war survivors. People who lost friends and family during the war or the aftermath."

The son finally spoke up. "Because you weren't here, sea god."

Ruyo faced the younger man. "I was busy, and you know exactly why I was distracted from the war effort for a while." She stared him down until he turned and went back to his pacing. "And I fought and killed on the front lines. My unit helped save a village and avenge another."

The elder held up one palm. "I know, Lady. It's hard, what we've all been through. We're doing the best we can here. It would help everyone if you could continue to show mercy and help us."

Nusina was invisible at the moment, to limit her drain on Ruyo. "I advise putting up with them, milady. There's no need to have more people killed over this."

Ruyo said, "Did anyone die from the attack? From the crumbling tower? I recall that the altar had been deliberately cracked, and someone either ran out quickly and barred the door or managed to hide in there."

Mendrettos said, "No deaths. The sabotage was controlled."

Nusina appeared for long enough to say aloud, "Someone used magic to disrupt the water inside the concrete. Clever."

"Really? Well, that tells me who did it. Only one good water mage in that lot, and I thought she'd left town. Would have sent her to help you."

His son said to Ruyo, "What will you do to her, then? Make her kneel and pray to you?"

Ruyo folded her arms. "I don't do that. What would you normally do in this town, to someone who intentionally wrecks a building to make it collapse on people?"

"Death," said the nobleman.

Ruyo glanced toward Nusina. "If I really am going for an act of mercy, I'm obliged to step in even against this one, aren't I?"

The spirit sighed across their link. "I can't blame you for wanting retaliation."

Ruyo took Elly aside to a spare room and spoke quietly with her. "What do you think?"

"This is above my level of..." The girl trailed off. "No, it's not anymore. The way I see it, there needs to be some consequence that won't ruin the whole town."

They talked a bit more and returned to Mendrettos. Ruyo said, "This mage woman. You've caught her?"

"Yes, she's with the other prisoners."

"And who personally broke the altar?"

"None of them will say."

"We're willing to forgive the attacks on us personally. We request that the mage be sentenced to labor at rebuilding the town, starting with harbor work. She can do something constructive, or rot in whatever dungeon you have here."

The noble frowned, staring into a table. Finally he said, "After you showed some mercy to my family, I should support the same for my neighbors."

Ruyo said, "You'd prefer to have the culprits executed?"

"It would simplify matters, not to have angry voices speaking out against you."

"It would, yes. But I'm finding that my own natural desire to smite my enemies ought to be saved for the really big ones."