Ruyo traveled north along the usual route but detoured to visit the village of Vaporway again, where they'd built her a basic shrine. She blessed it, then stayed long enough to get a dozen people up to the second magic level and more to the first. She'd not yet gotten a shrine in that other fishing village; they remained skeptical.

She met up with Elly and her guards in Averell, where all was going reasonably well. She spent a few days there helping the government train people and pushing for a more cooperative alliance. Though she was careful to approve of the Council in public, privately she told them about the suffering of the northeastern towns and the finagling she'd had to do there to begin getting them back on their feet.

The loudest voice in her support was one who'd sharply criticized Ruyo earlier: a busybody leader called Lady Ovida. "Our obligation to the rest of the good people of the southlands has not been met in the recent war."

Which set off an argument. Ruyo tried to duck out of it but Ovida stood in just such a way that Ruyo couldn't easily leave the lounge where they were discussing it. "Lady Ruyo, what have you been doing to promote the proper moral doctrine?"

"I've called for that greater cooperation, and the creation of a traveling disaster relief corps." Ovida had rebuked her earlier for trying to be a key figure in the Steadfast Church without caring much about its actual religious aspect. Ruyo sighed and picked her words carefully. "Honest labor that lays a foundation for greater trust and respect in the southlands will help remind everyone of their obligations to each other."

The noblewoman looked satisfied enough, but the other nobles shifted the discussion toward improving the river and tow path east from Averell to the coast, rather than on helping the most afflicted towns. It looked like any first test of the "disaster relief foundation" would involve infrastructure for Averell, if the city-state were going to help at all.

Ruyo managed to escape, feeling like she was at least helping if not quite in the direction she wanted.

#

Elly dithered about whether to hide her changed, rabbity ears while performing in Averell. An absurd argument broke out about wearing a hood or getting a specially tailored hat and whether to shout "Behold the Ears of the Night God!" while leaping around demonstrating dark magic. In the end, Elly let them show, and if anything her reputation for being fast and agile increased because of them.

The show was more impressive this time, partly because Elly had been practicing her new talent. When she jumped it was with an unearthly slow falling, as though gravity had less hold on her. She'd said she wasn't exactly _lighter_, but she couldn't explain the distinction beyond showing that it was still hard to push heavy things sideways. Her demonstrations included having a volunteer lift an absurdly heavy sword, to the audience's amusement; the man still had trouble swinging it without falling over.

Elly brought Ruyo to the small shrine she currently had here. The Council hadn't yet followed through on their plan to dedicate their main city temple to her, and was waiting to see what she could do. Several military men had been taking notes. "Can you grant that lightness power yet?" asked one.

"No, but probably soon. It seems to last a few minutes if I cast it directly."

So she gave the officials a private tutorial with that, letting them experiment. They tried out a heavy wagon and found it was easier to pull.

Elly said, "And I can probably make the effect stronger. Use it on a suit of armor, maybe."

"We'd be interested in having this power for ourselves."

"Then once I get enough support, I'll work on that. So far I've only managed to grant the first magic level."

Elly's training had been more focused than Ruyo's because of the pressure on her. So far she had no elementals, minimal magic-granting, and really not much idea what she was doing beyond getting a basic shrine network. Hopefully between this new power and the dream thing she'd overcome the basic problem of why anyone should bother praying to her.

#

They studied some more enchantment theory, examining the prototype food-making items and the body-rewriting data slabs from the hospital. Elly managed to create her first magic item, a version of a common glow wand that instead radiated darkness. Not terribly useful but good practice. She finally activated her shrine at Sor's Hill as well, giving her five sites now.

They finally made it back to Wellspring and spent a while, catching up on the little village there. It had grown. The "useless" discarded slaves from Averell had made a tolerable enough start at farming that Ruyo didn't complain that they were still hanging around. They were also improving the trail that ran through the area, firming up the most sodden ground and adding a few signposts. When Ruyo and company arrived, there were several travelers there from the west, and they'd heard of the new water goddess. Ruyo got to play host and tell stories.

She did that partly at the Gods' Road Inn, the new building along the village's main path. The former bandits had set it up along with their smithy and had been using some of Ruyo's funding to buy beer and food.

"How is that working out?" she asked.

Nodens, the man in charge of the place, shrugged. "It's a living. There's always someone coming through, and we've got beds and dice. We could use a proper stable though. Where's your horse guy?"

"Studying medicine. I'll get you some more wood while I'm here. Oh, and let me show you my beer."

Nodens swigged the stuff that Ruyo magically poured into a pitcher. He visibly forced it down. "Needs work, ma'am. Let me show you the good stuff."