Ruyo spent the evening at the Vissio estate, where Elly and Lisette had already claimed the guest room and collapsed, exhausted. The lady of the house said, "I checked in on them. Weapons and armor piled everywhere like a couple of mercenaries." Lady Vissio couldn't quite hide a smile. "And Virid was delighted to meet that spirit they have along."

Ruyo heard faint snoring from inside the room. She said, "We're ruin-divers now. Good excuse to play dress-up and pretend to know what we're doing."

"For more than one role, I hear. Will you go through with this plan, then? Smile and wave tomorrow and let people know a mighty goddess will help them?"

"You know I'm not all that mighty yet. Probably less so than your friend in the Black River Crew." Ruyo had met a spy working for the family and might owe him her life.

The noblewoman put one finger to her lips. She answered, "Yes, I do have some friends on the riverboat crews." More quietly she said, "You still have a chance to run away from the Church job."

Ruyo shook her head. "I'm building a tower of blocks. As rickety as it is, it comes crashing down unless I follow through with this step."

"Glad to hear it," the lady said. She led Ruyo into the garden and picked a fresh orange, handing it to Ruyo.

"I've been wanting to try flavoring bread with these," Ruyo said, sniffing the delicious thing.

"War and godhood and the advancement of baking, eh?"

"The godhood part is made of little improvements like this, and the soldiers will appreciate some variety. I'd like another cooking lesson tomorrow if your chef doesn't mind."

They'd walked to the little shrine in a corner of the walled garden. The lady said, "If you wish, but I suspect you'll be busy." She handed Ruyo a folded note.

Ruyo set the orange down on her shrine to read the note. Her eyes went wide.

We've found a lead. Though the Inheritors and their "university" scattered, we have reason to think they took your friend to your own hometown! The one who gave you this note will tell you who to contact.

Lady Vissio whispered two names, neither of whom Ruyo recognized.

"I have plans to make, then."

"But you won't run off?"

"After the ceremony." She sighed. "Realistically, not tomorrow at all. I'll have to have faith in Nusina holding out a little longer."

Whether it was honest and realistic faith, she wasn't sure. But running off in a blind rush wouldn't help.

#

She woke up before dawn in a corner of the servants' quarters. She cursed, realizing something. She needed to get to Starshore, but couldn't leave tomorrow either! The shrine builders wouldn't be done that quickly even with magic and with the entire Church leaning on them, and she had to be there to bless the place before it could activate. She went back to sleep angry at herself for missing that.

Hours later, she woke to the sound of household servants banging around opening drawers. She groaned and got up to get ready.

One of the staff greeted her in passing. "Oh, miss Ruyo! Remember me?"

Ruyo didn't, but then she didn't have her eyes open all the way. She gave him another look. "Talked to you right before the fire, I think? It was a busy day."

"That's right. You gave me the most basic magic, but look." He held out one hand and it suddenly overflowed with created water, dripping to the stone floor. "I figured out the second level of it."

"By yourself?"

"Virid let us borrow a few books. We've been talking about earth magic too. I'm starting to learn the basics of that. Looks like once you have magic at all, that gets easier."

"Good for you, and for him! It would normally take months of training to get that far."

The man beamed. "There are a few others who'd like to be started on the path too."

"I have a few minutes. Bring them over."

There was major long-term potential in the Sorcerous Initiation. Although it could only get someone up to the second tier of water magic directly, so far, it unlocked the potential for people to learn more spells and other elements. Only one in several dozen people had the natural talent, but Ruyo could spark anyone. Though Nusina would chide her to find a more watery verb for that. The main weaknesses were Ruyo's limited time and energy, and the fact that her brand of initiation was useless for fire. There'd need to be a second god in play to cover every option.

Or, maybe, a god who'd absorbed more than one element.

The servant came back with three more people wanting magic, snapping Ruyo out of her worrisome thoughts. "Ah yes, I'm ready. Have you each prayed at least once?"

"We have," one of them said. "We'll keep doing it."

"I really appreciate that. I might need the power soon."

She gave them the basics. Maybe she could come back later and do the second level, or give the first to more people. Either way, she had to head out.

#

Outside the Bastion, a platform had been set up, hung with military banners as well as the tower emblem of the city. Ruyo got ushered into a storeroom to practically get shoved into a dress she'd never seen before. The seamstress was an elegant woman with a jeweled hairclip and a zeal for what she called a "fashion problem".

"Am I going to be able to move in this?" Ruyo said, eyeing the fountain of sapphire-hued cloth she'd been presented with.

The lady fussed over too many strings and clasps, tugging Ruyo this way and that. "I understand you're a traveler. See these fasteners? You can remove the bulkiest part of the dress quickly, if need be, and still be decent. I'm hoping to start a trend."

"Ah, that explains the... fanciness."

The seamstress popped up right in front of Ruyo's face, looking alarmed. "You don't like it?"

"It's nice. Just not what I would normally wear."

She huffed. "Well, you do need to learn to clean up if you're to be our patron! I'd bet you have practically no experience at trying to be impressive."

"It's not really my stock in trade."

"And that is your problem. Look the part, at least on formal occasions!"

"You have a point."

When Ruyo had finally gotten dressed, she got towed back outside, where a small crowd had gathered. These were a mix of classes and professions, judging from their clothes, come to see why a trio of musicians were playing a local tune. She trotted out on stage and waved, trying to look more confident than she felt.

Then there was a priest attended by several nobles, speaking loudly and amplifying his words with the help of an air-mage. Ruyo was a "divine force", a "holy patron" who would bring success to the city in peace and war. He didn't quite say "god". He asked Ruyo to join him in a traditional prayer of formal allegiance to the Church. Ruyo did, and spoke loudly and clearly.

A man in the crowd started a cheer. It caught Ruyo off guard. The one who'd begun it was Lady Vissio's spy. Elly and Lisette were there too and joined in.

Ruyo smiled and waved, then improvised with a magic trick. Three waterball elementals at once, hovering around her.

The crowd was moderately impressed, but probably more due to the pageantry than to the prospect of Ruyo really mattering. She tried to go along with the rest of the little ceremony, laying hands on an enchanted stone sitting on a pillow and then speaking of her love for the city and the desire to aid it. The stone itself was little more than a prop, made to glow as though red-hot. She herself felt like just another part of the play that the rulers were putting on.

#

Afterwards, when she was able to shed the poofiest part of the dress and pace in relative comfort, she was still in an office within the Bastion. The sisters had managed to join her there.

Elly said, "You survived, anyway. What now?"

"Did you two enjoy the tour?"

Lisette beamed. "It was amazing! So many people here."

"She blew her money on snacks," Elly said.

"Not all of it!"

Ruyo said, "Anyway, we leave the day after the city can finish the new shrine. I want to train and practice while I can. For me that means improving my enchanting and food generation. For you that should probably include fighting or magic. Your call; I can probably get any kind of teachers you want."

Someone knocked on the door, and a nobleman looked in to ask, "What can we do for you, Lady? Also, there's another group of soldiers needing magic."

Duty called.

#

Ruyo sat around being coached in enchantment by a patient old man who took full advantage of the fact that her mana supply didn't run out as easily as for a typical novice. Frequent breaks were a standard part of the job, giving enchanters a reputation for laziness. The ideal, rumor said, was to show up for ten minutes each morning to do something astonishing and then go home.

"Make another one!" the professor said.

A pile of broken sticks and other trinkets littered a table in the wizard's workshop. Ruyo wasn't the only student today; three apprentices watched and worked more slowly. She said, "This would be easier if I didn't have to create the sticks from nothing."

"Aha! Finally you see that. Yes, a professional starts the spellcraft with mundane materials already prepared. Class, we're now going to demonstrate creating a simple object for her with the same sort of carvings."

With their help the work got easier, since she could now bind the spell she wanted without first conjuring up the item to attach it to. The teacher had her compare an ordinary water spell, for filling a bucket, with her unique divine powers. The technique needed was slightly different.

She said, "What about enchantment for making longer-lasting items, not just these things that activate once when broken?"

"That's slower, more patient work, and Averell needs you churning out these." He poked at the pile of sticks.

One of the students said, "Can you teach us the elemental-summoning trick?"

"That's not what she's here for."

Ruyo said, "It's useful to your students, though, since they'll be able to bind it themselves." Over the professor's grumbling she took a little time off from endlessly repeating the enchantment, to explain the animate waterball that could move around on its own once cast. Then the improved version of that spell, the hedgehog-like Quill made of ice. "Obviously I'm using water for these, but you can use the other elements."

"Like fire," said one student, looking at the spiky creature scuttling along the table. The others murmured; one had seen the monstrous fire creature that had menaced the city. "Can't you make a bigger water creature yourself?"

"I haven't figured out how, yet. Been too busy."

The teacher rapped the table for attention. "As interesting as this thing is, we need to focus. How do you get rid of these?"

"Easy enough." Ruyo concentrated, and the Quill collapsed into shards of ice. She brushed them into a bucket.

One learner said, "You know, sticks aren't ideal as a medium for storing a water spell. What if you used ice itself?"

"Wouldn't last long."

He was enthusiastic now. "With even your level of water magic you might be able to keep a frozen shard on you all day, with a spell on it. Or make one on the fly, attach a spell, and fling it!" The other students thought that was cool.

Ruyo said, "My friends had an idea earlier about using an elemental to float through the air, carrying a bottle with a spell in it."

That turned the discussion toward a bunch of ideas for creative uses of enchantment and elementals, most of them terrible. Ruyo advised against trying to drink a bottled elemental like a potion. Still, it was nice to speculate with some people who knew more theory than her.

#

Magically and mentally worn out, she joined the sisters for a late-afternoon session of sparring with city guards. They seemed to be having a good time, but she still worried they were in this for fun. They'd at least been bloodied recently in a way that didn't cause lasting harm, so they understood real danger. She had to trust their judgment.

She snorted. She was one to talk! She'd hardly even been in a fistfight before all this began.

Just as she was leaving to get dinner, Tulia found her. She was dressed in a wave-patterned blue robe she never could have afforded. "So, Lady of Waters, congratulations."

Ruyo said, "What exactly happened, Tulia?"

"It's not my fault. They took your lesson to heart and acted on it too soon."

"My lesson?"

The priestess started to snap back at her, but faltered. Instead she seemed to force back tears. "I didn't mean for them to run off, really! I mean I'd spoken out against slavery but tried to make it clear what was my opinion and what's yours, and it all went horribly wrong. I was scared I'd gotten all those people killed!"

Ruyo patted her on the shoulder. "I don't like it either, but I'm limited in how much I can change and how quickly. The leaders are in crisis right now, more than they let on."

"So that's why they're so eager to adopt you? Because of the war?"

"And other things. The good news is they need us both. If you're willing to stay on as priestess, you can do a lot of good if you're just patient."

Tulia nodded. "It's the best thing to do."

"I also told Quintus to try paying attention to you as something other than his butler."

She snorted. "Good luck with that. But I should go back to him when I can, and make sure he doesn't drown in his own dirty laundry."