The next morning was much the same, more practice. But by afternoon, the councilmen summoned Ruyo.

The shrine was ready. It stood in the Flask district near the bathhouse and main aqueduct. Ruyo laughed when she recognized the site; it occupied a formerly open plaza where she'd once been heaved into a fountain. Now there stood a hastily built temple.

The two-story walls had obviously been raised and shaped heavily by magic to meet the deadline. The stonework had a swirling, flowing look as though the masonry had frozen while being poured into shape. The look actually worked well for a water temple. Additional simple wave designs lined each pillar. Shiny blue banners of a water-drop and wave hung from the walls.

"I like it so far," she said, and walked inside. There, the walls thinned and sloped outward toward the top so that she felt she was in a trench. Her boots echoed on the stone floor. The front side of the temple was an open space large enough for dozens of people to stand, though there was no furniture. Beyond that was an altar room that could be curtained off, with walls painted in abstract watery designs in white and blue. Two empty little side rooms made for practical storage.

A steep staircase led up to a bedroom with a key laying on the bed. The sheets were perfectly tucked in.

She went back downstairs and inspected the altar. Much like the Vissio one it was simple in design, but with a little more care put in. Shiny glass was worked into the concrete slab along with the wavy designs.

It was all fine. Impressive, really, for something being given to her and in such a rush. Not only a home but a business. Suitable for a profitable transaction in a currency she hadn't known existed until lately. And technically, it would probably be a notch more powerful than the shrine at Brotherhood once she learned how to take advantage of that.

She tapped the altar, feeling concrete that wasn't quite hardened yet, and said, "I accept it." This time she was ready for the flash of magic the deed created. It washed through her and gave her a sense of the building being connected to her, and to the land where it stood.

She went back outside, all smiles, to thank the builders and the authorities profusely. She welcomed people in with her to accept their prayers. The flavor was of civic pride and a little confusion about just what she was and how she fit in. Ruyo understood it well; she felt the same way. But she blessed a few people with magic, demonstrated the creation of food, and did everything else she'd been asked to do on the planned checklist.

She slept uneasily that night, even though it was in a place built in her honor in a city that now worshiped her.

@@@2. Sailing Homeward

Ruyo woke up alone in her low-ceilinged bedroom. No windows, she realized. She created a blue-tinged light and looked over her few possessions. She'd talked her way into getting some more bits of armor on short notice. There was the fancy dress she wouldn't bother carrying along, her trusty backpack and camping gear, and some jars of dyes and herbs from the west that she hoped to sell. Without a cart and a full cargo load she felt like she wasn't doing her real job as a trader.

It felt very early. She went downstairs and unlocked the shrine's front door. Indeed, it was before dawn. The hour reminded her that she owed a favor at the bathhouse. She walked through the dim streets with a magelight floating beside her.

She was so distracted by thoughts of travel that she didn't understand why there was suddenly a man in her path, wrenching her right arm back.

"Your money," he said, and that made the situation plain.

Ruyo fought off panic and tried to remember any of the training she'd just had. She had no weapon, though. Instead she concentrated on a point by the man's shoes.

"Did you hear me? Where is it?"

Then a frosty Quill elemental condensed into existence, and he felt the weight of it on his foot. "What? Get it off!" He hopped, off-balance.

Ruyo pushed instead of pulling away, throwing her weight at him. She was lighter but with one foot in the air, he toppled. Ruyo fell on him and spotted a knife in his hand. She used a burst of water to fling herself free and stagger upright before he could, then shouted "Kill!" at the icy minion.

The Quill shot a chunk of ice at him, but he sidestepped. He faced down the little monster and the woman holding a glowing ball of water in each hand.

She grimaced back at him. "The name's Ruyo. Ask your friends about me, if you survive the next ten seconds."

He ran away, dodging another ice shard, and Ruyo didn't chase him. She caught her breath and said, "Well, now I'm awake."

She made it to the bathhouse with her Quill scuttling along beside her like a cat. Again the morning guard let her through, as indifferent as before. She asked, "Are any of the staff here yet? There's a fire mage I need to meet, preferably while I'm still dressed."

"He should be, ma'am. Let me go find him."

She waited by the entrance, practicing idly. It'd be nice to have a mighty elemental with settings other than Idle and Violent. Certainly helpful to have those options, though!

The guard returned with the employee she'd met here before, who helped with the facility's heating system. "You're back!" he said, yawning. "And I've been praying, like I said. Does it really help you?"

"It does," she said. "Ready for that magic upgrade?"

She did the little ritual of holding his hands and deepening the channel used by his mana reserve. Since he had inborn talent of his own it didn't do as much for him as for some random person, but it'd still help advance his skill. "By the way, you're a more complete caster than I'll ever be. Fire is definitely off limits for my power set."

He grinned. "Thanks. Have you thought any more about heating water, though?"

"I've been too busy to try much. I was coming in today to practice some spells."

"If you'll take your shoes off I can let you into the men's section to practice. No need to strip if you're not bathing." The mage said to the guard, "Hey, why are you so quiet? This here is the new city goddess!"

"The new fad, you mean. Years back I heard the nobles were praying to the stars or something. No offense, ma'am; it looks like you're pretty powerful."

Ruyo snorted. "I try. Come on, then."

The men's part of the bathhouse was the newer, larger section. Not quite as clean, though, and lacking some of the ornamental touches. She looked the big, empty pool over as her guide lit a few more of the main room's magelights. These were the permanent variety, enchanted crystals bolted to the wall and able to glow for an hour or two if a magic-user kept pinging them.

"You're staring at the lights?" the pool-mage asked.

"I've never much questioned how they work. But I've been thinking about basic enchantments, and there's a large crystal at one of my shrines." She was also thinking about what it meant for "Light" to be a distinct magic type, when lighting a room was such a basic trick and even she could access it.

"I just use them; it's not my field."

Instead of swimming, Ruyo practiced at poolside. "Water's heavy," she said with a grunt, lifting as much as she could. Even with magic there was a weight limit.

The mage stared at the big glob floating in front of her. "That's a lot! Don't drop it all at once."

She manipulated the ball's shape, tried moving and turning it, and so on. "I've seen a way to carry someone up and down a wall like this. Haven't done it myself."

Carefully dripping it all back into the pool, she considered what to try next. "Do you think I could see the heating system?"

"All right. Wear your shoes for that part."

Ruyo walked barefoot across the water, letting each foot sink slightly. It took concentration but she could even run.

"I've seen that done before, but only by a pro showing off. Think I could learn that?"

"Eventually. I don't understand it enough yet to explain, though."

After a few minutes of him awkwardly staring at her floating feet, they went down into the tunnels. They reached a furnace like a monster's red-glowing maw. They'd passed several skylit rooms just for storing firewood.

Ruyo summoned a ball of water and held it close to the licking flame. She tried to freeze part of it and felt the resistance of pure heat.

"Guess I can do that myself now," the mage said, and used his new water-conjuring power to mimic her.

"I wonder how the old gods interacted," said Ruyo, watching her sample orb boil away. "Could Water stand to be in the same room with Fire, or did they repel each other?"

"Was there a Fire God?"

"Probably."

"Then I bet they were lovers."

Ruyo's spell faltered and the last boiling drops sizzled to the floor. "What?!"

The mage said, "It was a steamy relationship."

Ruyo chucked water at him.

#

Ruyo went back to the shrine and slept a bit longer, then heard voices downstairs. She must've left the place unlocked. No one knocked on the apartment's door though. She vaguely sensed a trickle of power from the visitors' prayers. As a test she summoned a small pile of bread to the altar for the visitors to take. Oh, right; she needed to do that for headquarters too, and might as well do it for Brotherhood. It would be nice to get direct communications to the monks' village so she knew whether they actually wanted the little daily gifts there, or had a pile of junk falling off the altar.

When she was awake enough to get downstairs again she found one little loaf still there, smelling of oranges. Good; this place would help her fulfill her supply contract. And it was a contract in all but name. Prayers in return for easily transported food and a few throwing bombs. As soon as the city cranked out baskets of prepared, carved sticks to enchant, she'd get started.

Just then a man arrived with a wheelbarrow holding a sack full of sticks and a couple of bottles. "You the new enchanter?" he said, looking boredly at the temple's walls.

There were hundreds in there! "Yes," she said, and took delivery. "I'll have to carry the ones I don't use right away."

"I'm told you'll get more delivered on the road, to keep you working."

"I, uh, look forward to it."

#

Repeating the same little spell got old after the thirtieth time. She was running low on mana, too, and needed more people to show up at the altar. She had to get moving, too!

Elly and Lisette arrived by midmorning, looking ready for travel. "We going yet?" said Elly.

Lisette picked up a stick. "Are you doing all of these?"

"Unfortunately. They want a whole lot. But I can enchant them while we're on the road."

She gathered her things, stuffed as many of the unready sticks into her pack as she could, and put the finished ones into an obvious pile with a note. "Let's go."

They left the city without fanfare, and headed east. That meant boarding a boat at the docks and going downriver, leaving Ruyo's horse behind.

The sisters watched from the railing as swampy land rolled by. Ruyo asked, "Did you write home?"

"We did," Lisette said.

Ruyo had sent some letters too. She gave a status report to her contact at Brotherhood House, the Averell branch of the monks' organization. Another message told the people back at her cave to expect she'd be gone for a while. A letter from them had come while she was in town, asking for a bit more lead and then regular delivery of paper along with the food, so she figured the printing project was coming along.

She enchanted yet more of the sticks while riding along, pacing herself as she sensed more prayers coming in to power her. Her understanding was that the Averell nobility, most of them, had committed to daily prayers and were encouraging everyone in town to serve the new patron, without requiring it outright. If even one percent of them actually prayed daily she'd have substantial energy.

"How good are these?" Lisette asked, breaking away from her sightseeing to watch Ruyo work instead.

"One stick supplies several men for a day. I've improved on the spell but it's not completely predictable."

"So one backpack of sticks is, say, a couple hundred men's food. Nice."

"Not so nice if you have to keep doing the same spell over and over!"

"It probably beats being on the front lines."

"True."