Ruyo worked, practiced, and looked in frequently on the captives. The three of them were in a small cabin, shackled to the floor in miserable conditions, with only a window and a food slot in the door. Faint runes lined the walls. The sight of the two sullen men and the woman made even Ruyo take a little pity on them, and toss some fresh bread in.

The good news was that they had nowhere to go if they broke out of the room. Still, Ruyo and the others slept in hammocks nearby.

A fizzing, vibrating sensation in her bones distracted her from reading a borrowed book on magic. "Nusina! Did you feel that?"

"Something's a little off."

"Yes. I felt the same thing on the way south. Could there be something important right below us?"

"I'll go overboard and check."

Ruyo shrugged and went back to her book. It'd only be safe for Nusina to explore for a few minutes as the ship moved along.

"Coming back," Nusina said, her mental voice faint with distance. "I don't remember what, but something's down there all right. The fact that it resonates with you is a good sign for it being a broken temple we might salvage."

"Next trip."

#

That night while she was trying to sleep, Elly shook her. "Pir sees something!"

"Huh?" she said, rubbing her eyes. The dark hull creaked around her, smelling of fresh wood.

"Up on deck. I left him to watch."

It took Ruyo a few seconds to process that, but then she grabbed her leather breastplate and began creating Quills. Elly meanwhile shook Lisette and got her on her feet.

"You stay here on guard," Elly told Ruyo, and caught two sleepy guards' attention.

"But I'm --"

"The best one to stop the fire experts!" Elly hissed.

"Fine. Nusina, go with them."

The girls and the guards crept toward the hatch leading up on deck. It was a bad sign that any guards and crew up there weren't already solving the problem. Ruyo reluctantly stayed below, watching the prisoners' cell from just out of their sight.

A muffled shout and a thump came from somewhere above. Ruyo winced.

Nusina cursed. "Six or seven! Look out, Elly!"

Ruyo forced herself to stay put, even when a shout of pain came from a man up above. Blades clashed and something thumped. Loud enough for anyone in the hold to hear.

She focused her attention on the prisoners' room. Someone whispered, and she felt a faint stir of magic. Ruyo growled, yanked open the food slot in the door, and fired off a spray of water. "No."

She glimpsed them caught in the middle of trying to summon a fire, working together. She'd drenched them by surprise. Lir reacted quickly, flinging a lash of flame at the door to catch Ruyo in the face. She recoiled in time and countered with an awkward but nasty spray of ice, mostly bouncing off the wood around the little hatch. Their next fire attack was just as misaimed but still singed Ruyo's fingers.

"You know what? I'll do this like before." She flung plain water into the prison cell, as cold as she could make it. "Keep fighting and I'll drown you."

"Damn you!" said Lir. "When we get free --"

"It'll be at the end of a rope."

They spat and swore at her and even tried creating a little earth elemental to be clever and throw her off. But ice water to the face was a pretty good counter to any trick.

Nusina said, "We're in trouble, milady!"

Ruyo ran toward the open hatch. "The prisoners are trying to get out. Switch places. Hurt 'em."

Nusina rushed down from the deck. Ruyo gave her a friendly slap on the side in passing, throwing more water into the spirit's grip.

Ruyo's boots pounded on the steep stairs. Up on the rolling, crate-filled deck, a gang of armored men in black cloaks were driving the sisters back toward the stern. The guards were trying to rescue them but were barely holding their own. The bodies of several crew, a guard and two of the attackers lay unconscious or dead already. Pir was trying to burn the attackers, distracting them; one foe's hair was on fire.

Ruyo rushed the men harrying the guards. A spray of icy shards from her and her Quill escorts caught them by surprise, doing little harm. That freed the guards to rush to the sisters' aid and stab one of the attackers in the back. Now two big, armored men were glaring at Ruyo, advancing on her with their cutlasses.

Lisette shouted and one of the men screamed. Then there was a crash of splintered wood. Ruyo swept up splinters and sawdust with a splash of water and turned them into a jagged blade of brown ice that hovered above her hands. Giving her best maniacal grin, she said, "Is it worth getting this through your lungs?"

A jet of flame washed over her, making her drop the blade and shriek. One of the attackers was a mage, dressed in a black cloak like the others. "He's worth anything to me!"

Elly swung a chunk of wood at his head from behind. He sidestepped. The two men facing Ruyo chose that moment to attack.

Ruyo saw an opening. She ducked and weaved between the two of them and ended up behind them, firing off a spray of water. The force of it left her stumbling backwards but missed them completely.

Lisette and the two guards ran into view, hurt but unopposed. Now it was them plus Elly and Ruyo and Pir, versus the mage and two swordsmen.

"You're outnumbered!" said Elly.

Ruyo thought at Nusina, "How are you?"

"In control."

The mage threw back his hood and he shouted at Ruyo. "I won't let you kill my brother!"

Ruyo blinked. "You know he stabbed your mom, right?"

He raised his hand, readying another spell, but his control of it was unsteady. "That's a lie!"

"I was there. In a cage near the boy he and his friends kidnapped." Ruyo watched him and the swordsmen, all poised to attack. "They're going on trial, with a chance to defend themselves. So are you, if you survive the next minute." She kept her hands at her sides, but water dripped down from them and formed a pair of icy blades.

He saw them. "You. You're that mage, the Lady of Waters."

"That's right. So do you want justice? Surrender. Pointless violence? Come at me." She floated a few inches into the air on a phantom current.

There was a commotion from the ship's hatch. The captain, wearing only a pair of unbuttoned pants, and two more bleary-eyed sailors had arrived with swords.

The black-robed mage grimaced, starting to lurch and attack, but then stepped back. "Retreat!" he shouted, and leaped over the railing. The two abandoned swordsmen shoved their way past the guards toward a grappling hook that trailed a rope.

Ruyo said, "I'm going after them!" and rushed to the railing. A boat was down there.

Elly said, "People are wounded. Hurry and help them!"

Ruyo shut her eyes and swore. "Fine!" She ignored the fleeing attackers and looked around for survivors. "Still okay, Nusina? We've got wounded."

"For now, milady, but they're bound to try again."

"Tell 'em we just scared his brother off."

"Brother!"

"Yeah. At least we know who did this."

One of the crew and two attackers were dead because of that man. The others lay unconscious or groaning. Ruyo did what she could by magic and mundane treatment to stop their bleeding. The sisters helped too. Both of them had been knocked around and slashed a bit. Elly had a nasty cut across one leg that Ruyo took the time to clean and bandage. "You two just saved a couple of lives and stopped an escape."

It looked like the survivors would all make it. So that was three new prisoners who got tied up and hauled down belowdecks. Ruyo showed one of them off to Veneri and company to make it clear there was no hope. The three of them took it stoically.

"Thanks, Nusina." The spirit was still tangible, so Ruyo hugged her.

#

The next morning was warm and sunny with a favorable breeze, strangely peaceful after last night. Ruyo joined in with prayers for the dead and did what little she could to help treat the wounded. The sisters watched, looking uneasy.

Afterward, a crewman called Ruyo's attention to that chunk of brown ice she'd tried to hit people with. "What is this?"

"Improvised weapon. Sawdust and ice."

The sailor whacked it against the mast and it didn't break. "Huh. Didn't melt much overnight." He shook his head. "Thanks to you and your friends last night. Never been in a real fight before."

"It's still pretty new to me, too."

#

They reached Follyport and passed it to reach the better docks nearby. A wagon took the prisoners by land and from there to Follyport and the riverboat. Going upriver was harder, of course, with horses helping to haul the vessel along the muddy banks. They struggled along the uneven ground, and Ruyo and the girls felt sorry for them. All three offered to help push the boat by magic and the captain gladly accepted.

It was a dull ride otherwise. Ruyo slept in her tiny cabin next to the sisters. The prisoners were chained more tightly now and escorted by a trio of no-nonsense soldiers who'd been sent to meet them. They didn't react much when they saw there were extra convicts to watch.

She woke up early in the morning feeling strange. She scratched her head, then looked at her hands. There was skin stretched between her fingers, in a faintly shiny grey color, slick to her touch.

She gasped. Nusina sensed her alarm and Ruyo said, "Look!"

"Nice. It's been a while since you tried adjusting yourself."

"This wasn't on purpose. How do I fix it?"

Nusina floated close by, shining blue light on her webbed hands. "Remember, your shape is increasingly based on what you think of as ideal, or what you want. Same reason you heal well. So you were probably thinking about swimming and that dolphin."

"I was," Ruyo said, recalling a dream of diving. "Does that mean I'll... I'll turn into one if I keep thinking about it?"

"Unlikely, unless you really want to. Especially at your current power level. This is a part of your innate powers that I don't think you've explored much, so my suggestion is not to 'fix' yourself just yet. Experiment and learn."

Her changed hands were unfamiliar, but they didn't hurt. She turned them over and flexed the rubbery webbing. "I could probably swim better like this. Um. Worth trying, I suppose."

"And if you're not comfortable with that," Nusina suggested, "you could try growing huge breasts again. Those were some flotation devices!"

"Nusina!"

When she'd settled down again, she had another thought. "This form-shifting thing probably applies to all gods. So why doesn't the Light God just shrink to escape?"

"Huh! I'd guess it's because the trap it's in, suppresses its power. But besides that, the god can't bear to bring itself down to anything like human scale for even one minute. Not for all the power in the world."

#

The sisters were surprised to see the change, making Ruyo blush and have to explain.

At last, Averell awaited! After spending so much time here lately, Ruyo was surprised to be glad to see the place.

The city guards were glad to see her group too. The three made one more effort to flee when they saw the overwhelming force of angry mages and soldiers, including one of the elder Vissio brothers, but it was no use. Ruyo happily saw them off to their new short-term home in prison, and met with several guards and a noble to give formal testimony. Between her account, her friends, and a signed statement from the Tiger's captain, the main questions were how long before Veneri and company hanged, and whether his brother would get arrested too or weasel out of it.

"I suspect the latter," said the nobleman taking her statement. "Their family is too important to cross twice quickly, no matter how obviously guilty."

Ruyo shook her head. "I can at least understand the brother's motive, but he only caused more harm."

"Welcome to the world of the rich and powerful," the man said solemnly.