For the Vissio family, hearing about the latest trip was worth the price of a fine meal. Ruyo let the gals tell most of it. They sat together in the fragrant orange grove near the little shrine that'd become mostly obsolete. Young Virid was excited to hear all the news, and Madame Vissio was pleased in her own quieter way. Ruyo made sure to mention something to her about "pillow talk".

Pir and Nusina made strange table decorations at opposite sides, saying little. Each of them got half of an orange and seemed fascinated by it in their own ways.

When the catching-up was done, Ruyo mentioned the third Sorcerous Initiation. "I want to do any of your staffers who want at least the first or second tier. Might not have time to come back for the third."

"Leaving again?" said Madame Vissio.

Ruyo explained the treasure-hunters and the planned second expedition to the hospital.

Virid clutched the table, breathed hard, and then stood up. "I'm going along this time. I can hang back from the worst of it, but I'm an heir of the family and my city needs me to get more powerful. I can't do that just from books."

His mother glared at him, but paused. "I knew something like this was coming."

Ruyo said, "Listen to your mother, Virid. There'll be time --"

He faced Ruyo down. "No. Do you have some arbitrary limit where only a few people can travel with you? Even if all I do is carry your spare loot I'll still be useful, and you know I can do more than that already." He smiled. "Besides, I'm able to stand up to a goddess."

Madame Vissio said, "Virid, please leave us for a moment."

The boy huffed and walked away. When he was gone, his mother spread her hands. "I'm sorry. It was bound to happen. He's barely ever left Averell. He doesn't know much about camping, or the hard life you live. I... I know you can't utterly promise his safety. But can you try?" She faced not just Ruyo but the sisters.

Ruyo looked at them too. They looked shocked to be asked. Ruyo understood; they were used to being under her protection.

Elly spoke first, her face pale. "Virid is a friend. If he really wants to come see what we do, I'll try to make sure he gets back."

Lisette said, "Same."

"It's just... Ruyo is our top priority. She has to survive. Just so you know."

"What?" said Ruyo. Nusina stopped playing with her orange juice to pay attention.

Elly explained, "People are counting on you, Ruyo. We're still learning how to protect ourselves but there are more important things going on than, than our own lives."

Ruyo thought at Nusina, "When did they become veteran bodyguards?"

"They've fought and bled alongside you, milady."

"I can only hope to do justice to that," Ruyo said. "If Virid comes along, we'll all try to protect him. But right now, a promise of divine protection isn't a sure thing."

Madame Vissio shut her eyes and nodded. "My older sons are businessmen first, and that's wonderful. They learned that from their father, rest his soul from labor. Virid never met the man, and he needs to find his own way."

Virid peeked from a balcony, and everyone ushered him down. "All right," his mother said.

#

After the meal, Ruyo met with several of the household servants and handed out the next level of magic to each. Giving the third level to the cook and his son felt more complex than the first two parts of the process, like carving a channel through ground that had to be prepared a certain way.

She asked Nusina about it, and the spirit said, "I suspect it'll only work for someone who's prayed repeatedly, not just muttered a few words one time. A good thing for you, really."

She promised the new tier to Virid and the sisters once they got back to Wellspring, to conserve her strength. They got to watch the spectacle of the cook's son wobbling a few inches into the air and throwing himself to the dirt, only to be caught by a spray of water that vanished in an instant and pushed him back to his feet. He laughed and said, "That was fun!"

Ruyo was about to leave the household when Madame Vissio said, "I'd like the first part of your magic too, if you don't mind."

"Are you sure? It requires prayer."

Vissio smiled slightly. "A small price. I want you to succeed and bring Virid back safely, so I'll be praying for you anyway."

#

To Ruyo's total lack of surprise, the Averell authorities found her while she was selling her cargo from Starshore. They had another group of people needing magic. "Of course," she said. "I'll meet them at the temple."

That satisfied them for now. She returned to her shopping, and finally one of the merchants asked about her hands. She'd been trying not to show them.

She said, "It's a kind of magic I'm experimenting with. I met a dolphin and it gave me ideas."

The dye trader peered at her grey-webbed fingers. "And you can do this sort of thing regularly?"

"Only to myself."

He laughed, though he looked relieved. "That's a shame. Some would pay to have their skin recolored without tattoos."

"That reminds me, I might need new gloves if I keep this up."

She wasn't making much effort to maintain a long-distance trade these days, so she wouldn't be bringing much cargo to Brotherhood. Still she turned a modest profit. She was getting a small stipend from the city that included enough money to get needles, thread and other odds and ends, and have a bit left for her growing number of "caravan guards".

Back in the temple, once she'd dealt with the latest group of magic-seekers, it was time to try her new ability. She summoned paper and wrote out a note to announce she'd be at Wellspring soon. She put it on the altar and said, "How do I use this?"

Nusina said, "In some faiths I hear people send offerings to the gods by burning them."

"Right, so..." Ruyo focused on Wellspring's location, put the note down on the altar, and splashed it with water. The paper dissolved into nothing. "We'll soon see if that worked."

She wrote a second note saying simply, "Elly and Lisette are fine and have stories to tell. Likely visit soon." She sent that one off to Brotherhood, and hoped it arrived.

#

The next day, she did morning errands. Sticks, magic, shopping.

She met with that merchant she'd sold a stick to; the city authorities had mentioned he checked out as safe. Ruyo accepted a prayer from him and granted him the knack for spells. She expected that to be an ordinary transaction, by her standards. But the traveler was a clever one who offered to spread word of her to the villages he passed on his next voyage. It was valuable gossip that would make him and his wares stand out.

At noon, Ruyo watched the three cult leaders get hanged in a public square. Not a pleasant end to her visit, but a worse end to theirs. She wasn't one of the people jeering.

"A curse on you!" shouted Veneri, on his way to the gallows. He'd picked Ruyo out of the crowd and was looking right at her. Others turned to see.

She felt she had to do something, anything, to show that his words were powerless. She raised one hand and made a strange gesture that she made up on the spot, as though warding off dark power. The onlookers reacted with confusion but she tried to ignore them, looking calmly back at the condemned trio. The leader had cast no spell, inflicted no real harm today, and she hadn't really done anything to counter him. Yet her reaction probably mattered.

#

Soon she headed out of town with Elly, Lisette, and Virid, all on horses, with Pir and Nusina floating beside them. They chatted on the way west.

Virid tried not to show his unease on the road. He kept glancing back at the city as it fell behind, and eventually said, "I feel like I forgot to pack something."

"We'll deal with it," Ruyo said.

At Sor's Hill, a group of the escaped slaves had been put to work cutting trees. But these were only a fraction of the larger group, and the least likely to be good soldiers. Their camp on the village's edge was an unpleasant one, little more than some makeshift tents and latrines in the forest. On closer inspection most of it had been abandoned and only half a dozen people remained, four of them women.

"What happened?" she asked.

One of the last men, a scrawny but cheerful fellow, greeted her. "You're back! The city guards came and made us a deal, to join their army and be free afterward. A few people just ran off. The rest of us, well..."

A woman said, "They think we're useless. The city said good riddance and don't come back. So now what do we do?"

Ruyo asked Nusina, "Can you tell if they've been praying?"

"I know there's been energy coming from here but not from who. What's the plan?"

Ruyo conjured some food, first of all. "Anybody hungry?"

They were. The villagers had trusted them with axes to do woodcutting, but this remaining bunch likely wasn't doing much.

Ruyo conferred for a moment with Nusina, then said, "I can offer you sanctuary for a week at my home, but it's no better than here. Maybe you can ask to live in this town instead."

"We'd been waiting to ask outright."

She found the elder. Before she could open her mouth he said, "They haven't been causing much trouble except for one thief who fled and one drunken brawler who we made sure got shipped off to the army. But we can't start feeding them."

Ruyo had deliberately avoided asking the Averell authorities how they were compensating the slave owners, but had asked discreetly via the Vissios. The former owners were being exempt from part of a new war tax. If some of those freed people had really been exiled, then there was probably a nasty political fight going on with their owners -- and the handful of slave traders. Ruyo was happy to be left out of it but would have to watch the situation.

She said, "If you help set them up with farmland --"

"Do you think tilling the soil is easy? These are the dregs, left because the army thought they weren't fit for serious work."

"They must have been doing something to have people want to own them."

"Cleaners, valets, horse groomers. If you want to continue feeding them, that's your business. But unless you're also going to provide plows and beasts to pull them, I don't want them here. Send them to some other big city."

Ruyo wanted to shout at him for lacking compassion. But he'd been compassionate and patient about a larger group hanging around just outside his vulnerable fields and homes. They weren't the ones he'd pledged to protect.

"You're right," she said.

She went back to the laggard group. "I hear there's a horse groomer?" One skinny young man raised his hand. She said, "Good. These people won't let you stay. If you come with me to Wellspring you'll have to set up your own homes and find some way to take care of yourselves. I can feed you all for, say, a month if you pray and can tolerate my usual bread. After that you'll need to move on or find some honest livelihood."

The group conferred. "All we can really ask for," said one old man.

After a session of granting more magic to people and showing off powers and stories to hold the locals' attention, she moved on.