Wavebound Relics by Kris Schnee

Author:Kris Schnee [Schnee, Kris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2020-08-22T22:00:00+00:00

5. Monophysite

She hardly remembered the rest of the day. Several members of Church and Council quizzed her, and nobody was sure where the cultists had run off to. In the end they promised to track the kidnappers down, and she had no better idea than to let them. She couldn't sense the spirit's presence at all. It was the first time she'd had no access to Nusina's companionship and knowledge.

But as she returned to the Vissio estate with her two ex-bandit guards that evening, she reminded herself she had work to do.

"Do the city leaders hate me now?" she asked Virid. He, the household cook and his son had come to her room bearing cake. She remembered a shouting argument breaking out among the politicians.

The cook said, "It sounds like you're still welcome here, at least. A little of the fire got up here but we put it out. A couple of us helped with the magic you gave us."

Ruyo smiled a bit. "Do you two want the second level of it? Oh, you too, Virid."

"Please!" said the cook.

Ruyo went through the second-level Sorcerous Initiation with each of them, granting them the power to actually create water if not nearly as quickly as Ruyo. "That's the most I can teach for now. If zapping people with a bolt of magic that I got from people praying, even qualifies as teaching."

The cook said, "Hey, miss. You're doing some good already, and you'll improve."

Virid said, "We'll get your friend back, I promise."

"Thank you." She accepted a hug from him.

She thought back to the meetings earlier today. "It's the merchant girl they were after!" one noble had exclaimed, in an echoing meeting hall. "If not for her we wouldn't have lunatics trying to burn the city!"

Another had answered, "You clod! Do you remember how she first encountered them? These 'Inheritors' were lurking beneath our feet and discovering elementals before she even got here."

"It's Khyber's doing!" a third said, and then the shouting had gotten too intense to follow.

* * *

She had to move on while the authorities hunted the cult down for now. She had training to do.

The main bathhouse of Averell was a multi-segmented bastion that'd been expanded over the years as the city's wealth rose. The newer segment of it was smoothly polished stone, carved with scenes of craftsmen.

She went in through an older entrance, a bit rougher and now used as a women's section. It was early in the morning, before the official opening time. Bleary-eyed, she greeted the sleepy old guard. "Any chance I could go in?"

"You'll have to..." He woke up a little more. "Oh! Are you Ruyo?"

She smiled and nodded. She'd asked for permission to visit when there wouldn't be a crowd. Her charred clothing helped identify her.

"Yes, of course. The water's not warm yet but someone will show up to start the fires soon." He unlocked the door.

"Thanks." She had made ice before, but hadn't thought much about changing the temperature of normal water. Normally it was done by a mix of fire magic, apparently forever off limits to her, and ordinary flame.

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