"I had a guess. There's - not much of that at home."

And perhaps they shouldn't be discussing her origins any further in front of strangers.

No, perhaps they shouldn't.

Food is soon ready: roast mutton and honey bread and butter and goat cheese and aubergines and tomatoes and grape juice. Rina sets the table, then when they're all seated takes her brother's hand and says, "Now let's give our thanks for this food and for the miracle that is this day."

...is Ruava supposed to do anything...? She looks to Kaede for cues.

Kaede looks down, her hands on her lap, and her finger twitches a bit. They're gonna pray. If you pretend you're doing it silently in your head it's pretty okay, she sends telepathically.

All right, she can pretend to silently pray.

Rina recites what sounds like a memorised prayer thanking Laoku for their life, Teinn for their houses, and Bezana for their food, and all three gods for protecting against temptation. Amen.

And then: food!

Food! Yay!

"This is really good. Thank you."

"Thank you for—well, showing up! That cough was really getting on my nerves," says Rina, and Ryal snorts at the understatement.

Ruava giggles. "Happy to help!"

"Are you planning on ridding this town of disease, then?"

"That's more or less the idea!"

"Won't you run out of magic?"

Shrug. "I didn't hear that there were that many sick people here to begin with."

"It is a fairly small town," she agrees.

Ruava smiles.

And eventually they've eaten and are on their way.

"You are astounding, you know."

"I don't think it's that astounding to have unlimited healing magic and want to use it to help people. Okay, who's next..."

"A few cases of flu and the one guy with dysentery—that's the bloody bowels."

"Nearest one?"

"One of the flu cases."

"All right, let's go."

They go! It's not a particularly bad case, almost just seasonal allergies on steroids.

The person barely even glows.

Next?

Flu again! This one's gotten it worse, they're bedridden and feverish.

Not anymore.