I stood staring into My room.

It had been made into some kind of dormitory for cronies. How revolting. I purified it, then did it again for good measure.

Nothing of My family was left. It was so different that it didn't even trigger nostalgia.

And, Izena was not here. I had checked thoroughly. Technically, I would need to search the Academy rubble to be absolutely certain that Izena wasn't in the city, but why would She be there and not here, in Our home? Would the other mages really never have noticed something was odd if She went to the Academy? Sure, mages didn't exist anymore, but they hadn't disappeared immediately.

I didn't think the tedious search was worth the delay. That meant I would need to go to Solenn and check if Izena had gone to find Her mother's resting place, which did not excite Me at all. It was a long trip all the way to the south, it seemed dangerous to go without being as prepared as possible, and was in My judgment the least likely option of the three I had considered. Had that really been Izena's core, most foundational desire? I couldn't say. She didn't talk about Her mother much, and I didn't bring up the subject for obvious reasons. She didn't bring up Mama and Daddy either.

Who can say? Maybe it was? It just didn't feel right to Me.

In any event, since Ezenta was badly damaged, I couldn't leave immediately. It would be unconscionable. The slums had been in awful condition to start with, and then fires had raged across the city due to the fighting. I needed to help them repair and get access to clean water.

At least I had made everyone invulnerable with My shields from the very beginning of the crisis this time, so there were no more injuries among the population than there would normally be at any given time.

I needed to keep My shield up permanently, due to a lack of vetted bodyguards in Ezenta. A knife to the back of the heart would kill Me instantly as surely as any normal person. The average person is trustworthy, but in a city of hundreds of thousands, it only takes one lunatic. It was another reminder of how much I missed Rokesha. That city really had been wonderful to Me.

I received a comparable celebrity treatment to what I had experienced in Rokesha. Worship of Me was not as culturally entrenched in Ezenta as in Rokesha, but enabling a practical (literal?) slave revolt with divine powers within minutes of arriving in an oppressed city earns some reverence. And, I wore My regalia now, which I had not yet produced for most of My time in Rokesha. My natural glow was proof enough of divinity, but incorporating solid Light into My attire made My appearance truly transcendent.

That had been My intent. No one could look at Me and feel anything but absolute certainty that they had met the immortal and benevolent Goddess of Sunlight. Except for the Plos' thugs, apparently.

As I worked while surrounded by the usual crowd, I saw something that I thought was gone from the world, among the onlookers. A girl about eight years old appeared white to My eyes. Too white.

My first mage sighting! A white mage at that! And she was significant, too. She'd be strong enough to heal broken arms a few times per day.

It was as Dekel had said. Talents like this one existed but were going unrecognized, because there weren't enough mages to discover them, which accelerated the decline. The underlying numbers were certainly lower than they had been in My age, perhaps one in a million now based on the total sample I had seen so far instead of one in a hundred thousand, but significant mages were not extinct. It stood to reason that Ezenta, the city of mages, would have a slightly higher rate even now than the average.

Unfortunately, there were a few problems with communicating this to her. First, I spoke 'Middle' Ezentic, not the current version, and there was not a handy supply of translators identifiable by their robes in this city. And second, I was probably the only person alive who could train her, and I really didn't have the time right now. Mage training was not a one or two week process.

But, if I just left without saying anything, I might lose track of her.

I hesitated for a moment, but swiftly decided I couldn't simply pretend that I hadn't seen her. She's one in a million. I beckoned her over.

I would need to hope that enough words remained similar despite the language evolution that I could get the point across, and maybe get her to follow Me on a search of the city for instructional books. Perhaps the Plos' former home would have some?

Eyes wide, she eventually walked over timidly.

I pointed to myself. "Menelyn."

"Torezia," so quietly I could hardly hear it.

"Torezia," I repeated, nodding. I tried to give her the most reassuring nod and smile I could.

Then, I got straight to the point.

"White Mage," I said, pointing to Myself. Then, I pointed to Torezia and repeated it.

She had no idea what I meant, and looked like she thought she was in trouble.

As I sat there awkwardly trying a few different strategies, someone behind Me said, breathlessly, "Excuse me, Salvation Goddess, can I help?"

I, too, need saving sometimes! This was the clearest pronunciation I had ever heard since returning to the mainland, native quality. Perhaps having current Ezentic as a native language helped, relative to Rokeshans? I turned around and saw a young man, perhaps 20 years old. He was blushing furiously, staring at the ground next to My feet.

"You can! Can you translate for Me?" I said with relief. "Please, treat Me as you would anyone else. How have you come to speak the old language?"

"The...former mayor's people sometimes needed to read old descriptions of enchanted items and translate them. Um...I was trained and used for this purpose. And when this was unnecessary, I was put to work translating old writings," he explained, then smiled shyly. "Including yours."

'Used for this purpose.' Ugh. They had paid in the end.

Then he added a confession. "I...have been following you for a while, but it's...it's...I mean, who just...walks up to a Goddess and...so I didn't...until now. Sorry?"

He didn't know what to do with his hands.

"I understand," I said, waving him off. "And don't worry about it. I am glad you're here, and you are able to help Me, as you expected. What is your name?"

"I am Eketto."

"Eketto, do you know what a mage is? Especially a white mage?"

"I do, I've read all of Your writings," he gushed.

Right.

"Can you explain to Torezia that she is one, of medium power? You would know better than Me how to put this into terms that she will understand."

"I thought that's what You might be trying to do," he said. "I'll do my best."

Whatever Eketto said did the job. Torezia was now looking at us both in wide-eyed disbelief.

"She is latent right now," I explained to Eketto. "That means her mind can access a link to mana, but has never drawn from it yet. Can you ask her permission, for Me to try to activate her? It is not strictly necessary--the very first mage must have done it the hard way--but it is much, much easier with help. Even I needed help."

Soon enough, Torezia was signaling her unhesitating assent.

"Tell her that it's like breathing. She has a set of lungs, not real lungs but magical ones, that access air that is not real air, but magical air, which will be her mana. Her magical lungs have never drawn magical air yet. She is not even aware that they are there. If I give them a tickle, nudge, or maybe a squeeze with My Own mana, she will become aware of them. I will do that when she is ready. It will be completely painless, not even uncomfortable exactly. Rather, it will be like becoming aware that she's not breathing, giving her a sudden and powerful need to gasp in air, of the magical kind."

Eketto and Torezia spoke for a very long while this time. Finally, Torezia looked at me and nodded.

"She should sit down for this, and hold onto Me," I instructed.

A few moments later, I reached into Torezia with the smallest flow of mana I could make, and tickled her pool. She proved to be a relatively easy one to trigger. I felt her pool spasm and fill with mana for the first time, at the exact moment that her eyes got even wider and she leaned backwards, gasping and arching her back. Her 'lungs' would never again be fully empty.

It was heartwarming, like watching a newborn gasp her first breaths after a long period in which there had been no children born. The number of mages in the world had just increased by one.

"Do you know of any instructional books that have survived, Eketto? For white mages?" I asked.

"Yes, instructional books of all kinds are still kept, in hopes of mages reappearing," he answered.

"Please, make sure she gets access to them, and someone to teach her how to read if necessary. I am happy to provide payment on her behalf."

Eketto was scandalized out of his bashfulness. "Respectfully, I can speak for Ezenta when I say that we absolutely will not under any circumstances accept payment from You. Torezia will have her books. No one else has any use for them anyway."

"Alright, alright," I laughed. "I will return to help her when I can, but I must see to other matters soon."

"Of course."

Eketto and I accompanied Torezia back to her parents, where I tried to explain the situation, through Eketto. I think the understanding they settled on, despite My efforts, was that I had blessed Torezia with a portion of My power, but at least they understood that their daughter was going to be able to do magical things, and should be supported.

Then, it was time to leave. I was bound for the far south.