“Jade,” I heard Maggie’s voice calling me through one of my scrying constructs, and I made the construct land on her shoulder. After a moment of confusion, she shrugged and continued to speak, “Can you prepare some shelter for the group? We won’t make it back to the village before nightfal and trying to walk in the dark sounds like a bad idea,” she asked, and I made the construct nod, causing quite a few of the people around her to stare at the raven.

  Knowing that I’d need quite a few of my constructs to make something worthwhile, even if I made it out of ice, I had a number of them land nearby, remaining on elevated positions as much as possible.

  “Step back,” the one I had placed on her shoulder told her, using Wind Magic to produce the sound of my voice. It made even more people stare, some with a bit of trepidation, others with unbridled curiosity. Maybe having a talking raven wasn’t what they had expected, but then, what came next would be even less expected.

  Reaching through the Astral River, I connected myself deeply to the various constructs I had placed in the area and drew upon my power. It was a good thing I was sitting on my throne; otherwise, I’d have fallen over from the strain if I had managed to channel that much power at all. But on my throne, I didn’t have to worry about my body falling over; I was already sitting down, and the runes I had carved into the throne helped me to project the power where I needed it to go. In this case, through the Astral River, into the constructs, allowing me to manipulate the world at an impossible distance.

  All but one of the black birds started to shine with silver light, while the one on Maggie’s shoulder remained unaffected. Using it as my primary sensory node, I began to use my Ice Magic, knowing full well that the constructs I was using to channel the power wouldn’t last long. But they didn’t need to last; they were already positioned, the power flowing through them turning into runes that connected together, forming a runic formation in the snow.

  The snow reacted immediately, flowing to the side and upwards, turning to ice as it went. More and more Ice started to form in the area within the runic formation, rapidly turning into a simple, warehouse-like structure. It wasn’t glamorous, but it would keep the wind and snow off them for the night, especially as I was quickly hardening it.

  After about five minutes, the construct was completed. It was large enough to shelter the people here, at least if they got cosy with one another, but that was only the first step. Sadly, the constructs I had used to channel the power hadn’t survived. The sheer volume of Astral Power had completely washed away the delicate conjurations, dissipating them into the air.

  Luckily, I had been aware that this would happen, and more of my ravens came soaring down from the sky, flying into the shelter. The next part would be even more difficult, not because it needed more magic but because I needed to use a different element. Ice was great for temporary structures, but I didn’t think these people would want to lie on the frozen ground left behind after I removed the snow.

  No, the ground needed to be finished in stone, meaning I needed to use Earth Magic. Channelling Earth Magic through constructs based on Wind, Darkness, and Ice Magic wasn’t what I would call effective, but I didn’t need much stone. Just enough to cover the ground, which cost me even more of my constructs and drained my Astral Power to the point of it being uncomfortable.

  And yet, I still wasn’t done. If I wanted to truly impress these people, the next, and final, step was needed, too. For a moment, I considered using Fire Magic to create a heat source within the shelter, but then I decided against it. Channelling Fire Magic through my constructs would be nigh impossible; the sheer inefficiency would make a simple heat source drain more Astral Power than the entire building had cost.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  But just because I couldn’t use Fire didn’t mean I couldn’t make things warm. In this case, I merely needed a bit of creativity. And knowledge, unless one knew how to turn an idea into a practical reality, all creativity was useless.

  In this case, the creative idea was to use Earth Magic to slightly alter the floor's shape, adding a few raised areas, each with its own runic formation. Most of the formation was hidden on the opposite side of the raised stone, making it invisible to the people who would live here, but one part, where one had to channel Astral Power into the formation, was on top. The formations weren’t all that complex; they merely turned Astral Power into warmth, one of the few things I willingly used Fire Magic, or Fire Runes in this case, for. There was a good reason why that particular element was the weakest among those I actively used; the Astral Power’s flavour made me break out in hives.

  But it was for a good cause. In this case, the cause was good publicity and a bit of showing off.

  “There, that worked,” I told Maggie, using my construct. She, along with quite a few people around here, was staring at the freshly raised building. Disbelief was written in capital letters across their faces, and some exchanged glances, as if trying to ascertain that they weren’t dreaming.

  “Maggie, if you would head inside, there is one last step you need to accomplish,” I told her, the raven not moving from her shoulder. Thankfully, speaking through my constructs was a fairly easy magical application; otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have been able to communicate. My Astral Power was a lot lower than I was comfortable with. As soon as this was done, I would head down into the shrine, and the relaxing atmosphere and sense of security would help me recover much faster.

  “What?” she asked, her eyes blinking a few times, as if she was waking up from a dream. Or maybe my voice was simply forcing her to accept the reality before her.

  “Inside, there are a few runes. I need you to channel some Astral Power into them. That way, the place will be nice and warm. The conjured Ice is strong enough to withstand the warmth overnight. However, tomorrow, it’ll start to melt. I didn’t put enough power into it to make it last much longer at a comfortable temperature,” I explained, getting an uncertain nod from her, as she walked into the building.

  A few of the locals were following behind her, obviously wanting out of the cold, which was just fine with me. Their looks as they entered the building were quite amusing, the pure awe at the size, the material and the overall quality were very satisfying.

  “In here?” Maggie asked, placing a hand on the first rune, after I confirmed. I could feel her slowly, channelling her power into it and noticed how inefficient it was for her. Her affinities, similar to mine, weren’t all that suited for Fire Magic, but it was good enough. Eventually, the small crystal I had added for that purpose turned from red to green, indicating that the formation was fully charged. For the next twelve hours, it would slowly release warmth, keeping the entire building at a comfortable temperature, at least if the other formations were charged as well.

  “That took more out of me than I thought,” Maggie admitted, once all formations were fully charged.

  “That’s incredible,” one of the previous citizens of the Blessed City whispered, her voice sounding quite loud in the silent building.

  “Thank you for the compliment,” my raven replied, still sitting on Maggie’s shoulder. “Maggie, will you be alright for the night? I have some other things that require my attention,” I asked, trying to hide just how much creating the building had taken out of me. Here, I wanted to project the image of someone powerful enough to match divine creations, to show that humans didn’t need to bow before some uncaring god. While there was a part of me that wanted to convert these people to worship me, or maybe to worship Lady Hecate, this was neither the time nor the place to proselytise.

  “Yes, this should work,” she nodded, “We managed to recover enough stuff from the different destroyed buildings to make this work.”

  “Will you return in the morning? I have a feeling that travelling in such a large group might attract some trouble,” she asked a moment later, getting a nod from my construct, as it started to dissolve back into the Astral River.

  Just as my construct disappeared, I heard a chorus of gratitude, as people realised that the being who had created this miracle was leaving. And tried to express their gratitude for the help I had given them, though some were beseeching me to stay. Already trying to replace the deity who had abandoned them with a new one.