The townsfolk eventually put out enough of the fire to search the buildings for survivors; they found none, bar Ren Yu sat beside a crumpled elderly monk. All the Brothers had perished but the body of the novice Su Jun was not found. Ren Yu stayed to help bury the dead and put out the remaining flames. He folded the parchments Jiang Ru had given him and tucked them numbly into his robes. He had looked at them briefly but they were in a form of Spirit-script. The style was more elaborate than the one carved on the chapel walls. He saw rows of symbols decorated the borders and on the last page one was enlarged in red ink, an S with a line through it and two dots. Ren Yu had not time for reading, or even caring. He grimly aided the men, and when he was visibly near to collapsing from exhaustion he was sent home.

Ren Yu saw Ren Nuan before she saw him. She was standing in front of the tavern doorway looking from left to right.

"Auntie!” he shouted weakly, "Auntie, here!"

Ren Nuan turned to see him running towards her, Ren Yu came crashing into her and she hugged him tightly.

"Ren Yu don't you dare run off like that again, I don't care what's on fire. Your father trusted me to keep you alive," Ren Nuan sobbed loudly than looked up at the smoking mountain, "Is it?..."

"All dead," Ren Yu felt tears stream down his face.

"No!" Ren Nuan, cried out, staggering to hold the door frame for support, her face was pale and sweating.

"There were men,” Ren Yu told her, “with blue flame, flame and swords, the monks didn't stand a chance."

Ren Nuan trembled, "And young Su Jun?"

"Disappeared,” Ren Yu replied, “Brother Jiang Ru said he was taken."

Ren Nuan let out a whimper, "Brother Jiang Ru is alive?"

Ren Yu shook his head quickly so as not to give false hope, "He died after I found him. But Auntie, he knew who the men were who did this, he seemed to know what they wanted."

"Did he tell you?" Ren Nuan looked pale and afraid.

"There was no time, he gave me these," Ren Yu reached inside his robes and drew out the pieces of parchment. Ren Nuan thumbed through them, her hands still shaking when her eyes rested on the symbol on the last page.

"Come inside," she snapped, suddenly reaching out to pull him roughly off the street.

They shut the door behind them and Ren Nuan strode towards the bar, reaching for a cast iron pot. She seemed to have regained her strength, for there was a purpose about her as she poured tea into four stone cups.

"Who else is here?" Ren Yu asked frowning at the cups and hastily putting the pages back in his pocket.

"Ding Chao came back before you,” Ren Nuan replied, “he was going up and down the mountain with water on his wheelbarrow when he saw her. Best to come to me he thought, didn't know what else to do, not exactly going to leave her out there with that fire raging! He'll be back in a moment; he's gone to finish helping the men."

Ren Nuan passed one of the cups to Ren Yu and pointed to the stairs going to the cellar, "She'll be thirsty."

She turned to carry the other cups to a nearby table. Ren Yu couldn't drum up the energy to ask his aunt to explain further and he found himself descending the narrow stairs to the hollowed out room below. Dank and musty smelling, it was where Ren Nuan stored spare barrels, food supplies and salt. In the middle of the room was a table with two benches for when the men had a card game into the early hours. There, lying on one of the benches was a small, sleeping girl robed in pink satin.

Ren Yu walked over and quietly placed the cup on the table, he peered down at her face, she had large eyes, closed in sleep yet flickering as if dreaming, her thick brows were arched in a frown and her lips rhythmically pursed and unpursed. Her hair was the colour of honey and her cheeks were flushed, Ren Yu wondered if she had a fever, he pressed his hand lightly against her forehead, she stirred slightly and he recoiled and crept back upstairs.

Ding Chao had returned and was gulping his tea noisily.

"...Never before Ren Nuan, I'm telling you. All these dark rumours may just be true," Ding Chao was saying when Ren Nuan noticed Ren Yu's presence and pushed out a chair.

"Ren Yu!" cried Ding Chao, "wasn't sure I'd see you safe back tonight."

"He says he found one of the Brothers alive, Ding Chao," whispered Ren Nuan, eyeing the tavern windows whose shutters had been firmly closed and bolted.

"Alive?” Ding Chao sat up excitedly. “Who?"

"Brother Jiang Ru," Ren Yu replied but Ding Chao looked blankly at him. Ren Yu hurriedly clarified, "He used to come down with herbs when you hurt yourself in the workshop."

"Jiang Ru," Ding Chao emphasized the name slowly. "That was him? Elderly fellow, slightly different robes to the others?"

"Same as Su Jun's, they both came from Machijoko," Ren Yu bit his lip at his own mention of his friend's name.

Ding Chao exhaled deeply, "What the hell do they want with monks? Blast these conspiracy theories; they were just old men up there!"

"Jiang Ru gave something to Ren Yu,” Ren Nuan said quickly, “Ren Yu, show Ding Chao the pages."

Ren Yu reluctantly drew out the parchments and handed them to the carpenter's hands, grubby with ash and dirt. Ding Chao scrolled down the first page and declared, "Spirit-script!"

"The back page Ding Chao, look at the back page! It's the mark I saw on her," said Ren Nuan insistently. Ren Yu suddenly found himself more alert and he strode forward to the table, "Who is she Auntie? Is she the one the high-men were searching for?"

"I found her," answered Ding Chao, "I was scrambling up that blasted mountain with my barrow. I saw her in the bracken, knocked out from smoke I reckon, or fear. Saw the robes, I knew at once she was the one those foreigners wanted. Didn't trust them, not one bit," Ren Nuan grunted in agreement, and Ding Chao continued, "I couldn't leave her there, the fire was spreading and I figured Ren Nuan could help so I brought her here..."

"In a dreadful state she was!" interrupted Ren Nuan, "Covered in half the mountain and bleeding, her feet were so nastily blistered they stuck to those fancy slippers of hers - had to soak them off with hot water, she has herbal bandages on them now, but that's how I saw that mark, just above her foot, she's branded with that same symbol in those pages Jiang Ru gave you, its faint mind, but I thought it so strange I remembered the shape of it."

Ren Yu sat down and picked up his tea, he had not realized but his throat was dry and cracked and every sip was agony. "Did Jiang Ru tell you what it meant?" asked Ding Chao.

Ren Yu shook his head, but then paused thoughtfully, "He said something about birds, I think, and I think he used the word 'she'."

Ren Nuan looked triumphantly at Ding Chao, "See, I told you she was someone important, a friend of the monks now we hear! And you thought of going to find those high-men!"

" I know, I know,” Ding Chao hung his head and looked sheepish, “I have to admit Ren Yu, I did go look for those high-men, the words 'official business' just don't sit right with me, best to get it out of our hands I thought, especially with this fire, bad goings on. I didn't find them though, and I thank Almighty I didn't, but it wasn't because of sense..." Ding Chao paused, "I ran into Spirits."

"Spirits?" Ren Nuan and Ren Yu both exclaimed.

"At least I think that's what I saw,” Ding Chao continued, “all the tales my father told me as a lad, the smell of that strange fruit, the flashing eyes and that feeling, the one that goes through your spine. But I don't think these were normal Spirits, something queer about them, not that I know any Spirits to begin with."

"I think I saw one too," stated Ren Yu grimly, causing Ren Nuan to grip the table in fright, "By the monastery, with a painted symbol on it. I had no idea it was a Spirit."

"Aye, that's what I saw, by the rice stores, scared me half to death," Ding Chao replied, "So I turned round and came back to the tavern, told Ren Nuan to bolt the door."

Ren Yu guiltily thought of Ren Nuan standing door wide open, waiting for him.

"Such a dark has come to Gowla tonight," Ren Nuan muttered, shaking her head.

"Gowla..." a quiet voice came from behind, making them all jump. The strange girl was standing, holding her cup and swaying slightly at the top of the stairs.

"That's where the burning is happening," she stated meekly.