This couldn’t be happening.

            This could not be happening.

            “Get down!” he yelled, pulling Noa to the ground as another blast rocked the earth, bits of shrapnel and masonry raining down as the radius expanded. There was another… and another… Over and over, running down the streets and spreading ever outwards.

            His mind didn’t want to follow it.

            It couldn’t be happening.

            This was just an accident… no one would ever… why would they ever…?

            “We have to go!” Danae screamed over the chaos, grabbing his sleeve. “Come on, we have to go!”

            They ran, Kevza in the front, Danae in the back, and their team between them, struggling to make their way through the masses of fleeing people and burning rubble as the booming sounds of the attack echoed around them.

            An arrow embedded itself in the back of an alchemist running away in front of them. A whole volley followed, stinging through the air, and he threw up a hand, doing what he could with his magic to block them from hitting their group.

            There was another blast somewhere to the left, and something heavy smacked into his shoulder, flinging him to the ground hard enough to make his head spin and his ears ring. It hurt. Gods, it hurt, but there was a hand on his arm, and Pasha’s face blurrily came into view, her words distorted and unheard as she yelled to someone else.

            Kevza pressed a hand over his eye, blearily circling his magic until the worst of the pain and the dizziness faded to a sharp ache, and let the archer pull him to his feet as he coughed. There was still fire, and it was still spreading. They couldn’t stop, even if blood was pouring from his shoulder and seeping into his uniform’s coat.

            He turned, counting off, and frowned when he came up one short as they rushed through the streets.

            “Where’s Nidi?” He yelled as he helped Danae over a blockage of rubble.

            “He’s gone.”

            “What?!” It felt like he had a ton of rocks in his stomach.

            “He’s gone!” she said roughly and continued to climb, even as tears tracked down her cheeks.

            The city could hardly be seen once they managed to reach the ridge, coated in a thick layer of black in the encroaching darkness. But it was clear that the destruction was vast, with the area around what used to be the Guild Hall reduced to nothing more than a swath of burning rubble.

            “Lord and Lady,” Xavi breathed as they looked over the wreckage, and Kevza couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.

            “We can’t stay here,” Danae huffed, holding a weeping Noa in her arms. “It isn’t safe.”

            “And where do you suggest we go?” Xavi asked, barely keeping it together. “We have nowhere else!”

            “Another guild, somewhere that we can rest and- and figure out what to do.”

            “Guild Master Calen would let us stay,” Pasha said with a light in her voice. “We can go back to Hawthgrove.”

***

            They didn’t make it very far before the news reached them via a few frantic riders on horseback. They barely stopped before rushing off again, heralding their grave warning to anyone making their way towards the woods.

            Hawthgrove Forest was up in flames, and the town inside the shadowed woodland was surely all but decimated in the inferno, its people unable to flee faster than the fire had spread through the epicenter of their home. It was dangerous to travel that way, enough that the few small settlements outside the forest itself were evacuating post haste, scattering on the wind like ash.

            “This can’t be happening,” Noa said dully, voicing the thoughts they all must surely be carrying.

“Whoever is doing this...” Danae shook her head. “They’re going after the guilds.”

“We don’t know that,” Xavi said, shaking his head with a faraway look. “It could just be… coincidence.”

“They only destroyed the guild hall’s section of Faren. Our base, and the section of the traders who worked for us specifically,” Pasha pointed out.

Danae shook her head. “We need somewhere to recoup. Somewhere that whoever did this won’t be able to find us. Somewhere they wouldn’t think to look.”

            Kevza closed his eyes, taking a deep breath to fight down the ever-rising panic, and sighed.

            “I might know a place.”

***