Almagest City

Chapter 10: Sil Myska

"Holy shit." Sil jogs up to the crowd, pushing through to where Almagest Investigations and the firefighting crew had set up a barrier. She could see the remnants of the smoke while commuting in, but the hospital looks much worse than she expected. Windows have blown out, walls are completely blackened, some turning white with ash, and parts of the structure have collapsed, dripping with water. Sludge from the firefighting effort are filling the gaps between the cobblestone, outlining each rock like someone went over the details on the street with a brush.

"Hey!" Chief Cardassia, seeing Sil near the barrier, waves at the officers to let her through. "Glad to see you here."

"Sorry for the delay; I came as quickly as I could, but I live quite far." She adjusts her hat and her bag, knocked off-kilter by the large crowd.

"Don't worry about it, you haven't missed much. We've been waiting all morning for the firefighters to put out the fire. Right now, they're checking the building's structural integrity and should give us the all-clear to start our investigation." Chief Cardassia begins leading her towards where everyone else is waiting, near the now-empty water tanks.

"What's the cause?" Sil asks.

"Not sure. All we know is that there was a large, suspicious explosion on the ground floor near the front desk. That's where the flames originated."

"Do we have any idea as to why someone would target this hospital? Important patients, terrorism...?"

"As far as we know, the hospital wasn't housing anyone important. It was the dead of night, too."

Sil greets the team as she approaches, and immediately, she notices... "Oh, aren't you...?"

"Elliot," the armoured man says. "We met at the school a week ago. I am Orias Knight's replacement."

"Nice to meet you Elliot, I'm Sil," she says, shaking his gauntlet. "If you don't mind, can I put a face to your name?"

"Mister Elliot has no face," Verlan says.

"Oh... I'm sorry," Sil says.

"He doesn't mean it like that," Andus says. At the same time, Eliiot flips up his helmet, greeting Sil with nothing but a pair of floating yellow orbs.

"Wow. Though, I think I've seen weirder animated objects."

"I am not simply an animated object..." Elliot says, deflating.

"I'm kidding," Sil says. "But if you don't mind, it would be fascinating to get a closer look at you when we have some time."

"Anytime, Miss Sil."

"Excuse me? Almagest Investigations?" A woman in a higher-rank firefighter uniform approaches. "Chief Cardassia," she says, nodding in respect.

"Chief Aquaria," she responds. "Team, if you didn't know, this is the chief firefighter of the city Ancha Aquaria."

Ancha is surely a humanoid of aquatic descent. Her skin is blue and moist, shining scale-like growths peeking out from the collar of her shirt and the sleeves on her arms. She's young, even younger than Chief Cardassia, and her tawny hair stretches down in waves to the middle of her back.

"Greetings, Chief Aquaria. I see your team has defeated the flames, but is there any way we can be of further assistance?" Vesper asks.

"Actually, I'm here to say our job is mostly done. You have the go-ahead to get to work on the first floor. The second floor we still want to put up supports for." She raises an eyebrow at Vesper. "And you've been here since dawn... You already helped plenty."