Nothing happened up to nighttime, at least not anything he could find. He spent the rest of the day scouring the leads he'd already opened, from trying to track Snake-Ring to paying the textile factory another visit.
He couldn't find the former anywhere he looked, and the latter was fruitless. All that remained of the factory was its stone skeleton and a few empty pots—the vats of red liquid had been dumped, any cloth burned or removed, and there wasn't an upstairs left to investigate. The corpse of their attacker was gone, too.
It didn't help that the city was massive, and walking from one district to another could take well over an hour. By the time he'd visited both uptown and 118th, it was close to sunset, and their room was far enough away that he was already set to be late.
His steps were hasty as he strode by the emptying central park, then passed a block of shops closing for the night. More wildlife was out than usual, from lizards climbing up the brick buildings to the same yellow birds he'd seen scavenging the city. One bird in particular followed him almost the entire way back, but disappeared somewhere on the last street, likely distracted by the bakery.
Not even a shred of sunlight remained when he pressed open the door, met with a room nearly as silent as the hall. For a moment, a sense of worry crawled up his chest—Tellik was rarely quiet. But it slipped away as soon as he saw him standing by the mirror, focus wrought in his features while strands of light encircled his head.
"You look so serious," Trelisti mentioned, plopping down on the chair nearby. There were two cups of tea already made, a fancy, half-drinken one, and a darker, untouched one at the opposite end. "Have you been waiting long?"
"Only a few minutes. That tea's yours," answered Tellik after a pause. He finished healing the last section before responding. "And I'm being careful so my hair will grow back."
"Ah. I should've guessed." Trelisti gave him a nod of thanks before taking the tea, which he drank so quickly he didn't taste it. Walking in the sun and heat for so long left him parched.
"Goodness. Remember to breathe," Tellik said, watching him inhale it before sitting down with his own drink. "Tell me you at least found something for all that trouble."
Trelisti's unrest sank into irritation. He shook his head.
"The only thing that stuck out was they swept the factory, but it's not like that's a surprise," he scowled, gaze lagging towards the window. "They did get rid of that corpse, though, so I'm sure they know somebody's interfering by now. I wouldn't be surprised if they suspected us."
"Good thing we'll be gone by the end of the week," Tellik murmured. Outside, there was a slight fluttering, though it was too distant to make out clearly. "The less time they've got to find us, the better."
Trelisti didn't exactly feel safe as it was—dragging Tellik's injured body was never subtle, and he didn't have enough mana to hide the whole trip. But mentioning that wouldn't do any good, so he kept it to himself.
"Did Lias ever send someone by?" he asked instead. "Or even say when we should expect news?"
"Not that I recall. I doubt we'll hear anything to—" Tellik interrupted himself halfway through the sentence, inhaling sharply. "Does it smell odd to you?"
A flash of concern crossed his face at the same time he spoke, followed by a dash towards the door. Trelisti smelled it a few seconds later—something tart and biting, like alcohol. The scent underneath was subtle, growing, and alarmingly recognizable.
Then came the sound. The fire catching, like a blanket tossed in the air. Thunderous wind as it swept through the hall, enveloping everything flammable in its path. The doorway muffled a crackling chorus.
"Don't open that!" Trelisti shouted moments before Tellik's fingers wrapped around the knob. He yanked it away with a yelp. "And get to the balcony now."
"That's..." Tellik stammered, frozen in place. He started to reach for the knob again. "N-no—my guild. My friends are—"
"For gods' sakes, Tellik, we don't have time for this!"
Trelisti had to grab him before he could let the fire in, the sting of smoke in the air getting more intense by the second. Down the hall was a panicked shout.
Tellik went hysterical.
It was a battle. Trelisti might've been tall, but he was a thinner sort of lean, and Tellik's thicker build wasn't easy to drag away. He screamed and fought the whole way. It made Trelisti feel like a villain.
But it wasn't his first fire. It wasn't his second, either, nor his third. And every time, it went the same way.
Fire spread quickly, too quickly to control. Opening doors just helped it grow faster. If the fire started downstairs, that floor would already be consumed by flame and smoke. And those who went in to save others rarely came out alive.
"N-no. I can't leave them!" Tellik choked as Trelisti pushed him through the door. His eyes were welling up. "You don't understand. P-please. They're—"
"We can't risk that," Trelisti said. His voice was emotionless, mind too focused in the moment. "Keep your body loose, and try to roll into it if you can. Don't try to play hero."
Tellik didn't have time to react. Trelisti felt a small pinch in his chest as he pushed him from the balcony, then leapt off the opposite side.
They were only a floor above the dirt street, a place unlikely to cause real damage. Trelisti landed without a hitch, and Tellik was starting to recover on the ground.
But the pain was obvious.
It wasn't physical. It was an aching mental weight. The first thing he did was glance up to the burning building, where fire poured from the windows and the main doorway was black with smoke. Tears streamed out of his eyes.
"P-please," he begged, trembling so violently he couldn't lift himself. "Save them. Let me help."
The pinch became a tear. Trelisti wanted to. He truly did. He wished his attempts would make a difference, even when at his core, he knew they'd do nothing.
But Tellik's cries were honest. Drenched in desperation. Trelisti couldn't stop his gaze from trailing towards the doorway.
The smoke would be suffocating, and blinding, too. Even with shieldskin, he couldn't last long in the temperatures.
Yet he was halfway there, staring in at bloody, melting corpses. Barely ten feet away when he recognized the man who brought tea to a stranger, who checked in on Tellik during the night. He was one of many whose bodies were blistered in burns, while their wounds suggested something deeper. Something more deliberate.
Trelisti didn't make it close enough to investigate. He didn't even make it to the doorway before the building exploded entirely, sending heat, light, and smog cascading over him while rubble rained from the sky. His lungs felt scorched from the inside.
The world was empty for a moment. Shieldskin broke at the last second, blacking him out in a fever dream. He woke to a hazed street, coughing and covered in ash, while a few people from nearby buildings started to gather nearby. A few were holding Tellik back.
Everything was mottled and slow. Holes danced in his sight. Views of the people blended together, spinning, churning, overlapping. He couldn't focus until his eyes fell onto one.
Hair pulled back into a bun, tattoos lining an arm that was earlier covered. A ribbed band over one of his fingers.
Snake-Ring was running away from the scene.
Trelisti stumbled to his feet and bolted after him.
He felt his body shake every time his foot hit the ground. Not with fear, not with weakness, but with vicious, brimming anger. They darted past empty stalls and waking buildings, then into an alley before the street corner.
There were two. The man further away was large and bulky, with sweaty strings of auburn hair. He wasn't a darker tone like most of Te Fehr's people, but looked more like a sun-stung easterner. Something fell from his belt, thudding against the dirt, before he disappeared behind a corner.
Snake-Ring was close behind, about to make his escape. Trelisti chucked one of his daggers before the corner, slowing him down just long enough to catch up and hook an arm around his throat.
"Are you...a fu..." Snake-Ring said between choked breaths, unable to complete his words. He tried squeezing out of Trelisti's grasp. "...idio—"
A noise sounded to his side, wings beating wind. Trelisti whipped around to see a bird—the same ruffled, yellow bird following him earlier—shift into the shape of a human boy.
"Xu!" he shouted, running towards them. His hair molted from feathers to thick tufts, bumpy skin smoothing to brown, but most surprising was that he spoke Common. He looked up at Trelisti in a panic. "You're misunderstanding! He's not—"
Before he had a chance to finish, Trelisti saw Snake-Ring raising a knife towards his forearm. Trelisti released him before he could drive the dagger in.
"I told you," Snake-Ring huffed, backing away a few feet. He checked the corner of the alley, where it broke into mazelike paths. "We're not close enough for you to call me that."
"Stop grouching. Are you hurt?" the boy asked, rushing over. He came to a stop next to Snake-Ring, trying to scan for injuries before Snake-Ring swatted him away. "Why didn't you use your magic to esc—"
"I'm out. And stop worrying. I'm the adult here," Snake-Ring snapped, forehead twitching. He let out an irritated sigh. "Gods, your uncle's going to be pissed when he finds out you followed me."
"He doesn't need to know. And besides," said the boy, pointing his thumb over his shoulder to Trelisti. "That's the one I was following. Not you."
"It doesn't matter who you were following. I'm the one who's going to get blamed when—"
"He'll understand if I tell him."
"Right, just like he did the last two times."
A surge of something, something he couldn't quite put into words, rushed under Trelisti's skin. He couldn't pin it on one feeling, exactly—it was annoyance, in part, mixed with stress, confusion, and unpointed rage. The last was the loudest, but he kept it under a leash.
"Can you all stop fucking arguing and explain yourselves?" Trelisti barked, gaze landing on Snake-Ring. His fists were clenched so tightly they were starting to go numb, and while loud, his voice had a raspy edge from the smoke. "You, especially. You've got one chance to say why I caught you running away, or I'm slitting your throat here."
Snake-Ring sent a spiteful glare before searching the dirt around him. To his side, the boy raised his arms in surrender.
"Here," said Snake-Ring, shaking sandy dirt off a metal canister. "You saw him drop this, right?"
He raised it for Trelisti to see, the reek of alcohol sweeping over him in a wave. In an instant, he felt like he was standing in his room again, the faintest smell creeping in before the hall caught fire. It made him feel sick.
"Lias told me to contact you. The building was already starting to burn when I got here, and I saw that man running out right before it exploded fully," he said darkly. "I was trying to catch him when you stopped me."
Trelisti eyed him warily, pushing the flask away. "If the building was already burning, how'd you know he used alcohol to start it?"
"Stone buildings don't burn on their own. The fire spread too fast to be fueled by hall clutter, and most mages don't have enough raw power to ignite a building that big throughout." The glare of judgment that flicked back to him was like looking into a mirror. "Now if you're done being suspicious, we need to get out of here. He might co—"
"Get out of here? And go where?" Trelisti countered. He felt a pulse in his chest as realization finally settled, the knowledge that their one place to stay was gone. That the building's keepers, Tellik's friends, were nothing but charred remains. A shred of worry lingered inside, his concern for leaving Tellik unsupervised rising with every second. He started turning around. "Everything's gone. And I've got to make sure my partner's not bolting into the fire."
"We'll grab him on the way out," said Snake-Ring. He was quick to get back to his feet, but still kept distance between himself and Trelisti. "For now, I'll take you to the meeting place."
"You're two strangers that showed up in the middle of a building fire. There's no way I'm—"
"Asli to you. All you need to know is I'm Lias' ally," said Snake-Ring impatiently. "Am'ran, how're you doing on magic?"
"Barely used any." The boy, Am'ran, followed a little slower. It took Trelisti a moment to put it together, but he felt like a fool when he figured it out. Am'ran Ise, Lias' nephew and the industry target. A tamer who could hide as an avian spy.
"Good. Go tell Lias to meet us at Vanadh while I catch the new blood up." Asli was quick to take the lead, walking at such a pace that he kicked up sand. "And let the scouts know where we lost Noran. I'd rather take the fall on my own accord."
Am'ran nodded and started to shift again, soon disappearing to a pale flutter in the night. Asli sent another glance Trelisti's way.
"I talk as fast as I walk, so try to keep up," he said as they turned the corner. "Now hurry and collect your friend before I start."