Lightning cracked across the ridge as Roku drove himself after the three cloaked figures.
The men from the caravan wreckage were already halfway down the opposite slope, their ash-gray coats snapping behind them as they split around a long stretch of broken stone. Solara followed several steps behind Roku, one fan open in her hand while the other remained tucked against her side.
"Left!"
Roku saw one of the men break away.
He reached beneath his cloak, drew one of his daggers, and fed lightning through the blade. The metal flashed blue-white in his hand before he threw it.
The dagger struck the sand in front of the fleeing man.
Lightning burst outward.
The man was thrown sideways and disappeared behind a dune while the other two kept running.
Roku started after them.
"Wait."
He stopped and looked back.
Solara had dropped to one knee where the three figures had first been standing.
"They're getting away."
"I know."
"Then what are you doing?"
"Feeling."
Solara closed her eyes.
The men had left more than tracks behind. Their Soul Qi had spiked when they were discovered, leaving behind traces of fear and urgency.
But beneath that was something else.
Purpose.
Solara opened her eyes.
"They wanted us to chase them."
Roku's expression hardened.
He turned toward the dune where the third man had fallen and moved quickly around it.
Nothing.
No body.
No blood.
No tracks leading away.
His dagger was still buried in the sand.
Roku pulled it free and crouched.
"There."
Partly buried beneath the loose dirt was a strip of burned black cloth.
Solara joined him as Roku picked it up. The same symbol from the ruined caravan had been stitched into it.
A flame surrounded by a broken circle.
"Hellfire," Solara said.
"Maybe."
She looked at him.
"You're still saying maybe?"
"I'm saying they keep making sure we see that symbol."
Roku turned the cloth over.
A word had been written across the back.
Emberville.
Solara stared at it.
"They left that for us."
"Exactly."
"So we don't go?"
Roku slid his dagger back beneath his cloak and stood.
"We go."
"You just said they're leading us."
"They are."
"That doesn't bother you?"
"It does."
Roku started down the ridge.
"But now we know it's a trap before we walk into it."
Solara followed.
"That somehow makes you feel better?"
"A little."
---
By the following afternoon, Emberville appeared through the desert haze.
The town had burned years ago, but people had rebuilt between the ruins rather than abandon it. Blackened houses leaned against newer structures made from scrap wood, wagon panels, sheets of metal, and stone. Melted glass still glimmered beneath the dirt whenever the wind blew enough ash aside.
Children ran between merchant carts. Scavengers dug through old foundations for pieces of metal. Traders shouted prices over the sound of hammers and engines struggling to stay alive.
Emberville looked less like a graveyard now.
But it still felt like one.
Solara stared down from the ridge.
"You feel it?"
Roku nodded.
Old traces of Qi still clung to parts of the ruins. Faint, but not gone.
Whatever had destroyed the town had left something behind.
Roku pulled his hood farther forward.
"We don't ask about Hellfire."
Solara adjusted her cloak.
"Not yet."
"We listen."
"I know."
"I'm reminding you."
"You're reminding yourself."
Roku ignored her and started toward the town.
---
The tavern smelled like sweat, smoke, and cheap ale.
Roku took a place near a crowded gambling table while keeping both daggers hidden under his cloak. He pretended to watch the game, but his attention moved throughout the room.
Faces.
Hands.
Who lowered their voice when certain people walked past.
Across the tavern, Solara sat with an older miner whose hands were covered in scars and old bandages.
She slid a drink toward him.
"You're generous," he said.
"Only when people tell good stories."
The miner laughed.
"Stories are about all Emberville has left."
"Then tell me one."
His smile faded.
Solara noticed.
The man glanced toward the door.
"South road ain't safe anymore."
"What happened?"
"Couple warriors came through last month. Said they were heading out on a mission from Transmorra."
Solara leaned closer.
"They disappeared?"
"Three did."
The miner took another drink.
"One came crawling back."
"Alive?"
"Barely."
He touched his chest.
"Burned from the inside."
Solara frowned.
"From fire?"
"No."
The answer came quickly.
"His clothes weren't burned."
"What did he say happened?"
"Not much. Kept saying the road had eyes."
The miner looked around before continuing.
"Smuggler named Rehn saw another group disappear near the southern ridge."
"Where can I find Rehn?"
"You don't."
Solara placed a coin on the table.
His eyes dropped toward it.
"Try."
He pocketed it.
"Rehn moves supplies south of town. Says he's seen wagons burn without flames."
The miner dragged his finger across the table, drawing a flame and then a broken circle around it.
Solara tapped her cup twice.
Across the room, Roku noticed.
At the same time, two men behind him lowered their voices.
"Shipment goes tonight."
"Same place?"
"Yeah."
"Who's paying?"
"Don't know. Those red coins spend."
Roku glanced toward the speaker's belt.
A small pouch hung there.
He waited until someone stumbled between them, brushed past the man, and kept walking.
When Roku reached the wall, a crimson-glazed coin rested between his fingers.
The broken-flame symbol was stamped across the face.
---
After sunset, Roku and Solara regrouped behind a collapsed repair shop.
Solara spread a rough map across an old crate while Roku placed the coin beside it.
"The miner gave me Rehn's usual routes."
Roku traced the road with his finger.
Several of the disappearances they had already heard about lined up with routes used by warriors leaving Transmorra after accepting missions.
"They're watching people coming out of the city," Roku said.
"Warriors?"
"Mostly."
Solara studied the map.
"Then someone knows the mission routes."
"And they're moving supplies through the same area."
They followed one of those supplies that same night.
A wagon left Emberville shortly after midnight, moving south with a lone merchant at the reins.
Roku and Solara followed without using much Qi, keeping behind ridges and broken stone until the wagon stopped beside an abandoned well.
Several men wearing ash-gray coats emerged from the darkness.
They unloaded crates.
Roku watched one open.
Metal rods.
Another contained fire salts.
The third held cylindrical devices reinforced with heavy bands.
"Qi amplifiers," Roku whispered.
Solara counted the crates.
"That's a lot."
"Too much for random theft."
Then she touched his arm.
"Look."
Something pulsed beneath the well.
Black flickers appeared between cracks in the stone, but they didn't move like normal fire.
The darkness around them looked heavier.
Solara's face tightened.
"That feels wrong."
Roku agreed.
Whatever Hellfire was doing, this wasn't just about attacking travelers.
Someone was stockpiling for something bigger.
They memorized the location, marked it, and left without engaging.
They still needed answers.
---
Two days later, their trail brought them to Ardent Wells.
The town looked peaceful compared with Emberville. Merchants filled the square, guards relaxed near the central well, and travelers rested beneath large cloth awnings.
Roku looked around.
"I don't like it."
Solara glanced at him.
"You don't like peaceful towns?"
"I don't trust peaceful towns."
"You don't trust anything."
"That's why I'm alive."
They moved through the market asking careful questions until one merchant became visibly nervous at the mention of missing travelers.
Solara stepped toward his stall.
"You said people disappear along the eastern road?"
"I didn't say that."
"You just did."
Roku moved closer.
"What kind of people?"
The merchant glanced around.
Roku caught it.
"You know."
"I know nothing."
The man started packing his goods.
Solara lowered her voice.
"We're not guards."
"That makes it worse."
Roku rested a hand on the stall.
"Travelers?"
Nothing.
"Mercenaries?"
Nothing.
"Warriors coming out of Transmorra?"
The merchant froze.
Solara saw the fear hit him immediately.
"What happens to them?"
"I don't know anything."
"How many?" Roku asked.
"Roku."
A familiar voice cut through the market.
He stopped.
Solara turned.
Keyla stood beneath a nearby awning with her arms crossed.
"Keyla?"
She looked irritated.
"What are you two doing?"
Roku frowned.
"Working."
"I can see that."
She walked over and gave the merchant one look.
He immediately turned away.
Keyla lowered her voice.
"You're asking about missing Transmorra warriors in the middle of an open market."
"We were getting somewhere."
"Yes. Toward getting yourselves followed."
Solara started looking around.
"Don't," Keyla said.
Solara stopped.
"Don't what?"
"Look for whoever's watching."
Roku's expression hardened.
"Hellfire?"
Keyla grabbed the front of his cloak.
"Stop saying that name out loud."
Roku pulled her hand away.
"You could've said that."
"I did."
"You grabbed me."
"You weren't listening fast enough."
Solara smiled.
"I missed this."
Keyla pointed at her.
"You're just as bad."
She turned.
"Come on."
Roku didn't move.
"Where?"
"Somewhere you can ask dangerous questions without getting someone killed."
Roku and Solara exchanged a glance.
Then followed.
Keyla was Black Hood.
If she was worried, there was a reason.
---
She led them into a candle shop and through a hidden hatch beneath the storage room.
The cellar below was covered in maps.
Mission routes.
Caravan roads.
Paths leading away from Transmorra.
Several locations were circled in red.
Roku stepped closer.
"You've been tracking them."
"For a while," Keyla said.
Solara studied the markings.
"Missing travelers?"
"Travelers. Caravan guards. Hunters. Hired fighters."
Keyla tapped several circles.
"And warriors sent out on missions from Transmorra."
"How many?" Roku asked.
"Enough that I stopped calling it coincidence."
She pointed across the map.
"Some never return. Some are found burned. Some come back injured and barely remember what happened."
Solara frowned.
"Burned from inside?"
Keyla looked at her.
"So you heard that."
"Emberville."
Keyla sighed.
"Of course."
Roku ignored her reaction.
"Why target them?"
"That's what I'm trying to find out."
"At first you thought robbery?"
Keyla nodded.
"But they leave money. Sometimes they leave weapons too."
Solara understood.
"They want the warriors, not their belongings."
"Exactly."
"Specific types?"
Keyla shook her head.
"External users. Internal. Soul. Mixed styles. Shooters. Martial artists. Healers."
Roku looked over the reports.
"No pattern."
"Not yet."
He looked toward her.
"And Hellfire?"
"People wearing their mark have been seen near several disappearances."
"But?"
Keyla crossed her arms.
"I don't like answers that look too easy."
Roku understood that.
Then he pointed toward the southern routes.
"They're also stockpiling supplies."
Keyla's expression sharpened.
"What supplies?"
"Metal rods. Fire salts. Qi amplifiers."
Solara added,
"Something beneath an abandoned well too. Black fire, maybe."
Keyla moved to another map.
"Where?"
Roku showed her.
She marked it.
"That makes three storage points."
Roku looked over.
"You knew about two?"
"Yes."
"What are they building?"
"I don't know."
"You have theories."
Keyla hesitated.
"Something that needs a large amount of concentrated Qi."
"A weapon?"
"Maybe."
Solara studied the locations.
"A gate?"
Keyla glanced at her.
"Also possible."
"Abyssal?"
"I don't know."
Keyla looked at both of them.
"And until we know, don't turn guesses into facts."
Roku leaned over the table.
"What do we know?"
Keyla started counting.
"Travelers and warriors leaving Transmorra are disappearing. Hellfire marks keep appearing near the routes. Someone is stockpiling supplies. Local smugglers are being paid to move them."
Solara looked at Roku.
"And someone deliberately sent us to Emberville."
Keyla frowned.
"What?"
Roku tossed the burned cloth onto the table.
Keyla read the word on the back.
Her expression changed.
"That isn't evidence."
"I know."
"It's bait."
"I know."
Solara leaned against the table.
"We followed it anyway."
Keyla stared at them.
"Why?"
Roku shrugged.
"It led somewhere."
Keyla rubbed her forehead.
"You two are exhausting."
---
They stayed in the cellar until late that night.
Keyla showed them what she had gathered from informants, smugglers, and mission clerks. One thing stood out more than anything else.
The disappearances were increasing.
"Last month?" Roku asked.
"Two confirmed."
"This month?"
"Seven."
Solara stared at the map.
"They're speeding up."
"Or getting careless," Keyla said.
Roku shook his head.
"They're organized."
Keyla looked at him.
"So?"
"They're speeding up."
The room went quiet.
Something was coming.
They just didn't know what.
Later, after Keyla had gone upstairs, Roku remained awake beneath the wall of maps while Solara rested on a cot nearby.
Neither was sleeping.
Footsteps moved above them.
Not Keyla's.
Roku reached for both daggers.
Solara sat up.
A moment later, the hatch opened and Keyla dropped into the cellar.
"Pack up."
Roku stood.
"What happened?"
"Two men came into the shop asking questions."
"About us?"
Keyla nodded.
"They asked about a young man carrying two daggers and a girl who uses seashell fans."
Solara's expression changed.
"That specific?"
"Very."
Roku's jaw tightened.
"They followed us."
"No."
He looked at Keyla.
"You weren't followed."
She started pulling maps from the wall.
"They knew you were coming."
The room went silent.
Roku looked toward the burned cloth.
Someone had sent them to Emberville.
Someone had watched them move through the southern routes.
And now someone knew they were with Keyla.
Roku picked up the cloth.
"This whole investigation…"
Keyla looked at him.
"May have been planned around you."
Solara stood.
"Why?"
No one answered.
The floor above them creaked.
Keyla immediately put out the lantern.
Darkness swallowed the cellar.
Roku drew both daggers.
Solara opened one fan.
Footsteps moved slowly across the shop above them and stopped directly over the hatch.
A muffled voice came through the floorboards.
"Search downstairs."
Keyla moved toward a narrow passage hidden behind one of the map-covered walls.
Roku smiled faintly.
"So much for staying hidden."
Keyla looked back at him.
"Shut up and move."