You make the sign of Yune, and for a moment a heavy weight settles in your hand as a length of nameless red-orange material fades into existence. You slide your fingers around the rough grip, maintaining the sign while holding onto the crude weapon. But then it grows insubstantial, like powder, and falls through your hand. For a moment it settles on the ground as red fog before it vanishes entirely.

You know you still have the favor of Yune, though you have not yet conducted your first sacrifice. You wonder if you could seek out a mentor. But how, when you have no lineage?

And then grief threatens to overwhelm you again, so clear and painful it is like a knife in your stomach. You lean against a pillar, your forehead against the cool and uncarved marble, until the mood passes.

"Nothing remains," Melaxu says from above. She has, you realize, been watching you, though with more curiosity than hostility. Now she waves for you to join her.

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You mount the stairs and behold the philosopher's library, stretching out around the balcony. Or rather, it was a library. Now it is blackened, greasy ash; a fire raced through it, destroying everything, burning so hot the stone is melted in places, and–you suspect–so quickly no one in Hetch saw the smoke. Your father knew of elixirs that could burn that hot but never dared use them himself.

"Five hundred years of work, gone," Melaxu says. She has bathed, combed her short hair with an ivory comb, and donned a new shawl and tunic, but her face is grief-stricken, her fingers dirty from sifting through the ashes. "I will find and kill that ettin, and then whoever ordered him to do this, for he was not his own master." The philosopher takes a moment to master her rage, then says, "Little survived the fire. This will have to see us through to Hazelwood." She gestures to an unblackened shelf where Melaxu has stacked a few supplies. You retrieve the sandals and cape, which will have to do against the cold of early spring. A plain oak cudgel leans against the wall, better than nothing against wolves, trolls, and worse. Melaxu is filling a leather bag covered in delicate floral designs with enough food for a few days, mostly fish, nuts, and flat oatcakes. It will not get you all the way to Hazelwood.