It took Seamus a couple of forceful blows with his axe to break down the door's hinges. With a final forceful kick, they burst open the door, revealing a room thick with smoke and the stench of burning alcohol. The room was a mess of scattered paper and broken distillation equipment. Many small fires were creeping closer to stacks of wooden barrels and glass bottles. The distillation coils hissed as the flames neared. The fumes thickened.
“Seamus, the barrels!” Aeron yelled. His usual sarcasm and casual attitude completely gone. His eyes widened as he noticed many distillation coils, wooden casks and crates packed tight with contraband liquor. “This place is a powder keg!”
Seamus didn’t hesitate and moved to the nearest fire, stomping on burning papers. He could feel the heat through his boots, but his thick boots didn’t catch fire. For now. He kicked burning debris away from the barrels. He looked at Aeron, who for once, was speechless. “Aeron, what are you doing? Get water!”
“Oh Saints, I didn’t sign up for this,” Aeron muttered. His pale face was fixated on a body in the middle of the room, a dead middle-aged elf in blood-soaked robes and unnaturally twisted limbs.
Seamus threw a bucket, which Aeron caught, breaking his fixation. “Aeron, focus! If we don’t get these flames under control, we’re as dead as he. Move!” Seamus shouted as he filled his bucket in a trough. The water was ice-cold. The contrast with the burning room stung his fingers.
With a loud bang, the top of one of the distillers blew off. “I, euhm, right. Water. Water. Yeah,” Without looking at the elf he joined Seamus. His hands shook as he worked, but he kept moving, the urgency of the fires overriding his horror. “Seamus, look! The fire’s about to hit that coil!” Aeron’s voice cracked as a lick of flame curled dangerously close to one of the distillation tubes. Seamus threw a full bucket of ice-cold water over it, extinguishing most of the flame. Aeron followed with a second bucket leaving only hissing metal and clouds of steam behind.
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It took a lot of time to extinguish the last of the fires, the hot metal of the distilling equipment kept reigniting the flames. When they were finished, the room was covered in a thin layer of soot and smoke. Aeron slumped down. He was exhausted, thick soot clung to his skin and his breath wheezed. He looked down. On the ground, he saw a small silver earring. He picked it up, wiping the soot from its surface. “She left in a hurry. She must have dropped this… You might be able to track her now.”
“She tried to be smart, setting a fire to cover her tracks,” Seamus said. “Could have done without the dead guy though.” He walked over to the body and padded it down, in search of clues. Aeron looked away, even behind the layer of soot it was getting a few shades paler. Seamus changed the subject away from the dead elf. “Anyway, how do you think she escaped, I didn’t see her leave through the door. ”
“She didn’t need to. Fly spell.” Aeron said. He pointed to wide chimneys overhead. Swirls of smoke were slowly dissipating through wide openings. “She’s probably halfway across the city by now.”
"She was well prepared." Seamus said grimly. He stood up abruptly, left the dead man and walked towards the opposite wall. He smiled and said: “But she might have left without accomplishing her task.” The remains of a burned-down cabinet revealed a safe behind. It was heavily damaged by the fire. The metal was cracked and still hot, but he managed to pry it open easily with the head of his axe. Inside he found a leatherbound book, binders and old maps. The edges were singed, but mostly intact.
“This was what she was after,” Seamus said, flipping through. “Financial, record, shipping routes,... she’s part of something bigger.” He opened the small leatherbound book. “This might interest you.” He tossed the book to Aeron.
"Whatever it is, I hope it’s worth almost getting us blown to bits." Aeron opened the book. His eyes widened. It was old, ancient even. The paper thick and yellow. “The letters are old-elven, but none of the words make any sense. It is a spellbook, but only, the magic, it is gone. This is a rare find Seamus.”
“Well, these binders and the earring should probably be enough for my client to be satisfied. I think you can keep your book.” He tucked the documents into his coat. "Let’s get out of here. I’ve got a trail to follow, and she’s not going to stay in the air forever."