Digging through rubble and ash, Gabriel worked with other Destin citizens to search for possible survivors under the remains, although other individuals, with less pure thoughts, were searching for objects with value as well, although there wasn’t much to expect here.

Gabriel himself was able to find some of his old possessions, which were for most people quite valuable but for him even more, because he would have a hard time finding similar objects, such as a fist sized mana stone which helped secure his home… not from fires, though.

The people that found them would probably sell them at high prices, because there wasn’t much of a market for them, and the original owner would probably search for them. Had they owned such objects, they would also probably have some resources with which to pay.

Otherwise, they could keep the objects until a promising client came, not like that was much of an inconvenience for such small possessions. Gladly, Gabriel didn’t find any burned remains of anyone…near his home.

He did find some quite heavily burnt corpses and a person who had collapsed, due to the smoke, probably and was still barely alive. There wasn’t much else to note about what he found, yet he found out the most important thing. His sister was still very much alive and Piti had also survived.

Maybe if he found the dog it could guide him to his sister, he thought for a moment, before denying such a thought due to the sun now close to setting. It wouldn’t be comfortable to sleep outside, even less with so many criminals and low-lives without homes, so he decided to visit his friend Kupi.

And so, they were now talking in the tavern owned by Poco, who currently was away in a mission of her own. Kupi had decided not to search for Gabriel anymore due to their last encounter and was now slightly surprised at his appearance in the tavern.

- I didn’t think this day would come so soon. – Kupi commented and drank from his mug. – Yet here we are. I know why you’re here, probably, but I still want to listen to it from you, although you probably don’t want to say anything.

Gabriel just silently looked at Kupi while he made all those comments about his behavior, and he even stayed quiet for a good few seconds after he had finished before he said anything. Indeed, he didn’t want to ask for it himself, but he also believed that Kupi wouldn’t expect one of his requests.

- Yes, I want a home here. A place to sleep, eat and do other common things in safety. – Gabriel answered to Kupi. – But I also want to know who was responsible for the fire, who attacked me. – On Kupi’s face a small grin appeared.

- But didn’t you start the fire? – The comedic comedian commented, and a scornful face appeared in Gabriel’s face. He put his hands on his head, covering his eyes and let his elbows touch the table. Then, he just said.

- Why? Just why…? – And this was enough to get the point across.

In the end, Gabriel was given the key to a small room with just a bed, a chair and a smallish wooden board which could be put on top of the bed to be used as a table. The room was significantly worse than the one he was in before, but he didn’t comment anything about it to Kupi.

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He thought that Kupi wanted to have Gabriel beg for his help, but he also believed that being in this low-quality room would urge him to try and leave for a better place, under his own ownership, hopefully. Still, he put some calendars and other papers on the walls to make this a bit more homely.

In an undisclosed location inside Destin, a group of cloaked men stood inside two circles. One of them was bigger and enclosed the other one and was made from unknown people, while the smaller one was conformed by mercenaries who dealt with almost anything and worked for the people outside.

They were separated by a metal fence which went all the way from the floor of the room to the top of it, “encaging” the individuals inside, but they had their own entrances through stairs on the floor connected to multiple tunnels.

The outside group had other entrances as well, some better hidden than others, but they all had one thing in common, that they were inside their houses, so if they ever wanted to betray this group, they would most likely lose their lives. Directly or indirectly, by needing to escape from Destin or forge a new identity to stay alive.

Currently, the mercenaries were being questioned for their relationship with the fire that had transpired during the day. They openly admitted that they had caused it due to someone paying a lot of money for it. They didn’t question their orders, as they usually did, and committed arson.

They themselves didn’t even know the reason for those orders, but one of the hired individuals mentioned that it seemed that it was a directed attack being made for retribution. They were asked to start the fire at a certain individuals house, which was a new genius in the magicians’ manor.

The outside group started murmuring after hearing this information. Some people were glad that he had enemies, while others were worried for the safety of such a skilled magician. Many were simply enjoying the show.

- How come the fire got so out of control? – Someone asked loud enough for all to listen and the mercenaries could only give their own theories.

- He wasn’t very skilled in water or fire magic, maybe. – One of them said

- Maybe that wasn’t his home, so he wasn’t there at the time and the fire burned through a fake house. – Another one commented.

- But I saw through one of the windows and there were some valuable-looking things inside. Would a magician really let their own property burn? – One of the members of the arson now joined the discussion.

- Maybe it was an illusion? – Someone outside joined the discussion.

- But why would you make yourself more of a target?

- And who did he make so mad to make it spend a fortune to kill him? Envy is one thing but trying to murder a person from envy hasn’t been heard of.

They didn’t reach any sort of conclusion, but most of the people agreed that the mercenaries should either make sure that the target in question was dead or observe him to find out what made him that much of a target; and inform the whole group about it afterwards.

Poco now knocked on Kupi’s door, which was opened by him shortly after. Poco entered the room and started spilling all the information in relationship with Gabriel she had found. Poco told this to Kupi and not Gabriel, because Kupi himself had requested this agreement and decided that it was best for Gabriel not to know who and how many people were targeting him.

- Most people believe that he was targeted for revenge by someone specific, but I managed to find out more… - Poco started informing Kupi. – The mercenaries were funded by at least two different entities.

- That… makes things more complicated. If it had been only one, I could’ve solved this situation, but if he has more enemies… they can easily increase. – Kupi reflected. – What have you done to end up like this? – He openly asked.

- Well, I’ve found out that he broke some bones of a rich kid and also that he passed five different challenges in only one week, so there might be some people there who don’t like Gabriel. But I still need to find more information to take hard conclusions.

- True, true… - Kupi pondered for a moment. – I think that someone is also targeting him for another reason, I don’t think that such new conflicts could lead to an attack so grave…