Charcoal is Bitter

Akemi was too rash. Too quick. She had already left them to attempt to rescue Ethan. With the fort on a hilltop, it was difficult to say whether or not she made it in. Mai's only hope was that she was still alive.

Prior to entering the village, Mai put it in her mind to visit her old inn. Hopefully Satsuki and the rest of her employees bolted before reinforcements came after their merry company.

Upon entering, however, the town had taken an eerie atmosphere. There wasn't the familiar murmurs of distant conversation, nor the sound of wood being chopped or a hammer upon an anvil. The village was quiet aside from the sound of tinkling metal against chainmail.

Mai quietly entered the village with a lightness in her step. She knew this town like the back of her hand, thus it was easy to hide within the shadows and make quick short cuts. Along with that, the night watch was far more lax, as fewer Nohrian guards made their rounds and most were sleeping to renew their spirits. That old fart in Kitsuki made things a little easier to know the regular patterns in guard shifts.

The innkeeper quickly made her way to the town's central square. The place was always a bubble of activity, despite that, the only noises about were whistling winds. It was a complete ghost town aside from the patrolmen.

As Mai hid beneath the next tree, she looked up to where she expected to see her beloved inn.

It... wasn't there.

Mai blinked a few times and squinted. She could've sworn that the inn was right there... not an unrecognizable lump of ruin of somebody's house.

Maybe... maybe she was in the wrong district? Maybe there was a mistake. She hadn't been back in a month or so now, so maybe she's still a bit disoriented with the direction of the town...

Suddenly, two soldiers passed by in front of her and stopped briefly.

"Kind of a shame, isn't it."

"What is?"

"You know, that building right there. The one we were ordered to burn down at the captain's behest."

"I wasn't here before that. What happened?"

"Something that had to do with the Hoshidans. One of our units came here in peace to try to negotiate with them, but some rabble-rousers killed one and beat the rest. The captain was with 'em and experienced it first hand."

"Damn... captain's been through a lot."

"Yeah. The culprits fled by the time we all got here, but we were ordered to destroy the inn. Thing is, the whole town was abandoned by the time we got here."

"Saw us coming. They must've been soldiers from their 'peace-loving' capital trying to rile us up."

"That was my thought too... but why not the whole town? Why just the inn?"

"I dunno... spite, maybe?"

By this time, the soldiers fell out of earshot, and Mai leaned against the tree in relief. So the townsfolk evacuated before the Nohrians arrived.

But... her inn was the biggest casualty. Was it really the only building that was targeted? If that were true, then it could only be counted as a deliberate slap in her face. There was just no giving any of these Nohrians the benefit of a doubt.

Well, it was near the hour for the incursion of Fort Jinya.

Whose doom would befall on that fateful night?