When Idin and Rhan returned to the scorched storage room, the soldier who had gone for the healer was now returning, running at full speed with the healer. She was a stout woman, dressed in a plain brown robe with pouches strapped across her chest. She knelt beside the injured man immediately, her hands glowing faintly with green light as she hovered them over his chest and throat.
"Burned lungs… tissue damage… God, what happened?" she muttered, already working. The soldier beside her looked helpless, unsure whether to stay or move aside.
Captain Rhan stepped forward and raised his voice over the low hum. "Everyone else — back to your duties. All of you."
The gathered soldiers hesitated, but then they quickly scattered back to their duties. The hallway quickly emptied, leaving only Idin, Rhan, the healer, and the two soldiers who had been involved in the incident.
Idin turned to the one who had been frozen before, still pale, eyes wide. He looked like he was trying not to be sick.
"You," Idin said, stepping closer. "Were you with him when it happened?"
The soldier blinked, nodded. "Y-yeah. We were heading to get some vegetables. For breakfast. Like we always do."
Idin narrowed his eyes. "What happened? Did anything seem off?"
The soldier shook his head quickly. "That's the thing. Nothing unusual. We were just walking like normal. He opened the door, stepped in, and—" He paused, swallowing hard. "And it just exploded."
Idin looked at the charred doorway, then at the soldier. "There was nothing unusual?"
"Nothing. One moment we were talking about getting something for soup. The next, he's on fire and the room's gone black."
Idin rubbed his chin. "What could've ignited the fire?"
The soldier hesitated. "Hiu — the guy who got hurt — he had a torch. But… that's nothing new. We've brought torches into the storage for years. There are no windows, so he always held a torch up so we could see properly."
"So something reacted," Idin muttered. "Some kind of trap? Magical maybe…"
He glanced at Rhan. "You have any idea what could've caused this?"
Rhan shook his head. "I'm just as clueless as you. There's no reason anything should've exploded in there. It's a food storage room, not an alchemy lab."
Idin sighed, pushing his fingers through his hair. "Maybe one of my friends will know something. I know a strong mage — Pao. She might be able to check if there was any lingering mana."
Rhan nodded. "Better that than nothing."
Just as Idin stepped away from the healer's side and turned down the corridor, the front door of the outpost creaked open. Bral and Bao stepped in, looking alert.
"What happened?" Bral asked, striding up. "We heard a loud explosion. Some folks said it came from the outpost."
Idin didn't slow down as he passed them. "There was an explosion. Storage room. Nearly killed a man."
Bao's expression darkened. "What? Was it an attack?"
Idin shook his head. "We don't know. Could be an accident. Could be someone triggered a trap. I was just heading to get Pao — see if she can trace any kind of magical residue or spell use."
Bral nodded. "She and Amukelo are probably still in the library."
Idin rolled his eyes, muttering, "They better not be. If they just ignored that loud of an explosion, I swear…"
He didn't finish. Just turned on his heel and stormed toward the library.
He opened the library door with more force than necessary and walked in without waiting for the librarian's annoyed glance.
And sure enough, there they were. In the same back corner. Same cushions. Same pose.
Pao sat with her legs folded neatly beneath her, one hand extended, her face a picture of calm focus. Amukelo, across from her, sat motionless — hands on his knees, eyes closed.
Idin stopped a few steps from them, stared for a second, then flatly said, "Come on."
Neither of them moved.
He said it again, louder. "Come on. Did you two seriously not hear the massive explosion?"
Amukelo's eyes blinked open slowly. "Oh, hey, Idin."
Pao flinched, looking up as if she only just realized someone had entered. "What?"
Idin gave them both a long, unimpressed stare. "A storage room exploded. In the outpost. You know, where our group works? Loud boom, possible sabotage, man almost died?"
Amukelo rubbed the back of his neck. "Huh. No, I don't recall hearing anything. I might've been too focused."
Pao blinked, then tilted her head. "Now that you mention it… I did hear something. But I was holding my mana steady, and I didn't want to lose control, so I ignored it. And then… I forgot."
Idin's face went even flatter. "You're both impossible."
Pao offered a sheepish smile.
When they reached the eastern corridor where the explosion had happened, the healer had already left with the injured soldier, and the area had been cleared of onlookers, save for Bral, Bao, and Captain Rhan who stood just outside the threshold.
They were examining the room — cautiously, but with obvious confusion across their faces.
Idin approached them quickly. "Found something?"
Bral looked up and shook his head. "Nope. We've got nothing."
Bao crossed her arms. "There's no trace of any explosive. No black powder residue, no fragments, nothing. Even if someone used powder, there's no sign of what could've ignited it."
"Black powder doesn't just explode by sitting there," Bral added. "It needs a spark. A flame. And with how close the ignition would have had to be, it'd basically be suicide. Which makes no sense."
He looked at Pao. "It must've been magic."
Pao stepped forward without a word, kneeling just past the charred doorway. She placed her hand gently against the scorched floorboards, then to the blackened wall. Her fingers hovered in the air for a moment, eyes narrowing in focus. She closed her eyes briefly, then stood and moved farther into the room, scanning slowly.
After a minute, she stood up and looked at them with a slight frown. "No. It wasn't done with magic either."
Bral blinked. "You're sure?"
"There are no residual traces," she said. "If a spell had been cast — fire, spark, anything — I would sense at least a faint trace of the mana. Especially this soon after. But there's nothing here."
Idin groaned and dragged a hand down his face. "Then what the hell happened?"
They stood in silence.
Then, Amukelo stepped forward.
He hadn't said a word since arriving, but his eyes had been moving across the room constantly. Now he walked in, kneeling near the side of a half-burned sack. He reached out and tugged the bag closer, ignoring the fine soot that dusted his fingers.
Idin leaned forward. "Did you find something?"
Amukelo didn't answer at first. He reached into the bag and pulled out a blackened handful of something pale — barely intact, but still identifiable. He rubbed the grains between his fingers, then sniffed it lightly.
He turned and looked at Rhan. "Do you store flour in here?"
Rhan looked surprised. "No… but we do store wheat grains."
Amukelo nodded. "Then this might be your answer."
Bral stepped forward, crouching beside him. "What do you mean?"
Amukelo held up the charred bag. "Flour."
He stood, brushed ash from his hands, and stepped back a few paces into the cleaner part of the hallway. The others followed. He paused for a second, then bent down and gently threw the remaining bit of flour into the air, creating a soft cloud that hovered and drifted.
"Pao," he said calmly. "Cast a fire spell. Small one."
Pao looked hesitant at first, then lifted her hand, palm forward. With a flick of her wrist, a controlled flame — no bigger than a candle's — shot forward into the suspended cloud.
The air popped. The flour ignited instantly with a sharp flash. The fireball was brief — barely lasting a second. Even though it did no damage in the open air, the sudden burst startled Bao, who stepped back instinctively.
Amukelo lowered his hand. "That's what happened."
They all looked at him.
"Flour is extremely flammable," he explained. "In large enough quantities, stirred into the air, it can combust. Especially in a small, enclosed space with no ventilation like that storage room."
He pointed toward the charred doorway. "If someone walked in with a torch, and there was flour dust already suspended in the air then it could've ignited the moment flame touched it."
Bral whistled under his breath. "I've never heard of that."
"It's not well known," Amukelo said. "But it's real. Back in my village, years ago, an old man lost half of his house to it. His daughter was baking. Some sack tore open. He walked in with a lamp, and—" He snapped his fingers. "The room went up. The fire didn't even have to be big. But the building burned."
They were all quiet.
Idin looked at the burned threshold again. "So it was an accident?"
Bral shook his head. "Maybe. Maybe not."
He looked at Rhan. "You said you don't store flour here."
"I don't," Rhan said firmly. "Only grain."
"Then someone brought it in."
Finally, Rhan nodded. "I'll look into who's responsible for food storage. Whoever was in charge of rationing or transporting grain to this room — they'll know if anything was out of order."