Arriving at the safezone, Shin and the girls were welcomed by the thick scent of smoke in the air. The moment they passed through the gate, they noticed fire burning from almost every corner. Small stores were destroyed and engulfed in flames. Shin looked around with a calm expression, but the same couldn't be said for the two girls with him.
Sylvia broke into a sprint the moment she spotted the dwarven blacksmith shop near the gate. She searched frantically through the wreckage, her boots crunching over scorched debris. Nothing. No survivors. Her kin had been reduced to glowing motes, drifting through the air like vanishing embers. The forge was looted clean—every weapon, every blade, stolen.
Yet, she didn't cry.
She only stood there, her fist clenched tight, her bloodshot eyes fixed on the remains with a simmering sorrow that refused to be loud.
"Stay close to me," Shin muttered as he passed the crumbling smithy.
