The air grew thicker with smoke as we neared the New Jurong settlement. We rode in through the broken gates and I immediately noticed the usual guards were gone. A broken sword lay on the ground near the entrance. I felt my stomach drop.

  We fell silent as we drove into the courtyard. Parts of the settlement were on fire. Most of the flames were confined to three residential blocks and the mess hall, but it still looked bad. Smaller fires burned here and there, and some of the equipment sheds had been blown apart, chunks of rubble scattered across the area.

  People were everywhere, running in different directions, carrying the wounded or shouting for help. We jumped out of the Digger and pushed our way through the crowd. I forced myself to slow down for a moment and take stock of the situation.

  Three of the residential blocks were burning. The mess hall was on fire too. Fire hoses were already laid out and a crew of men were fighting the blaze. Jets of water arced into the smoke, hissing where they hit the flames.

  We were lucky. This place used to be where the Singapore Civil Defense Force ran their basic training, so there was no shortage of firefighting and rescue equipment. From the way the hoses were set up and the ladders were positioned, we clearly had a few ex-firefighters in the settlement. They looked rattled, but they also looked like they had things under control.

  I grabbed the arm of a passing resident and stopped him. “Is anyone still inside? Anyone trapped in the buildings?”

  He shook his head quickly. “I don’t think so. Most of us were in the mess hall when it happened.”

  “What actually happened?” I asked as Shawn and Siva moved in closer to listen. Jess had already peeled off and headed for the makeshift hospital area, where the healers were setting up.

  “They just came out of nowhere. The Temple people,” he said, still trembling. “They broke down the gates and just started attacking. The few of us with powers tried to fight them off, and even those without powers grabbed whatever tools they could, but it was over so fast. Then they set the buildings on fire.” He gestured helplessly at the burning blocks.

  “How long ago was this?” I asked.

  “About an hour ago,” he said.

  I released my grip on his arm and he hurried off to join the others salvaging whatever they could from the unburnt parts of the mess hall.

  Shawn turned and started for the truck, but I caught his arm and pulled him back. I could see the anger in his eyes, the urge to get back in and hunt them down, but I gave a small shake of my head.

  “Rescue and healing first,” I said quietly. “We’ll deal with those fucks later. We’re needed here.”

  Shawn clenched his jaw, then nodded, frustration written all over his face. He turned away from the truck and followed me back into the mess of smoke, shouting, and ash.

  We joined the others tending to the wounded and, unfortunately, the dead. With every body we lifted and carried to the triage area, I could feel my own anger rising, coiling tighter in my chest. The bus arrived not long after, and the new batch had to push past their shock and horror and jump straight into the rescue effort.

  As I moved through the rubble, I spotted someone in cleric’s robes raising his hands. Water streamed out of thin air, splashing down onto a burning doorway and snuffing out the flames there. Part of me wanted to tell him to stop wasting his mana on the dead structures and go help Jess at the hospital instead. But there was only so much we could do for the dead. At least he was stopping the fire from spreading.

  From the party chat, I knew Jess had a handful of healers with her, along with the settlement’s nurses and whatever medical supplies they had managed to save. They were knee-deep with the injured.

  Our job was still search and rescue.

  But most of the time, it felt more like body recovery.

  We spent the next several hours combing through the rubble of burnt sheds and picking our way through the charred buildings. The walls were still smoldering even though the firefighters had put the main flames out.

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  In between trips back and forth, I learned that quite a number of residents had managed to escape through the motor pool and into the cemetery grounds nearby. Shawn and Shaheerah were leading teams out there, searching for anyone who made it out.

  I had a small team with me, going room by room in one of the residential blocks while other rescue parties did the same in the others. We stepped into the last room and found more burnt bodies. The smell of cooked flesh was something I was getting used to, which bothered me more than the smell itself.

  Farah was with me. She had stayed stoic through most of it, but I could see the shine in her eyes and the way her jaw clenched. I moved to put a hand on her shoulder, to give her something, anything, when a faint knocking sound echoed from somewhere in the room.

  I raised my hand, signaling everyone to stop and we listened.

  A bubble flickered into existence around Farah as she cast [Detect Magic], but she dismissed it almost immediately and bolted deeper into the room, wading through burnt mattresses and twisted bedframes.

  We followed as she made her way to a fallen tall locker, its door facing the floor. I recognized it as the kind recruits used to store their things during training. We grabbed it and heaved. The metal was still hot enough to burn our hands, but we forced it upright. The moment it shifted, the door swung open and a small girl tumbled out.

  It was Farisyah.

  She was covered in soot and burns, but she was alive. She saw us and started crying. Her face crumpled, shoulders shaking. She looked like she was screaming the place down, but the mute spell on her kept everything silent.

  One of the men with us scooped her up without a word and ran for the triage tent. Farah went with them, right on his heels.

  We had already cleared the entire block. I dismissed the rest of the team and stayed where I was, standing in the corridor, looking out over the grounds.

  Siva joined me after a while. His face was grim, streaked with soot and ash.

  I already knew it was bad. Jess had been sending a running count of the injured and dead in our party chat. She had stopped updating once the numbers got too high.

  I lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, trying to will the anger out of me. Siva stood silently beside me, clenching and unclenching his fists. He was also trying to manage his anger.

  He finally turned to face me. “We’re gonna hit them back.”

  I almost replied 'yes', but I held my tongue. That would be suicide. There was nothing I wanted more right now than to gather every fighter we had, march to their West Gate headquarters, and burn it all down. But I knew we could not do that. In fact, I felt like we should not.

  The system was turning this into an all-out bloodbath. If I gave in to my anger, it would get exactly what it wanted.

  I opened our party chat instead.

  Chris: Shawn, where are you?

  Shawn: We’re on our way back. We found almost all that hid in the cemetery. It’s quite a lot of people.

  Chris: Good. Jess, are you needed here?

  Jess: I’ve done what I can. I’m out of Mana and healing potions, even with the ones you all gave us, but there are other healers now and they’re doing what they can.

  Chris: Siva is with me. Meet me at the Digger. You too, Shawn, once you’re back.

  Shawn: Coming in soon. What’s the plan?

  Jess: You’re not thinking of going after them, are you? We can’t.

  Chris: I know. And we’re not. Not yet.

  Siva touched my arm but write in the party chat.

  Siva: So where are we going? We’re needed here.

  I turned and nodded at him.

  Chris: We’ll have a short talk with what’s left of the council first. They’ll have to make do without us for a while. Arrange funerals, regroup, redistribute rooms. They don’t need us for that. I’ll explain at the truck.

  Jess: Ok. Give me a minute. I need to arrange stuff here.

  Shawn: On the way.

  I closed the party chat as Siva gave me a questioning look.

  “We’re going to Tuas,” I said grimly.

  “Tuas?” Siva asked, raising a hand to rub the back of his neck.

  “Yes. We’re going to look for Rajan,” I said, already moving. I made my way down the stairs, not waiting for Siva to reply. I could hear his footsteps behind me as we picked our way around debris, but my mind was set.

  We were going to strike a deal.

  And for that, we needed to head into Rebel territory.