“Heal,” Orfeus said. Nothing happened, so maybe her voice wasn’t listening to her. She twisted her hands in the right configuration, heal, heal, it’s alright. She fancied she felt her Blood give a grateful surge as she let it loose to fix all that was broken. She sat quietly as the nanites swarmed over the fused and burned skin, fixing it. They buzzed in her eyes, fixing them. In her throat, an odd tickling feeling. The pain hit, and was soothed away. Everything itched, and she balled her hands and lay still and let herself heal.

Her mind sorted through pieces calmly. The Wolf was dutiful, of course. After that first failed attack, he must have made a report to the rest of the pack so the others were prepared if she tried the same trick again. They had roundly outsmarted her.

What had she done?

Orfeus blinked her eyes open and closed several times until the tears cleared enough she could see properly. The general impression of heat and light and din was only strengthened then. A little way off, she could see roaring fire shifting through thick smoke. She turned her head and saw more fire. It surrounded her like she’d been transported to the nine circles of hell.

The buildings. The Hub. It was all burning. A lot of it, anyway. Even trees smouldered, so fierce had been the flames. All this from only one explosion? It looked like a dragon had been let loose on the place.

There was a stabbing pain in the arch of her right foot and then nothing. Her wounds didn’t hurt, but they didn’t keep healing either. Was it possible to short out Blood? She had to ask Bright. No. She had to get out of here. No. She had to help.

Orfeus stood up and staggered, mind hazing. “Energy,” she said, and she said it clearly this time. But nothing happened. She was clean out.

She couldn’t heal anyone, could cast no spells. Maybe help with bandaging? Her mind jerked away from the fear of that necessity. If other people had been this burned… Or maybe they had been in the buildings when the fireball hit. What had happened to Rivasoa? Orfeus turned, squinting through the flames, but she could see neither the false façade Rivasoa had built from light, nor any sign of charred corpses where it had been.

She should have asked more about Rivasoa’s magic. Together they could have spun an illusion-version of Orfeus to walk away, to lead the wolves away and leave the town in safety. She…she could have led them away and left the town in safety and it was burning, everything was burning down.