Inside the house, the city lord's wife saw what was happening outside, from her window and called to her maid.
"Mistress," the maid blushed red as she walked in to see the naked woman. When the mistress was done serving the master, she was always called to come in and clean up the mistress. This cleaning up usually involved having to pleasure the mistress herself. She understood the master had special preferences; therefore, the mistress always needs pleasuring after. Seeing the naked mistress, she started to remove her dress, as she had always done.
"Not that. Pack everything. Quickly!" the mistress said and the maid paused. She was not called to clean up?
"What are you waiting for? Do you want to die? Start packing some of my clothes. Not too much, so that we can leave without notice. I will get some money," the naked woman turned and started gathering anything of value.
"Mistress, why are we packing? Where are we going?" the maid asked as she pushed clothes into a bag. The mistress said to pack, but she was not sure what to pack.
"Light clothes or heavy clothes? Will it be windy or..." the maid started to ask.
"Shut up, you idiot. Use your head! Pack a few clothes so that we don't die outside. Do you think we are going on a vacation? We are running for our lives!" she scolded the girl who trembled and worked faster. She was not sure why they need to run, but she knew how to do her job.
"Go and pack something warm while I dress. Don't tell anyone. Be careful not to let anyone know we are leaving," she said and the maid dashed away to get her things.
The door opened and the head guard walked in. Half dressed, she was expecting to see her maid but was met with the guard. He did not let her finish dressing as he grabbed her to himself and roughly made his way between her legs. She tremble when he reached his goal.
"Let me go!" she struggled. He glanced at the packed bag with cold eyes.
"Where are you going?" he asked her and she froze.
"Are you going to tell the city lord?" she asked.
"Depends on your answer,"
"Seeing how you like your hand between my legs, I had guessed right. You always wanted to do this. Do you think the lord would not have your hands?"
"Seeing as you are running secretly into the night, you will not shout for anyone to come,"
"Oh? So you want to take me here? On the master's bed? What will happens if he returns?" she asked and her maid rushed in to this scandalous scene. She closed the door behind her and froze by the corner. The guard did not bother to stop his actions as he grabbed a breast and squeezed making her wince in pain.
"You have not answered my question,"
"You have to let me go. This is not the time for this!" she scolded but did not struggle.
"So, when is the time?"
"Do you think you will survive this? No one will survive this fire. My husband will be the first to die. No matter how strong you are, you are just a guard; you will be killed too. You want to touch me?" she said viciously, spreading her legs for him to have a better entrance.
"You might as well since it will be your last," she said and he frowned.
"What are you talking about?"
"My husband is city lord, but he is more like a custodian. This land belongs to the Avrid and the city is just a formation to hold and harness what is under the city. Do you know why there are water martial artists here? Because of something like this. Whatever is down there, will be destroyed by too much heat, if a fire breaks out. I'm sure by now, the Avrid will be sending someone. This happened on my husband's watch. He will be killed, and so will all of us," she explained and he stiffened.
Not just him, the maid by the corner too. Just when he was about to let her go, she grabbed his hand in place.
"You are a strong man. You think you can tell your fellow guards, so they will run. The more people you tell, the more they will know people ran. You can instead come with us. A strong man like you can protect us out there. I have a property to hide in for a while," she said then rubbing his hand between her legs.
"Don't you want this? You can have both of us if we leave now," she said. He pulled away from her forcefully and dashed for the door only to stop. She stared at his paused back, waiting for his decision. Will he help them or not?
"I know an underground path," he said making her release a breath she did not know she had been holding.
Messengers arrived in a flutter fur from their beast skin garb. They looked around at the half-naked city lord and his men, then towards the rising flames afar.
"Report!" one ordered.
"They tried to..." the city lord tried to say but was stopped.
"Not you. Who is in charge of the water mages? Speak!" the man ordered. The mages could not complain about his tone. Even though they were known as powerful mages, they could tell by a glance that these men could end their lives without lifting a finger. They bowed their heads while their leader spoke.
"An hour ago, we detected fire at the centre of the city. When we arrived, the fire was only a building fire. We tried putting it out but it did not seize. It instead spread as though we had added more oil. So we used reserves of spirit water to stop it in its tracks, but the spirit water only made it spread faster. We called out some earth mages to suffocate the flames with earth, but it spread from under the ground and took the city instantly. It was like a demon flame with a mind of its own. There was nothing else we knew how to do," the leader explained.
The messenger was silent for a while, then snapped his finger and shadows flew by and slit the throats of those in the courtyard before they even knew it happened. People watching from the window only saw the city lord, the great water mages and the guard's heads fall. Screams broke out at the sight, causing all the servants to run.
The commotion caught the attention of all the guards; who rushed out to see their city lord and the colleagues dead on the ground. They looked up at the messengers and paled. They were the owners of the city and they put the city lord in power. Some guards dashed away in escape; the others were somewhat confused.
"Kill everyone. Let no one survive," the head messenger said.
It was a bloody night. Men and women found themselves at the afterlife gate not even sure how they got there. They did not even have the ability to scream for their lives as they dropped dead.
The messengers flashed towards the burning city and surrounded it from every direction. Making uniform hand signs, they created a dome around the city and watched from outside as the fire raged. Their principle was simple; this much fire will be eating a lot of oxygen. They place a dome over the city so that no more oxygen enters.
When the fire did not stop after a while, they tried new hand signs. Hot air rose from inside the dome and left the dome in mist. When all the air had been taken out from the dome, they expected the fire to stop, but it raged on.
"It really could be a demon fire," the head messenger said.