The earthquake hit at breakfast.
Not dramatic.
Just a quick rrrrrrr under the floorboards.
Cups rattled.
Spoons clinked.
Someone at another table paused mid-bite and said, "Huh."
Then it stopped.
Three seconds of silence.
Everyone went back to eating.
Breth got small earthquakes sometimes. Something about the rock layers under the eastern district. Senna had explained it once while writing in her book and had not even looked up when she said it.
The aftershock hit twenty minutes later.
That one was not polite.
We heard it first.
A deep grinding sound rolled through the street like the earth itself was clearing its throat.
Then—
CRRRRRAAAASH
A building two streets over folded like it had suddenly remembered gravity existed.
Dust exploded above the rooftops.
The market froze.
That very specific silence when something terrible has just happened and everyone's brain is still loading the update.
Then someone screamed.
We were already running.
The building was three stories.
Stone.
Half of it was gone.
Not cracked.
Not damaged.
Just… gone.
The other half leaned sideways in a way buildings are not legally allowed to lean.
Dust trickled down the walls.
The whole structure creaked like an old man deciding whether to stand up or fall over.
People stood outside shouting.
Someone grabbed my sleeve.
"There are people inside!"
Of course there are.
I looked at the wall.
Looked at Rael.
Looked at Senna.
Looked at Mira.
None of them were waiting.
Rael already had the expression she gets when she is about to punch something for justice.
Senna had her staff raised, eyes half closed, reading the structure like it was a spell diagram.
Mira was already talking to witnesses.
Competent people.
Fantastic.
"RAEL!"
She turned.
"Big rubble first! Outside to inside! If Senna says don't touch something—"
"I won't touch it."
She cracked her knuckles.
"I'll obliterate it carefully."
"That sentence did not make me feel better."
She leaped onto the rubble anyway.
"SENNA!"
Her eyes opened slightly.
"The wall," I said. "Is it about to kill us."
She studied the building.
A long pause.
"For now, it holds."
"Those three words are terrifying."
"There is a fractured support beam inside."
"Still terrifying."
"If the wrong stone moves, the ceiling collapses."
"…Fantastic."
She adjusted her grip on her staff.
"But I can stabilize it."
I stared at her.
"You can what."
"Stabilize it."
"How long."
"Long enough."
"That is not a number."
"Long enough."
Ah.
The Senna has already decided voice.
Good.
Love that.
"MIRA!"
"I heard," she said, already kneeling beside someone from the crowd. "Getting the count."
I stood in the middle of the street watching my party go to work and briefly wondered how I had become the manager of a disaster response team.
Then I ran after Rael because she was absolutely about to punch the wrong rock.
Six people inside.
Mira gave the report like a battlefield medic.
"Two adults near the entrance."
"One elderly woman trapped under a doorframe."
"Two workers in the rear section."
"And a child."
Of course.
Always the child.
I looked up.
Through a narrow crack in the rubble I could see a small body under the fractured ceiling.
Exactly where Senna said the unstable beam was.
Naturally.
"SENNA?"
"I can stabilize the ceiling," she said.
"But?"
"I must maintain the spell continuously."
"You can't move."
"No."
"Fantastic."
I rubbed my face.
"Mira."
She was already removing her jacket.
"I can fit."
"There's no room to work."
"There's room to sit."
She looked at the child again.
"And talk."
Right.
If the child panics—
The ceiling collapses.
I sighed.
"Mira."
"Yes."
"Please don't die."
"I will attempt to avoid that."
She crawled into the gap.
Two hours.
Rael worked like a demolition crew with anger issues.
Stone.
Check.
Lift.
Move.
Repeat.
She never admitted it.
But she was following my instructions.
The workers came out first.
Then the two adults.
Then the elderly woman.
That one took forty minutes.
Meanwhile—
Senna stood in the doorway holding the ceiling up with pure stubbornness.
Staff raised.
Eyes half closed.
Sweat running down her face.
She did not move.
Did not blink much.
Did not speak.
The first time I checked she said nothing.
The second time I just stood beside her.
She didn't look at me.
But I knew she knew I was there.
Then I went back to the rubble.
Halfway through clearing the last section—
A stone shifted.
The ceiling above the child groaned.
CRRRAAAK
Everyone froze.
Rael looked up.
I looked at Senna.
Her staff trembled.
Just slightly.
But the spell held.
Her voice came out tight.
"Keep moving."
So we moved.
The child came out last.
Mira crawled out slowly with the girl wrapped around her neck like a very tired backpack.
Rael cleared the final stones.
The moment they stepped outside—
"SENNA!"
She dropped the spell.
BOOOOOM
The ceiling collapsed instantly.
Dust exploded everywhere.
For ten seconds nobody could see anything.
When the dust cleared—
Senna was sitting in the doorway.
Just sitting.
Like her legs had filed a complaint with management.
I crouched in front of her.
She looked up at me.
Eyes exhausted.
"Long enough," she said.
I exhaled.
"Yeah."
She wiped sweat from her forehead.
"My modified stabilizer spell."
"The one line I changed."
"Yes."
"The original version collapses after forty minutes."
I blinked.
She blinked.
Neither of us said anything.
I helped her stand.
We ate two streets over.
At a tavern that had not collapsed.
Which made it automatically the best restaurant in town.
Rael ate like the food owed her money.
Senna had her book open but wasn't writing.
Mira had the rescued child asleep across her lap.
I looked at my party.
No quest.
No pay.
Still fifty-three gold in debt.
But something had changed.
The kind of change that happens when people almost die together.
Nobody said it out loud.
We didn't need to.
The next morning started normally.
I stepped into the hallway.
Senna opened her door.
Book under her arm.
Pen behind her ear.
Fully operational.
She saw me.
Stopped.
Then—
She looked at her boots.
That was new.
"I wanted to—"
She stopped.
Then tried again.
"About last night."
"What about it."
"What you did."
"I didn't do anything."
"You stayed."
She tucked hair behind her ear.
"That helped."
Her ears were turning red.
"The spell worked," I said.
She looked up.
"The spell worked," she repeated softly.
Footsteps.
Mira came around the corner.
Stopped.
Looked at us.
Looked at the distance between us.
"…Morning."
"Morning," I said carefully.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Were you two—"
"I was thanking him," Senna said.
"For last night."
Mira blinked.
"Last night."
"He came to my room."
I felt my soul leave my body.
"WITH CUPS," I said instantly.
"I BROUGHT CUPS."
Mira stared at me.
"You were in her room."
"In the doorway."
"You came to her room at night."
"In the hallway."
"For how long."
Senna answered helpfully.
"About an hour."
Mira slowly turned toward the wall.
"…An hour."
Rael opened the door behind Mira.
Half asleep.
Hair illegal.
One boot on.
"What."
Mira pointed at me.
"He was in Senna's room."
Rael's eyes snapped open.
"For an hour."
Rael looked at me.
Then Senna.
Then both of us.
Her brain stalled.
She pointed.
Her mouth opened.
"—GEEHHH?!?!"
Pure outrage.
Pure confusion.
Like she had just walked into a crime scene.
"WE TALKED!" I shouted.
"ABOUT HER MOTHER!"
"AND MAGIC!"
"AND SPELL THEORY!"
"The spell worked," Senna said quietly.
Rael stared at us.
Then pointed again.
"You two are disgusting."
Door slam.
I stood in the hallway.
Mira stared at the wall.
Then suddenly—
She sat down.
On the floor.
Just sat.
"Mira," I said.
"I'm fine."
"You are sitting on the floor."
"I'm fine."
I looked at Senna.
Senna was watching Mira like she had discovered a new magical phenomenon.
"Is she—"
"She said she's fine."
Rael came back out.
Looked at Mira.
Looked at me.
"…Why is she on the floor."
"She's fine," Senna said.
Rael stared at me.
"…Breakfast."
Then she left.
I looked at Mira.
"Breakfast?"
"…Yes."
She stood up immediately with extreme dignity.
Then walked away.
I looked at Senna.
"What just happened."
Senna thought carefully.
"I believe Mira is fine."
"She sat down."
"Yes."
"On the floor."
"Yes."
I rubbed my face.
"I'm getting breakfast."
"Good idea."
Behind me her pen started writing.
Upstairs.
A hallway full of angels watched the screen.
One angel screamed.
"GEEHHH?! DID YOU SEE RAEL'S FACE?!"
Another collapsed laughing.
"MIRA SAT DOWN!"
"ON THE FLOOR!"
"THE DOORWAY!"
Veyra flipped her hair slowly.
Because she could.
She looked at the screen.
At four idiots eating breakfast.
Then smiled.
"Arc one," she said softly.
"Complete."