Eluri jumped to her feet from where she'd been, curled by Vania on the hammock, and hissed. Knocking sounded on the door a moment later.

"What, are you my advance warning system, now?" Vania asked the creature as she stood and crossed the room. Eluri jumped and flapped her wings a few times, gliding across the room to land at Vania's bare feet before climbing up to perch on Vania's shoulder. "Only been here two days and you already act like you own the place," Vania muttered as she opened the door.

"Good morning," the domlian woman standing at the door said. "Enforcer Vania Nahalora?"

"Yes," Vania replied slowly, looking at the woman in the enforcer uniform. I wonder if she has some special rank. Her enforcer emblem isn't just the wolf rampant over crossed swords—there's a sun and stars mixed in with the swords...gold on black...

"You're to report to Lower Quarter Station immediately." The woman looked over Vania's dusty tunic and bare feet. "I will wait here while you dress, so I can escort you."

"One moment," Vania replied, shutting the door quickly. She stepped over to the crate and quickly moved the lantern aside to yank open the lid, extracting her uniform. Eluri jumped from Vania's shoulder as she yanked her tunic off and pulled her shirt over her head, the blue fabric settling familiarly over her form, silver wolf and swords glinting in the light trickling in around the edges of the curtains. "Eluri, you stay here."

The lucid yawned and curled up on the hammock.

Vania hastily pulled on her boots and pulled on her cloak, pausing to adjust the fabric as she pulled her wings into a tighter roll at her back. Masking spell might be weakening... I will need to get the spell renewed soon, or people will see some things I'd rather they didn't. She carefully checked the pins in her hair, glancing in the cracked mirror to ensure the spines on her head were buried by the dark blue locks.

She glanced over at Eluri. "Wish me luck." She paused, hand resting on the doorknob, and took in a deep breath, then slowly let it out and pulled open the door.

The woman smiled and pulled open the door to the station; "After you, Enforcer."

"Um. Thank you?" Vania swallowed and stepped into the building, pausing to let her eyes adjust to the dimmer light. The corridor felt shorter than usual as she walked in, very conscious of the sound of her boots on the hard floor, the woman in the black enforcer uniform behind her following in silence.

Everyone in the main room turned and looked at her as she entered, Captain Murrick stopping mid-sentence to look at her, wide-eyed. From his desk, Eddin grinned, then quickly brought up a hand to hide his smile.

Recovering quickly, the captain took a step toward her, demanding, "Enforcer Nahalora. Why are you here? In uniform? I didn't send for you."

"No, you didn't, Murrick," the domlian woman replied, stepping out from behind Vania, "I did."

Captain Murrick paled and he took a few steps backward; "C-commander Aleira."

The commander of the enforcers smiled and turned to Vania, placing a hand on Vania's shoulder; "Welcome back, Enforcer Nahalora. I'm sure your work partner, Enforcer Bucktin, can get you caught up and you'll have no problem stepping back into your work routine." She turned and looked at Captain Murrick, smiled fading and voice becoming stern; "Captain Murrick. We need to talk. Your office. Now."

Vania, and the entire room, watched as the captain hurried after the commander. Several of the enforcers began whispering furiously and many of them turned to look at Vania.

Commander Aleira? Vania thought, dazed, still staring off toward the hallway to the captain's office. The commander of the entire enforcer legion in the city knocked on my door to escort me back to work? And without telling Captain first?

The whispers grew.

Vania looked up with a start when Eddin's shadow fell over her.

"Good morning, Vania," Eddin said with a smile. "Good to have you back on active duty."

"It's. Um. Good to be back," Vania replied slowly. Commander Aleira escorted me personally to work?! She looked up at Eddin and tried to smile. "What. Um. What are we working on?"

"Well, Captain got interrupted in giving out assignments, but we already got ours. We're patrolling today. C'mon," he took her arm and walked with her back out of the room and down the hallway. "We should get Tarva and Ama saddled up."

As they led their horses from the stable, Vania sighed.

"What is it?" Eddin asked as he knelt, offering his hands as a step.

"That was Commander Aleira?" Vania asked as she mounted the chestnut mare. Ama snorted at her.

"Yeah," Eddin replied simply as he stood and mounted Tarva. The bay mare stood silently and waited for his signal. "Didn't she introduce herself to you?"

"No," Vania replied. "She just told me to get my uniform on—she was escorting me to work. Was I supposed to recognize her?"

Eddin chuckled; "If you've never met her, I'd say not. I thought she was at your interview?" He clicked at the bay and tapped his heels against the horse's sides. Both the bay and the chestnut mares began walking.

"No. Why would you think she was there?"

"Because—" Eddin stopped, looking over to Vania.

"Because what?" Vania asked, suddenly annoyed.

"Nevermind." Eddin looked at her a moment. "Did you bring Eluri along?"

"No; I left her at home. Did you want to see her? Make sure I'm taking good care of her?"

"Nope. I trust you're doing just fine. I just know Prant misses her."

Vania looked at Eddin, searching his shoulders. "You have Prant along?"

"Always," Eddin replied simply. "He just usually stays burrowed in my cloak pocket."

"Oh. Well, maybe I'll bring her tomorrow, then."

Eddin grinned. "Do what you think is best. Prant has to get used to not having her around, anyway."

Vania eyed the dusty cobblestone street before them. "Which of your patrol circuits are we riding today?"

Eddin pulled his map out from his cloak and handed it to her. "Loop E, I think. Coarick and Hessial are out today, so Captain wanted us to patrol part of the slums. Debbin and Awhark will patrol the other part."

Vania unfolded the map, eyes travelling the different colored lines on the map, finally finding the orange line marked E that traversed past her house, through the southern section of the slums, over to the port, then back up to the station.

"Okay with you?"

"Oh." Vania tore her eyes from the map, looking at Eddin. "Yeah. Sure. Um. Tarva's kinda big for the slums, Eddin. The roads are so narrow, what with the vendors and carts and... um... homeless... lining them... Maybe we should leave the horses at the bakery and walk? Grab the horses again before we go to the port area?"

"Sure," Eddin agreed. "We can do that."

"Oh. But, if you'd rather not be near the bakery..." Vania added as she remembered Cianna's fearful stares at Eddin. I stayed outside for Cianna's sake, Eddin said in her memory, I didn't want to scare her.

"It's fine as long as I don't go inside. You think you might go in?"

"No," Vania replied quickly. "No. Not with that stupid threat from Nanda still putting an invisible curse on my presence."

"Ah. So, drop the horses and leave. Will Derry mind Tarva and Ama being outside his door for hours without us asking first?"

"No," Vania replied. "He'll be disappointed we didn't stop in to say hello, but he'll understand."

"Then it's a plan," Eddin replied. He nudged Tarva to a faster walk."If we're going to be walking most of the route, we'd better hurry and get moving."

"Has anything been going on in my absence?" Vania asked as they walked the streets, carefully ignoring the baleful glares as people spit on the ground at their feet and grumbled curses.

"No major cases, no," Eddin replied. "Just the usual run of muggings, burglary, pickpocketing..."

"Did you, Bergin, and Jezora ever solve that case of the bodies in Averton Park?"

"No. After the wizard was taken care of, we had no other leads."

"Well, there's still one—" Vania stopped as a scream split the air.

"Help!" A child of about eight ran from a smoking building, clutching a wailing infant. "Help! Help! My momma—"

"Get buckets of water!" Eddin shouted at the confused crowd gathering. "Form lines to the wells!"

"What about your momma?" Vania asked, kneeling by the crying boy.

He wiped his tears with the back of his hand, claws sharp at the ends of his fingers. "My momma—she's in there." He pointed back at the burning building with one clawed finger, other arm still clutching the baby close. "With my dad. They're gonna burn if no one stops them! I got my sister and ran!"

"If no one stops who?" Vania asked. "Is someone in there with your parents? What happened?"

The boy looked at her, eyes widening at the sight of the wolf on her cloak. "N-no one, ma'am. N-nothing happened. J-just an a-accident."

"You did good, kiddo, saving your sister. Stay here, okay?" Vania patted his shoulder and stood.

"You!" Eddin grabbed one of the bystanders. "Get to the Lower Quarter Station and report the fire. We need help putting out the blaze before it spreads." He gestured at the haphazard lines forming, buckets sloshing water as they were passed forward to the house; "Good, good. Keep the water coming!" He turned to Vania. "How many are still in the house?"

"Two, for sure," Vania replied. "The kids' parents."

Eddin nodded. "Let's go."

They ran to the burning building, Vania grabbing the edge of her cloak to cover her face as the smoke stung her eyes.

"Eddin," Vania coughed against the smoke, "how are we going to find anyone in there?"

A shout from within the building caught their attention. Clattering and pounding followed.

"Follow the sound," Eddin said simply and ducked inside.