The afternoon passed easily as I chatted with the three, in between bites of my bread. Dinner soon arrived and we all eagerly gulped down a thick, warm stew, littered with vegetables and our finest lamb meat.

"Oh man, that's gotta be the best stew I've ever eaten," Hank said as he finished his third bowl of stew with a burp. "Enough for a whole week."

I chuckled softly. I had eaten my fill of stew, but my stomach still grumbled for more. Mark was still guzzling down another bowl of soup, his fifth, and he let out a loud belch as he set down the bowl. "Why aren't there any other customers today? I mean, the food's good as far as I can taste it."

"Well," I let out a sigh. "Yesterday, I lost my cool and drove off all the customers. Scared them off, I guess."

"At least you didn't do that today, so... that's an improvement." Mark looked at me emphatically, his dark eyes staring into my soul. "Some customers are annoying, for sure."

He laughed at his statement, realizing what he had just said. "Well, I kind of lost my temper today. Sorry 'bout that."

"It's fine. We all have our lousy days."

"Hey, Wallace, we'll be sure to recommend the restaurant. Least we can do for letting us stay here tonight." Hank gave me a crooked smile, which I returned.

"That would be great." I said, "Where are you coming from, anyways?"

"The Capital," Aurora muttered. "It was mayhem the last time we were there."

Hank nodded gravely. "The flame keeper supposedly went insane and fled. With the flame."

"I'm not sure I follow..." I trailed off, recalling the stranger's words. ...he's in danger.

"Well, I suppose living in a small town, you don't get much news."

I bobbed my head in agreement. Only occasionally did people stop by our town and pass on some news, but otherwise, seldom was there talk about anywhere else. Or the capital, for that matter. If it didn't affect us, it didn't matter.

"This is common knowledge to almost everyone, but I'll give you a rundown. About a decade and a half ago, after some lucky miner in Hortrum found a flame, they switched to spark power and finally, there wasn't any more stupid vapor getting dumped into the air," Hank explained. "Within a year, everything ran on it: transportation, technology, you get the point. It was tons better than hydro, but hella expensive."

I nodded. I had known that so far.

"And that's where the flame keeper comes in," Mark interjected, looking up from his soup. "A flame itself can power this block for about a millennium, but the rate it releases sparks is way too slow to support a large city like the capital. More area, more energy, right?" I nodded slowly and he continued.

"Someone has to speed the process up—at the cost of the time the flame lasts, of course. But it's a dangerous thing, the flame. You take up the suicide mission, you're in for life."

I shuddered at the thought. I wasn't surprised though; the capital was an entirely different world, filled to the brim with things I couldn't begin to understand. And the spark power they ran on was stranger than I could have ever imagined.

One thing still hung on to my mind though, that the stranger had mentioned this father of mine was the flame keeper. Somewhere, deep in the recesses of my mind, a little voice battled with my sanity, urging me to say yes, that it was true.

"After the flame keeper and the flame vanished, the Guild kicked us out after taking pity on us for a few years. They claimed they didn't have the funding. We stayed for a year or two in the capital, working odd jobs, but jobs weren't plentiful. So we packed what little we had and hopped on the first train we saw." Hank sighed. "I wouldn't say I regret leaving—capital life was beyond arduous and pro-hydro riots were increasing—but we had something worth doing: hunting and scavenging for the Guild. Aurora got her best kill back then. Clean fifty yards."

"Now, I don't know. No one does." He let out another sigh, avoiding my gaze.

I glanced over at Mark, who was sipping on the stew without a sound. His eyes briefly met mine before lowering to his bowl, his thoughts bottled up in a tight jar in his mind. Aurora simply seemed to be counting the ceiling tiles—but there weren't any.

"Uh, I'll show you all to your rooms if you want right now." I started uneasily. "Get settled down, I guess."

The three nodded, relieved that I had switched the subject. I stood up and led them through the bustling kitchen, dodging the staff that rushed in and out of the kitchen, balancing dirty plates and utensils.

"Dave!" I could barely hear my voice over the noise. "I'm going to show them to their rooms right now."

Dave looked up from the pot he was cleaning. "Alright, get a move on then. You need to help Alice with the cleaning."

I groaned loudly, and Mark smirked. "Restaurant life sure is fun, huh?"

"Yeah, really fun." I headed towards the back door. "Now c'mon. I need to get you three to your rooms before I get dishwashing duty."

Passing the fireplace, I led the three to their respective rooms: Mark, the farthest room down the hallway; Hank, the room adjacent; and Aurora, the room across.

Whew, what a day, I thought as I ran a hand through my messy hair. But, sadly, it wasn't over yet. I sauntered down the stairs, my mind elsewhere, and pushed open the backdoor, a plethora of noise greeting me. Shoving past my fellow staff members, I swung open the kitchen door, ignoring Dave's barely audible voice that seemed to scream dishwashing duty, and heaved a sigh of relief. Sometimes, it was nice to be out of the chaos.

"Heads up!" A voice called, breaking the silence. I jerked my head to the left—it was Alice. A damp rag slammed into my chest forcefully, and I stumbled backward, fumbling with the rag that seemed to dance on my palms in mockery.

"Darn it! I'll get it one of these days." I caught the rag midair, joined Alice at the table next to hers, and let the piece of cloth do its work. It was amazing, really, how Alice had so cleverly manipulated each water droplet on the rag so that they would ensure not a single speck of dust would be left after I wiped the table down. But perhaps it was just a simple trick that anyone with innate water magic could manage.

"Alice, have you heard anything about the capital recently, perhaps something about a flame keeper?" Alice, besides Dave, loathed the capital so much that she had left her successful hydro production position there a few years ago and settled for life as a janitor in a quiet restaurant. She never told me why, but to be fair, I had never asked her about it.

She let out a bitter laugh, which turned into a coughing fit as she hacked up flakes of blood. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She waved off my concerned look with a flick of her wrist. "The capital, huh? Why're you askin', anyways?"

I shrugged, attempting to appear indifferent, that it was just something that popped up in my mind. Nothing got past Alice, though, and she knew me too well.

"The travelers," I said reluctantly. "They're leaving the capital since the flame keeper went insane or something and took off with the flame a few years ago." A pause. "I'm not sure if it's all true coming from them."

"Well, I assure you, it's true. I don't know about the insane part, but something is certainly going on." Alice smirked. "Serves them right, though, after the first one burned down half of Wynnville in those wildfires."

"Wildfires?" Had this been what Dave was talking about? Alice didn't seem particularly interested, explaining to me that there was another flame keeper before, who had been exiled after burning down Wynnville and almost the capital. Alice told me that Dave had his first restaurant there turned to ashes, and he started his second here in Arborad—far, far away from the capital. Still, as I listened, my mind kept pestering me whether it was the only thing Dave hadn't told me.

"How come you never told me about all of this?" I asked.

Alice shrugged. "Eh, Dave never fancied the capital so there was seldom discussion about it—not that we even had time to talk much."

"And all these years I thought the capital was finally starting to ditch their old habits... So what about hydro power? A bit of water vapor doesn't compare to this... this stupidity! The flame keeper's gone, what's next?" She threw her hands up, and tiny water droplets sprinkled over us like confetti.

"This is why I left! This is the wrath of the water mages!..."

I stifled a laugh and went back to wiping the tables, tuning her voice out easily. I had other more pressing concerns in mind; namely the stranger. He had said that my "father" was the flame keeper, but what did that mean about Dave? What did that mean about me? What if...

A voice in my mind begged me to stop, pleaded with me to forget about all this, but no, I couldn't. Not that easily at least.

What if he was telling me the truth?