The yelling was unintelligible from where we were standing, but it was easy to tell everyone was in a panic. Firth looked at me, unsure of what to do. I nodded and said, “Go take care of your people. This was an emergency. There is no time for decorum.”

He nodded and went running down the pathway, feet bouncing across the surface like a man many years younger than he was.

This world didn’t have magic and by the looks of it, people couldn’t afford the gem tech that the domes and wealthy used in mass. I ran down the hallway after him. Every step I took brought me closer to the smoke and fire. There was screaming and running noises coming from every tunnel. I noticed several animal characteristics on the people. It only caught my eye for a moment, but the panicked look on their faces refocused my attention on the matter at hand. People were coming down with metal buckets filled with water.

I caught up to Firth, who was directing the emergency effort. The roaring of the fire was echoing in the tunnel. I got within speaking distance to him, but he didn’t notice me. How could he have noticed me with all the frantic people?

“Quickly, bring more water. We are going to lose all of our crops and food reserves!” he yelled to the people bringing buckets.

“May I help?” I said to him, grabbing his attention for a moment. I tried to come off as confident as possible, but there were a lot of new people around me, so I’m sure I seemed nervous. I mean, I felt nervous, like really nervous. I was trying to not have a panic attack.

He looked at me, then at Highthorn, then back at me. “Your guard can follow the people, grabbing buckets of water from the top of the refuge. You are too small and it’s too great of a risk for you to get hurt. Please stay at the side of the tunnel.”

“Lady A, I cannot leave your—” Highthorn objected before I cut him off.

“No, go, I will be fine. These people were ready to take in your family. You should help them,” I said, shooing him away as I went to the side of the tunnel. I went just out of view of the main stream of people to plan.

When Highthorn took off with the other refugees for water, there was the sound of a woman’s shrieking coming down the tunnel. Her voice was on repetition, her bellows making her way down the tunnel like a dragon’s roar. What I heard next when I could understand her changed the situation from an emergency to a crisis. “The children—there are thirty-six children—in there. The children were—working the field. They—can’t be found,” she shrieked out while losing her breath.

She had grabbed onto Firth’s clothes, frantically pleading for his help. The tension in the area rose, causing people to move faster.

Firth retained his confidence and grabbed hold of the women’s shoulders. “We have this. Please go help get more water,” Firth said, looking directly into her eyes. She nodded and ran off with the others once she had collected herself.

Lives were directly at stake now. The smoke was only getting thicker, making it hard to see and to breathe. Only someone like me with a protective barrier could last down here. Visibility was low, but I had another method, mana sense. It allowed me to see mana sources, but I could also tweak it with many effects. I could trace various components; the four elements, certain materials, sound, energy, life, and magic.

By closing my eyes, I could visualize the area in my mind. I could get a rough image of the surrounding area, as if I had entered a void space with only key elements visible. Then I took in the location of life signs, allowing me to see the stream of people bringing buckets to the fire. I saw the children deep in the back. They were huddled together, trying to stay away from the fire’s encroachment. I could tell by their life signs being so close to one another. I then enabled myself to see the fire was raging, moving on the children, tapping them. They were getting burnt!

I had no time at all and I didn’t have the time to waste to go into my memobrary and find a specialized spell. I would just have to brute force it with a water element conjuration. With a wave of my hand, I created a remote spell circle and ushered out water into the center of the fire. The children were close by so it was unsafe to shoot it at them. It started out as a stream, then blasted out like a river. I saw the fire dissipating water rushing down the tunnel out to the front entrance. I felt the cool water going across my feet and I braced the wall, taking a stable position against the rushing water.

I flooded the room up to where the children were and released the spell. The fire had been put out where the children were, as well as a back area. As I opened my eyes, the water rushed past me with debris in it. I really hoped I hadn’t caused too much damage, but life was very important. I knew I could help them rebuild if needed.

Firth looked shocked as the water rushed past him. He snapped out of it and yelled, “We need to find the children!”

People rushed across the muddy floor. I followed them in, heading straight to where the children were. They were all crying so their sobs could be used to locate them. The smoke was still thick, but no one cared. The children were picked up and taken out of the smoke that was filling their lungs. People headed down the tunnel to a lower level.

There were burn marks on the children, but they were being coddled by the adults, so I couldn’t get a good look. I could hear the wheezing of the adults as they had probably gotten smoke inhalation from fighting the fire. I could clear out the smoke, but I didn’t want to draw too much attention to myself now that things calmed down.

Highthorn had come up to me, looking panicked. “Are you okay, Lady A?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” I replied, wondering when he would stop worrying about me. I had been in much riskier situations before.

“What happened to the fire?”

I pointed to myself, which had caused his eyes to widen. “There was some sort of water miracle that got rid of the fire. People are injured. How do people heal them here?” I asked him. High-level healing magic may put a target on my back, so I didn’t want to use it without some precautions. I wasn’t sure how people would react to magic, especially after how casters had been blamed for everything.

“Only the wealthy or the corporations have access to the gems that do healing magic. The rest of us just have to heal naturally unless our employers deem us worthy.”

That seemed horrible. Why would there be a scarcity of magical supplies? As far as I understood, they were just putting inscriptions on chance unless it was something special. I had wondered if they were just manufacturing limited supplies to drive up the price and keep control of who had access. “Okay, have you seen one before?” I asked, wanting to know so that I could replicate what looked like and pass my magic off as going through it.

“Yes, it is a small white crystal. I’m not sure what inscriptions it has, though. You never really see while it’s emanating soft white light.”

That gave me enough details to go off of. I dove into my memobrary. I had seen a book on creating crystals while searching up information on how to improve the refuge. The book I grabbed was “Crystal Craft: How To Grow Them Right In Your Lab!” Skimming through the book, I found what I needed and left my memobrary.

I opened the palm of my hand and follow the steps of the spell mentally. There was a small light in my hand and a crystal grew to the size of my palm. This would hopefully pass. I looked at Highthorn and asked, “Does this look correct?”

“Yes it does. Does it work?”

“Sort of,” I said, going down the tunnel to where the injured people were. They had laid the children out on the ground with burn marks on their skin; their parents huddled over them, trying to soothe them, unsure of what to do. The front door was open and you could see the trail of mud my water spell had left. Several people were walking around coughing and huffing, barely able to breathe. I saw Firth and several other people trying to apply bandages to the children as they cried in pain.

“Firth, may I use a healing crystal?” I asked, grabbing his attention.

“Yes, of course—please—please help the children first,” he said with a look of surprise that changed to relief.

I went over to one of the crying children whose parents were standing over him. Their eyes pleaded with me to do something. The crystal glowed in my hand, for that was only an illusionary effect of a light spell. Really, I was using it as a cover to cast a high healing spell I kept on hand. I kept a range of spells in my head by reading notes about them I had taken. I had to do it every night, but it ensured I had access to my most important magic. Some of these spells were very specific and had severe consequences for mistakes.

A glow emitted around the child, and his wounds sealed up. His breathing normalized with no more coughing or wheezing. As soon as the wounds sealed up, he immediately passed out. Now he just needed time to rest. Next would be the mental effects, but I really didn’t enjoy messing with those.

“Thank you, thank you. Please, how can we repay you?” the parents asked as they thanked me for saving their child.

“I’m not even thinking about that right now. Don’t worry about it, I must get to the other injured. Please take your child to rest,” I replied as I moved on to the next closest child. One after another, the children’s wounds disappeared. The room full of now resting children cleared out.

Then I remembered the adults had inhaled far too much smoke. I looked up and around to locate them. When it hit me that a small crowd had formed around me, I felt my heart thump. I started to tap my fingers on my leg as my anxiety grew. The trick wasn’t working. There were too many people too close. I felt trapped, like a wave of zombies surrounded me. I felt myself getting more and more anxious.

“MAKE SPACE NOW! Lady A needs space to help you!” Highthorn yelled, as he put his hand on my shoulder. I calmed down having someone familiar nearby. As the crowd cleared away, my heart rate normalized.

“Could you tell them to get in the line if they need healing from the smoke?” I asked Highthorn meekly as I was still recovering from the near anxiety attack.

“Form a line in front of the lady if you need healing from the smoke!”

A line of people formed in front of me. I waved for them to come forward, one after another. I put the stone in front of their chest as it glowed, and their breathing became regular. Every one of them thanked me and I had time to look at their features. There were so many types of animal ears and tails I could just barely hold on to not petting them. That would really calm me down, but it still seemed so inappropriate. Maybe I could adopt a child so that I could give them head pats and play with their ears and tail. Wait, no I’m only a teenager, well sort of, nevermind that thought.

The line cleared and Firth came last. After I had healed him, I put the crystal away in a pocket.

“Lady A, we can never thank you enough. You healed everyone and treated everyone equally. Is there anything you want?”

“More information about the situation and somewhere to rest, please.”

He looked a little dismayed. “No one of your stature ever stays. We have nothing proper for you. The only thing we have ready is the room the Valrecks were going to stay in.”

“That is fine. Just take me there immediately. I really need to rest,” I replied, needing somewhere to relax my nerves and collect my thoughts.

He turned and headed up a tunnel, beckoning me to follow. As we walked, we chatted with people staring at me with admiration.

“I am sure you just used a lot of mana. Please stay as long as you need. We are extremely grateful for what you’ve done for our people.”

“It’s nothing. People were in need. How could I look at myself if I let children die when I had a way of healing them?”

“Thank you. We will investigate the damages and fire. Once we find out more, I will come get you after our meeting and let you know what we discussed.”

I needed to be in that meeting to figure out what they decided. If I was going to upgrade this place, I would need to get them on board with me making structural changes to the refuge. I am sure I already have a few votes after healing everyone, but I wanted to get their approval before I did anything major without asking. “Could you please get me before the meeting? I’m interested to see how things work around here.”

“Yes, if you like. Though please forgive us if anyone loses their manners, many people here have never even interacted with someone like you. Those who were born here have never interacted with anyone from the dome.”

So there were generations of exiles here. That was sad but good to hear that they were surviving. He stopped in front of a thin metal door. I had wondered why everything had metal doors, but when I thought about it just a little more, it made sense. Where would they get the wood from if the land was so barren and dangerous? They could probably only grow trees inside of the dome. If they mine a lot, then metal would be easier to acquire than wood.

“I understand they have mixed feelings about me being here in the first place. You can tell them in advance I’m here to help, if they haven’t already figured that out.”

“I will take my leave now. Thank you again. I’ll come back and get you before the meeting.”