The debris sailed through the air. Zen stood at the ready but the debris was pushed away by a stream of water.

Zen looked towards the man who had launched the torrent of water.

Wang Lin nodded her thanks at him.

The man turned towards a group of eight men he was standing with. “Alright, let’s go men! “On three!” The man said, turning to face the burning mansion, their faces painted red from the light of the blaze.

““Water Stream Shot!” The all thrust their hands out and water came out, arcing in the night air before falling on the mansion in an attempt to douse the flames.

“It will take them too long to kill that fire,” Jao said, also looking at their efforts. “They need to go into the mansion and try to douse the fire from there.”

“The heat might be a little too much for them.” Wang Lin said. “Even if they could somehow cover themselves in a water aura, it would be awful for someone to be inside the mansion, fighting the blaze, only to run out of water elemental energy.”

“Madam City Lord!”

The three looked at the man running toward them. Zen nearly did not recognise him because of the soot marks on his face and fine silken clothes.

“Mr. Li!” Wang Lin said, turning to the man. “Are you okay? Are there any casualties?”

“Nothing much in terms of causalities, I was able to get my daughter and wife out.” Li said, pointing to Li Yue, who was lying on the ground next to who Zen guessed was her mother. “Just 3 servants of the night staff have died but no one important. Did you bring reinforcements?” Li asked with a hopeful and pleading look. “We could use more Water Elementalists.”

Lin shook her head. “No Water Elementalists. They should be on their way but hopefully, I can help.”

“How?” Li said.

“Father, stand by.” Lin said to Jao. “If I can’t put it out in my first try, I’ll need you to lend me some of your strength.”

Jao nodded. “What are you going to do?”

“Something I learned on my travels.” Lin said. “Ding Wu!”

“Yes, ma’am!” Ding Wu, came over, on a steed of his own.

“Ding Wu!” Zen said in happiness.

The man nodded at Zen.

“Did you bring what I asked you to?”

Ding Wu nodded and dug in his person and produced a scroll!

“That… looks familiar.” Li said as he watched Ding Wu hand over the scroll.

“I invoke the Wang Family and Razor Feather Contract.” She said as she pulled the contract open. The parchment began to glow. A pillar of light appeared from the floor, shooting up into the night before vanishing, in its place was a brown hawk, the size of a man.

“Razor Feather?” Li said in surprise. “How is our hawk going to help?”

“Correction, Mr. Li.” Wang Lin said as she approached the hawk.” It is our hawk, or in this case, mine.”

The hawk looked around and grew hysteric. It flapped its wings and screamed into the night.

“Whoa! Whoa!” Lin said, trying to calm it and stop it from flying away. “Behave!”

“It must be spooked by the fire!” Jao said. “Dumb poorly trained beast!”

“I assure you, our beasts are best trained!” Li said. “If it is not behaving correctly, then it is because of the handlers!”

Lin continued to near the bird, putting a hand out. “Calm yourself!” Lin commanded, when the hawk did not, she touched the scroll. Purple sparks spread across the hawk and it stood still. “That’s it,” she said. “I only need you for a short time, the better you behave, the faster you’ll be done and out of here.”

The bird still looked panicked but stopped moving.

Lin climbed on its back and looked at the line of water elementalists. “You there! Focus on dousing the flames in the perimeter. Ensure they do not spread out to any of the other houses!”

Recognising her commanding voice, the men did as she asked.

“Alright, Razor Feather, let’s go!” Lin said.

The hawk began flapping its wind, sending out air all around them. Zen raised his hand to block the wind and dust from him and Shibi.

The hawk took off.

Zen noticed that his mother, on the back of the hawk began glowing the further it got. Her golden glow off set the night, the grey smoke and the amber fire from which it came from. The smoke began to bend away from Lin as she and Razor Feather flew closer.

“What that power?” Shibi asked.

“It’s Celestial Power.” Zen said. “There’s Ki, then Elemental Energy and above that, Celestial Power. That’s what mommy is using now.”

“Celestial Power? What can it do?”

Zen shrugged. “Anything.”

Wang Lin glowed brighter in the sky, looking like a midnight sun. Her glow grew and grew before it exploded, the golden light raining down in a wave. She released another wave and another and on and on. With each wave, the fire calmed, grew less bright, less hot until all the flames vanished, leaving only simmering cinders behind.

With the light from the fire gone, the only thing that was glowing was Wang Lin and even that, instantly vanished.

Razor Feather swing back around and landed on the ground, cawing in panic as it did.

“Alright! Alright!” Lin hopped off and the hawk flew away.

“That hawk is troublesome.” Jao said. “You should discipline it, daughter.”

“It is acting quite strange.” She said, dusting herself off.

“Oh, City Lord! City Lord! Thank you! Thank you so much!” Li said. “How can I ever repay you.”

“Nothing.” She said, raising her hand. “Order your men to search the mansion and the grounds. Find anyone that is injured and make sure they get medical attention.”

“Y-Yes, of course!” Li ran off to give more commands to his men.

“Well done, daughter.”

She nodded. “I suspect my help came a little bit too late, Papa.” She said. “I hope they can manage without any more of my help, I’m out of Celestial Power.”

“I am sure you did enough, LinLin.”

“Ma’am, I have bad news.” Ding Wu said as he approached.

“What’s wrong, Ding Wu?” Lin said.

“They have found very troubling pamphlets around.” Ding Wu said, handing a pamphlet to Lin.

She looked at in and frowned in worry.

“LinLin, what’s wrong?” Jao said.

“Yeah, are you okay mommy?” Zen said.

“This is bad.” She said. “Seems this fire was no accident.” She turned around the pamphlet.

Zen saw the splotch and in the middle a white character, written, ‘Mark’.

Wang Lin looked serious, “The Black Mark have come to our town.”