text: You awake in the morning unsure what to do. Your plans had been of an easy year living off your money and you could still do it, prices would probably go up for a time but you'd still comfortably now that your settled. But you were now sure you'd lost any place that you had called home and your closest friend in the fire so you at least wanted to find out what had happened.
  
  You grab some food then head out to start trying to ask questions and see if anyone is the wiser about what had happened to cause the fire, and to do a last look through the survivors for any sign of your friend.
  
  You ask several guards but most don't seem to know any more than you do. Eventually you see a guard that isn't a shell shocked as the rest and he tells you that the captain over at the military end of the barracks has all the information about the fire and that you should speak to him so you head there to see what he knows.
  
  'The Barracks' as it is generally know does contain the city guard's barracks but also the military side of things, the army barracks, its armory, offices and everything else it needed all in one giant building that straddled and made up part of the wall between the iron and stone districts. You quickly see a small group of people talking to soldiers outside one of the entrances and approach them to hear what is going on.
  
  Its one of the captains explaining the fire to them, a few minor details extra but basically what you had heard before. once he is done you ask him about how it started. He looks you over then send you in and tells you to talk to the man at the desk, first room on the right. You enter and realize you not left with much choice as to where to turn since there is a group of soldiers blocking the corridor a few meters away with only one door standing open between you and them. You enter and approach the man looking at you from behind the desk.
  
  "What can I do for you?"
  
  "I want to know how the fire started."
  
  The man seems mildly amused by your abrupt response but any trace of amusement quickly vanishes as he replies.
  
  "A ship packed with flammable fuel was set alight and rammed into our docks. the fire was deliberate."
  
  Stunned by the sudden revelation you ask "Are your sure? wait are you just telling everyone this? wont it cause a panic?"
  
  "There's no point trying to keep it a secret, half the fishing fleet saw it happen as did many of the survivors that ran into the sea and were picked up the by the ships, the entire city will know in two days at the most."
  
  "But who would do it, what is there to gain from burning down old district?"
  
  "We think it was Carn, at least the burning ship and the one that had been accompanying it bore their colours"
  
  "But don't we just have some minor trade disputes with them why would they do this!"
  
  "Well long story short we started full maritime trading 3 years ago, then two years ago some minor trade problems began, then it was about land, finally about fishing rights. things had been getting tense for months with armed ships keeping fishing boats company for protection and guards on our borders but no-one expected this. They have been sent ravens with questions about the ships but they will of course deny all knowledge, then it will be war. The king has already started recruiting to replace the men lost in the fire and more to fill out the army."
  
  You just stand unsure what to say, should you hate an enemy you don't know for what they did? Denounce their tactics, or just avoid the war and try and rebuild a life in the city.
  
  "So son" the commander stands up "we are still recruiting and the army wage is just as good as the miners one. You want to enlist?"
  
  > Hate what they did but you have money and a chance at a life now so it would be stupid to throw it away in a war, you politely refuse and head out.
  You spend the first few days split between organizing your life, doing patrols and watching the embers of the old district burn down to cold ash. Once the gates are opened you had planned to search through the wreckage for you old friends tavern but one look through the gate shows a nondescript layer of ash evenly coating the ground as far as the outer walls and the shore, only the occasional blackened wooden timbers or cracked black stone sticking up to break the massive expanse of grey and black.
  
  Soldiers and workers begin repairing the walls and gates from the fire damage and as the weeks pass people begin to clear out the ash and wreckage that survived. In many places the fires burned hot enough that not even much bone was left but in others teams were on duty collecting remains and transporting them into mass graves outside the city limits.
  
  The war had broken out after less than a fortnight. Carn repeatedly denied any involvement but after the trouble between the two cities and the witnesses to the ships bearing their royal colours war was inevitable. Reports said it was going our way and that we mostly had control of the seas between the cities and were making steady progress on land as well, casualties were growing but going by the weekly reports given by the guards theirs were much higher and we would have them under tight siege by the end of spring.
  
  You begin helping out where you can. You time in the mines has given you a simple grasp of solid construction so whenever you aren't on patrol you join the work teams which are put together building new stone docks in place of the wood ones. You join them as skilled labor and since you don't need the money you let your wages go to re-homing the survivors. Your work and charity gets you some small attention from the survivors that make up a lot of the unskilled labor and when they learn you used to live in the old district your adopted into the 'family' again. You even meet a girl a little younger than you that lost her family in the fire. Your just friends at first with you looking out for her, then you become closer, and by the time spring draws near you marry and settle into a life in the Iron town.
  
  By this time your accepting your wage since most of the survivors are now in temporary homes and your work on the docks and accepted position amongst the survivors has landed you a full time position in the construction guild overseeing some projects in the rebuilding of a new partly stone old district. The Guards saw the work you were doing and quietly let you quit as they knew you were doing better work rebuilding.
  
  The War went as quickly as you had been told to expect with Carn under tight siege by spring and fallen completely by summer. your army had been ruthless , firing burning oil and tar into the city and burning their food stores whenever possible, all in 'revenge' for the old district. Their king had denied all involvement right up until the surrender but he was now exiled along with his advisors and the city under your command.
  
  The world passed you by as you spent your years happily with your wife and family, there were always rumors of other wars and far off battles and victories but you didn't concern yourself with them as your city was now flourishing and always expanding and you had plenty of work as you moved up the guild ranks.