text: You talk to the guard Standing outside the barracks, the home of the city guards and he directs you round to the recruiters. The Captain there looks you over once and asks your story. You explain in light detail that you had been working the mines for years but after being robbed had nothing left so you thought the guards would be a good way to get back on your feet. He thinks for less than ten seconds before passing you a quill to sign on the line telling you that many men had joined for worse reasons and that they needed more men on patrol.
  
  You sign up and after a few days initial training you're attached to a squad and send out for your first training duty. You have no weapons while in training but you are given city guard leather armor and helm and sent out for, as its summed up to you, "Stand behind the real guards in your armor and try not to look stupid for your first week". You manage this with flying colors (especially the not looking stupid part) then for your next training rotation your given a choice by your sergeant.
  
  You can join the training squad patrolling old town docks, the "walk up and down in armor and not look stupid" shift as he puts it (since you wont be armed for at least a month).
  
  Or the Iron district guard training squad, the "stand out of sight and don't interfere with the cites working people" shift.
  > The Iron District shift, leaning quietly against the district wall for a week is at least easy...
  Well, you were right, you did indeed get to rest... and be bored...
  
  Lets face it, its not what you wanted from your life, BUT after a couple more weeks you become a full guard with proper wages and you get to have a better say in your shifts, not a bad job in all, just the training period to get through.
  
  The week goes as fast as the first one and the roof over head and hearty hot meals three times a day doesn't hurt matters at all. You actually take a liking to the shift there as you get to stop and chat to the workers and vendors along the roadside, and the guilds there are self policing as a rule so you rarely have to step in to do anything dangerous.
  
  The weeks pass and as you become a fully fledged member of the guard you make the Iron district your regular patrol (yep the real guards get to walk around the district). Its short walk from the barracks and you like the atmosphere and relaxed attitude of the work. The occasional sneak thief or pick pocket are the worst of the criminals on your watch and you get to know the locals on your rounds on a first name basis. You even have time and enough spare coin to stop in for drinks with your old friend down in the Old District on occasion after work and he seems happy about how you landed on your feet.
  
  Its really actually starting to look up for you as time passes, you have some small savings building up again, a good job that keeps you fit and your making friends with the other guards and the locals, who like having the guards around even if they aren't usually needed. You even foster some ideas about trying to stay in the guards and move up the ranks as you walk alongside another guard down the main market street.
  
  You both head back to the barracks when you're relieved as your's is the early shift that day and your entertaining the idea of another night down at your friends tavern- you've even got some friends from the guards liking the place enough to make it a regular thing for your patrol. You're just getting in the door when you hear mayhem breaking out in the barracks.
  
  You push into the hall to hear the guards all shouting about a fire in the old town. You rush outside and head at a dead run to the speedily growing black cloud above the Old District.
  > reaching the Gates
  You pull up from your run a couple of hundred feet from the gates and the wall. You just stare blankly towards where the wall separated the districts and just see a fierce orange and yellow glow over the wall occasionally punctuated by large bursts of flame with plumes of black filling the air above it. You sprint down to the gates but once you get there you find them closed and barred shut. grabbing the nearest guard you shout for them to be open so you can get to your friend but he just stares blankly back at you obviously shocked dumb then walks away. The gate captain walks over and tells you that if anyone is still in there and didn't get out before the gates had to be shut, that there was no chance of them being alive. You start to tell him that he is wrong and needs to open the gates when he takes you over to them and tells you to put a hand on them.
  
  You reach out and feel the gates metal almost hot enough to burn you. The captain quietly tells you that the fire came at the worst possible time. it had been dry for weeks and wooden buildings had been build right from the shore to the base of the wall, all stocked full of the years produce, hay, wheat, pelts and oils. most of it flammable. The wind blowing in from the sea had fanned it into an inferno almost as soon as the first warehouses had gone up. It had spread unnaturally quickly and only the closing of the huge gates had stopped it spreading through into this district too. The gates would stay closes until the embers were cold, and that could take a couple of days at least without any rain to quench them.
  
  You head slowly back to your room and collapse into bed unsure what to do next.
  > black morning
  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?"