Excerpt:

This made eight in total. And he had no doubt that whoever had started this fire tonight was the same person who had instigated the previous seven. Which meant, he admitted gloomily to himself, that it probably didn’t matter how quickly they got inside to look around. There had been no useful clues whatsoever, the first seven times, and it was very probably that there would be none tonight either.

He made himself stop pacing, and cast a glance at his companion, who had remained utterly still and silent at his side, through all the hustle and bustle of the cleanup and the tests.

Roy had been pretty active about half an hour ago, rushing to the scene after Maes had called him. Maes had actually hesitated, wondering if he should phone or not. He knew how badly his friend was going to take this, and after all, Roy had only gotten back a week or so ago from his long vacation in Xing. Great way to wreck any relaxation and benefits from the trip to his ancestors’ original home. Yet in the end, Maes also knew there was really no choice. Roy would find out about this sooner or later, and better that he hear about this from his closest friend.

Plus there was the fact, as in all the previous cases, that nobody could put out a fire like this one as quickly and efficiently as the Flame Alchemist. The firefighters did as good a job as possible, and they were the best in the country for most situations, but in these particular instances, involving such huge buildings, their role ended up being reduced mainly to holding down the fort and trying to keep the fire from spreading to neighbouring edifices, until Roy could arrive and stop it altogether.

Which he had done tonight – again – as quickly and thoroughly as the other seven times. He had needed less than ten minutes to walk around the building and assess things such as the location of the main fire (or fires, since there were usually several burning inside at once) and the structure of the building, and then he was ready to do his pinpoint work.

After the first fire, he had explained to Maes what the process was when he dealt with something this big and widespread. It wasn’t enough just to snuff out the main blazes; he simultaneously had to alter the oxygen content around the building to make sure smaller fires weren’t fed into much larger ones while he was dealing with others. So he had to pick which ones to work on first, while preventing all the others from growing. It necessitated using both hands at once, snapping his fingers at different times, engaging his alchemy in several places to do more than one thing.

But that was over now. Roy had successfully put out the fires in this building (his work was flawless and precise as always), and then he’d allowed the firefighters to resume pumping water from the tanks on their wagons, to soak down the charred wooden frame and remaining hot embers. Already the air in this block was beginning to cool down, and Maes didn’t feel so much like he was working in a sauna any more. He might even have to do up the collars of his uniform jacket and shirt again, in a few minutes.

That wasn’t his main concern, though. He glanced aside at Roy again, shoving his glasses back up his nose with the heel of one hand. Even the man’s profile was grim as he stood, one hand stuffed into a pocket, gazing up at the blackened walls.