A Human’s Guide to Surviving Magical Mishaps by Kit Bryan
Rule 31- Admire from afar. Chatting up the firefighter while your kitchen's burning won't impress anyone. Plus, they're kinda busy.

The location of the next fire is harder to find. In fact I almost drove past it. If it weren't for the GPS in my phone telling me that my destination is on the left, I probably would have kept on driving. It's not until we're both out of the car and looking around that we find any sign of fire. A bakery with some seriously tasty looking displays in the window also boasts a brand new door. What isn't new is the doorframe which shows signs of being scorched. It is in definite need of a coat of paint.

"Well? Can you sense any magic use here?" I ask Ashton. He looks annoyed again.

"No, it seems the door has been replaced. I would need to see the actual door to determine if magic was used on it. The actual door frame was unaffected." He runs a finger over the frame and draws a line through the soot. "Oh, well... I think there was probably magic involved in this fire." I say, thinking out loud. Ashton turns to me and raises an eyebrow.

"Oh? Is there something unusual that I am missing?" He questions. I shrug.

“Kind of. It's just..... the door frame is made of wood. If the door burned enough to scorch it that much, shouldn't it have caught fire too? Or at least be a little damaged rather than just dirty? It seems like the fire was completely limited to the actual door. So it was almost... controlled.? Also I can't see any natural way that this door would have caught fire so it's almost certain that there was arson of some kind. I just don't know if it was magical or not." I decide.

"I have made the observation before but I feel it is worth repeating. You are a very observant person.” Ashton comments.

"Thanks." I tell him brightly.

"Does this mean you think I'm right?" I ask, a little excitedly. There's something so satisfying about being right, particularly when it's on a topic I don't particularly know a lot about.Sometimes all it takes is a bit of good old fashioned common

sense.

"Yes, I think you are likely correct. This is a store correct? We can go inside?" he confirms.

"Yep. Did you want to ask around and find out if anyone saw or heard anything? If we're really lucky they might even have cameras somewhere and we could see what happened." I don't know how helpful a camera would be for identifying someone wearing a magical disguise, but we could at least confirm if they acted strangely or used magic, right?

"That is a good idea and we should do that, but I was also thinking that we might purchase lunch." Ashton is looking wistfully at the display and I laugh.

"It does look good, doesn't it? Come on. Let's go ask around and get something to eat."

It takes us a while to order and we end up getting about five times more food than we actually need because Ashton wants to try all the items he doesn't usually see at home. I figure we can snack while we check out the scenes of the fires. The person at the counter is a woman who I would guess is in her mid to late thirties and has a friendly face. I glance at Ashton to see if he wants to be the one to ask her questions but he just nods encouragingly for me to continue. It's probably best if he tries to avoid drawing too much attention to himself anyway. We don't want fans or protesters stalking and harassing us all day. I consider how to start the conversation and decide to keep it casual rather than trying to outright interrogate the woman. If there was anything to learn that way the police probably would have already gotten it. Girl talk and gossip is the way to go.

"Hey, have you guys been doing renovations? I noticed your front door is all perfect and new. Are you going to update the frame too? Or maybe repaint it? Because it would look so pretty in a pale green, it could match your sign!" I ramble a little but she doesn't seem put off.

"Oh no dear. It was the strangest thing. I came in to start the morning baking and imagine my surprise to find the front door was gone! I thought I must have left it open at first but no, the entire door was gone. It took me a few minutes to realise it hasn't been stolen but had actually been burned up. There was a big pile of ash in the doorway and it had blown throughout the ENTIRE room. I had to throw out a couple bags of flour and other supplies because ash had blown onto them." She sounds oddly cheerful about the entire thing.

"Oh, well that's no good. Do you have any idea what happened?" I ask.

"Not really, I suppose the door must have caught fire. I'm just glad it didn't spread. Even if I did have to close for the day and spend it cleaning and getting my door replaced. I'm actually kind of lucky." Well she's a pretty optimistic person. How nice.

"Oh, so you didn't actually see the fire or anything?” I prompt.

"Oh no dear. It's a shame. If I had been around for the fire I could have called the firemen and enjoyed the show." She winks at me.

"Yeah, well who wouldn't enjoy that." I laugh with her and Ashton gives us both a strange look. I can tell he wants to ask what we're talking about but before he can, the woman finally takes notice of him hovering near me. "Oh, well who is this? Maybe you don't need a fireman after all. It looks like you're set. Good job dear." She winks at Ashton this time and even blows him a kiss. He flinches back like she had flicked him on the nose or something. "Uh, right. This is my friend Ashton, and I'm Kat by the way." I introduce him, hoping to change the topic a little bit.

"It's lovely to meet you both. I'm Mara." She responds but she is still glancing over at Ashton constantly. He speaks up.

"Do you still happen to have any of the ash from your burned up door?" He asks. This is enough to distract Mara from her ogling. "What?" She blurts out in confusion. I rush to intervene.

“Uh, Ashton does a lot of gardening and we heard that ash works great in compost and stuff. He probably just wanted to use it for that. Sorry, we didn't mean to confuse you.” I reassure her. Sure we could tell her that we're investigating potential arson, but then that might scare her and it could also raise the issue of who we are to actually be conducting an investigation and it would be better to avoid sharing too much information. Luckily, Mara seems to write the strange question off as Ashton just being a little socially awkward or something.

"Oh, well no, I didn't keep it. It blew all through the room so most of it ended up in my mop and bucket. I even threw the mop head away it was so filthy afterwards. Sorry I can't help." She apologises.

"It's no big deal. Thank you very much for your time, and the food.” She has a stack of little business cards on the counter for people who want to order birthday cakes and things. I grab one on the way out and shove it in my handbag.