"The fire," Ayo tells him, and her own smile flashes, there and gone again, quick as lightning. "Do not singe yourself. You have better things to do tonight than to go back to the infirmary."

She busies herself with putting out the torches, dousing the flames with a metal cap like a large candle-snuffer, then waits until he has reduced the fire to a heap of loose dirt and ash.

This place has served its purpose. And he has somewhere else to be.