Lucy is slowed down a little bit by the narrowness but she manages. 

As they travel, the forest starts out normal, but then they start running into the half-blackened trees. By the time a candlemark has passed, nearly all the undergrowth is gone and the trees that are still standing all show signs of fire damage.

Savil grunts at the map. “Gods. We’re still miles away.”

:This is where it happened? Or, miles away is?: she asks Savil, not wanting to make Vanyel pay any more attention to their location than necessary. 

:Miles away is. I hadn't realized the fire came this far: She shakes her head. :Would've just been an ordinary forest fire by then, this far out. Not the, er, explosion. Just turns out that trees are flammable: 

:Oh. Yeah. Did you know that there are kinds of trees that can only sprout right after a fire passes through? Some places want to burn every so often.: 

:I don't think this was one of them.:

:No: Savil's face is unreadable. She keeps riding. 

A few minutes later: :Uh oh. We've got company. Headed this way: 

There definitely isn't room here for Lucy to move to one side of the path. 

Um. Um. Umumumum--

She puts Wilbur down and climbs a tree. 

It's a good thing no one is watching the branches wiggle as she moves invisibly into place, but she gets up. 

A couple of minutes later, a lanky teenaged boy on a pack-laden donkey comes down the path. He stops when he sees Savil. "Herald?" If he notices the mysteriously unaccompanied Companion, he doesn't say anything about it. "Do I...know you, ma'am?" 

Vanyel can't put a name to the voice, but he recognizes it, and goes rigid. 

Oh nooooooo

:Vanyel is it okay if I cover your ears?:

:Please: He's trying to cover his own ears but it's not quite effective enough to block out all sound. 

She covers his ears. Her tentacles are sort of squishy, enough that she can smush them against his ears so he has a bunch of insulation instead of just the amount that one of her tentacle-tips is wide. 

Success. Vanyel is not going to hear the ensuing conversation. He's kind of upset anyway, but Lucy is comforting and he trusts her and she isn't going to let anything bad happen to him. 

"Herald-Mage Savil," Savil says, quirking her head at the boy. 

"I do know you!" He squirms. "You were here last year. When the Thing happened." He says it with capital letters too. 

"Yes. I'm coming by to visit Vanissa and talk to her. Are you headed to the town market? You can go ahead past." She'll dismount so Kellan can edge right up against the trees. 

He nods and obeys, though he keeps craning his neck back to look at her curiously. 

Savil remounts and grits her teeth and keeps going. :Wish I remembered the lad at all. I suppose the visiting Herald-Mage was a lot more memorable to him than one of a pack of cousins was to me: 

:I bet I'd be even more memorable if I wasn't invisible in this form. Have I mentioned lately that I love my shapeshifting? I love my shapeshifting.:

Savil laughs; there's some nervousness under it. They keep moving. 

The closer they get, the worse it looks. By the time Savil privately Mindspeaks Lucy and Wilbur that they must be almost there, less than half of the trees are still standing, and the ones that are, are blackened all the way up the trunks; it's obvious where new leaves have pushed their way out from soot-stained branches.

The air is starting to carry a definite scorched smell. 

Vanyel curls up tighter and tighter in Lucy's grip. Focus on breathing. All he has to do is stay perfectly still and not look. Or think. That shouldn't be too hard. He keeps telling himself that and - and it's not completely plausible, but it's unclear what else he can do at this point. 

...Lucy, for lack of a better idea, starts to sing a lullabye in English her mother used to sing to her and Wilbur. 

Sleep now, my dear one, the world does not know

Just who you are or just how you will grow 

The world's full of wonders, and you are their gem

And you'll reach far higher than any of them

I know things are hard now, but go you to sleep

The morning comes nigh and our problems will keep

Sleep now, my dear one, this time is for rest 

So cuddle up cozy and safe in your nest 

Vanyel doesn't understand any of the words, of course, but it's a pretty tune and Lucy has a nice voice, and it's something he can focus on other than the smell and the fact that he knows exactly where they are, even if he can't see it. 

The keep is visible to the others from a good distance, between the remaining trees. It's intact, mostly, but blackened and scorched all along one side. On the opposite side is a plain of soot and ash, broken by the occasional splintered remains of a tree; in the distance, something glints mirror-black in the afternoon sun. It might be water? It probably isn't.