113 Setting out

The expressions on Allen and Edward's faces soured just as fast as Noah's did. They ground to a halt, looking from him to Brayden.

"Why are they here?" Allen asked, his tone clipped.

Brayden looked from Allen to Noah, blinking in surprise at the tension between the two groups. "Vermil is reporting back with me, and he didn't want to leave his students behind. I figured we could take care of two problems at once."

"You know, I'm with Allen on this one," Noah said. "Perhaps it would be best if we left these two particular groups separated. Magus Allen and I don't see eye to eye on everything, and I suspect we'd have some difficulty on this trip."

"I vehemently agree," Allen said, crossing his arms. "The idea of sharing travel accommodations with this man for any longer than I absolutely need to is abhorrent. His attitude may rub off on Edward – and isn't he under investigation?"

"Yes. By me. And good to hear about your complaints," Brayden said. "I don't care about them. I'm not doing this trip twice. We don't have the luxury of using a portal, unless you want to go find someone to make it for us and have the coin to spend for their time and energy. Of course, you're welcome to go on your own."

Allen pursed his lips, then shook his head. "Very well. So long as Magus Vermil keeps his distance, we will do the same."

"I can work with that," Noah said.

Hm. I wonder why Magus and Edward need to get to the Linwick estate. I'll have to keep an eye on that. Maybe there will be something useful.

"Is there anyone else coming?" Lee asked. "At this rate, we might as well pick Arbitage up and drag the rest of the school along with us."

To Noah's surprise, Brayden snorted in amusement.

"No. This is everyone," Brayden said. "More than I expected, but Vermil does have a way of surprising me. This'll be a one and a half week trip. Maybe a bit less if things go well, but they never do. Let's get it moving. The less time we waste, the faster I can get back to things that are actually relevant. I don't have a Wind rune, so I won't be flying around anywhere. This will be a fully walked trip. Have any complaints – feel free to go on your own."

Nobody said anything.

"Do I need a tent?" Noah broke the silence. "Or will there be enough lodgings on the way?"

"I never use one," Brayden replied with a shrug. "It'll be fine. It's not the weather that'll we'll have to be worrying about."

And, with that, they were off. Noah and Moxie exchanged a glance as they fell in step, their group staying a ways ahead of Allen and Edward, who sullenly stayed behind the party. Brayden's long legs set his pace at such a rate that Lee and Isabel had to power walk to keep up with him, and Noah wasn't doing much better off.

They crossed campus, heading through the market square and past a section of buildings that Noah had never been in before. He kept himself from craning his neck around too much.

Once we get back, I'm going to take a little time to actually explore the area. I keep telling myself that, but I haven't really had a chance to just sit and get to know the world yet. Maybe I'll have the opportunity to do that at the Linwick estate.

The odd group made good time, but Arbitage was massive. After two hours of walking, they'd only just left the main buildings of the campus behind. It was another three hours before they finally broke away from the last vestiges of the campus. The paved path turned to a wide dirt road, and the number of travelers passing by them steadily decreased.

Throughout the entire day, Edward and Allen never grew close to them. They kept back, whispering to each other in hushed words. Noah was perfectly happy with that, although he couldn't deny being somewhat curious as to what they were talking about.

He considered trying to use his Pyroclastic Resonance Rune to try to pick up the vibrations from their voices, but he still hadn't had nearly enough time to figure out how the Rune worked to try anything like that.

And that would also probably require Body Imbuing, the lessons on which I unfortunately missed because of the Hellreaver blasting my mind with psychological warfare. Stupid monkey. I'll get Lee to fill me in tonight.

Once they'd completely broken away from Arbitage, what greeted them were long, sweeping plains of grassy hills. The grass was a deep, ruddy yellow and orange that almost reminded Noah of the Scorched Acres, but it wasn't actually dead.

Dotted throughout the grass were stout bushes with long, bright red flowers sprouting all over them. They rippled easily in the wind like miniature fires, and many of them were concentrated around the path that they were on.

The bushes leaned toward them as they passed, brushing against their skin. Noah stepped to the side, avoiding one of the grasping flowers.

"I've never liked them much either," Brayden said, glancing back at Noah. "Weird little suckers. They're trying to take the energy from our Runes. Luckily, these are far too small to actually do any damage. Arbitage just keeps them around as a statement."

"They're pretty," Isabel said. A flower reached for her and she plucked it from the bush. The rest of the flowers on it hissed and peeled back away from her. "And the bushes learn to avoid you if you carry one of these around."

"That's kind of gruesome. You're basically carrying around one of its children," Todd said as Isabel stuck the flower above her ear.

"Effective, though," Brayden mused. "I've never heard about that particular strategy. Not bad. I don't want a flower in my hair, though."

"Why not?" Moxie asked. "They're rather pretty."

"Allergies," Brayden replied with a grunt. "I don't want to break out."

Well, that wasn't the reason I thought he was going to give. Fair enough.

The rest of the day passed quickly. The bushes petered out the farther they got from Arbitage until they only dotted the landscape around them rather than covering it. As the moon started to rise over the horizon, Brayden finally slowed his walking speed near a large clearing at the side of the road.