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 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.

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.

A big pit in the center of the clearing still had several logs sticking out of it, though several of them were little more than charcoal.

“We’ll rest here for the night,” Brayden said, trudging over to the firepit. He raised a hand, running his thumb along a wide gold ring on his index finger. It shimmered purple. Brayden waved his hand through the air, leaving a streak of light behind.

A pile of dry grass poured out of the rift in the air, falling into the pit. The energy faded away a moment later and Brayden lowered his hand, sitting down with a yawn. “Does anyone have any fire magic to get this lit?”

“I can do it,” Noah said, walking up to the edge of the pit and kneeling beside it. He touched his hand to the grass and used Combustion. The grass ignited instantly, and the flame quickly swept through the dry kindling. Within moments, a dull fire had roared to life and was steadily starting to consume the larger logs.

Edward and Allen stalked up to the side of the pit.

“You,” Allen said, pointing at Isabel. “You’ve got a Stone Rune. Make housing, would you? I’d rather not sleep without any cover at all.”

How the hell did he know?

Noah tensed, readying his magic, but something gave him pause. Allen hadn’t spoken as if he’d caught Isabel in something. It was more like he was just speaking a fact. That wasn’t how he would have approached it if she was in trouble.

A small smile flickered across Isabel’s face. “That would probably be some good practice, though I’m not sure if you’re confident enough in my abilities to sleep in any form of structure I create. I wouldn’t ever want to disappoint a Magus, though.”

Isabel knelt, pressing her hands to the dirt. It rumbled and a sheet of stone rose up from within it. Several more followed, molding themselves into a rough cone shape with a gap at the front.

A droplet of sweat rolled down Isabel’s forehead and she pushed herself back to her feet, letting out a small sigh. “I don’t have enough energy to make more than that right now. Maybe in ten minutes or so.”

Allen let his gaze sweep over the cone, then ducked inside. He prodded at it, then stepped back out.

“Acceptable work, even if my Rune is completely wasted on someone of your stature.”

Isabel, you sly girl. You took a second Greater Stone Rune to hide the fact that you got the first one from me if anyone questioned it? That’s brilliant.

Isabel caught Noah’s approving look and flashed him a quick grin. She turned her back on Allen and Edward, walking over to sit on the side of the firepit opposite to Brayden. Todd joined her.

“Lee, care to catch me up on what I missed on Body Imbuement?” Noah asked, rubbing his chin. “Tomorrow morning, I’m going to be doing some combat practice again. I’d imagine that there are probably some monsters in the area.”

“There are,” Brayden put in. “If you want to do any training against them, though, I’d recommend the hour before the sun rises. The most dangerous ones like the cover of the dark, but the scavengers pop out in the late evening and early morning.”

Noah blinked, then nodded. “Early morning it is, then. Thank you.”

“Nice to see you caring about something other than – well, you know,” Brayden said, turning away and starting to wander off. “You needed a break after all that work you’ve been doing.”

“So, Body Imbuement?” Noah prompted Lee. “Is it similar to normal Imbuement?”

“It is,” Lee said with a nod. “But it’s harder than Imbuing a lot of normal materials because you’re working with organics that you actually care about. You’re going to want to start just by using a very small amount of energy to trace your rune on the chosen body part. Then, every day, you retrace it. That’ll steadily build up your body’s relationship with the Imbued part instead of a sudden transition that does a lot of damage to your system.”

Noah nodded his understanding. “That makes sense. It’s a long term modification rather than just a sudden change. Clever.”

“I had a good teacher,” Lee said, her eyes darkening.

“You did?” Moxie asked, walking up to join them. “I thought–”

“Failure,” Lee finished. “I blew my limbs off a few times.”

Emily winced from behind Moxie.

“That’s a lot of healing potions. Was your family very wealthy?”

Lee blinked, then giggled. “Rich in strength. How has your Imbuing been going?”

Emily screwed her face up and crossed her arms. “Badly. I can’t get my Nature Rune to bind with my stomach. It just keeps fading away.”

“Use a little more energy,” Lee advised. “That’s the Imbuement that Moxie has, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Moxie allowed. “But my Rune was Rank 2 when I Imbued it. More energy to work with. I didn’t use your technique, though. I just did it in one go. Had some potions on standby in case I messed up.”

“Did you?” Emily asked.

Moxie winced. “Yes. A lot.”

“Body Imbuement is difficult,” Allen said, speaking to Moxie directly for the first time since they’d left Arbitage. “Attempting it with Rank 1 Runes is dangerous. Why are you taking these risks with your student? Vermil, I understand. His pupils are not of worthy cloth. It doesn’t matter if they’re injured.”

Noah’s eyes narrowed.

Is he trying to bait me? Moxie mentioned that he might have been biding his time to get back at me, but there’s no way Brayden would side against me… right?

Gah, I hate this prick. I’ll just wait. Now isn’t the time.

“Don’t talk about my students like that,” Noah said curtly. “They achieved results on the last exam, and that’s all that matters.”

Allen grunted. He ducked into the small shelter that Isabel had built him and turned his back on the rest of the group.

“Sour old man,” Moxie muttered under her breath, drawing a snicker out of Lee.

Edward glared at her, but he didn’t dare speak out against Moxie.

“Don’t be too hard on him,” Brayden said. “Father went to school together with Allen, even though Father hit Rank 4 well before he did. Allen typically means well, even if he isn’t the best about showing it through words.”

Brayden traced his hand through the air again. The ring on his finger twinkled. This time, he reached into the rift and pulled out a large wooden box. Brayden popped the top off, revealing an assortment of meat and cheeses.

“Shall we eat?” Brayden asked, setting the box down. “Actually, I don’t care if you join me. I’m eating, though. Anyone else is welcome to as well.”