There was something oddly cathartic about being on the road again, even if it was one that he'd walked quite often before, and his destination was a place that he knew very intimately. He'd been feeling pent up from staying in one place for so long.

Well, probably not, he'd stayed in one cramped apartment when scouting out the Castouts. The issue was probably that he hadn't really done much in the past few days. Oh, sure, Lock had taught, however, he didn't think teaching to be a truly active profession.

One could teach, and quality could differ, but the end result would always rely on the student actually understanding what he was being taught. Lock didn't like it when the success of a venture relied on someone else. It made him restless. This was the point in a book where some happy-go-lucky idiot would start ranting about the power of friendship and how one should trust someone else to complete their task once one had done one's own.

However as this was real life what interrupted his thought process instead was Harald's voice mention a factor that he'd taken in several minutes ago.

“There's almost nobody going to Abrakshana, just people leaving.” Was what Harald said and why shouldn't he? He was absolutely right.

The road was, for all intents and purposes, deserted, and whenever they actually met someone, it would usually be someone going in the direction that they'd just come from.

“The city is in unrest, you mentioned this.” Lock replied to Harald's worried tone, waving around a gauntleted hand.

“It's been almost two weeks.” Argued Harald.

“Look.” Lock said, this time more harshly. “We go in for a few days to compete in the tournament, maybe attend the auction. In, out, easy, stop being afraid.”

“He's right you know.” Ino suddenly piped up. “There've been riots and such, it's not necessarily safe.”

This interjection made Lock think for a moment. Ino considered it unsafe, his father was likely keeping an eye out on the situation. Archibald loved his daughter and wanted to protect her. The only reason that he'd allow them to go into the city was if there was little chance of something happening.

Either the situation in the city had been dealt with, something that was not within Archibald's power, or.

Lock halted, holding up a hand. His party stopped.

“You can come out now, you've been following us for long enough!” He said loud and clear.

There was an awkward silence for a moment, before a chuckle emerged from within the electrically enchanted ring that Harald was carrying on a stick. The ring that he'd used to make sure Kamin could chase his in their game previously.

Suffice to say that Harald flinched violently and threw the stick away in long arc. While the wood was still in the air, lightning flowed from the ring, quickly coalescing into the form of a slightly hunched old man with a circle of scorched earth around him.

“Grandfather!” Ino exclaimed, seemingly surprised that the man had been present. Which was odd. Shouldn't he have also had some doubts about taking Kamin to Abrakshana without having an assurance of safety? Maybe Archibald had simply told him that it was safe, and hadn't explained why.

“How'd you know?” Kirin asked, ignoring his grandson and piercing Lock with a pair of nostalgically blue eyes. They clashed horribly with the man's eye-wateringly yellow robes.

Lock shrugged, turned around, and continued walking. “I just sometimes stop when I'm going somewhere and shout that out. Every now and again an idiot actually comes out of hiding!” He shouted back to the party he was now slowly leaving behind as his strides ate up the road.

He felt them start following, and heard Kamin gasp, presumably at the disrespect to an elder. Fuck courtesy. He was old as well, nobody treated him any differently because of it.

“Really?” Kirin asked curiously as he picked up his ring and fell into step with Lemmings, giving the construct a leer from his height two feet beneath it.

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Lock considered if he should continue bullshitting but decided against it eventually. It was nice to speak the truth sometimes as well. “No, not really. I know that Abrakshana is unsafe at the moment.” Which he damn well should, considering it was partly his fault. “And that Archibald is overprotective of his daughter. He sent me Ino, but no offence, he's not strong enough to protect us from a riot.” Lock reasoned.

“None taken.” Ino said.

“So there are two possibilities why Archibald let us go anyway. One, he solved the issue plaguing our charming capital, or, he has some way of ensuring, if not our, then at least Kamin's safety.” Lock continued and finished his explanation.

“And because father isn't powerful enough to quell an issue the size of the one we have on our hands in Abrakshana, it must have been the second option.” Ino concluded with a sigh. “I can't believe I didn't see it.” He muttered.

“Me neither, there's only one person in this group who has an excuse for not seeing something.” Lock said, causing Ino to release another sigh.

“You know the blind person jokes were funny in the beginni-” He started, but was interrupted by Kamin breaking out into loud laughter, the volume of which was impressive, especially considering that she was holding her hands in front of her mouth while being carried. She was shaking around manically and Lemmings adjusted how he was carrying her to clutch her tighter to his chest.

Lock turned his head back towards Ino, and very slowly, raised an eyebrow. Ino crossed his arms and looked away.

“You have to admit, it was pretty funny.” Kirin piped up, a smile on his face. The old man was keeping up pretty well now that Lock looked at him. They hadn't been walking for long and he wasn't setting a particularly punishing pace but it was still interesting. Seeing someone with a body several years older that what he'd been when he'd been struggling up some stairs, jauntily walking around without a care in the world.

The old man must have at least some points in Endurance. Or he was using a Skill. Maybe he wasn't even flesh and bones anymore, but simply an amalgamation of lightning taking on a human appearance. But no, that would be ridiculous.

Kirin suddenly perked up, and brought a finger up to his lips to make a quiet gesture. “Someone's coming. I was never here.” He said, before throwing the enchanted ring to Lock, and disappearing within it in a flash of light.

Catching and clutching the ring in his gauntleted fist Lock held it up between two fingers so that he could peer at it, it was a bit difficult considering their pointy nature but he managed. The ring looked like it had always looked, considering how well acquainted he was with the blasted thing, having been charging it for a week now, that was impressive. “Interesting.” He muttered, before putting the ring on his finger. Or at least trying to do so. It was a bit hard considering that he had gauntlets.

Sighing he pulled them off, put on the ring, before putting them on again. That was also the moment where he started hearing the hoof beats. Kirin's sensing range must have been quite impressive. It had been almost a minute since he'd warned them.

The party moved to the side of the road and looked at the approaching horses. It was always better to give way in case the person on the horse was someone who preferred riding people over instead of passing them by.

The riders grew slower the closer they got however, trotting to a halt right before them. Lock didn't know why, but he immediately disliked both of the men who turned to curiously glance at them. The older blonde one dressed as a priest, or a healer, Lock wasn't sure, and the other one dressed as a knight.

“Hail yee oh travelleirs, what brings ye upon this wretched road on the morrow of discord.” The blonde one intoned, putting an arm to his chest and puffing it up.

“Excuse me.” The words slipped out of Ino, who seemed to be baffled by the situation.

Lock meanwhile was eyeing the behinds of the horses to see if it was feasible to give them a kick, the two animals then taking these two clowns away from here, and more importantly, away from them.

The blonde man frowned. “Do yeeh not speakeths the common tongue peasant?” He asked, still using the wrong version of the olden tongue.

“Sorry for my friend.” Lock interjected, adding a bowing/grovelling posture to the words. “He is but an uneducated buffoon, what he was trying to ask was;” he turned up and glared at the blonde. “do you possess the ability to speak like a normal person you fucking degenerate?” Lock asked in a friendly voice.

The blonde grew red in the face, and the knight very openly put a hand on the pommel of his sword.

“You have a lot of nerve speaking to a proud son of Curador like that!” The man said, it was like music to Lock's ears. Mostly because he was speaking normally now.

He exchanged a look with his party members, Ino looked constipated, Harald bored, Kamin had a blindfold on, and Lemmings was a rock, Lock determined that it was up to him to return to the fresh air around the road to its previous unmolested condition. He pondered for a moment how to transmit to the two riders that they were to leave post-haste, lest they receive a swift kick in the gonads and eventually decided on a sentence that would sufficiently communicate his desire for them to be gone.

Lock turned to the two, face in a deadpan, despite wearing a helmet. “Fuck off.” He said.

It honestly seemed to work for a few seconds, the two of them obviously being slightly baffled that their name had failed to impress the group.

Sadly the silence didn't last, thankfully the message sent was one that heralded a departure.

“Going by your wretched clothes, weapons and weak countenance I assume you are going to Abrakshana to participate in the iron rank tournament. I shan't bother with you now, and shall leave the disciplining that you clearly require to William, who will also be participating.” Said the blonde with a red face before beginning to ride off.

The knight, William probably gave them a hard stare, difficult to tell really considering he was wearing a helmet before also skedaddling.

“What the fuck was that?” Harald said eloquently while Ino simply shook his head slowly.

“I genuinely have no idea. I guess sometimes you're just fated to have encounters like this.” Lock answered Harald's implied question before continuing down the road.

“If that was fate I want a refund. I thought it was supposed to lead me on an epic quest to save the world, or to meet the beautiful woman of my dreams.” Harald complained.

“Fate is overrated.” Lock said, and after a minute of walking glanced up and rescinded his opinion. “Or maybe not. The possibility of an epic quest still persists, because if my eyes aren't playing tricks on me then those are smoke clouds rising over Abrakshana.”

They were, a thick billowing grey rising over the treetops depositing soot and ash as they rose.