"I hope you do not take offence to this," Nacen began as he joined Isaac, Lenna, and Shamesh. "but, when are you leaving my mostly peaceful city?"

Isaac smirked. He couldn't blame Nacen for wanting them gone, even if they all knew that Isaac hadn't spawned the trouble, he had just brought it to the forefront. "In the morning." Isaac reassured the Court Mage. "And I would usually take offence to such a question, but considering what just happened, even I can empathize with you."

Nacen sighed. "Thank you." He sincerely replied. "Is there anything that I can further help you with in the interim?"

"Yes." Isaac told Nacen with a smile. The smile was casual but the simple fact that it came from Isaac gave Nacen chills. "We would like to meditate the rest of the night away, as was our previous deal, was it not?"

Nacen swallowed. He had promised them a quiet place to meditate for as long as they needed it and it was too late to back out now. "Of… course." Nacen replied amicably though there was still some obvious hesitation. "I will have to step away for a while once the two of you are set up, as I must fill in my Lord and Lady, but once I am finished, I will endeavor to return post haste."

Isaac nodded. "I assumed as such." He said with a nod and then turned to Shamesh. "Thank you, as always, Shamesh, you did well. I will call upon you again at a later date."

Shamesh bowed and stopped walking as the ground beneath him turned an inky black. "Of course, my Lord. I will eagerly await such a time." Isaac's retainer bid his adieu.

Nacen looked back as Shamesh sunk into nothingness with only a slight stirring of mana. He glanced at Isaac with a barely concealed question. Isaac shook his head. "I will not be answering anything related to Shamesh. He was originally going to be kept entirely secret, but he is simply too useful to hide all the time." Isaac shut him down before he could begin.

Nacen nodded with a frown. He could accept that powerful people had their secrets, he had plenty of his own, and he was entirely certain that pushing Isaac for details was a bad idea. "I understand."

Isaac and Lenna spent the rest of the night meditating without interruption until the crack of dawn. Nothing new assaulted the city and nothing even came to check out the mana event. Everything and everyone seemed to have gotten the message that the roof of the Court Mage's tower was off limits. There were quite a few more subtle eyes on them, but no one got within a few dozen feet of them.

Once morning arrived, Isaac and Lenna stirred from their rest. The kiss of sunlight altered the mana flow enough that Isaac was startled out of his meditation. He hadn't passed out, even after around eight hours of meditation. He was probably getting close but he wasn't sure. He felt like he was getting more used to the feeling of all of the darkness around him. It was trying to talk to him. He was sure of it. It seemed to tell him that it could listen, it didn't need to be micromanaged. He had been given the authority to tell it what he wanted, he just had to learn how. It also seemed concerned? irritated? with him though he could only speculate exactly why. Lenna's meditation had been entirely normal at least.

After the duo arose from their meditation, they stopped by a tavern and had a breakfast of freshly baked bread and ham fried in its own fat. After that, they met up with the caravan leaving for Altesia at the eastern gate. The caravan consisted of seven wagons and two electrum level adventuring parties of three and four members. The caravan was apparently entirely owned by one merchant who rode along in the middle wagon. The leader of the caravan was the one that Isaac and Lenna had talked to the night before and he had kissed ass the entire time he was introducing Isaac and Lenna to his boss. The boss seemed quite happy to have a pair from the strongest adventurer tier along with them, so he didn't complain in the slightest when Isaac and Lenna took the second wagon in the caravan as their resting place.

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The caravan leader and the men and women under him seemed like every other caravanner they had met. They were rugged people that were used to days or even weeks at a time on the road and always kept their eyes scanning their surroundings. They knew first hand how dangerous traveling on the road could be and they were not taking any chances, especially with the recent string of abductions and the commotion the night before.

The merchant was the kind that obviously was better at kissing ass and looking important than actually being important. He just had that kind of slimy air about him. Usually Isaac was pretty impartial to merchants but the gaudy golden rings and purple silk clothes made him look like he was playing dress up as what he imagined a high noble would look like. He wasn't fat but was getting there and he looked like he was trying to hide his balding head with his obnoxiously tall top hat. His rather short stature was probably the reason for the extra few inches on the hat but it would have been better if he just wore platform shoes instead.

The adventurers were a bit different than Isaac and Lenna had expected. Once the caravan had left the city walls, the group that had been joking around with each other all morning went deathly quiet. Their faces set and they immediately entered a state of high alertness. The group in the front consisted of two rangers and a scout while the group in the rear consisted of a scout, two warriors, and a sorcerer. They had only spared Isaac and Lenna acknowledging nods which was fine with the duo. Isaac and Lenna saw no reason to fraternize with the local adventurers any more than necessary as they would be going their separate ways, probably forever, as soon as they arrived in the capital.

All in all, the trip from Alten to Altesia started off like any other trip up a mountain via wagon. At least there was a clear and paved road that they could take, otherwise the trip would've been set to take all month. As it was, they would still spend the better part of a week on the steep inclining switchbacks that carried goods and people up the mountains towards the city nestled atop them.

The first day came and went with plenty of stops for the horses to rest. The water reserves in the wagons were used for the horses more than for the mortals as the beasts of burden had to deal with quite the steep incline. When the group finally stopped for their first night on the mountainside, Isaac and Lenna got out to stretch for the last time that day. They watched as the sun started to fall behind the horizon to the sounds of caravanners and adventurers setting up camp.

The place that they had stopped at was a preplanned campsite which caused its own issues. Preplanned campsites meant that anyone aiming for travelers would know exactly where and around when they would arrive. The adventurers all knew this and that was why the group of rangers and scout went to clear the local area while everyone else set up camp.

"I would offer you a tent but I am afraid that I only have my own." The merchant began which immediately detracted from the brilliant view of Alten cast in the red and orange light of the sun finishing its descent. "The drivers all seem to like sleeping in their wagons. I was never really one for that honestly. What did you say your reason was for going to the capital?" The merchant continued to go on.

Isaac's eye twitched and Lenna bumped the back of his hand with the back of her own as if to say: 'Don't kill him'.

"We were enjoying the view, though your presence has taken the joy out of it and turned it into just another sight to be forgotten." Isaac told the merchant flatly. "I do not care about your or anyone else's sleeping arrangements, and I will not divulge our reasons for traveling to the capital. We are not under your employ so I have no qualms about orchestrating an 'unfortunate' fall down the side of the mountain. Maybe unenchanted imitations of true worth will save whoever takes a tumble to the jagged rocks below, maybe not. Either way, I will be rid of annoying faux importance given mortal form."

The merchant went from confused, to surprised, to irritated, to terrified, to indignant, and then a combination of all five at once stacked on top of a very visible bristle. He looked like he was about to say something when Isaac pulled his gaze away from the city falling into night beneath them to face the merchant. Isaac gaze held such boredom and uninterested superiority that the merchant stopped cold before he could dig his own grave. After a silent moment where the two just looked at each other, the merchant nodded and then turned and left. Once he was gone, Isaac turned back to look at the city that had now fallen into grays and oranges of fire and lamplight.

"Good job." Lenna complimented him. "For a moment there, I thought you were going to skip to the part where they never find his body."

Isaac smirked. "I will not lie, I was kind of close to having Shamesh throw him off the mountain." He replied and then chuckled at the mental image of the merchant doing cartwheels through the air from a very sudden imparting of telekinetic force.

"Well, I am proud of your restraint." Lenna praised him. "Keep it up and I might just not worry when we go places."

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