Igneous stayed up in the barracks all day, running his fingers down in the spine of Vulcan's journal, debating on whether or not he was actually ready to open it. Max fetched it the day before, so he had been sitting on it for a while. He knew that at some point, he had to. Vulcan chose to write his words down with the intention that his successor would read them, and as his successor, Igneous kind of had no choice. He must have something important in there, something that he needed to know, something that nobody could know.

But he couldn't bring himself to open it yet. Maybe it was all the excitement from the day before.

There was a knock on the door. He shifted in his bunk to look towards the door, only for Kalen to slip inside, with some sort of fabric in his hands. "I need you to throw this on and follow me out. We need to make sure nobody will recognize you."

Igneous frowned. "What's going on?" Did Amaryllis finally find him? He wanted to be excited, but he also didn't want to get his hopes up. Maybe they had other plans for him.

"I'm going to take you to an inn to take a bath," Kalen mumbled. "You must be dying for one."

Igneous nodded eagerly. He wasn't sure what they were planning, but he did need a bath. He needed a bath days ago. He pulled the cloak on while Kalen gathered a change of clothes into a small bag. When Kalen was satisfied that he wouldn't be immediately recognized, they headed out.

The tension in the atmosphere was instantly suffocating. The tension made everybody's shoulders sag under its weight, made people warily check around corners, and Igneous noticed that quite a few people were even armed. Even the weather seemed to reflect it – it was strangely humid, despite the dark clouds that blocked out most of the light. He followed Kalen, but he also caught a quick glimpse of Brion following them before he lost track of him, probably falling in to blend into the crowd.

They made it to the inn without issue, and after some convincing, Igneous was being led to the bath after waiting for it to heat up. Kalen followed him inside as Igneous slipped behind the curtain to undress and step into the tub. "Are you staying here?" Igneous asked.

"Yeah. I'm currently your guard right now. I can just step outside if you want me to leave?"

"Ah, no, it's not a problem," Igneous said as he settled into the water. The last time he got a bath was back in the other inn while he was waiting for the festival. It was far too long ago, and he was going to enjoy the hot water while he could before he was forced to bathe in cold rivers or lakes again. In fact, the water could be a little hotter, but Igneous wasn't going to complain. "I'm used to people being close by when I bathe."

"Because you're in a big group?"

"No, before that. Ever since I started living in the temple, I always had somebody outside of the door to talk to me. They're worried that I could have a vision while I'm in the bath. As long as I was talking, they knew I was alright." When he was a little bit younger, he did have visions while he was in the tub, but none of them were long enough to make him lose track of himself for more than a couple of seconds. He could always right himself instantly and continue to talk like nothing had happened. Something like that hadn't happened in a while, but somebody was outside of the door regardless.

He didn't think he had much reason to worry back then, but ever since his conversation with The Barren, he wasn't so sure anymore. He didn't know what The Barren could or could not do, and how was he supposed to know if Igneous was sitting in a body of water or not? Was it only through his dreams that The Barren could contact him? He had no idea. All he knew was that The Barren would likely do it again.

"I didn't even think about that being an issue," Kalen mumbled.

"It usually isn't, but you never know. I can't control how often I get them or what am I going when I get them, unless I touch somebody's hand."

"Have you seen anything recently? I'm sorry if that's a question you hear a lot, but..."

Kalen wanted to know. It was a common occurrence for people to ask about his visions or his abilities when they first met him. He was surprised that he didn't get more questions from Brontes' gang as it was, and Brontes was the first who didn't care what Igneous saw in his future. He supposed that maybe Brontes said something to them when he was in the midst of his last fever.

"No, nothing recently." He didn't think the thing with the Barren really counted, not that he was willing to share that anyway. Igneous shook his head, and continued to scrub at his skin. "But, I was wondering... what was the point of you taking me to a bath?"

"I just figured you would want to wash up if you were going to reunite with your friends," Kalen mumbled.

"You found them?" Suddenly, Igneous has no desire to soak in the tub anymore. He just wanted to get dressed and meet with them already. He missed them dearly. Brontes and Ana were hospitable, and he was grateful for the actions of the group, but he belonged with the people he grew up with.

"Yeah, Brontes is with them now. They're waiting for you, but take your time."

Igneous cleaned himself quickly. Ordinarily, he enjoyed soaking in hot water, but he cut that out of his time and focused on getting clean. Once he was out, he was delighted to find that Kalen had his own clothes washed, and it was waiting for him in the bag he brought along. Once he was dressed back in his own clothes, which didn't look as great with most of his accessories gone, and his shirt was one of his sleeping shirts, and his damp hair was pulled back into a simply ponytail just so that it was out of the way, he and Kalen were out the door again.

Kalen took him to unapproachable looking house, which wasn't far away from the inn. Igneous first wondered if Kalen took him to the wrong place – it didn't look like a place anybody would spend any sort of period of time in. It was ash grey, with windows so dusty that a curtain wasn't necessary. The door also looked like it was crooked, but he couldn't tell if that was because it was put in wrong or if it was just falling off of its hinges.

He knew that Fraedia was a depressing place, but this was overdoing it.

"Why did Brontes choose this place?"

"It's nicer on the inside, I promise! And well, we're just borrowing this place. It doesn't actually belong to us. A member of the militia is letting us use it, and while I can see why Brontes is using it, I don't why the owner keeps it like this... but come on! Your friends are inside!"

Igneous nodded and followed Kalen inside, pulling the hood off as he did so. The house was surprisingly nice on the side. Even though the dust was caked on the windows outside, there was hardly a speck of dust on the inside. The wooden floors almost seemed to shine, and the home was warmed by a fire, though Igneous couldn't recall seeing smoke on the outside of the house. It was nicely furnished too, though all of the chairs were unused. Nobody was in the living room, or the adjoined kitchen. Kalen pointed to a set of staircases off to the right, and Igneous went up.

Kalen didn't follow. Igneous opened the door on his own.

The room doubled as a library and as a bedroom, though the only thing that seemed to signify the room's use as a bedroom at all was the bed and the chest at the end of it. Bookshelves lined the walls, even mostly obscuring half of the lone window in the room. The desk was the most eye catching piece in the room, mostly due to its massive size, and its sheen, despite being made of wood. He guessed it was moved to the centre of the room, and one side, sat Leigh and Darren, and on the side, with his back facing him, was Brontes.

There was an extra chair, presumably for him. He sat down.

"So... what is all of this?" Igneous asked. Kalen didn't tell him what to expect, other than that he could expect to see his guardians there. Or one of them, at least. He supposed Brontes didn't want too many of them going into the house, so only Leigh and Darren went. He didn't know the nature of the conversation, and he didn't even know that he should be expecting Darren. He wasn't a friend, just somebody who's journey kind of went along with his journey. At most, they were just allies.

Brontes straightened up just a little bit, pulling his chair closer to the table. "First, I'm going to get the obvious thing out of the way – it would do you some good to look after each other as long as you're in Fraedia, especially where festivities are involved. Slave traders have their eyes everywhere. If Igneous wasn't so popular, his auction would have been shorter, and he wouldn't be here."

Brontes let them stew in it. It was only a moment, but it was enough for Leigh to sink into his seat, making him look smaller than he really was. Even Darren looked strangely... guilty? Unsettled?

"But! I feel like you all know that now, so I'm going to go to get to the real point of the why I wanted to meet you guys... I want you to help fight for Fraedia's freedom."

"That's risky for us," Leigh stated. "Zahan's after both Igneous and Prince Darren. We've already spent too much time in the town where we lost Igneous. We spent enough time them for them to not only become aware of where we are, but to plan something against us."

"That's true, but I want still want to fight," Darren said simply, leaning back in his seat. Igneous whipped his head to face Darren and to process what he said. "My father was a good man, and I stand by that, but he certainly had problems with the way he ruled. He depended on the oracle too much, and he didn't care about the problems of other countries, even if it hurt people in Adoss."

"You mean how the slave traders would sometimes sneak into Adoss?" Brontes asked. Igneous didn't even know that was a thing.

"That's primary example. My father's solution was to station more soldiers along the border, but being inside Fraedia made me realize that helping both countries is the better solution, even if it's harder to do. Fraedia's been abused by their own monarchies for too long, and the other monarchies looked the other way for too long. If the slave traders are gone, Adossians are better off too. I'm in."

Leigh turned to Igneous. "And what are your feelings on the matter, Igneous? I'll go with whatever you want to do. We'll give everyone else in the group the chance to decide what to do too."

"I want to help." He's been through enough and he didn't have to experience the horror of actually being sold. Igneous hated the idea that there were people who were stuck in that life, and that were people who had to go through it at all. It was the system that split up Mira and Will, and they were far from the only ones who were impacted by it. It was an awful system and it needed to go.

"I see. What's the plan, then?" Leigh asked.

Brontes' grinned faltered and fell off his face. "I don't have much of a plan right now. Zahan is occupying the castle, and they have a powerful mage who somehow erected a barrier around the castle. We can't storm it... but we can still launch a war against the nobles and the slave traders. We need to cut off the demand while we wait for the opportunity to storm the castle. I will have to wait for my informant to recover before I can elaborate on that though."

"So more sitting around and waiting for now?" Darren asked, his eyebrow raised. He crossed his arms and tipped his chair back more, settling his legs on the table instead. It was rather unbecoming of a prince, but it wasn't like Igneous was too surprised.

"For now. I hate it too, but we need his information before we can continue. This information could give us the supplies we need, and some powerful allies if it's factual."

Igneous held his tongue. Just to think that Brontes was so ready to kill the Fraedian prince that night. Maybe Brontes had other plans bouncing around in his head that he didn't need the prince for, but it didn't sit right with Igneous. Regardless though, Brontes was currently the best way he knew of to help Fraedia. He was the one who knew the situation the best, and had enough of a foothold in the resistance to do something. He was the one who had the drive to do something about it.

It was useless to try and act separately when they had the same goal, after all.

"Well, we'll probably be staying outside of Valburn for the time being, so get in touch when you need us," Leigh stated.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll tell Kalen to keep in touch through Amaryllis. In the mean time though, I would feel better if one of my own went with you guys too. Not Kalen, but somebody else Igneous will recognize and can vouch for. You guys are just camped out in front of Valburn, right? I'll send somebody before evening, if they agree and you guys agree, of course."

"No objections," Darren said with a shrug. Leigh simply nodded.

Brontes clapped his hands together. "Great! Once I have more information for you, I'll send Kalen your way. In the mean time, sit tight and look after each other."

"Great... and thanks for saving Igneous," Leigh said, standing up and extending a hand for Brontes to shake. Brontes took it. Darren was already heading to the door.

"Of course."

With that, they were off. Igneous pulled the hood on his cloak up, and stood in between Leigh and Darren as they guided him out of the city. He wondered how they knew where they were going when the houses looked so similar, but maybe they just paid more attention to their surroundings than they did.

Camp was set up not too far away from the gate they left. The gate was mostly in view, but the camp itself seemed to be tucked away behind some trees that helped obscure it from view.

He was in camp for all of five seconds before somebody found him and ran at him for a hug.

"Igneous! I'm so glad you're okay!" Mira said, hugging him tightly and burying her head into his shoulder. It was almost comforting, compared to how he felt when he was touched by others, but he was careful to not return the hug as his gloves were still missing as her dancing outfit did leave a fair amount of her skin exposed. She didn't seem to care though. Over her shoulder, he could see Will and Orla standing nearby, Will letting out of a sigh of relief and Orla dashing away quickly.

The next few minutes were a blur as people hugged him or patted him on the back or shoulder, or just expressed how worried they were. Some were people he expected, like Saikur, Elena, Caalya and Reina going in for a tight hug or Iniabi and Arder going for a pat on the shoulder, and some people surprised him, like Cyrus, Alissa, and Charli because they weren't around him long enough to expect them to worry so much. Charli gave him a 'friendly' punch in the arm, the pat on the back from Cyrus stung, but he didn't mind so much.

Darren's group just hovered. Fara, Ajax, and Charles seemed pretty happy to see him, the three of them smiling in his direction but otherwise didn't approach. Igneous couldn't get a clear read on Tahno, but he didn't seem to be having any fun like he was when Igneous shared a drink with him. Tahno was one of the last people he saw before blacking out, and that made things a little awkward, but Igneous wasn't mad at him. He wasn't even mad at him during the night of the festival. He was standing beside Zahreen, who was busy kicking dirt around with his armoured feet.

The last person who came to see him was Gerben. Silently, he picked Igneous off of his feet and practically crushed him with his hug. The hug lasted long enough for Igneous to see the half-healed scratches running up and down his arms, some looked to be more like bites, and he even spotted a scratch or two on his face.

"What happened?" Igneous asked as Gerben lowered him.

"Don't worry about it. It looks worse than it is."

Leigh cleared his throat. Everybody quieted down and Gerben set him down on the ground, opting to hover just behind him. "Now that everybody's here, we need to discuss something important. It appears that Fraedia might soon be involved in a civil war. Darren and Igneous already both agreed to participate but if you don't want to get involved, then you should back down now. We'll make sure we give you the gold we promised you."

"Who had Igneous all this time?" Charli asked. "Is it a name that us mercenaries know? 'Cause that makes a difference, you know."

"It was Brontes," Darren answered simply.

"And did he have anything to do with the bodies I found while scouting?" It was Penny this time. Igneous didn't know her well, but he did remember her name. Her posture was rigid, like a soldier standing at attention.

"I think so. I know him and his team left, and they came back covered in a lot of blood and a lot richer than when they left," Igneous mumbled. He didn't know who they went after, but he remembered how angry Brontes was.

Charli crossed her arms and huffed. "Seriously? I was guessing it might have been, but I was just kind of fucking around when I was throwing his name around. Fuck. This is kind of serious then. What the hell happened?"

"We do know that Zahan is actually occupying the castle," Leigh started. A strange silence settled for a brief second, just long enough for it feel heavy and suffocating. "I don't what triggered Brontes to want to launch an attack against the nobles now, and he's waiting on somebody before he can make further plans, but I do know he wants to do something soon. He's going to send somebody to stay at camp with us and they should be here before the day ends. Maybe they'll fill us in about more. Everybody can take time to think about it. We'll be here for a bit. That will be all for now."

Darren walked away, heading towards his group where he immediately began talking to Fara and Ajax.

Saikur turned to Igneous and he motioned for him to follow him. They didn't wander too far from camp, they were still within eyesight of everybody, just out of ear shot. "You know that I'm going to go where you go if I can help it, right?"

"Of course," Igneous said with a soft smile.

"And... I'm glad that you're fine. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you."

Igneous' face burned. It was Igneous' fault for wandering off, for not telling any of his guardians about what he planned on doing that night. A lot of it was on Igneous, not on his guardians. "No! You're fine. I... it was kind of my fault. I dunno, I know you guys are here for me but sometimes I just want to be alone and trying to do that in a country I don't know is a bad idea. I know Fraedia is filled with slave traders and I didn't even think about them."

"But we should still know where you are, even if you do wander away from us or try to get away so you can be alone for a bit. We could do better when it comes to our approach so you don't feel like you have to get away. We'll work on this. All of us." Saikur looked down at his feet and swallowed hard. "This can't happen again... I don't know what I would do if you didn't come back one day."

"I've learned my lesson."

"This shouldn't have happened at all! I should have been there the whole time."

"Stop blaming yourself like you're entirely responsible. It's not like I made it easy for you guys! I wandered away. I drank. I don't make it easy for you guys to do your job," he said, raising his voice a little. He knew how Saikur was, how easy it was for him to shoulder everything for the sake of Igneous' feelings, and Igneous refused to let him do that when he was more than capable of accepting his part in all of it. Saikur wasn't wrong, but it was hard for them to be there for him when he tried to avoid them at times. Despite the fact that he didn't like touching people with his bare hands, he grabbed Saikur by the shoulders, making sure that his fingers only touched the fabric of Saikur's shirt. Saikur's frown disappeared, and his eyes grew wide. "You said so yourself. We're going to work on it. It's not a 'me' problem and it's not a 'you' problem. Got it?"

"Yeah." Saikur blinked as Igneous let him go.

"Now, lets go back to camp. I could use a nap."

After the meeting, Brontes immediately went to visit Callum. He wasn't sure if he awake, but he decided that nonetheless, he would wait around anyway, even just to collect his thoughts and try to figure out what to do next. He was responsible for a lot of people, so he had a lot to try and plan for, but he was confident he could tackle the problem. It was just like taking down an enemy, and he never backed down from a fight. Valburn was going to be a boiling pot soon enough, and he had to figure out to keep his militia safe while they toppled an ancient, oppressive system that held down Fraedia for centuries.

And if the prince was awake, then he had some apologies to make.

Callum was surprisingly awake, despite all his injuries. He wasn't doing much, he was just laying on the bed with the blanket tucked under his arms, studying his room as he tapped his fingers against the bed. It wasn't much but Brontes was impressed that he was awake and alert. Their eyes met for a second before Callum motioned for him to sit, weakly pointing to the chair beside the bed. Ana must have gotten to him first, then.

"I didn't expect you to be awake," Brontes said as he took his seat, leaning his sword against the chair. With the greeting over, he decided to just get to the point. "Look, I just wanted to say sorry for trying to kill you when Kalen brought you in. I didn't give you a chance at all, and I believe a lot of people have some good in them. You know, except for traitors and the like. I immediately jumped to the conclusion that you were part of the corruption of Fraedia, given your title and -"

"You're fine. I think if I was in your position, I would try to kill me too," Callum mumbled, his words slurring slightly but he was articulate enough for Brontes to understand him just fine. He drummed his fingers against the best once more. "I have a title, and it's part of the chaos. In comparison to many of the people you work with and save, I live a good life. I am a symbol, just like you are. That's the way Fraedia is."

"No hard feelings, then?"

"You scared me, but no, no hard feelings. I'm keeping my word..." Callum answered, his eyes drifting. "That's an interesting sword you have there."

Brontes' eyes drifted to the sword too.

"Vorpule? I got it from my relatives. They didn't really talk about it, but they never denied me the sword. They said it was only right for me to have it." He had nothing about fond memories of his mother's relatives, but they were a little secretive when it came to his heritage and how it was that he ended up in their care instead of being raised by either of his parents. He didn't know his mother or father personally. He knew of his mother through their stories but they spoke very little father, so he was very a mystery that Brontes decided not to dwell on. He wasn't even very curious about it.

Vorpule was a mystery too. It was a fancy sword, much fancier than his family could afford on their own, so it was a little odd that a peasant family would own a sword like it. He doubted they knew much about it, just that it belonged to him. They encouraged him to learn it and use it do good.

"It seems familiar somehow." Callum closed his eyes and tapped his fingers on the side of his head instead, but eventually lowered them and opened his eyes again. "I can't think of what it reminds me of... I kind of hav some brain fog right now. I'm sorry."

Brontes frowned. As much as he wanted the information he had so that he can begin to start making more plans, he didn't think Callum was in sort of condition for that. Clearly, he needed more time and rest. Brontes wasn't his best self when they first met, but now he was going to do all he could to make sure the man in front of him got better. It didn't matter if he came from a rich background or not. If somebody need help, they needed help and Callum needed a lot of help. Probably more help than Brontes could give him in the long run, but at least they could make sure he healed physically.

"I'm sure it'll come to you when you're feeling better. Don't push yourself. You need to conserve your strength and heal."

"Even if my plan is to just give you some information and then just run away?"

"Yes. I don't know what you've been through but it looks like a lot. I'm going to leave you be for now so you can rest, alright? Ana will probably come around a few times to make sure you don't get any worse."

"Are you sure you don't want to hear the information first?"

Brontes shook his head as he stood up, grabbing his sword as he so. "It can wait a little longer." The Adossian prince probably wouldn't like that, but he did say it would take some time before he really got back to them. There were things he could do in the mean time to prepare anyway. After all, they had to spread the word to the rest of his militia to be prepared.

"If you say so."

"Sleep well, alright?"

Callum nodded, and with that, he took his leave. When he got back downstairs to where everybody tended to mingled, he noticed that Max was in a rush, looking rather dishevelled as he clutched a leather bound book in his hands. "Where did Igneous go?" he asked as soon as he noticed Brontes.

"He's back with his group. Why?"

"This book... he has to have this book! He left it here. It's really important that he reads it. My father left it for him."

Brontes frowned, wondering if Igneous forgot anything else. He was so worried about making sure that Igneous was back where he belonged that he forgot to let Igneous make sure he had everything. Maybe Kalen managed to grab everything else but he didn't know. He didn't have much, but still.

Either way, Brontes would definitely make sure he got this book, since Max's insistence was alarming, and Brontes was well aware of who Max's father was. Clara was pretty clear about that, and pretty clear on the fact that she still had what it took to fight whenever Brontes suggested she should be more careful. "You think your mom would approve of you being away from her for a bit? I wanted somebody to help watch over him at his camp anyway. I was thinking of making Tora go, but you should go with him. You can sure he gets that book personally."

"I'm sure she would be fine. She trained me after all, and she was good enough to be Vulcan's guardian."

"I'll go talk to Tora and Kalen to see exactly where their camp is, and then you can leave. Just give me a bit of time, alright? And just to be clear, you don't have to stay with his group."

"I'd like to know a little bit more about the current oracle. I have to admit, I'm a little curious." Just let me know when I'm leaving. I'll get ready."

"Of course."

Brontes rushed off. He had a lot to do and he didn't have a lot of time to do it.

I finished my other fanfic, so now I don't feel bad about focusing on this one!