Magic or not? (millenniumbunny)
Due to having two people consecutively grab or poke at him when he was simply attempting to know the surroundings a little better and seek a possible way out (it simply would not do to have his friends and family worry about him, if they were still back home themselves): Laurent had as a result of this slunk away from the 'main building' completely where those strange...'apharptmens' were. Honestly, he'd never seen a castle as strange as that, but that wasn't the point - with the risk of people invading his personal space again and unwittingly flustering him lessened, he could concentrate more on observing.
It didn't seem like the largest of areas other than the main strange castle there - the forest, a strange square area with plants, and a lake were the only other things outside from what he could perceive, and there was a strange electricity spell mixed with iron...like spears, but somehow different - blocking escape closer to the outer parts.
"Hm. ...Nosferatu!"
Out of a desire to 'check' the strength of the strange electric spell for the sake of safety and seeing how strong it was, the mage opened the black spell book he held, dark purple and black energies swirling about him like a purple fog, and then proceeding to swirl towards the electric spell...but the dark, swirling energies crackled dangerously and fizzed out in black smoke when they made contact with the strange electrical spell. After it happened, Laurent noted he felt...drained of a good deal of energy, too, like the electric spell counter-acting his dark magic was to blame for it.
Hm. He hadn't thought escape would be quite THAT simple, but he'd still used his magic to confirm the suspicion regardless. The sharp raps of footsteps alerted him to the fact he was no longer alone, and he turned around ionce he caught his breath.
"Did you come to observe this strange electrical spell keeping us from leaving, as well?" His tone was as serious, reserved as ever. Of course, he had no idea that this 'electrical spell' wasn't magic at all - just a new kind of technology...