The excitement only escalated as Nicholas paddled them to the shore. The moment Soral set foot on land he was surrounded by an excited crowd of faces.

“Was it you?”

“Of course it was him! He is the one who escaped his own collar at the slave trade.”

Soral turned to Nicholas to ask what he should do, only to find out the young man had escaped before the crowd could notice him. Howler came to Soral’s aid instead, proudly collarless.

“He just freed all of us,” he announced, “That surge of magic was incredible, but it was also draining. We must let him rest.”

The crowd seemed unwilling, but when Howler boldly held up his red band they all started to back away. Especially when Lala, Sloth, and Scythe jumped in for support. As Soral was surrounded by his new friends, he glanced over to see Oasis smiling at him with pride. He had hoped the man would be at least a little shocked. He would just have to try harder from now on.

Rather than sleeping, Soral raided the kitchens once he returned to the red house. He was starving. He was always at least a little hungry, but this was on another level. Howler watched as he wiped the kitchen stores clean.

“That must be why you are red,” he decided. He seemed to think Soral wasn’t dangerous in any other way. If he hadn’t been doing all the training with Zinela, Soral would have agreed with him.

The next morning, the kitchen was as stocked as usual. He ate another snack before going to meet Zinela.

“Good job,” she told him once he entered the room.

“Thanks,” Soral said, “I wasn’t expecting it to work so perfectly.”

“You are making good progress in our training as well. Are you ready for the next step?”

“What is the next step?” Soral asked.

“Tracking your opponent down. There will be no fight if you can’t find them. Similarly, if you know where they are, it is easier to hide where you are from them.”

That made sense. Not that Soral had any intention of arguing with her. There was one problem though. “Won’t it be hard to hide in the training room? It’s just a big open space.”

“We won’t be training there,” Zinela confirmed, “You’ve seen the forest on the other side of the lake, right?”

“I have,” Soral agreed. That was where he had accessed the lake with the canoe the day prior. Since it was the forest in a desert oasis it wasn’t nearly as lush or dense as the one by Ruena’s house, “Will that really work?”

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“It isn’t the best, but it will work. You are still a beginner,” Zinela told him.

No matter how good he got, or how quickly he would improve, Zinela always called him a beginner. It was frustrating, but Soral didn’t think he could find another teacher as good as her and also not an assassin.

They took a trip outside and around the lake to the forest. There were a few people in the commercial area also awake but there was no one near the forest. Due to the more public nature of their practice arena, Zinela challenged Soral to maintain silence.

Silence was easy at first. He had practiced moving in silence all the time when he was stealing things, but that had always been for shorter periods of time. Five, maybe ten minutes. After that, silence grew painful. He had to keep track of every breath, every step, even the movements of his arms that might happen to brush against anything in his surroundings.

Zinela hadn’t quite expected silence of this level, but did not correct Soral’s misunderstanding. She carefully matched his extreme level of silence as she hid from him in the forest. They had until the second day of festival gathered on the other side of the lake.

He carefully moved and searched the forest, but didn’t find the slightest trace of Zinela until the time ran out. “This one was way too hard,” Soral complained, exhausted in a completely different way than usual.

“Then you simply need more practice,” Zinela told him, “I will see you tomorrow.”

Soral stayed in the forest for a while after she left, not wanting to deal with any potential crowds that would recognize him until he mentally recovered from the training session. He was kinda hungry again.

As soon as he left the trees, someone, or multiple someones, were waiting for him. He noticed the variety of different colors their bands bore, but the majority of them had orange mixed in. The girl in front looked to be the same age as Ruena, but the look in her eyes was cold. Her band was orange and blue, which meant she was smart.

The only color he didn’t see among them was black. Lala had told him before that criminals didn’t get the same chance at freedom as the others did, so that was understandable.

“Did you need something?” Soral asked.

“We wanted to talk to you,” she said, “You are powerful, talented, and currently Oasis’s favorite. We want you to join us.”

“Join you in what?” Soral questioned, but he had an idea of what they meant.

“We are one of the groups aiming for freedom. Anyone who helps us will naturally be granted their freedom as well,” she explained, “Our aim is to take down the evil doctor.”

“Oh yeah. That Doc guy,” Soral replied, “I wasn’t going to worry about that yet. I still have a lot of things I want to learn about this place.”

“You can do that later,” she pressed, “Won’t it feel better learning all those things after we are all free? You can at least help us plan. I have a lot of info about the enemy.”

Soral paused to consider his options. He figured he would probably leave as soon as he was free, regardless of what he had and hadn’t learned. He also had been planning to take out the evil doctor eventually. It seemed much faster than trying to earn all the money.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about the enemy,” he decided.

The girl smiled triumphantly. “I knew you would agree. I am Rosalie. Nice to meet you.” She held out her hand.

Soral looked at it for a moment before he took it. He oddly felt like he was betraying Ruena, but she was still his partner. He just needed to help them take down Doc first. Saying his full name was a pain so Soral shortened it for convenience.

Rosalie quickly took Soral to their room that could only be described as a base of operations, completely ignoring the beginnings of the second day of festival. First of all, she introduced the team she had gathered so far. The influx of names was too much for Soral to remember, but he did take note of how balanced it was.

There was probably at least one of every color but black. Soral was particularly impressed with the white and orange banded healer. He forgot his name but it had something to do with fire. There were analysts and tech support, and even someone with a tan and orange band that supposedly worked closely with Oasis. Soral kept his potential communication with him a secret.

After introductions, Rosalie did a brief overview of what they knew so far. Doctor Richardson Alcard was scum. Soral quickly figured out he was the friend who had invented the original version of the collar that Gero had talked about. He ran constant technological experiments and tested them upon any unfortunate victims in his path.

Rosalie also cautioned them that they could not be hasty. Previous teams had assembled and never returned in their search for freedom. Soral decided he might hate this guy more than Gero. Definitely more than Oasis and the Black Wolf. As much as he disliked it, he might have to contact Oasis for his expertise.

After all, the enemy of your enemy is your friend.