Everyone else was already waiting once Rosalie arrived with Soral on her tail. Soral noted that all of them looked more tense than last time.

“You said this one was urgent,” the healer prompted, “What did you find out?”

Rosalie began to speak as Soral found himself a seat. “I just heard intel that Oasis may have been keeping from us,” she told them. Even though Soral knew she was lying because of her warning, he couldn’t tell. “The reason someone as strong as Oasis has failed to take down a doctor of technology is simple. He has been holding Oasis’s family captive.”

His family was held captive? Soral hadn’t thought of that, but Rosalie had warned him that this was a lie. Everyone else believed it without hesitation. It made sense. Except for the fact that Oasis was keeping his most promising team in the dark. That didn’t seem smart. Unless they weren’t actually his most promising team. Soral decided to look into that later and confirm with Rosalie which part was a lie.

“This complicated things.”

“What should we do now? Our previous plan won’t work if he has hostages.”

Ah, hostages. Right, Oasis’s family probably wasn’t there, but Soral doubted Doc would hesitate to use any other prisoners he had on hand as hostages. That part was probably true.

“Maybe we have Soral go in ahead and break all the collars so they can rebel and break free on their own?”

“We would have to have at least one person protect him.”

“Is there any way of getting more info? Such as where the main base is in the compound and its layout?”

“I will let you know as soon as I have more information,” Rosalie promised, “This was just too important to not call an emergency meeting for.”

Soral listened as the meeting devolved into chaos, everyone talking over each other. Nothing more was mentioned in actual plan wise that made much sense, though Soral did agree with the idea of going ahead and using his skill to release collars. Again, he needed to confirm more things with Rosalie once the meeting was over.

Unfortunately, at this rate it never was going to be over, and Soral lost his patience and shot to his feet causing everyone to go silent.

“If all you are going to do is waste time arguing about nonsense, I am going to get going,” he told them, “Let me know once you have calmed down.”

Everyone watched as he moved to leave, shifting their attention only once Rosalie moved to follow. They had arrived together as well.

“Are you going to do further planning without us?” a red orange Soral only vaguely recognized accused.

“So what if we are?” Soral asked, “We’ll make more sense than you were, and we can discuss our plan with you later.”

Based on the fuming faces, he decided to grab Rosalie and drag her somewhere else before he got caught in another time-wasting argument. The only secure place he could think of was the secret room Oasis had shown him before. Luckily, Oasis wasn’t using it.

Once the exit sealed behind them, Soral began his interrogations. “Which parts of that were a lie? Oasis’s family, right?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Yes,” Rosalie confirmed, “As far as I know they died when Dr. Richardon first arrived.”

“How do I meet the nightmare king?” Soral asked.

“The easiest way to meet him is in your nightmares, if you can maintain conscious thought when you dream. If that doesn’t work, you can offer him a nightmare and speak to him for a time within reality. That’s what the doctor did.”

Soral didn’t like the idea of doing anything Doc did, so he decided to try the other method. He didn’t have to worry about his dreams being peaceful, so that just left remembering that he needed to speak to the nightmare king when he dreamed.

“But you shouldn’t do it alone. If something goes wrong you might never wake up again,” Rosalie warned.

“Then how about I take a quick nap and you wake me if things look like they are going wrong?”

“You do know that I have to follow everything the nightmare king tells me to do, right?” Rosalie pointed out, “You should choose someone else.”

Soral still thought she would wake him, but didn’t want to put her at risk, so he relented. “Alright. I’ll ask someone else, but I won’t be able to tell them much.”

“Good luck,” Rosalie told him, and tried to leave the room. Soral had to activate the exit for her when she couldn’t find it, and followed after her. “Thanks,” she told him.

After considering his options, Soral settled on Howler to be his alarm. He felt that if he asked Lala he might wake up with a knife to his throat. Luckily Howler had been overall unconcerned with gaining freedom and just spent his time relaxing. He figured if he needed to be doing something, Oasis would make sure he was doing it.

The man was a bit confused by Soral’s request.

“You want to take a nap, but the nap is dangerous, and if it goes too long I need to wake you up or you will die?” he clarified.

“I don’t know if I will die. I just won’t wake up, ever,” Soral replied.

“Isn’t that what dying is?” Howler asked.

Soral couldn’t argue with that, and just shrugged. “Can you do it?”

“I can, but I think it would be better if you avoided any dangerous naps.”

“It’s important,” Soral convinced him, “This nap is a major step in taking down Doc.”

Howler observed him for a second. “Just be careful. Dreams are not as friendly as they appear.”

It seemed the man knew something about the realm of dreams, but Soral had no intention of telling him he wasn’t going to be speaking with a friendly dream. At least, he doubted the king of nightmares would look friendly.

Soral laid down and tried to go to sleep. Of course, now that he needed to sleep for something important, it refused to come. Howler noticed this and offered a remedy from his home. It was some kind of suspicious powder, but Soral was impatient, so he gave it a go.

The moment the powder touched his tongue, he found himself standing in a shadowy wasteland. It was far different from his usual nightmares, but the haunted trees and the eerie wind showed him it was definitely still meant to be a nightmare.

“You are quite the bold young man,” a voice hissed. It was difficult to tell if it was taunting or complimenting.

He whipped his head around but saw nothing. “Where are you?”

“It is not yet time for you to know my face,” the voice said, raising slightly out of a hiss to deeper, rumbling tones, “Your mind is too weak, and your soul too precious for me to taint.”

His soul was too precious? What in the world was that supposed to mean? “I came here to strike a deal,” he pressed.

“A deal? I see. You are there now,” the voice had changed again to sound like terrible screeching. It seemed the nightmare king not only wanted to hide his appearance, but his voice as well. Unless his voice was always like this.

“Tell me what I must do to free Rosalie and take your support from Doc,” Soral demanded.

“Normally, I would require vast amounts of nightmares, but you ask for me to relax my powers instead of using them. Instead, I will only ask for the price for the nightmare you wish for. I cannot release her, but I can give her to you.”

That sounded a bit scary, but he was the king of nightmares so Soral continued. “What is that price?”

“It is a price only you can give,” this time the voice had switched to a raspy whisper and Soral had to strain to hear it. “You must become the nightmare of nightmares. Learn the magic of this nightmare realm and use it to maintain her grip on reality on your own.”

“How can I do that? I am not a dream, much less a king,” Soral protested.

“You and I are far more alike than you know,” the voice told him, for the smallest of moments almost sounding normal and calm, but for the next words it switched back to a sound similar to the howling wind. “Your magic stems from pure energy. It can become anything you desire, and do anything you desire. You are the one and only Wild One.”

“What does that-”

Soral woke up with a start as Howler poured cold water on his face.

“What was that for?!” he demanded.

“It’s been hours, and shaking you wasn’t working,” Howler replied, “Also…” He looked at Soral’s fingertips, which were surrounded by magic wisps of the same bleak gray tones of his dream.

Soral stared for a moment before forcing them to extinguish. No going back now. He had made a deal with the nightmare king to take care of one of his nightmares in reality. It didn’t quite seem like the hefty price Rosalie had warned of, though.

“Are you alright?” Howler asked.

“Yeah, I think so,” Soral replied. Judging by how much time had passed, maybe part of his price was losing time. A nightmare would know how precious Soral found every moment here. Especially since making that deal would bring everything to its end sooner.

“What did you do?” Howler asked.

“I took away Doc’s source of power,” Soral replied.