Now that he had made a deal with the nightmare king, Soral had to speed things up before Doc noticed. He needed the advantage of Doc believing he had more power than he did. First, he needed to contact Oasis and tell him what he had done. For the second time the reddish wolf charm snapped quietly to the left.
“Oasis, we need to talk,” Soral told him before the man had a chance to answer, “I can meet you in the same place as before.”
“Very well. Is it urgent?”
“Yeah,” Soral agreed. A deal with the nightmare king was probably urgent news.
“I will meet you there immediately,” Oasis told him and the tooth reset itself to the center position.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive in the secret meeting room. That did remind him he should probably warn Oasis he had shown it to Rosalie earlier. Somehow Oasis had beaten him to it, and was waiting at the table looking anxious.
“What is it?” Oasis asked, “Did you find the spies?”
Soral paused for a moment. Right, that was where they had left off last time. “Yes, but that isn’t important right now,” he told him.
“It isn’t important?” Oasis repeated.
“Yeah. Most of them were collared, and the last one was a nightmare that now belongs to me, I guess?” Soral revealed.
Oasis drew in a deep breath as he took in the new information. “What have you done?” he asked.
Soral explained everything he had found out, and the odd deal he made with the king of nightmares. As Soral had been very busy since they last met, there was a lot to cover, and every word seemed to make Oasis more tired.
“I knew from your potential, but for all this to happen so soon,” Oasis muttered, “I don’t think you even need my help.”
“I do,” Soral disagreed, “There is so much I haven’t learned yet, and now we have the perfect opportunity to take down Doc. But I had some questions regarding that.”
“Which are?”
“Why are none of the assassins orange?” Soral asked, “There are professionals, even if they were sold off, they are better than a beginner like me. The most I can do is protect myself and remove the collars.”
“You want to work with the assassins? Are you not afraid they will turn on you?” Oasis asked.
Soral came to a realization then. “So you excluded them for the team’s peace of mind,” he said, “That won’t be a problem for me, and I can assemble a team if you need it.”
“And what is your plan?” Oasis asked him.
“I will go in ahead with a guard and break the collars. The assassins will corner Doc and threaten his life. The rest of the team will secure the base and take care of other threats. I am not really a strategist, though. I was going to bring Rosalie in on this.”
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“You want to work with the nightmare spy?” Oasis confirmed. He wasn’t against it, but he was still in disbelief. Soral had gone beyond his expectations in many ways.
“I can hear her thoughts, so it's fine,” Soral replied as if that explained everything.
Oasis decided to take a different approach since Soral seemed set on things. “I have reason to question your overly trusting nature. You told me yourself that you ate a suspicious powder given to you by a red you don’t know very well.”
“I’m immune to poison,” Soral replied with a shrug, “I figured it might help me sleep if it was poison too maybe.”
“So your lack of caution was due to immunity, not trust,” Oasis sighed, “Fine. But I will head this current endeavor. Bring you selections back to me once you choose them, and wait at least until tomorrow before choosing them. Your mind may still be effected by the nightmare king.”
Soral frowned, but he had things to do anyway, so he relented. “Fine. Can you tell me how to check what the powder is?”
“I can identify it,” Oasis said, “Do you have some on you?”
He dug into the pocket of the new vest he had made himself and pulled the leftover powder Howler had given him out. Oasis did not question where it came from when his pockets had clearly looked empty this whole time.
It did not take long for Oasis to identify the powder. It was made from only one ingredient. Traniva leaves. Traniva were carnivorous spirits that possessed trees and used them to hunt for food. The leaves of those trees gained a red tint at their tips and was known for its powerful sedation. It was more amazing that Soral had woken up so quickly after eating the powder straight.
“This is traniva leaf powder,” Oasis informed Soral, “I don’t know why you want it, but it is quite potent so use it sparingly.”
“Thanks,” Soral said, and took the powder back. He didn’t have a clue what traniva was but Oasis seemed to notice this and gave him a basic explanation. It still sounded bizarre. Why in the world would carnivorous spirits possess trees of all things?
He exited the secret passage and headed straight for the kitchen he met Kristy in. Luckily she was still in, but today she was making zucchini muffins. Soral was always more partial to cupcakes.
“I need some advice,” he told her and presented the powder, “I need to eat this in small doses sometimes, but I need some way to make it more palatable.”
“Medicine? You know if you bake medicine it will lose its effect,” she told him.
“I doubt this one will. Oasis said it's really strong.”
Kristy seemed a bit surprised he had been talking to Oasis, but offered up the rest of her muffin batter. “You can throw some in there to see how it affects things. Just a pinch to start.”
Soral was suddenly glad she wasn’t making cupcakes. He didn’t want to tarnish perfectly good cupcakes with potentially dangerous sleeping powder made from possessed tree leaves. He followed her instructions and put in a pinch. The powder acted almost instantly like a thickener so he hoped the tiny pinch would be effective enough.
The muffins were placed in red cups to set them apart from the normal ones, but after they came out of the oven it was clear it wasn’t necessary. Kristy had only baked a couple as a test, and those tests didn’t rise properly and had a funny smell.
“This won’t do,” Kristy commented, staring at the fallen centers.
Soral agreed, but neither of them tested one. Efficiency was useless if the muffin looked like that. The two of them spent hours in the kitchen until they finally arranged a muffin recipe that could handle the traniva powder. No funny smells, sunken tops, or odd consistencies. Now Soral had to test if the powder still worked. He thanked Kristy and headed back to his room.
Before he tried the muffins, he hesitated. It had been a while since he had contacted Ruena. Most of the time they talked she asked about sleep, and he had felt guilty once he stopped sleeping. Now with these muffins he could tell her without feeling guilty at all that he found a cure for his insomnia. Since he had to test them anyway, he could even promise to sleep right away.
Besides, he had a lot to catch up on.
As always, Ruena answered almost immediately, and Soral was scolded for going silent for so long. Apparently she hadn’t been able to contact him, and he could only contact her. After that, she listened to Soral’s tales of everything he had been up to, though mostly about his progress against Doc and his deal with the nightmare king.
“Soral, you should be careful when you sleep next,” Ruena warned. It wasn’t the warning he had expected. “Now that you have made contact with someone like that and obtained dream magic, you might be pulled into the dream realm.”
He hadn’t even considered that. But it made sense, and it was probably part of the price that the nightmare king had arranged. The whole conversation had been difficult for Soral to understand, and the nightmare king had no intention of explaining anything.
“What happens if I get pulled into the dream realm?” Soral asked.
“If you are only dreaming there, you just have to wake up to escape,” Ruena told him, “But I’ve heard terrifying tales of people getting trapped there forever if their whole being crosses over.”
“Whole being? What does that mean?” Soral asked.
“I don’t know,” Ruena admitted, “Anyway, be careful. You don’t need to be trapped in a dream maze during an important moment like your battle against Doc.”
Soral couldn’t agree more, and the cupcakes he had brought back with him suddenly seemed ominous. He would have to figure things out with that sooner rather than later so that didn’t happen.