Now splitting his day into three, Soral decided it was time he found the lead enchanter for his shop. Searching near Evergreen clearly wasn’t getting him anywhere, and there was no one near the toxic wasteland. As for Qilin, Soral wasn’t sure he wanted to risk bringing an assassin back to Evergreen with him. Not until he knew how to navigate that world better. It was a shame, because he got the sense that Lady Bracelets knew her way around clothing and enchantments.

She had also been acting strangely around Mr. Mischief. Trying various tricks to try and fool him into naming her. Now that he knew how things worked in Qilin, he wasn’t going to go around naming assassins willy-nilly. He was certain there was some underlying reason behind her attempts, but every time he tried to peek at her thoughts, one of her many bracelets would glow, absorbing and preventing his magic.

At one point, Mr. Mischief had lost his patience with her constant surprise appearances. “Why don’t you just name yourself?!” he demanded.

Lady Bracelets paused, and then smiled. “Is that permission, your highness?”

“As long as you can prove you are better than you were before it satisfies all the rules,” he told her.

Her smile broadened as she was further amused by the idea. “Becoming my own Favored does sound like an interesting challenge.”

After that she had finally left him alone, not that there was any real peace and quiet in Qilin. A ruler’s life was constantly under threat, but most of it was easy to evade with some well placed magic.

What Soral really needed to focus on now was making progress with his business. Right now, it was just a sinking ship, spending money to run with nothing to really sell. Rosalie thought Soral was being too stubborn, but Ruena supported his plan to make full quality products before opening.

However, even Ruena only had so much patience. “Go find someplace else. You used to travel all the time so I am sure you can think of something,” she ordered, “And find recruits for the Warriors while you are at it.”

With a bit of a shove, she forced him out the door and closed it behind him. Unfortunately, most of the places Soral had been weren’t filled with talents that he could trust, or that would trust him. There had to be somewhere he could go where he wouldn’t be immediately locked up or otherwise caught.

That is when he remembered one place he had been a long time ago. The first of the outside world he had seen, and the place he was shown the first wonders of magic. For some reason, he was confident he could find what he was looking for there, but it required a different kind of courage. Besides, did he want to disrupt their peaceful lives for this?

Maybe if he just went to check it out. He could go in a disguise so they wouldn’t recognize him. What disguise would he use, though? Mr. Mischief needed to be present for all the matters of Qilin. Dehd Lee was right on the cusp of his research on the faerutil trees. He couldn’t risk interfering with either of their time, so those disguises were out. With no other disguises in his head, Soral decided to dress as a businessman and just use his last name. They wouldn’t know that one.

Decision made, there was no reason to waste any more time. Soral donned his halfhearted disguise and imagined the village from his memories. It had been so long that the only place that was clear in his memories was the house where Vona and her family lived. Suddenly appearing in front of someone’s house would be incredibly suspicious, but appearing behind someone’s house might be more suspicious.

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Soral chose the latter, hoping no one would notice. He was certain someone would notice if he appeared on their doorstep. Forcefully shoving his nerves aside, Soral vanished. Just as he had planned, he appeared behind the house and out of sight. Barely out of sight. There was a young man, perhaps a year or so older than Soral, practicing swings with a large stick in the backyard. A girl with a great resemblance to the young man was casting magic in an attempt to interrupt his swings. Both of them were incredibly focused, which was probably the only reason Soral was able to appear unnoticed.

However, Soral had lost his habitual sneakiness living in the spotlight. He had also gained a powerful sense of curiosity, one that was not paired with subtlety.

“What are you doing?” he asked, as he openly approached him.

The sudden question earned him a large splash of water aimed in his direction from the girl, and the young man’s stick pointed at his throat. Soral raised his hands lightly in the air, his permanent defensive barrier stopping the water from soaking him.

“Who are you?” the young man demanded.

“I am Mr. Voila, a travelling businessman,” he replied. He was currently travelling and he was trying to open a business so that technically wasn’t a lie, right?

The girl looked at him with disbelief. “A kid like you?” she asked incredulously, “Where are your parents?”

“Liza,” the young man hissed, “Don’t scare him off. He might know something about Soral.”

The girl, Liza, shook her head. “Dillon, you have asked every traveler, outsider, and scammer about that kid and heard nothing. If we want to find him, we are going to have to look for ourselves.”

Liza? Dillon? The names sounded familiar. His suspicions were confirmed when Dillon mentioned his name. Liza was the little girl who had shown him magic for the first time, and Dillon was the boy who had caught him watching behind this very house. They had grown up a lot, and their appearances had naturally changed as they grew older. Soral imagined his own must have as well, or they might have recognized him.

“I have heard of Soral,” he said, feeling embarrassed even saying it. Mr. Mischief and Mr. Dehd Lee were one thing, but talking about himself in third person felt incredibly awkward.

“You have?” Dillon demanded, immediately giving him his full attention, “Where is he? Is he alright? Is it the Soral we know?”

“This Soral lives far away from here, in the kingdom of Elgrove,” he answered, “but I have no way of knowing if he is the Soral you know.”

As he spoke he saw Liza watching him closely. “What are you hiding?” she demanded, “Are you another scammer?”

Soral flinched. This was going in a terrible direction, but he couldn’t just admit to being Soral now. Or maybe he should? He got the feeling Liza had already seen right through him. Before he did, he needed to know something.

“Why are you looking for Soral?” he asked back rather than answering her question.

Liza bristled, but Dillon held his hand out. “When we were younger, he stayed with us for a while. He was like family,” he explained, “One day he suddenly just disappeared and no one has even heard of him since. Mother was heartbroken, and father… he doesn’t show it but he was fond of him too. He just hides behind logic.”

As the explanation went on, Soral felt the guild pooling up in his chest. Had he really hurt them so much that after all this time they were still searching? He reached his hand to his head and removed his top hat, a staple of all of his disguises, and carefully held it in front of himself. He looked Dillon in the eye, mustering up all of his courage, even the bits fueled by guilt.

“What if I told you that I know exactly what happened to Soral back then?” he asked, carefully watching the expression of the siblings, “Because I am-”

“I knew it!” Liza exclaimed, trapping him in a hug before he could even finish. The top hat he had been holding in his hands flopped uselessly to the ground, “No one else has even heard of the name Soral before!”

Dillon was a bit more reserved as he approached. “Are you really Soral?” he asked, reaching out a hand as if to confirm if he was really there.

“Yeah,” Soral confirmed, “It’s me. I can prove it, if you want. Remember that one time you swiped some cookies from the kitchen and hid them-”

“Yep! It’s you!” Dillon interrupted, his face glowing red, “I told you to take that secret to your grave.” The second came out in more of a hiss and Dillon shoved his hand over Soral’s mouth.

Soral closed his eyes and sent his thoughts directly to their minds. ‘I don’t need to speak to say things.’

Dillon released his hand in shock. “How did you do that? What in the world have you been up to?”

Liza also released Soral, and was the one to stop her brother. “Let’s bring him inside,” she suggested, “Then we can all catch up together. I’ll go get dad!”

As Liza took off, Dillon guided Soral into the house with a strength that showed years of training. Soral was a ball of mixed emotions. He was happy that they wanted to see him, guilty for the pain he had caused, and even afraid of how this might affect their futures. Whatever was going to happen, it was too late to back out now.