Soral had barely left the first room when he heard the shouting and screams in the distance. Storm certainly moved quickly. He decided not to think about what the assassin, retired or not, was doing to cause those screams. Luckily, the directions Janon was giving him bypassed that area so there was no need to see it for himself.

‘Take the hallway to the left,’ Janon directed, ‘You should see a large iron door with bars on it. Make sure to avoid that at all costs. The passage leading to where I am is a wooden door along the same wall beyond it.’

Soral quickly came upon the door Janon had mentioned.

“Is this it?” Ruena whispered, eyeing the thick metal door that practically screamed something important lay beyond it.

“No. From Janon’s warning, I think that one leads to a trap,” Soral whispered back.

Rosalie gave the door a glare. “Of course it does. So further on, then?”

Soral nodded and followed the hall until they came upon the wooden door. Just as Janon had said, it was along the same wall, but the doors were very different. It looked so incredibly ordinary it actually felt out of place in the large, twisted building that housed the slave trade. It gave the impression that they had made it beyond the impressive outer shell that visitors were meant to see.

It was also locked. ‘How much longer past this door?’ Soral asked.

‘I won’t be far, but there will be guards,’ Janon told him, ‘The hall that leads to the main areas is just off of the room on the other side of that door. You will have to be the most careful crossing it.’

There was still a bit to go, then. “Look out for a second,” Soral told them, “I need to pick this lock.”

He pulled out a lock picking set and began work, noticing the somewhat conflicted expression of Ruena as he did so. As he carefully slid the first into the lock, he felt his magic automatically react to something. It felt so natural he wondered if he had been doing this all along and just never noticed. He had only gained the ability to perceive magic around him recently, after all.

Pushing aside the momentary distraction, Soral finished picking the lock with a satisfying click. “We need to be careful from here,” he warned.

“Guards?” Rosalie asked, tensing up. She tried to take a peek through the doorway to see what was ahead.

The room was another large warehouse storage room, much like the one they had appeared in. This one, however, was far larger. The crates and boxes stored within created a maze, only giving them space to search for the doorways through cracks between them. Soral was relieved there was something to hide behind if they needed to.

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Ruena stepped in front this time after Soral showed her the direction they needed to go. She watched every corner, checking for signs of guards, tech, or magic. They silently followed her through the maze of boxes until they reached a clear intersection. To get to the opening they needed, they would have to cross right in front of the entrance of the hallways Janon had warned about.

They all held their breaths as a guard walked right through the path in front of them. Luckily he seemed to be in a hurry so he didn’t notice they were there. If Storm hadn’t been running a distraction, they would have been caught for sure. The goal of a rescue mission was for the enemy to never realize you were there until it was too late. No one should know about Storm’s connection to Soral, so his rampage shouldn’t cause them to suspect the truth.

After a few more guards hurried past, they made a break for it. If they kept waiting, one of them was bound to notice something was up. They made it behind a new set of crates just in time for a group of guards to run past. Soral heard something about needing to stop the destruction as they passed by.

As soon as the group passed, they slipped into the empty hallway beyond. Soral paused and looked behind them. The openness of the path made him feel uncomfortable. The whole hallway would be visible from the cross section. They needed to hurry.

‘Follow the hallway. My door is at the very end. It even has my name on it,’ Janon directed.

For such a long hallway, it was odd that they did not pass a single door. The feeling of there being no place to hide in this hall was likely intentional.

“I don’t like this,” Ruena muttered. She had taken the lead again, speeding up subconsciously.

Speed was fine, as long as they stayed quiet. Soral cast a quick spell to silence their footsteps. This kind of spell always came naturally to him. Once the spell was cast he broke into a perfectly silent run, and the others followed suit, quickly closing the distance between them.

At the very end of the hallway was a single door labeled, ‘Janon’s Room’. Other than the space left open to show the name, the rest of the door was covered in endless chains and locks, barring it from opening. This was going to take a while… if he did it the traditional way. Soral didn’t want to do this in front of Ruena but he had come up with magic to open locks he had never gotten the chance to test.

“Just give me a sec,” he whispered, sending an awkward smile her way.

The magic was far more instantaneous than he expected, but it was also a bit dangerous. He felt like he barely caught the various alarm and other security spells in time before they went off. What he didn’t catch were all of the chains clattering and crashing unceremoniously to the floor. Without a second to waste, he threw the door open and dragged them inside, closing the door behind him.

The room inside was… different. For starters, it looked like all of the doors that had been missing from the hallway had been shoved haphazardly on along the walls here. It was less wallspace and more doorspace in this case. In the center of the room was a bed, tucked right next to a large chair and desk. Next to the desk was what looked to be a chute that went straight down through the floor.

Janon dropped the collar he had been working on and jumped up as they entered. “You made it!”

“We did,” Soral confirmed, returning his focus to his objective, “Are you ready to go?”

There was a moment’s pause as Janon hesitated. “Actually, before we go, I have a favor to ask you. Since you have mental magic, is it possible for you to erase my memory?”

“What?” Soral asked, a bit shocked.

Janon hurried to explain. “Just in case something goes wrong, or even if things go right and I get out of here. I just never want to be forced to make those evil things for anyone ever again.”

Soral calmed a little. Not his whole memory. Just a bit. “You want to forget how to make collars?” he checked.

“Yes,” Janon confirmed, “Can you do it?”

“I don’t know,” Soral admitted, “Let me check.”

There was only one person who would know whether or not Soral was able to erase memories. Even if he could, this seemed a bit too dangerous to try on his own.

‘I can help you,’ Insanity told him, before he even asked, ‘If you let me guide your magic, I can show you how.’

If it were anyone else, the idea of letting them control his magic would have felt disgusting, but Soral felt comfortable leaving this in Insanity’s hands. She likely wouldn’t have offered if she didn’t know what she was doing, but just in case, Soral decided to warn Janon.

“I have never erased a memory before,” he told him, “Do you want me to do this even if you risk losing more? Maybe even everything?”

“Yes,” Janon confirmed, absolutely determined, “Those memories are all like poison to me anyway. I don’t need them.”