Regardless of what Janon thought of his past, Soral only intended to erase his memories of how to create collars. He made sure Insanity knew this as well. Hopefully erasing memories wasn’t some time consuming ritual that would waste their chance at rescue.

“Hold on, before you do that there is one more favor I would like to ask,” Janon brought up, “Before you leave, can you destroy all of the collars here? I know that is asking a lot, but I heard from my father you did something like that in The Oasis. He was really upset when he found out.”

Soral felt an instant sense of satisfaction at the idea that he had made Gero upset. “I can do that,” he promised, “I can at least get most of them.”

“Thank you,” Janon said, seeming relieved, “You can do it now.”

No more stalling, then. Soral closed his eyes and let Insanity’s magic flow through and manipulate his own. He could feel everything she was doing and learned from it, just like she promised. The first step was to go into Janon’s mind to select the correct memories to remove.

‘Normally, memories can be relearned,’ she told Soral, ‘but in this case I think it would be best to make sure that is impossible. If he never wishes to make collars again, he can never learn how to either.’

That was a good idea! Soral was sure Janon would approve, but he didn’t know how she intended to do that.

‘When magic goes so far against nature, it is often called a miracle, or a curse. I am sure the people of Valen you saw earlier could create a similar curse in his mind, but since he wants to be sure, I will teach you now.’

In an instant, all of the memories involving collars were singled out. To those that only featured their existence, she enhanced the hatred towards them. For those that involved their creation and components… Soral could only describe it with the word curse she had used before. They were completely purged, and a magical mark left in their place so they could never return or be replaced. The magic felt wrong, and Soral could tell the curse was Insanity’s magic, not his own.

With the curse in place, Soral returned to his own mind. ‘Be careful when delving into the minds of others,” Insanity warned, ‘It is easy to get lost.’

Soral opened his eyes to everyone staring at him. “Did it work?” he asked Janon.

“I don’t know,” Janon admitted, “I don’t feel any different.”

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To test it he walked over and tried to assemble a collar. He could get the shape together, but as he stared at the parts and pieces in front of him, his expression told he might as well be staring at a list of ancient glyphs etched into his desk. He wasn’t even able to make a guess as to where something might go, and the first fragile component he picked up broke in his grasp.

“It worked,” he told Soral with a smile, “I can’t remember anything about these things except for how to destroy them and how much I hate them.”

“In that case, let’s get going,” Ruena broke in, “We can’t afford to waste any time. Whatever Storm was doing to cause a distraction won’t last forever.”

“We need to pick him up,” Soral suddenly realized, “We didn’t really discuss how to meet up after.”

Ruena’s face stiffened as she realized he was right. “We can’t just leave him here,” she agreed, “How fast can you get us out once we are all together?”

“Instantly,” Soral promised, “I can teleport instead of using portals so no one can follow.”

“You can teleport?” Janon asked, a bit shocked, “That’s amazing! I thought portals were already supposed to be rare.”

“He can do all sorts of impossible things,” Ruena told Janon, “Right now we need to focus on making it to where Storm is without getting caught.”

“Do you know where he is?” Janon asked.

“No,” Soral admitted, “but I can ask… someone.”

==========

Jazz watched as the chaos Storm had started only escalated further. No one even had time to notice an invisible cat, even if they could see through his purrfect magic. His original plan had been to destroy things, but Storm already seemed to have that covered. In that case, Jazz decided his best plan was to give Gero gifts instead. Lots and lots of gifts that most humans would find unpleasant. Luckily, Jazz had learned how to use Soral’s pocket for himself.

What were the presents? Dead bugs, slimy, mud covered cloth, stinky socks, and other such trash Jazz had carefully collected in preparation for this day. While these gifts would be unpleasant, it did not feel like punishment enough. Perhaps rather than gifts they could be trades?

Pleased with his new idea, Jazz hunted down interesting items Soral might like to trade with his grimy treasures. He took an enchanted necklace, replacing it with a bandage tangled in seaweed. It kind of looked like a necklace?He took a polished pot and replaced it with a crushed barrel that was both rusty and moldy. The contents oozed a bit out of the cracks, and Jazz quickly moved on to avoid the smell.

These seemed a bit too simple, though. Jazz moved deeper into the store rooms to find something better, stumbling across an area labeled with several markings for danger. This seemed like what he was looking for. There were a few weapons, but the majority of the items in this zone seemed to be cursed. Jazz felt the presence of an evil being locked inside a certain crystal jar.

Between things he didn’t want Gero to have and things he thought Soral might like, Jazz quickly collected quite the pile of treasures, replacing them with those he had prepared. Just as he was running out of treasures to trade, a familiar voice spoke into his mind.

‘Jazz? Where are you and Storm?’ Soral asked, ‘We need to meet up and get out of here.’

Jazz wandered back to where Storm was, just in time to see him laughing as he twirled a vase by its rather fragile looking handle. Unfortunately, Jazz didn’t know if Gero was there or not, but there were two men who seemed to be in charge.

Where was this? Jazz quickly realized a problem. How was a cat meant to give directions? He was well aware he saw the world differently to Soral and the others. Since it seemed like it was going to be complicated, Jazz decided it would be easier to show them instead.

‘I will be right there,’ he promised.

Since there was no more time, he dumped the rest of his presents for Gero in a haphazard pile and strutted off to find where Soral was. Finding Soral was one task Jazz was completely confident in.