Lala brought Soral back to the room they had met in and proceeded to shake the older man she had identified as Sloth. The old man awoke begrudgingly but snapped the rest of the way awake when he saw Lala’s scorched shoulder straps and bare neck.

“It’s gone. How?” he asked in wonder, then locked eyes with Soral, “Are you the one?”

“I think so,” Soral answered, not exactly sure what ‘one’ he was talking about. It likely had to do with collars, though.

“Then me as well?” he asked.

“Sure, but will you be alright?” Soral asked.

“I can protect myself,” he assured.

Soral glanced at the others in the room, not sure if the old man had it in him to move to the ‘fun’ room.

“I can protect them too,” Sloth assured.

“Alright,” Soral said, “I’ll give it a go then.”

He channeled magic into the old man’s collar. This time he gave no warning when he reached out and poked it but Sloth said nothing. Time passed. This was too slow. Maybe he was controlling it too much? Soral lost patience and pushed it a bit. The collar snapped open and flew past him. Not a full explosion, but not safe either.

“That’s loads better,” Lala encouraged. Without hesitation she grabbed the silver haired man who had been playing board games earlier. “Him next.”

Soral shrugged, and poked the collar of the bewildered man, this time just picturing the thing popping off instead of any of that complicated stuff. And it did. The very moment he touched it. Instant. Safe. Perfect.

“I got it!” Soral exclaimed proudly.

Lala clapped excitedly. “Good job!”

“Not to burst your bubble or anything,” the silver haired man brought up, “but won’t you get in trouble with Oasis for releasing the collars of assassins?”

“You guys are assassins?” Soral asked, probably not as scared as he should have been.

“Scythe, don’t say unnecessary things,” Lala complained, “And we aren’t assassins anymore. Besides, have you seen his band? It’s got both teal and orange.”

“It does,” the silver haired Scythe agreed in wonder, “I’ve never seen both before.”

“Do you know what these mean?” Soral asked.

“Orange are really cool people Oasis really wants to help with his cause. Teal are really cool people Oasis thinks will bring in lots of money.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“So both of the freedom options are things he thinks I will excel at?” Soral checked.

“Yep,” Lala confirmed, “We don’t get those because we are criminals, but I don’t mind. Living here is nice. Don’t have to kill anyone I like.”

Again, Soral saw more into her, or their, past than he wanted to. “If its really that nice here I might look around. Oasis said I can.”

“Have fun,” Scythe said and got back to his games. He had switched to cards at some point.

Lala waved a rather vigorous goodbye as Soral left the room. He had half expected her to follow. She seemed kind of tenacious like that. Having spent the last hour or so underground, the sudden exposure to desert sun was blinding to his eyes. It was probably dimmed a bit, just like the temperature too.

Now that he had left the red house, he had to decide where he was going to explore. He saw a greenhouse by the lake that seemed interesting, and just as he was about to head for it a certain smell wafted from another direction. It was nostalgic and comforting, and Soral had a good idea of what it was.

He wandered towards it and found a kitchen just as the person inside pulled out a fresh batch of-

“Cupcakes!” Soral exclaimed with excitement, startling them. Luckily, no cupcakes fell.

“You gotta be careful not to scare people like that, hon,” she said, carefully placing the cupcakes down, “Ovens are hot and I don’t have any fancy fire resistance so I’ll burn.”

Soral noticed how large the woman was when she began to scold him, but she reminded him a lot of Vona so he wasn’t scared.

“Sorry,” he apologized easily, “It’s just been a while since I’ve seen real cupcakes like this.”

“Have you been going around eating fake cupcakes?” she asked, filling the cups for her next batch, “Never mind that. Don’t just stand there. Grab the icing bags from the chiller over there for me. Help me out and I’ll give you some.”

Soral certainly wasn’t going to refuse and darted over to the chiller to grab the icing. It wasn’t the usual chest shaped box he was used to. It stood up instead, and opened like a cabinet. He wasn’t sure which design he preferred, though.

He plopped the icing down next to her and watched with expectation. She shook her head with a sigh. “This won’t do at all. I’m going to have to teach you from the beginning.”

She began to teach him everything about cupcakes. Firstly, how to ice them. He had to make sure they were properly cooled first and he couldn’t just top it with a lumpy mess. Next she showed him how to fill the cups with the batter. If you filled them too full the cupcake would spill over and he would have to clean up the mess.

After that, she coached him through making the next batch of batter. These were chocolate cupcakes, Soral learned. The batter was the most particular part. He had to add exact amounts in a specific order, just like making a potion. It was kind of exciting.

Just when Soral was about to reap his rewards, a full dozen cupcakes he had personally baked from start to finish, Oasis stepped inside.

“There you are, Soral,” he said, “Thank you for taking care of him, Kristy.”

“I couldn’t just leave him drooling on my counter,” she replied, “Did ya need him for something?”

“I do. You can come get your cupcakes after,” he told Soral.

Robbed of his opportunity to finally remove the fresh cupcakes from the oven, Soral followed Oasis to another room. Oasis took him to that first room with all the chairs. Was this because of the assassins?

“I didn’t know they were assassins,” Soral defended before Oasis could speak.

He paused. “I will ask you about that later,” he said, “but I came to give you something. My master wishes for you to be able to contact Ruena, so I have arranged things.”

Oasis gave him a wolf charm, much like the one Ruena had with one notable difference. This one was of a more reddish sand color rather than black and the tooth was stark white. Soral turned it over in his hands a few times.

“Wasn’t this for making portals?”

“This one cannot do that, but it can contact Ruena and myself,” Oasis explained, “Twist to the right to contact Ruena, and the left to contact me.”

“Why would I ever contact you?” Soral questioned.

He let out a sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh. “This is not an opportunity I give to just anyone. Use it wisely,” he told him, ‘Now, explain what you meant by assassins.”

Due to his own big mouth, Soral was forced to explain the situation with Lala, Sloth, and Scythe. He seemed somewhat annoyed, but didn’t press any farther. “My bands should be able to handle things. Just be careful of those with black bands. They have a criminal history from before they arrived here. Most of it is not so kind.”

Assassins being the first one Soral came across did give that idea. Soral made sure to remember about the black now that he knew what it meant.

“Is it safe to have them with everyone else?” Soral asked.

“They are only with everyone else if I have deemed them safe,” Oasis told him. That probably meant there were more hidden somewhere, isolated. “Go get your cupcakes.”

Soral took off before Oasis could change his mind, and went right back to the kitchen. He didn’t want to miss a second more of that fresh cupcake aroma. That and Kristy had told him they tasted best warm.