I diligently kept holding the magical sphere, rationalizing that anyone wanting to hurt me would have had ample opportunities to do so while I slept. I could be from Nouel. It seemed to be a rock of some sort, and I knew the mage favored these. It would make sense. I had not provided them with answers, so perhaps they were now resorting to more advanced probing techniques.

I recalled the bloodied bodies of last morning. Not a pleasant memory, and its unprompted nature confused me. The confusion grew when I realized I could not stop thinking about that scene. It was disrupting my ability to focus. I could still think, but the mental picture stayed at the forefront of my mind no matter what I tried. Could this be some sort of trauma? An alarming prospect.

A rising panic fought with nausea at the gory details forced upon me. Before either could lead to action, the picture disappeared and, not a breath later, an impression of Nouel replaced it. The mage was as I had first seen him in that alley, frozen mid-motion as he held one of his magical stones while trying to decide where on his board to place it.

As that memory was as undeniable as the previous one, this had to be an effect of the enchanted sphere’s scanning process. Unlikely to cause me harm, I reassured myself.

In fact, if the artifact dug up memories, could it perhaps help me recover from amnesia?

The anticipation made waiting for the current image to disappear even more tedious.

Finally, it did, and I was disappointed to recall my first view of the city and its fields.

Were the memories being pulled at random? The events had not occurred in this order, and I could not figure out any thematic link between them. There was no way to sleep during this process, so I just kept waiting in the silent and dark room.

Next came a memory of Lord Derrien. The scarred man still felt menacing, even eerily static as he was. I had to admit it was unlikely this tool would provide me with any help. All the recollections so far had been from I had experienced just yesterday. If it could indeed reach beyond that, getting four memories from yesterday in a row was extremely unlikely.

As Lord Derrien left my mind, nothing came to replace him, confirming my suspicion.

‘SCAN COMPLETED. PERFORMING SANITY CHECKS.’

I was feeling disheartened, but kept on holding the ball out of curiosity. Was it about to about to deem me insane?

This time, however, nothing seemed to happen. No images popping up to judge my reactions, as one would expect. My thoughts remained untouched.

‘CHECKS COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY,’ the artifact blurted out, following that moment of awkward stagnation. ‘PREPARE TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS.’

Did that mean I was sound of mind? Or was it only saying that it had properly performed all checks, without informing me of the results? Annoying, but the equal lack of feedback during the memory scan suggested the latter.

This time, the thoughts sent by the glowing object took the form of a calm and neutral feminine voice.

‘Eriol Corneau, Central has been notified of your failure to report upon arrival. This is your first and final warning. Avoidance of future probes will lead to severe consequences.’

Before I could react, what little light the so-called probe had been emitting ceased, and my sight was engulfed in darkness. I felt its warmth and weight disappear from my hand. It was gone.

“What the fuck?” I complained out loud. “Really?!”

I had initially thought the object sent by Nouel, but no longer. The message had referred to me by name, and that seemed to be the only good thing to come out of this: I finally knew my own name. The rest was certainly ominous. My forgotten past catching up to me, but unaware of my situation, and they did not sound like a pleasant bunch.

It seemed I had displeased them by failing to report. Report what? And how?

The probe must have been how I was supposed to send them information. Had I missed a similar sphere when I woke up? That sounded entirely plausible. Depending on its color, it might not even have looked out of place among the grass and dirt. Not that I had been attentively looking for any oddly shaped rocks.

My amnesia was too precise in its effects to be anything but the result of a calculated mind magic operation, not the result of an accident in whatever method of travel I had used. If whoever sent this device remained unaware of my issue, then perhaps yet another party had sabotaged the mission I was here to achieve.

I had still no idea what the battle had been about or how I came out of it unscathed. Somehow, someone sent me here with a purpose and, lacking guidance, I was unlikely to be fulfilling it. Sure, I could just keep on accepting these probes, but their sender would soon notice my erratic actions. Given that their abilities included materializing objects near wherever I was, upsetting them would be foolish. Yet I had already done so and had not been given any opportunity to explain myself.

My mood turned sour at the unfairness of it all. I was not asking for much. Answers would be nice, sure, but a stable and uneventful life looked mighty appealing right about now.

I got up and blindly edged toward the bars of my cell.

I was poised to severely displease a powerful group that cared not for my excuses. What I needed now were allies, either to escape or to withstand whatever consequences came in retaliation. Being imprisoned limited my options. Did I cast my lot with my jailors by sharing everything I learned, or did I keep mum and face my previous employer unprepared?

Bad choices, both of them. Damn it all. Full of uncertainty and danger.

I banged my arm on the bars. I decided that this was not a tantrum, but simply the best way to get my jailers’ attention.

“Hey! Can anyone hear me? I have information to share!”

There was no reply.

I went back to lie on the bed.

I failed to find rest, being kept awake by worry. Frustration took a long time to dissipate.

After what seemed like forever, I heard the door open, and light from outside inundated the room. There was a figure standing in front of the entrance.

“Why’s it so dark in here?” Loann’s voice asked. “You tryna escape?” He did not have the most welcoming appearance, so ready to unsheathe his sword. From his words, I gathered he expected some sort of ambush.

Loann no longer wore his armor, having traded it for more casual clothes. I noticed he had a small leather satchel at his side.

“Good morning, Loann,” I welcomed him. “The room was dark when I woke up this morning. I can assure you I have not spent an hour in complete darkness by choice.”

Maybe some irritation remained, after all.

“‘morning,” Loann acknowledged, still wary.

After a few seconds, he entered and placed his hand next to the door.

No longer so upset, I reconsidered my decision to tell these people everything. I needed to know more about them to avoid making my situation even worse.

As I pondered on this, my visitor has his back to me and continuously placed then removed his hand from a spot on the wall.

“Darn thing’s busted,” Loann complained, before turning back to look at me.

As if hearing his words, the room became ever so slightly less shadowy. I could even see the corners. I would have chalked it up to my vision acclimating, but the bed and the bars displayed no such phosphorescent aura. The light came straight from the stone walls, then.

“So, well, it turns out we messed up,” the man told me, seeming not to notice the change. “Thought there’d be a bounty on your head soon, but nothing came.” He paused. “So… You’re free to go, I guess, but Lord Derrien said he’d like to take you in. I mean, you’d be real good at what we do, and you clearly ain’t doing so well out there.”

Were they honestly trying to get me to join them? Had they not effectively kidnapped me from the streets just yesterday? I was still in a cage! Quite an odd way to approach a potential recruit.

“It’ll be a bit weird, what’s with the no soul thing and all, but Nouel said you’re still a reasonable kinda guy. So… You interested?” Loann asked.

It was not like his arguments were flawed. There was indeed nothing good waiting for me outside this cell. Considering I needed to wear some enchantment not to get attacked on sight, something I currently did not possess, options seemed limited.

“Before making my decision, I need to know more about what kind of work this arrangement would entail. Despite what people seem to believe, I am not fond of violence.” I told him.

Given their actions so far, I disinclined to think this group was too worried about staying on the right side of the law. While this was not so much of an issue for me as I wished it to be, there were still hard lines I was not willing to cross.

“Oh… Well, we don’t go around murdering people, if that’s what you’re worried about.” Loann reassured me. “We’re more about… uh… retrieval? Investigation work, too, I guess.”

“What do you mean by retrieval work?” I inquired, sensing his reluctance.

“Well, you know... We get paid to find something… or someone… then we go retrieve it.” he shrugged.

Thieves. These people were burglars. And abductors, but I had already been strongly clued in on that one.

Loann frowned, looking at me. By now, the light levels had risen enough that he should be able to see my expression, yet he still seemed perplexed. Oh. Right. He could not feel my emotions. That had to be very disconcerting for him.

“I am not in any position to judge anyone on the issue of thievery,” I assuaged him. “I will admit that I would prefer a more honest field of work, if possible, but you are right: this is the best option I seem to have.”

There was one key concern worrying me.

“Would accepting this offer tie me to Lord Derrien under threat, or would I be able to leave freely should a better opportunity arise?” I asked him.

Loann fixed me in silence, confusing obvious on his face.

“Nouel said you can’t form Ties.” Loann accused.

What? Oh. No emotional ties through the soul, I guessed.

“Would I be able to leave without fear of reprisals?” I rephrased.

“Oh… Well… Same rules as everywhere else, I guess.” Loann shrugged. “If you Shift or Split, just finish the job and give everything back before leaving. ‘Guess in your case, it would count as a singular Split, huh?”

He smirked.

More concepts unknown to me, but it sounded like this offer would not shackle me down. It seemed more than fair.

“Leaving in a middle of a job’s a bad move.” Loann warned, serious again. “Same as taking our stuff with you. We’d hunt you down and make you pay. -he shrugged- We’re good at that.”

I could use this as a stepping stone. It might make me new enemies and close the door on some opportunities in the future. On the other hand, all the other doors I currently knew of were already shut.

“Tell Lord Derrien I am willing to work for him under these conditions.” I said.

“Good.” Loann paused, frowned a bit, then continued. “Definitely no Ties. Makes it awkward talking to you.”

He got closer to the cell’s bars, took something out of his satchel, made his arm pass through, and presented a weird contraption to me.

“You’re smart, right?” Loann asked. “We’ll need you to know how to work these.”

I grabbed the strange cylinder of glass and metal he was handing me. As the room’s luminosity had now reached reasonable levels, I could recognize the object as some sort of transparent lock. Metallic parts of the structure inside were opaque, but enough of it was glass to ensure nothing stayed mysterious. This was a fascinating piece to look at. Given a key, I would undoubtedly see the whole thing unlock and understand all details of the mechanism.

Loann had already removed his satchel by the time I stopped focusing on the glass puzzle. I easily guessed its purpose. After all, I had just accepted to join a group of thieves, had I not? The satchel he handed me contained the tools needed for me to me unlock the learning apparatus.

A smile appeared on my face as I realized they were giving lock picking tools to someone in a cell.

It was not as thoughtless, though: Loann pointed at the cell’s door. “This one’s test number one. An easy one.” he explained, before indicating the room’s exit door. “That one’s number two. A little bit harder.”

He made to leave, paused, then threw some last-minute advice. “If anyone you don’t know enters, I’d advise backing away with your hands raised.”

Well… I was not exactly part of the group just yet, then.

I started experimenting with the learning tool as Loann left. This was actually a really enjoyable puzzle. I knew I was going to be spending hours trying to figure it out.