"Man, we were having fun! We still have tons of things to talk about with them," said Chud, slightly annoyed, the moment the group closed the entrance with the boxes behind them.
"We know. I got curious about that small fox too, but it's already past midnight and we don't know if we might find any guards around," answered Martheel. The group arrived at the end of the alley and remained there speaking; knowing that they had to take different routes, this would be their only occasion to speak about this.
"Tyel, you know about it, right?" asked Chud, as puppy eyes appeared on his face while he did what he could to know the truth about it.
Before answering, Tyel remembered Darian's face and how he had fun teasing Chud. 'Well, he probably wants to tell him… let's keep it a secret again.'
"You'll know soon," answered Tyel with an amused face. Chud looked even more annoyed.
"Alright…" Chud crossed his arms together and looked away, offended.
Martheel, next to him, laughed softly before positioning his hand over his shoulder. "Still… it surprised us, Tyel. We never expected that you were hiding such an important thing," said Martheel with a serious tone. Hearing what he had just said, even Chud turned serious again.
"Yeah… I thought that you… I don't know, you were probably going through a lot of serious problems with your mind, especially because every day you always seemed more tired," added Chud.
"I know… and I'm sorry if I hid this truth from you guys…" said Tyel, giving the impression that he was sorry, when in reality it was because he felt that both Martheel and Chud weren't made to fight, and he didn't want them to risk their lives.
"There weren't many chances, especially because the guards could have heard us without any problem…" answered Martheel. Suddenly, he offered his open hand to Tyel. "But from now on, no more secrets between us, my friend, alright?" As Martheel positioned his hand in front of Tyel, he smirked happily, while Chud nearby had a proud look on his face.
"Alright… no more secre—" Tyel spoke with a weak tone, as if he were unsure if doing this was the right thing, but before his hand could grab Martheel's, Martheel closed his. "Say it without hesitation, Tyel."
Martheel wanted to scream; he wanted to let Tyel know that he was serious about this handshake, but because it was extremely late and someone could hear them, he simply spoke with a serious tone and looked at Tyel with an expression that Tyel had never seen before.
'I'm sorry, I can't tell you that… I still have to hide most things from you, but…' As Tyel looked at Martheel's expression, he felt that Martheel wasn't joking. For him, it felt like after everything that had happened, Martheel was ready to take on the burden; he was ready to help Tyel no matter what.
As Tyel looked at that expression again, his eyes exploded with excitement while his heart started to beat extremely fast. "No more lies!" he said, almost raising his voice too much, but it didn't matter to him anymore. As Martheel looked at that expression, he opened his hand again, and Tyel without hesitation clashed his hand against Martheel's.
"Woah… today surely a lot has happened," said Vane, the moment the three guards came out of the base, stretching out as he got up from his chair.
"I agree. We've discovered tons of new things… and we've gained more allies in this war," answered Orechin excitedly, looking at Vane full of energy while he was still in his chair.
"And they're guards! As far as I know, the moment Tyel decided to help us, we were already surprised because a guard had never come directly to us… but now," whispered Syrmax, as he couldn't believe what had just happened.
Orechin nodded his head before answering, "Yeah, from what the others told me, there was never a guard helping the rebels…" After this, Orechin looked down. "Mom… Dad… Uxar… and all of you old rebels… finally, we're about to arrive at the conclusion of Ardoris' liberation," whispered he. "Catripple…" Orechin started to get more hope; he knew that his sister would soon be saved.
Suddenly, Orechin felt someone touching his shoulder. As he looked up, he noticed Darian with a big smile. "Don't worry, we'll save the city soon."
"I know…" Orechin, hearing these words, got up from his chair, and while everyone was looking at him, he decided to speak again. "Soon we will return to the Seamstress's sanctuary. It doesn't matter who we find, a child or an old person, we'll save them no matter what!" shouted Orechin without any fear. Everyone in the room emitted a loud scream in agreement.
"I don't think we should let many days pass. On Tyel's next free day, we have to prepare for the next attack. We can't afford to lose any time," said Liro as he got up from his chair too.
"Still, when is Tyel's next free day? I know that today he is going to have one day free, but…" Lily looked at the clock, unsure if midnight had already passed, but as she realized it, she could say without any problem that it was now a free day for Tyel.
"It will be in two days. The day after tomorrow, he'll be free again… now that I think about it, we should have said it to him…" said Syrmax. As he said these words, the whole room turned quiet.
"There's still a chance he might come tomorrow so that we can tell him, right?" asked Vane, but no answer arrived.
"I hope he's still outside talking with his friends!!" With that, Orechin immediately rushed outside, and everyone else looking at that scene burst into a huge laugh.
The following day passed normally. Tyel had remained home, as he agreed with Orechin that the group would think about the plan and he would rest so that he would be refreshed and could use his power without any problem.
Both Martheel and Chud decided that they would remain inside. Neither of them had a free day at that moment, but the moment their shift ended, they would try their best to help by remaining near the entrance through which the group would usually pass.
"Ahhh!!! I always tell you, a good beer with your friend is always what you need to regain all of your strength!!!" shouted Chud. Both he, Martheel, and Tyel were drinking together. Two days had passed, and tomorrow would be the day in which the rebels would need to go and attack the sanctuary once again.
"Yesterday you left him alone; he went home all sad," said another guard not far from their table as he looked at the scene.
"We had our free day; we had no reason to come and drink here," answered Martheel as he sipped his beer once again. Tyel, next to him, hadn't touched his beer yet; he was simply eating a hamburger.
"And it's so annoying!!! I can't believe… sigh… you always have these free days, and with what we're pre—" Chud started to speak when suddenly Tyel realized that he was saying something that he shouldn't, and if he finished the sentence, they could be in serious trouble.
Tyel gave a small kick to Chud's leg, sending a sharp pain all over his body. "Ehii!!" shouted he angrily.
"Guess we have to go, he's getting too drunk," said Martheel. Tyel had just finished eating his burger and nodded his head. "I agree with him. We don't want him to throw up on the table like what happened last month."
As Tyel said these words, the whole room turned quiet, and they all looked away, trying not to laugh at the scene. "Hey, guys… but you're laughing because the scene was funny… sigh!"
As they began to drag Chud away, another guard stopped Tyel. "Hey, are you finishing the beer, Tyel? You've barely touched it."
"Nah, you can have it. I didn't feel like drinking today, definitely another time!" shouted Tyel. As the guards heard this, they all exchanged a challenging look, and soon enough, they all launched themselves at the full beer.
"Hey, that's mine!!" shouted a voice from the crowd.
"I've known Tyel for longer!!" shouted another voice.
"Hey, I was the one who asked if he would finish it!!" shouted the same guard as, soon enough, he launched into the crowd too.
"Hehe… it's always so funny to see these scenes," pointed out Martheel, as he couldn't hold back his laugh. Chud looked at the crowd with envy in his eyes. "I SHOULD BE THE ONE TO TAKE THAT!!!!" shouted he, but the crowd couldn't hear him as they had already come out of the tavern.
"So, Tyel? Ready for tomorrow?" asked Martheel as he grabbed Chud and helped him get back on his feet.
"Yeah, we're going tomorrow. And honestly? I'm feeling a lot better. I really needed yesterday to rest; I feel like tomorrow I'll be able to do everything!" said Tyel happily. Both Chud and Martheel smiled happily at the sight of their friend full of energy.
"Tomorrow we're going early, I'd better go and rest." With that, Tyel waved back at his friends, who did the same, and walked away.
"I'm happy that he is finally doing alright. After we understood his truth, it felt like he removed a huge weight from his body," said Chud as he looked at his friend who was walking away.
"I agree. I'm really happy to see him doing better; even this morning he didn't feel tired like usual," pointed out Martheel. "I'm happy that our friend has been doing alright… but do you think that we've been able to help him?" asked Chud. Martheel sadly shook his head.
"We didn't do much, we just happened to be one of the reasons… but he has done everything almost by himself… and…" Martheel looked at Tyel disappearing inside one of the dark alleys and started to wonder something.
"What?" asked Chud, confused.
"I remembered that every time he has a free day and goes with the rebels outside, he feels more tired…" whispered Martheel. Chud was even more confused.
"What are you trying to say?" asked him, as he couldn't understand, both because he was drunk and because he couldn't follow Martheel's speech.
"Maybe he goes under a lot of pressure whenever he is on one of the missions?" proposed Martheel. Chud next to him finally understood what he was talking about.
"I noticed it too… what do you think about it?" asked Chud. Martheel remained silent for a few seconds as, in his mind, the scenes of when Tyel was in the rebels' base and talked with them played over and over again.
"You've never been a good liar, Tyel…" whispered Martheel, and with that, he started to walk away. "Hey, let me hear it too!! What did you say?!" shouted Chud as he wanted to know what his friend had said, too.
The following day, Tyel arrived exactly as planned at 1 p.m. in front of the rebels' base. As he arrived on time, everyone else was already outside. "So? Are we ready?" asked Tyel in his beautiful Timehors costume. The whole group nodded their heads.
"Let's go, we don't have much time to lose," said Orechin with a serious tone. He took the lead, reaching the hole in the wall, followed by everyone else.
"So? What about our plan?" asked Tyel. Darian, with Snowy on top of his shoulder, smirked. "Everything's ready!"
"We've got each squad ready: the Bait Team, the Escape Team, and the Revealist Team!" As Vane mentioned these names, he clashed his fists together. As Tyel turned his head back, he heard someone sighing heavily.
"I told you, these aren't the true names for each team," said Liro, slightly annoyed.
"Well, we're now going into the sanctuary. It's not like we can change them now…" whispered Vane.
Each team mentioned by Vane had a precise role. The Bait Team was the one that had to go around searching for the Seamstress, and just like the name suggests, they would bait her into a designated spot; this team was composed of Darian, Vane, Tyel, and Orechin.
The Escape Team, composed only of Syrmax, had to take care of things when the group needed to escape. Syrmax would remain right under the ladder charging himself up, so whenever the Seamstress arrived and the group had failed, he would use his power to destroy her.
And the most important team was made of Lily and Liro: they were the Revealist Team. Their objective was to remain hidden with Liro's illusion in the designated spot, waiting for the Bait Team to bring the Seamstress, and with Lily's power, she would block her, and Liro would pull down her zipper.
"Guys, we've arrived. We aren't allowed to slack off anymore," said Lily. As the small group finished talking to each other, they realized that they had finally reached their hole and that the Seamstress sanctuary had become closer.