Library of Rain

It only took a few hours before Rain felt something shift in her bond with Mr. Mirage. The once slippery thread leading off into the void suddenly became solid and possible to grasp. Rain wasted no time latching on and pulling herself towards it. Her mind seemed to be sucked into darkness while her body slumped sideways on the couch.

 

In an instant eternity, Rain found herself floating above an empty street thick with ash. All around, uffters were scurrying while a gray fox chased them. 

 

Was this Mr. Mirage’s dream?

 

Rain looked around, seeing no hint of Mr. Mirage. She also realized she didn’t have a body here. This was his dream; he should be here somewhere. If Rain had to guess, her best bet was that he was the fox. His race was ash fox-kin now, after all. Rain would start by trying to talk to it.

 

First, though, Rain needed a body. As she focused on that, she got the impression that if she wanted to create a body, she would only need to focus on how she wanted it to look, and she could create it in this dreamscape. 

 

She almost made the mistake of forming her body to look like her real body, but no, if she could look like anything she wanted, then that meant she could get in on the fun happening below. Rain focused on creating a fox body for herself. She would give it black fur to match her real hair, of course, and green eyes were a must. As she held the image in her mind, Rain could feel a body forming for herself from nothing.

 

Before long, Rain’s sight - previously floating free in the air, able to see in any direction at any time - snapped into place behind her fox body's eyes. Then, as the body finished forming, Rain dropped the three feet or so into the soft ash of the street below.

 

Rain stood up from where she was splayed out on the ash and shook herself to clean out her fur. Running in a circle, Rain was amazed by how natural it felt to be on all fours, like she had used this body all her life. 

 

Turning to where the gray fox was chasing helpless uffters around and through the ash, Rain joined in the fun, charging in and heading a group of uffters off. 

 

The next few minutes were spent chasing fluff balls, burrowing through ash, and yipping with joy. Rain had such a good time that when she plowed through an ash bank in hot pursuit of an especially large ball of fluff, she was surprised to see a gray fox in the distance, reminding her that she wasn’t here to play. 

 

Breaking off from her pursuit, Rain bounded over to the gray fox.

 

“Mr. Mirage?”

 

The fox stopped its chasing of the uffters and looked at Rain. Rain wasn’t an expert on reading fox expressions, but it looked befuddled, like it had just woken up from a dream. 

 

“Lady Tyix, is that you? Where are we?”

 

Rain grimised at the name. She really should have thought of a name before meeting Mr. Mirage for the first time. Tyix wasn’t a bad name, but the fact that she was using a truncated version of Thirty-six still bothered her. Unfortunately, it was all she could come up with on the spot. Whatever. Nothing she could do about it now.

 

“Yes, we’re in your dream. I chose this place because no one can overhear us here.”

 

Rain was pretty sure that was true. Unless someone else had a skill that allowed them to see others' dreams.

 

“My dream.” 

 

Mr. Mirage looked down at himself and over at the uffters hiding all around.

 

“Is this really what I dream about?”

 

Not waiting for an answer, he looked over at himself, then his form shifted, changing shape and springing up like a tree. When he finished, he was standing there in his human form, only without the cap covering his ears and with his tail proudly swaying in the wind.

 

He kneeled in front of Rain, who, for her part, felt silly looking like a fox now and staring up at the much larger human. 

 

Rain shifted her own body to its normal human form, then, because she could, she gave herself ears and a tail to match Mr. Mirage. 

 

“You can get up. I’m here so we can discuss our plans.”

 

“Of course, My Lady.”

 

“Good, now let's walk. I want to see what else is in your dream world.”

 

Mr. Mirage didn’t seem too happy with that idea, but he followed Rain anyway.

 

“Last time we spoke, you told me you could find people who would be loyal to you no matter what.”

 

“Yes, Lady Tyix, I have gathered three good friends who also want to make the Low Ring a better place for them and theirs.

 

“Friends, huh. Do you trust them with the power one of my books will grant them?”

 

“I do. I’ve known these three for years, and we've helped each other more often than I can count. None of them betrayed me when I told them I planned to kill Ark and take over the Ash Grifters.”

 

Rain thought about this as they turned a corner down another boring street covered in droves of uffters. Other than the fun chasing, there wasn’t anything exciting in Mr. Mirage’s dream.

 

“You’ve been friends with them for years?” Rain said softly. She didn’t like where this was going or what she would have to ask next. 

 

Rain fought back the deep sadness welling up inside her. Did she really need to do this? Would grabbing power over the isles really help the people in them. Rain wanted to say no, but the information she had gained from her past self couldn’t be ignored. The mainland was already tearing itself apart, and if Rain didn’t do something, the isles would be as well soon. Rain had to stop that, even if it meant hurting people. With that in mind, she asked her next question.

 

“Are you willing to kill these friends if they react poorly to my books?”

 

With three people, there was a good chance at least one would react poorly to whichever book they chose. When that happened, they would need to be put down before they could go on a rampage. It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but Rain needed to know if Mr. Mirage could kill a corrupted friend.

 

Thinking about Lon, Rain knew she couldn’t have killed him even if she had the strength to. By the time she arrived, he had already killed three people, and she still didn’t think she could have done it. Yet that was what she was asking Mr. Mirage to do. She was asking him to kill a friend rather than let them go on a rampage. 

 

Now that she knew the risks, she needed to make sure her actions didn’t put innocent people at risk. She would make sure that whoever read from her library knew the risks and that the risks were to them and them alone.

 

After a few minutes, Mr. Mirage spoke.

 

“Is there no way to undo the effects if something goes poorly?”

 

“No. None that I know of.”

 

“Then, if they were a danger to others, I would be able to kill them.”

 

Rain winced at that. There was something in the sound of his voice that hurt. It reminded Rain of all the times when she had felt the most lonely, a sort of emptiness that hollowed out the soul.

 

Rain regretted that she had to ask this question and force Mr. Mirage to decide he would be willing to kill his friends when he might never even have to act on it. But now Rain could continue onward. He understood the risks and had accepted them; now, all that was left was to set a time and place.

 

“Gather them tomorrow night. I’ll give them the option to make a deal with me and enter my library.”