Library of Rain

When the morning finally came, it arrived with a maid to wake Rain up. The maid called to Rain, calling her ‘Young Lady Estom’ and telling her it was time to wake up. Rain, for her part, was already awake, having been unable to sleep for long before the nightmares chased her back to reality. Still, she pretended to wake up from a deep sleep.

 

The maid told Rain to prepare for the day before beating a hasty retreat. The whole exchange took less than a minute. 

 

Rain changed her cloak into a nice knee-length white and blue dress. It reminded her of a cloudy day. Not the nasty gray clouds that were usually in the sky, but the fluffy white clouds that made people feel happy. Rain was going to make today a good day.

 

First, though, she needed to find a good place to leave a coin. This manor was well defended, and judging from Lord and Lady Estom's actions yesterday, no one would bother Rain.

 

In the end, Rain decided that the servant's room next to hers was the safest place to hide the coin. No one lived there. Even if someone was snooping in her rooms when she warped back, it was less likely they would be in that small room and see her appear out of nowhere.

 

Coin secured, Rain took one last look around the room to see if she should bring anything with her. However, before she could warp out, there was a knock at the door.

 

Rain could still just leave and let whoever it was knocking look for her, but she had to admit she was curious about who was trying to talk to her. Rain opened the door. On the other side was another of the house servants. Rain should really start trying to tell them apart. 

 

"Follow me, Young Lady, and I will take you to your morning lessons."

 

Wait, lessons? What were these lessons about? Unsure what was going on, Rain decided to go along with things until she had a better picture. 

 

"Lead the way."

 

The servant led Rain to another door on the same floor. When Rain entered, she was left speechless. The door led to a library bigger than her mist room. While it was smaller than the Mid Ring library, it was still huge. All these books for just one family. Rain was stunned by the thought. With all these books just down the hall from her new room, she would be able to read them whenever she wanted. 

 

Rain followed the servant down an open stairway to a reading area of the library where Lucus sat at a table; standing on the other side of the room was an old woman with wrinkles like crumpled paper. 

 

"Ah, good. You've brought her. Now, Young Lady, have a seat there next to the Young Lord."

 

Rain followed instructions and sat at the table next to Lucus, who, for his part, looked incredibly bored. 

 

"Now, we will continue today's lesson on the history of House Estom."

 

Rain was already starting to regret not escaping when she had the chance. The woman's voice was dry and slow; it seasoned everything she said with a thick layer of lifelessness. Where someone like Hope could make anything interesting by virtue of her bubbly excitement on the subject, this woman could tell a story about a fight between dragons and still put Rain to sleep. 

 

Rain started to think of all the better things she could be doing instead of being stuck here. She had been thinking of starting a school for the children of the Mid and Low Rings. She could foster loyalty in them, then take the best among them and use them to infiltrate places of power as servants and scribes. 

 

She liked the idea. It was similar to what the lords did with the Grand Acadamy, but they left so much talent behind by only inviting the children of lords and those with classes to learn. There were so many people in the city, like Mr. Mirage, who would do anything to improve their place in life. 

 

She would need to find good teachers for this school. Maybe Hope would be willing to teach. She did seem to be excited about learning and teaching. Even if she didn't know as much as Ms. Crinkles, her passion would make her an exciting teacher.

 

Rain sighed. Their teacher had yet to change the tone of her voice as she lectured. It was all that same dry, slow tone. Looking over at Lucus, Rain saw him staring ahead with soulless eyes. That was pretty much how she felt. 

 

Picking up a piece of charcoal and a scrap of paper, Rain started drawing. She drew herself as a beautiful heroine in a flowing dress, kicking an evil black classer with Lucus's face. She had to admit she wasn't much of an artist, but at least drawing was something to do. 

 

When the old teacher looked away from them, Rain slid the picture over to Lucus. Lucus, moving for the first time since she sat down, looked at the picture. Then, picked up a piece of charcoal of his own and started drawing. 

 

Rain tried to listen to the lesson she really did. It was something about how House Estom made a deal with the lords of bronze to make spears and elevate their place in the Gathering. If taught by almost anyone else, Rain would have been fascinated, but by the time Lucus slid the paper back to her, her mind had gone completely blank.

 

Looking down at the paper, Rain was stunned by how well Lucus could draw. His lines were crisp and shaded, making everything feel real, plus his proportions were way better than Rain's.  

 

His picture, which was right next to Rain's, showed Him blocking Rain's attack and countering with a knife thrust.

 

There was no way Rain was going to let him win this fight. Rain blocked his knife attack and kneed him in the gut, then passed the paper back.

 

Lucus took the knee to the gut and used it to grab Rain and throw her over his shoulder. Then he passed the paper back to Rain, who landed on her back and swept Lucus's legs from under him. 

 

As their battle heated up and they started using skills, it became clear to Rain that they were evenly matched. If Rain wanted to win this fight, she would have to show that she was stronger. With this in mind, the next time the paper was passed to her, she added minions to Lucus's side. 

 

She could have added the minions to her own side, but then Lucus would probably just draw his own minions, and nothing would change. But by giving him the minions, she created an imbalance in the fight against herself. 

 

Lucus passed the paper back to her. Perfect! He had accepted the minions without giving her anything to balance it out. Rain drew herself killing each of the minions in different cool ways, and when Lucus didn't try to stop her, he unconsciously accepted that Rain was as strong as him and his minions combined. Now that the minions were dead, He would have to accept that Rain was stronger. It was all over. 

 

Rain drew herself using one of the deadly skills she had just used to finish off a minion on Lucus. There was no way he would be able to stop it. But against all logic, he blocked it. How! That move should have left a hole in his stomach!

 

As Rain tried to figure out how to kill Lucus, she realized that their teacher wasn't talking anymore. Looking up from the paper, she saw that she and Lucus were being given a dangerous look. 

 

"Since you don't seem to be interested in listening to anything I say, how about you copy the first fifty pages of Lord Verneri Estom's journal? I expect you to have it done before our lesson tomorrow."

 

And with that, Ms. Crinkles shuffled away.

 

Lucus, who had been in the middle of drawing when they were noticed, groaned. 

 

"Great, that's going to take hours."

 

Rain cocked her head.

 

"Then why would we do it? She can't do anything to us, can she?"

 

Lucus looked shocked at the idea of not doing as he was told.

 

"She could tell Mother and Father."

 

"So what? You said yourself that Lord and Lady Estome rarely bother with us anyway. I doubt they care."

 

"...I guess you're right."

 

Taking one look at the massive journal, Lucus made up his mind. 

 

"I guess I'll go to sword training early. Are you going to come watch again?"

 

"No, I have other things I want to do today." Rain said, looking at all the books around her.

 

Lucus's shoulders slumped slightly.

 

"Good, your cheering was annoying."

 

Rain decided not to call him out on his lie.