Library of Rain

Setting Off

“All right, Ise, you promise not to leave this room until I come get you?”

“I promise.”

Ise’s words were a vibrant, true color, but Rain still worried. Ise had a tendency to drift towards creepy and scary things, and Rain didn’t want her leaving the hoard room.

“Okay, but if you break that promise, I'm not taking you with me again.”

The look of panic on Ise’s face reassured Rain. 

“Kay, I’ll be back soon.”

Rain used the door to the hoard room to open a gate back to the real world and stepped through.

Right. Now, it was time to go see Runt and Swift-tail again. 

She cast a quick longing look towards Lucus’s rooms, but there was no way to bring him. Not now that he had that liar Svend around him all the time. That jerk kept cutting into her brother time. She would deal with him soon.

Rain warped to the coin she’d given Runt, and when the world unfolded, she found herself standing in a cramped closet full of paintings wrapped in cloth. Runt was sitting against a wall to one side with his head on his chest, sleeping peacefully. He wasn’t wearing the blue dress anymore; instead, he was wearing night clothes similar to what Lucus wore, though the color and lacy sleeves gave them a more feminine look.

Rain wondered if he would get embarrassed if she commented on them. The immediate urge to try to make Runt blush swept through her. Rain had no idea what it was about this boy that brought that out of her. 

Before Rain even had a chance to decide how to best tease him, Runt snapped awake and looked around frantically. When he saw Rain, he calmed down a bit. 

“How’d you get in here?” Runt asked while groggily getting to his feet.

“It's a secret.”

“You sound like Swift-tail.”

“Goddess! Goddess, can you save my family?”

Rain looked around. She had good night vision from growing up in near total darkness, but she didn’t see the uffter in this small closet. 

“Where are you?”

A bag sitting next to Runt started twitching as a bright blue pair of eyes peeked out of its top. 

“I’m in here, Goddess. Do you have any food on you? I’m hungry, and the food you had the other day smelled really good.”

Unfortunately, Rain didn’t have any food on her. Otherwise, she would totally have tried using it as a distraction so she could pet the little critter. 

“No, sorry. What help does your family need, though?”

Rain cast a quick look at Runt. The boy wasn’t saying anything and was just looking at Rain in fascination. This made her uncomfortable enough that she wanted to embarrass him to make him stop. 

“I need you to convince them to stop. Mama wants to gather all the information in the city for you, and she won't give up even though all my siblings who enter the city now are killed because of the bounty.”

That pulled Rain’s attention back to the little creature in the bag. Why would its mama…

“You’re saying that your family is dying because they’re trying to help me?”

The little blue eyes in the bag looked down. Rain couldn’t see much of the critter, but that movement reminded Rain so much of Ise when Rain caught her working too hard that Rain felt like she immediately understood the situation. 

“Where are they?”

“The Dead Ring, Goddess.”

“Do you want to come, Runt?”

“Wha, er, yes. I’m Swift-tail’s partner. I want to help his family, too.” 

“Is there anyone outside this door?”

“No Goddess.”

“Good.”

Rain used her power to turn the door into a gate to her library and motioned for Runt to take Swift-tail through.

“Go inside. I’ll get you and Ise in a moment.”

“Who’s Ise?”

“You’ll meet her in a second; just go.”

After exchanging a brief look with Swift-tail, Runt entered the library.

Rain closed the door and warped to the coin she had stashed in the Mid Ring. The moment the world cleared around her, she used the door to the small apartment she was renting as a permanent coin-hiding place to create a gate to her library and stepped through. 

Runt was standing in the middle of the entry room, looking around like every shadow was trying to attack him, Swift-tail peeking out of the bag at his waist.

“Welcome to my library.”

“Is this the blessed chamber where you gave Mama thought?”

Rain supposed that this was where Rain had experimented on the uffters and created the mind uffters. 

“Yep, now follow me, and I’ll introduce you to my partner.”

Rain couldn’t keep the note of satisfaction out of her voice. Sure, she would keep Sunrise away from anything too dangerous, but she wasn’t alone in her scheming anymore. She had a partner.

The two of them walked through the library towards the hoard room, and once again, Rain had to fight the urge to tease Runt as he squirmed at the sight, smell, and sound of the books on the shelves. 

“Be careful; these books are drawn to pretty maidens.”

“I’m not a girl!”

“Aww, but you’re so pretty.”

Just like that, Rain had Runt turning bright red. Heh, heh, this was so much fun, even if Rain did feel kinda mean.

“That’s because you are mean.” Lon’s voice wafted out from the shadows somewhere. And Rain’s enjoyment dissolved. 

Whatever.

“Ise, I want you to meet Runt and Swift-tail,” Rain said as she barged through the door into the hoard room.

Runt followed behind her, eyes going wide at the sight of all the gold. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to take him here. Oh well, he’d already seen Rain and her library. What more damage would seeing her hoard do?

Besides, it wasn’t like he would be leaving tonight without signing a contract.

Ise looked less than thrilled at the sight of Runt.

“Who’s she?”

Rain happily watched Runt’s ears, which had just gotten back to normal, go crimson once again. 

“I’m Runt, and I’m a man, not a girl.”

“Yep, this is Runt. He’s working with someone I owe a favor to, so he’s coming with us tonight. And in the bag is…”

“Please don’t tell her about me! She’s scary.”

“Ah, er, never mind.” Rain finished lamely. She didn’t think Sunrise was scary, but she guessed that to a tiny critter like Swift-tail, she was pretty big.

“All right,” Rain said, spreading her feet apart and planting her hands on her hips. It was the pose Lucus’s sword trainer liked to do when yelling at the boys. “we need to get to the Dead Ring from the Mid Ring. Runt is going to guide us to our goal, and Ise is going to keep an eye out for danger. Understood?”

Rain was the one who would actually be looking for danger, but it made Ise happy when she had a job.

“Oka…”

“Yes, Mistress!” Ise said, cutting Runt off. 

Rain had a feeling that this little trip might be more interesting than she had originally planned.