Library of Rain

A Meetup With Friends

Rain opened the door and stepped back into her rooms finally finished with the dinner she had been forced to attend. The whole thing had left her in a bad mood.

“Welcome back, Rain! How was it?”

“They didn’t even talk to me. They told Lucus, ‘I’m glad you decided to stop disgracing the family and are taking your studies seriously.’ then spent the rest of the night ignoring both of us. And to make it worse, they forced me to leave Snow in another room!” 

Rain squeezed her stuffed wolf tighter. 

“What about you, Ise? Did you get enough to eat?”

Sunrise's face darkened at that.

“Yes, there was enough food.”

“What's wrong, Ise?”

“The servants here are all filth. They kept telling me how sorry they were that I had to be so close to the cursed child and that it was a shame that I couldn’t get a place somewhere else in the manor. I knew everyone here would be fake if they worked for that bastard Lord Estom.”

Rain needed to redirect the conversation before Sunrise got any angrier. Ise’s arms were already tightly crossed, a sign Rain had learned to recognize and fear.

“Thanks for cleaning this place up, Ise. I know the Estoms won’t recognize you as a member of the house, but you don't have to clean if you don't want to.”

“I’m happy to clean for you, Rain.”

“Well, it looks amazing.”

Sunrise swelled with pride at the compliment, and her crossed arms loosened a little. Thank the moons.

“What are you going to do now, read from those religious books again?”

Rain grimaced at the mention of the books in question. She had attempted to study them a few times and still had trouble not falling asleep. But since she’d had nothing better to do at dinner than think she’d realized that there was another way to get what she wanted. 

Her original plan had been to enter Mr. Ner’s dreams and pretend to be a messenger of Agro there to deliver a revelation. But with how well-read Mr. Ner was on religion, there was a high likelihood that he would notice anything Rain did wrong. That meant Rain would have to learn the ins and outs of Agro’s teachings and lore if she wanted to do it properly. And as she had found out, religion was boring. 

It was her misadventure with Tic the Illusionist that helped her see she might have another way. After all, Tic had shown her that a liar could gather a crowd, and that’s exactly what Rain needed. 

Realizing she had gotten lost in her thoughts, Rain returned to the conversation at hand.

“No, I’m done with those boring things. I think I'm going to go to bed.”

“Okay, I’ll go to sleep too then.”

Rain tucked Sunrise into her bed - enjoying feeling like a big sister - before snuggling up with Snow in her own bed. As tired as she was, she still wouldn’t be going to sleep. Instead, she pulled her conscience out on the thread connected to River.

Rain’s consciousness formed inside a rowdy pub. The smells of delicious foods wafted in the air, and the conversation seemed lively and friendly. Men and women ate and socialized around a dozen tables. Rain noticed that most of the men were shirtless and looked like they could be Mr. Mirage's brothers.

Serving a table of customers was River dressed in a serving maid’s outfit that was far too nice to be practical.

Rain concentrated on creating a body. When it formed, she could instantly feel something was wrong. The world was just a little too cold. Fortunately, Rain knew what was off and created a copy of Snow. With him back in her arms, everything was perfect. The world just became a little easier when you had a soft and fluffy friend to hug.

That all taken care of, Rain walked over and took a place at the bar to wait for her turn to order.

It didn’t take long for River to notice her and stop in her tracks. River’s eyes went round before she looked around the pub; then her cheeks and ears went crimson.

“Um, hello Lady Ty.. er, Rain. Sorry about the state of things. I wasn’t expecting company.”

“What's wrong with this dream? I think it's nice. It looks like you can control your own dreams now. I’m jealous.”

“Oh, ar, ok. Thank you. What can I do for you?”

“I need to talk to Mr. Mirage, but he’s not asleep yet, so I thought I would come make sure you were doing alright.”

“I am, thank you. Mirage fed a bit of me to some of the other leaders of the Grifters so I can talk with them when they sleep. It's not quite the same as when I had my body, but at least I can talk with others now. Plus, now that I learned how to control my dreams, well…”

River blushed harder.

Rain raised her hand.

“Oh, waitress, can I get an order of whatever I’m smelling?”

River laughed at the change of subject.

“Of course, I'll be right back with your order.”

Rain and River talked while Rain ate, and a new serving girl appeared to take the orders of the other patrons. It was a much better dinner experience than the one Rain had just endured with Lord and Lady Estom. Eventually, both girls felt it - Mr. Mirage was asleep.

“Well,” Rain said, “it looks like it's time for me to go.”

“Umm, if you want, I could bring Mirage here,” River said, her voice wavering slightly.

“You can do that!”

“Yes, I figured it out recently.”

Rain was a little annoyed at that. River was copying her skill, and already she was doing things with it that Rain couldn’t. If Rain had tried to change a dream as much as River had with this pub, she wouldn’t have been able to hold it for more than a couple of minutes before she was pouring blood out of her eyes, but River seemed unaffected. Rain wondered if it was just practice or if River’s changed body helped somehow.

“Ya, if you can bring him here, that would be great!”

Rain made sure to change her clothes to her black classer costume; then, because she was in a dream, she added a few more belts for fun.

She gave Snow one last squeeze before making him disappear, grimacing as the uncomfortable tightening in her chest reappeared. 

“Oh right, I need to call you Lady Tyix now, and er, let me just tidy up here before calling him in.”

With that, all the men in the tavern were suddenly wearing shirts and their faces no longer resembled Mr. Mirage. 

River coughed - ears turning red again - before focusing. A moment later, Mr. Mirage was standing in the doorway to the pub, blinking hesitantly.

“Mr. Mirage, welcome!” Rain said, waving to him from her seat at the bar.

“Lady Tyix.” Mr. Mirage said, bowing before approaching. “What do you need from me?”

“There are some people I wish to have freed from slavery. I need your organization to help me with that.”

“Of course, Lady Tyix. we owe everything to you.  As we promised, when you need us, we will obey.”

“Good. The first thing I need is for you to find a trustworthy member of your gang who you can sell to the Star Metal Mines as a slave.”

Mr. Mirage didn’t so much as flinch at that before agreeing.

“The second thing I need from you is another member who can act as a noble. I’ll be having him buy slave girls from the Thelose Brothel.”

“I’m not sure if any of my men have the right look for that, but I will find someone who matches your needs, Lady Tyix.”

“Thank you. lastly, I will need a group of people to keep the slaves we rescue from wandering past the first room of my library. In exchange for these services, I will give you the metal from the Star Metal Mine and supply those who guard my library with access to a book if they desire.”

Mr. Mirage's eyes widened at the payment offered.

“You would give us the metal of the Arch Lord?”

“Do we have a deal?”

“Of course, Lady Tyix. even if you gave us nothing, we swore to aid your cause.”

“Good, I’ll give you two days to find the people I need.”

“Lady Tyix?”

“Yes?”

“I know that I have no right to do so, but may I ask a boon?”

This was new. Rain had no idea what he was getting at.

“What is it?”

Mr. Mirage swallowed before asking. “I wish to make your ladyship the patron of the Ash Grifters. We wouldn’t require anything from you that you have not already given, but if I could borrow your name and tell the lower ranks what you can do, we could keep order in the Grifters without having to resort to more violent measures.”

Rain had to think for a bit to figure out what exactly he was asking.

“So what you’re saying is that you need to scare your men into line, and I'm the scariest thing you can think of.” Rain said flatly.

Mr. Mirage paled at her words, which was an answer better than anything he could have said. But before he could find his words, Rain cut him off.

“It's fine; do what you must to keep order in your ranks.”

“Um, excuse me,” River said timidly, breaking into the conversation. “If you need help with doing that, Mirage, I could help.”

It was a good idea. Rain was planning to use River to do similar things in the future anyway, so this would be a good test.

“Perfect, I’ll come in person to your headquarters in two days.”

And with that, Rain left the two to figure out their own plans.