Library of Rain

Back to School

Rain hurried down a Low Ring street with its usual grimy, ash-covered walls and downtrodden people who either kept their heads down trying to avoid trouble or their eyes up looking for it. She kept track of the latter to ensure she wasn’t around when anything bad happened. 

A large redheaded man entered the street, one building ahead of Rain. She didn’t think he looked dangerous; he didn’t have any of the signs she watched for, but she couldn’t stop herself from moving to the other side of the street to avoid getting close to him.

It was ridiculous. This man had nothing to do with Zer, the man who had beaten her, but just looking at him reminded her of that night and the weeks she’d spent sick with a fever after her wounds caught up to her. When that happened, she would lose control of her breathing, and her heart would start to race. The first time Rain left her room after healing up, a kindly man had asked her if she was alright; unfortunately, the man's build had reminded Rain of Zer, and she had gotten so nauseous she’d vomited. But that was a month ago, and Rain was ready to try again!

On the other side of the street, Rain could hear the desperate pleas of a man being beaten in broad daylight. It was an all too common thing these days. Order in the Low Ring was at an all-time low, with the Tineak guards cracking down violently on anything resembling organized crime in the area without bothering to enforce any of the discipline those organizations provided. The result was a near-lawless free-for-all. 

Rain hadn’t been down here in a while, and she was surprised by how bad things had gotten. The pleas for help weren’t even out of earshot before Rain caught sight of two men brawling over a loaf of bread. Once again, she adjusted her place in the flow of the street to avoid it. 

She was almost at her destination, a meeting that had taken her weeks to set up. Tracking down someone knowledgeable in antiskill barriers and the magic contracts without drawing attention to herself or using the same tactic she had used with Isster had been slow going. But she had finally done it, and the result was right inside the worn stone building in front of her.

Pulling out Blondy’s flask, she took a drink before raising a fist and knocking on the rickety door. It looked like it used to have bronze banding, but someone must have recently removed it. Rain could still see a difference in the coloration of the ash-white wood.

“What in Akrit’s slimy depths is it!” a female voice bellowed like an enraged beast.

Rain had expected something like this. Linette had a reputation for being an aggressive and mean-spirited person. Those weren't the exact words used to describe her, but Rain was too polite to repeat the exact words. 

Unfortunately, Linette was Rain's best chance of learning about sensitive things out of sight. Something Rain had to work harder for after her stunt with the slaves ended with Tist sharing what little he knew about her and her powers with the lords in Tineak. 

Linette had been a teacher at the Grand Academy before she was fired for dangerous experiments. It was common knowledge that the experiments were an excuse to fire her, with her personality being the real reason.

“It's your new student. Though if you don’t want to teach me, I can go somewhere else.” Rain called back.

“If you're my student, then why in Arkit are you out there? Get your ass in here!”

Rain made a note not to knock in the future, then let herself in. The room was orderly chaos, with things covering every surface; not a splintery chair or dusty windowsill was spared, yet despite that, there was a clear pattern to all the clutter, with everything in orderly rows and neatly sorted. One couch had dozens of knife blades - no handles, just the blades - lined up side by side from longest to shortest. Rain made a second note not to sit on that couch. 

However, the most unruly thing in the room was its occupant, Linette. She had a mane of red hair tangled behind her and expensive clothes that looked like it had been a minute since they’d last been washed. Clear shimmer rippled around her, marking her as a classer.

“You’re the little bitch huh? Too stupid to understand those half-rate teachers, so you’re parents sent you to me, hoping I could shove something into your pathetic head. Well, do you have the money or not?”

Rain considered one last time if this woman was really necessary before handing over a sack of coins in defeat. Linette opened the pouch and counted the contents before returning her gaze to Rain.

“Well, do you have a letter explaining what I’m supposed to be trying to teach a worthless shit like you?”

“I believe there has been a misunderstanding, Lady Linette.” Rain started hoping that a little flattery would make this woman a little less unpleasant to deal with. “I am doing fine in my studies. I came to you hoping to learn about things my current teachers aren't qualified to teach. In particular, I wish to learn about skilled items like the contracts that some lords use or the antiskill barriers. When searching for a suitable teacher, my family heard you were skilled in that area.”

This actually caught Linette’s attention.

“Skilled items huh? Well, I am the person to go to about those kinds of things, though those scraps of paper they use as contracts barely count.”

Seeing an opportunity to bypass the rest of the pleasantries, Rain took it.

“Why do you say that? Do they not really use skills?”

“No, they do; they just… First, tell me what you know about skilled items.”

Linette walked over and sat at the overburdened table, giving no invitation for Rain to do likewise. But remembering Lenette’s words at the door, Rain sat anyway before answering.

“Skilled items are objects that have their own skills and can be used by anyone.”

“This is why I hate kids. Teaching ignorant people… No matter. Skilled items do not have their own skills. A skilled item is an object that contains a trapped skill and prevents it from fully activating. A user can then release the skill to provide the effect.”

“How is that different?”

“The source is different. An item can not be the source of a skill. Skills come from living things. That means that an item will only contain a single instance of an already used skill, and it delays the full activation until later. It can’t create a new activation of a skill.

Because of that, there are differences in how skilled items work. For one, a skilled item can't trap the skill forever, so if the skill isn’t released from the item, it will slowly leak out and lose its power. If the item actually had a skill like you said, then that wouldn’t be a problem. Another reason it's different is that a skilled item doesn't use a skill; it releases it. This means that those antiskill barriers you mentioned can't stop it. That last part is a real pain. We had to search every student for skilled items before tests so they couldn't get around the antiskill barrier.”

Already, Rain had gotten her money's worth from this meeting. But still, she leaned forward as she asked her next question.

“How are skilled items made? Why haven’t I seen more of them?”

Linette snorted at that.

“I see you’re one of those idiots who ask multiple questions at the same time.”

Rain tried to defend herself, but Linette cut her off before she could.

“The method to creating a skilled item is slightly different for every item. The general process, though, is to find someone with a skill that could be useful as a skilled item, then finding a medium that is both compatible with the skill as well as practical in shape. Those contracts you mentioned, for example, wouldn't be useful if the skill was trapped in a pole. To make them usable, they needed to find something that a person could write on that was also able to hold the skill. The only paper that anyone has found that works comes from House Killper.”

“How do people Trap skills?”

“That depends on the skill. For example, the contracts use the skill of an Oathbinder. It's a stupid name for a weak class. Their only skill allows them to track a promise and know if it is ever broken. The skill, though, works on verbal promises, so when an Oathbinder creates a contract, they have to change it to work on written promises. And the only thing those contracts do is warn the Oathbinder if one of the parties breaks their promise. Hardly worth the ten old it costs to buy one.”

Linette looked bitter as she explained the contracts, and Rain had a feeling that there was a personal story there, especially since Linette hadn’t really answered the question and instead had gone on a rant about how useless the Othbinder classers were. So Rain tried again.

“But I heard that the reason you got in trouble was that you were trying to create new skilled items at the academy. You must know where to start creating new types of skilled item.”

Linette slammed a fist on the table, causing a stack of bones to tilt dangerously before she exploded into a long stream of curses, most of which were targeted at her former colleagues in the academy. Rain had only ever heard a few of the curses Linette used. Eventually, Linette calmed enough to answer the question, her brows still furrowed.

“The most common first step is to try to hold the skill in an unactivated state outside the body. Now, you’ve already wasted enough of my time for the scraps you’ve paid me, so get out.”

Not wanting to deal with the woman now that she had gotten so angry, Rain decided to leave and to avoid reminding the woman of her former workplace in the future. For now, she would think over what she had learned. She could come back later for more.