Library of Rain

Creative Truths

Rain’s skin had already started to turn gray around the parts Hornet was touching in the short time it took for the madman to race to the Dead Ring. She spent that time watching for any hints or signs of how Hornet's skills worked but found nothing. The mist was a constant cover for the ground, and they never passed another soul despite traveling streets Rain knew would be crowded at this time of day. Rain couldn’t find any clues about whether he had a skill that let him see the real world or if he simply phased in and out of the real world so he could choose his targets. Either way, if he ever learned her identity, no security would stop him from killing her.

“We’re in the ring now. Where? Where? Tell me! Where is the next truth!”

“I need you to put me down so I can see.”

That was a lie. Rain needed him to put her down before his touch killed her. Not that she could tell him that with him believing she was already dead.

Hornet set her down, his left arm bending unnaturally to do so. But how? he didn’t have any physical corruption. Rain shook her head. It didn’t matter right now. 

Rain looked around. Most of the buildings were buried in the ash that regularly fell from the peek, with the parts closer to the Low Ring being under the surface by a few feet. There was trash and refuse mixed in with the ash there. Rain realized that the ash was higher because people would dump their waste right off the side of the Low Ring onto the abandoned Dead Ring below. It gave Rain an Idea of how to waste some time.

“Good, we’re close. Follow me.”

Rain headed towards the base of the Low Ring at a slower pace than strictly necessary. She couldn’t go too slowly, or Hornet might pick her up again, and if the pain from the parts where she had already been exposed to him was anything to judge by, she couldn’t take much more of that. 

Fortunately, Hornet didn’t complain about the speed. His eyes were glowing, and he seemed intent on absorbing every moment of this experience.

“Okay, we’re here.” Rain said as she arrived at one of the larger piles of ash. “In order to gain the next book about what lies beyond death, you must simulate dying yourself.”

Hornet's eyes were locked on her, drinking every word of her blatant nonsense.

“If you want to gain access to the book, you will have to dig to the ground through this ash. The hole will represent a grave. If you are ready for the next secret, you will find the book there.”

Rain could almost laugh at the enlightened look on Hornet's face.

“Of course! To see the truth of the world beyond this lie, I must travel close to death.”

Rain had no idea what his fevered mind was understanding, but if it kept him distracted, it didn’t matter. 

When Hornet had finished deluding himself with Rain’s drivel, he turned and started furiously clawing at the pile of ash, throwing handfuls away as he gave every portion of his being to burying himself. 

Rain sat on the tip of a broken spire that poked out of the ash and fog and rubbed her ankle. She had left a coin behind out of instinct, but the curse still suppressed her powers, and they would stay that way for almost another day. If Rain was going to escape Hornet, she would have to do it on foot, and that meant she needed to rest her injured ankle while she could.

Shivering, Rain had her cloak form itself into several layers in an attempt to stave off the winter chill. Whatever it was, It was a good thing her cloak wasn’t a skill.

The feverish speed with which Hornet was digging his pit was scary, especially when the fact that he was doing it with his bare hands was taken into account. Judging by his current pace, Rain gave him an hour, maybe more, before he reached the ground. That meant Rain couldn't stay here until her skills were unblocked. 

Mr. Purple, how much longer does the Curse of Tracking have left?

[Curse of Tracking: time remaining 12 minutes.]

Rain was close. Once she escaped, she would need to find a place to lie low until her skills returned. It would need to be somewhere the Tineak soldiers couldn’t identify her with their magic stones. 

Rain could try to leave the city and hide out there; there might be fewer soldiers looking for her outside the city, but Rain had no idea what was out there, and she would probably be easy to see from a distance if she didn’t find a good place to hide. Her other option was to go back into the city and try to hide among all the people. Rain knew what the city was like, but there would be more people there to look for her. Watching Hornet digging, Rain realized she was out of time.

“Hornet, it's important for me to warn you; if you don't put all your focus on digging downward and look out of that hole, you will be seen as unworthy of understanding the truth behind death. So you must never look back.”

Rain watched to see if he would risk looking out of his hole, but he kept to his single-minded digging without breaking for a moment. Rain could see his hands were bloody from the fervor of his digging.

Looking at the time of the curse, Rain watched as it hit zero and the curse of tracking lifted from her. Now, the only way for her to be found was those stones. That meant it was safer now for her to get as far away from Hornet as possible.

Standing Rain tested her ankle. It throbbed when she put pressure on it, but it wasn’t so bad that she couldn’t walk. Taking one last look at the death-crazed madman digging his own metaphorical grave, Rain limped back towards the path to the Low Ring. 

She had no way to tell how Hornet would react when he realized he had been tricked, but she would have to stop him if he continued his killing spree after this. She had caused his madness and given him that power. Every innocent death he caused was more blood on her already stained hands. 

But before she could do anything about him, she needed a plan. For now, she just needed to escape. Rain chose to go back to the Low Ring because she would rather face the problem she knew she had a chance of overcoming than risk the outside world she’d never experienced. Hopefully, she was making the right choice.

With every ash-muffled step Rain took away from Hornet, the mist on the ground grew thinner. Rain could almost cry at the observation. That meant that if she got far enough from Hornet she would escape his domain. She might actually live to see the morning of this long night. 

Rain could feel when she finally broke free of the domain as a sensation similar to her warping but far fainter enveloped her, and she found herself once again among the downtrodden crowd of the Low Ring. One of the first things Rain noted was the pair of Tineak soldiers walking away down the street. 

The one in the front held something in his hand that Rain couldn’t see from here, but she could easily guess. Both soldiers were well armed, as was to be expected of the personal soldiers of the Arch Lord. Rain had robbed him of his slaves and a shipment of ore so valuable that possessing it had placed the Tineak family at the top since the first Gathering of Lords. Lord Tineak had sent out his best to punish that wrong.

The streets weren’t safe, and Rain had no way to hide in a building without the occupants reporting her. So Rain decided to go with a plan she had thought of as she watched Hornet work. She would also allow herself to be buried so deep the soldiers wouldn’t be able to sense her with their stones.

Gathering her resolve, Rain turned down a street that every instinct she had built over the months of her freedom told her to stay away from. It didn’t take long before a cracked voice spoke from behind her.

“Well, it looks like we found another stray. Little girl, you look hurt; why don’t you come with us?”