Library of Rain

Tournament Arc?

It had been four days since the incident with Mr. Mirage and his friends. And to Rain's discomfort, she was handling it better than she should. After spending the first day distraught, Rain had spent the unrestful nightly hours between brief bouts of sleep thinking about what she could have done differently. Blondy’s words kept coming back to her. She had tried to learn everything she could, she had warned them about the risks, she hadn’t forced anyone to read, and she had no ill will when she gave them the offer. What more could she have done? So, was beating herself up over the disaster going to help anyone? No. 

Rain had determined to look for a way to help the woman, but she would not crush herself over what happened. 

The experience had terrified the other three, even bringing the distant man back from wherever his mind went.

After Rain did her best to comfort the poor woman, unsure if anything she did had any effect, she used this as an example of what could happen to those who ran afoul of the library. The three remaining seemed to truly understand the risks of the place and became very quiet for the rest of the night. When Mr. Mirage asked what to do with the woman, Rain told him that she was no threat and he should do whatever he wanted with her. That at least seemed to relieve him. 

The days since then had been dull, with nothing significant happening. Rain would go to classes during the day and read books at night to try and catch up. The servants treated her the same, avoiding her as much as possible. 

One sign of the servants' distaste for her was the growing layer of dust building up in her rooms as no one dared to enter them to clean. The dried crust from the sandwich Lucus had made for her still sat on the table where she had left it almost a week ago.

When Rain had talked to Mr. Dull - she had never actually asked the head servant his name - he had told her that cleaning her rooms would be the job of her personal maid. The problem was Rain didn’t have one, and none of the servants wanted the job. Eventually, Rain just gave up on the idea and started thinking of returning to sleep in her library. It wasn’t like the dusty, empty rooms meant anything to her. Maybe she would start sleeping somewhere else tomorrow.

She could decide that later; the question for now was whether or not she should go to watch the swordsmanship tournament tomorrow. 

As Rain lay on her couch thinking and looking up at the plain ceiling, she stretched out a hand towards the unseen stars, an unbonded ver clutched in her fist. She was trying to forge a connection to it despite already having two bound coins. Her training hadn’t borne fruit yet, but it gave her something to do while she decided on the best course of action.

Every time she mentioned the tournament to Lucus, his mood soured, but Rain really wanted to go and do everything she could for her new sort of brother. Rain liked him. Even if he thought she was a freaky weirdo, she wanted to be able to cheer for him. The problem was she had no idea why he hated the tournament so much. He had told her a bit, but she didn’t understand.

As time passed by and dawn drew closer without any inspiration striking Rain, she decided. She was going to the tournament to see what was happening with Lucus. She could figure out what was wrong from there.

It wasn’t just for Lucus’s sake, either. Rain needed to become acquainted with the lords of Tineak.

Decision made, she closed her eyes and let the nightmares take her.

The next day, Rain was assisted into an elaborate covered cart with images of trees carved into its walls. Three burly men with bared arms held a bar in front, keeping the cart level on its two wheels and ready to pull. 

She was soon joined by Lucus as well as Lord and Lady Estom. Sitting on a padded seat in the corner, Rain watched Lucus surreptitiously. He was dressed in a sharp gray outfit, all straight lines and immaculate buttons except for the fur lining the neck and spilling out over his shoulders and upper back. 

Rain also had a fur lining under her simple but pretty green dress. Rain had to go shopping the other day to buy fur linings and samples of Crown Ring garb to feed her cloak. Funnily enough, the inside of her wardrobe contained only furs, random piles of buttons, assorted straps, and belts. Anything cloth had long been eaten. Maybe it was a good thing none of the servants would enter her room. 

The cart was pulled gently through the street, where it passed other such carts as well as groups of people in clothes that had more color than anything Rain would have found in the other rings. The people were guarded by men and occasionally women who carried spears and bared various symbols representing the different houses on their chests. Whenever any of these groups approached, the less extravagantly dressed people on the street made way for them.

Rain found it a little strange that the Crown Ring seemed to have more rules on who to make way for than the other rings. Shouldn’t the fact that most of the people here were literally on the top mean that there should be less bowing and scraping? Whatever, Rain was sure she would get used to it before long. 

Rain was also interested to note when she first explored the Crown Ring, she could find no trace of slaves here either. The whole situation confused her. She had ten years of knowledge of slavery in the city but had yet to see a single slave since her escape. She would have thought it was an outlier, except people had tried to capture her on multiple occasions when she was about minding her own business. It was long past time she found answers on the subject.

While Rain was thinking, the cart came to a stop before a building that looked like it had eaten another ten buildings. It was built from the same dark stone as the rest of the city, but where most buildings reached five stories at most, this one was easily eight and covered in spires that brought that height well over ten stories. 

It was the manor of High Lord Orom. House Orom had the knowledge and the island where the catalysts for the warrior class were created. As such, they were one of the strongest Houses in the Gathering. Any other House that wanted their young lord or lady to gain the warrior class had to buy the requirements from House Orom. More often than not, they didn’t pay with money. All told, this was the perfect place to hold a swordsmanship tournament. 

As the members of House Estom disembarked with Lord and Lady Estom, followed by Lucus and finally Rain, a group of servants bearing the crossed sword and spear symbol of House Orom led them into the manor where the venue would be held. 

Rain saw several other groups of servants doing the same for other well-dressed families. Most families had at least one son dressed very similarly to Lucus. Rain assumed it was some kind of uniform for those who would be competing. 

The Manor was even more lavish than Estom manor, if that was even possible, but whereas Estom manor was decorated with finely carved wood panels and sculptures, Orom manor had burnished weapons on plaques hung on the walls and suits of armor in every hall. The walls themself were mostly bare black stone with the occasional painting of proud warriors subduing their enemies. 

Rain didn’t see much of the manor before they entered a massive room even more extensive than the theater Rain loved. Already, there were hundreds of people inside, richly dressed men and women in fine furs while servants, bearing the Orom symbol, weaved in and out offering drinks. One thing that immediately caught Rain’s eye was the hair. There were plenty of people with the typical red and blond hair, but Rain also saw people with strange colors like brown or white. There were even a few people with black hair like Rain’s. She would need to keep an eye on them. There was a chance they were related.

In the center of the room were four circular fighting pits with painted rings about twenty feet across in their center. Each pit had plenty of room around the painted circles for people to stand close to the action while watching. The slopes of the pits were terraced, making each pit a mini-amphitheater and allowing more people to sit or stand and look down on the action inside. In Between the four pits was a raised dais. A sizeable temporary counter on one side of the room displayed signs with the odds of the upcoming fights while a man in Orom colors talked with the Lords who approached to place bets.

Looking more closely, Rain realized there were distinct pockets in the crowd around certain men and boys in fighter garb. It almost looked like these boys were little lords among lords. They tended to have a disproportionate number of girls in their retinues, which Rain found odd. 

Lord Estom immediately abandoned the rest of his family to place his bets and talk with the other Lords around the counter. Lady Estom, after briefly looking at Rain and Lucus, told them not to embarrass the House name and left to join a group of women who were lavishly dressed even by the standards of this place. 

Rain looked at Lucus to see what he would do, only to find him staring at the boys in the middle of their huddles with a look of hatred that Rain recognized as the type most people used on her. 

“So what do we do now?” Rain asked.

“Do whatever you want. You shouldn’t have even bothered coming.”

And with that, Lucus stormed off to where some of the other boys were waiting for the duels to begin.