Library of Rain

Hiding the Evidence

Rain gulped at Lucus’s pronouncement. Apparently, he hadn’t bought her half-truth about it being from a bad dream.

“What do you mean?”

“You disappear all the time, and even though I’ve lived here most of my life, I can't find you. Now you show up covered in blood?”

Wait, had he gone looking for her? That thought made Rain feel all warm inside despite the situation. 

“Well, um, you see.”

There was a knock on the door. 

“Young lord?” a muffled voice said through the door.

Rain almost jumped out of her skin. Then, she almost passed out from the pain in her head. Lucus gave her a look before turning to the door and calling out.

“Bring me a bucket of water. And some fresh cloth.”

“Of course.”

Rain waited, staring at the door, but no one entered. 

“I thought they were going to come in and see me,” she said with a sigh.

“You might want to go inside my room while we wait for them to return.”

Rain didn’t need to be told twice. She went as fast as her pounding head would let her, taking cover in the bedroom before anyone could see her bloodshot eyes. 

Lucus’s room was similar to hers, but now that Rain was seeing it in the light of day, she realized that it had a desk in one corner with papers scattered everywhere. Looking over at the papers on the desk, Rain discovered that instead of the notes on their lessons that she was expecting, every page on the desk was covered in drawings.

The drawings were of anything and everything: places, random objects, people around the manor. There was even a picture of Rain; it was pretty good, too, except her eyes were represented as dark voids of scribbled black charcoal.  

“Did you draw all of these?”

“Ya.”

“They’re really good!”

“...thanks” 

Lucus seemed unsure about how to handle the current conversation. He clearly liked drawing but didn't know how to handle the compliment. Rain really wanted to ask why her picture had scribbled eyes, but she didn’t feel like that would be a good idea. Unfortunately, that gave Lucus an opportunity to turn the conversation back to uncomfortable topics.

“You never answered my question.”

Ashes! 

Rain thought about what to tell him. She didn’t have a good lie, but she couldn’t tell him the truth. Could she? He had always been nice to her, and if that picture was anything to judge by, he wasn’t immune to her aura. So, was he a good person, or was he trying to get something from her? 

Rain thought about her interactions with Ms. River. It had been amazing to talk to someone and to be willing to rely on them. Maybe she could recruit Lucus to her side, too? But if he was only pretending to be nice, that would be it for Rain. All her plans would be over. No, she needed a way to test him first.

“Can I show you instead?”

That took Lucus off guard a bit. 

“Fine. We can go after the water gets here.”

“Um, I need to get some things ready before I show you. Can you give me a couple of days?”

Rain needed to test Lucus’s character a bit. Fortunately, that wouldn’t take time away from the plans she had made while talking with Ms. River. If Lucus passed, then she might tell him about her library. 

“Whatever. I don’t care that much.”

That was a lie.

After that, Rain and Lucus stood there awkwardly until the maid returned with the water and handed it off to Lucus while Rain hid in his room.

To Rain's surprise, Lucus didn’t just give her the bucket; instead, he carried it across the hall to her room for her. And when he saw the state of her rooms, he didn’t say anything. Rain still saw him taking in the dust and dried crusts of bread. He gazed at the bloodstained sofa and the dried handprints that trailed towards Rain's bedroom, which she had left behind while crawling towards her mirror.

“I’ll help you clean up.”

Those words almost made Rain cry. There was a lot to do here, and Rain was in too much pain to want to do any of it. 

“Thanks.”

Rain's eyes were burning worse, but this time, it was from tears of the more ordinary variety. 

The two of them got to work scrubbing the handprints off the floor and trying to clean the couch. That only had a limited effect. By the time they finished, the light blue couch still had a sizeable brownish stain on one side, and the pillow Rain had been resting her head on was safely hidden in the corner of the personal maid's room where no one would find it. 

The bucket of water they had been using was almost empty as well. 

“Where do the servants get the water from?” Rain asked. Whenever she needed water, she had to ask one of the servants, and Rain was starting to hate dealing with them. The gossip at the tournament was still fresh on Rain's mind. She would rather just get the water herself in the future.

“We have a well in the kitchen that accesses the aquifers.”

Aquifer, Rain knew that word from her past self, but how was the water getting to the top of the mountain?

“Have you been inside it?”

Lucus gave a sheepish grin.

“I tried but was told there’s a steep punishment for anyone entering it. They don’t want the drinking water to get polluted.”

That made sense to Rain, but it didn’t answer how water was getting to the top of the mountain. It probably had something to do with a class, but how?

Rain decided to investigate the aquifers sometime, though that would have to go at the bottom of her list of things to do. Right now, it was time for Rain to start making an active push against slavery. 

“Thanks for the help, Lucus. I think I'm going to get some sleep now.”

Rain did plan to get some sleep, but she also needed to get rid of Lucus so she could get started. It was time to find out where all the slaves were. And what better way to find where the slaves are than to follow them after they were bought? It was time for Rain to return home to the Rothford Trading House.