Library of Rain

Night Time Adventure

Rain huddled in the gloomy recess of the building, hand firmly gripping Lucus’s as footsteps ambled down the street nearby accompanied by deranged whispering.

“Why, why, why won't anyone tell me? They know. I know they know, but they won't tell me!”

Not for the first time, Rain wished she had listened to Mr. Purple.

***

Several hours earlier.

Rain surveyed the items strewn out on her bed: some rope snacks, eating utensils, a complete set of nice boys' clothing, and a mask in Lucus’s size. Rain had been forced to bat away and scold more than one tendril from her cloak that tried to eat the clothes. She was pretty sure it was sulking now. 

Either way, the sun was down, and it was finally time to see what kind of person Lucus really was. 

Though the snacks weren’t, strictly speaking, necessary, Rain was going to make sure this outing was a fun adventure because it might be the last one she had with Lucus. 

Rain stuffed her pockets with the food and headed to Lucus’s room. Before she even made it out of her own room, Mr. Purple writhed into existence.

[Why haven’t you searched for answers yet?]

Mr. Purple had become very chatty recently. Rain didn’t mind, but he only seemed interested in telling her to explore further into the library. 

“I can’t yet. I need to lower my corruption first.”

[You’ll be fine. Am I not important to you?]

Rain winced at that. How could he think he wasn’t important? He was the first friend she had ever made. The thought of hurting his feelings by not searching for a way to help him gave Rain pause. Should she ignore her instincts and go searching for a way to help Mr. Purple rather than taking care of tonight's business?

No Rain needed to keep her mind above all else. Mr. Purple would only have to wait a few days until her plans for Isster finished.

“I’ll do it soon, but I can’t yet,” Rain apologized.

Mr. Purple Ignored her, leaving her with a huffy silence. Or what Rain interpreted as a huffy silence. He couldn’t make sound even if he wanted to, being made of glowing words and all. Although now that Rain thought about it, that might not be true. She had believed he couldn’t answer her until recently. There was no telling what other things he was hiding.

Rain knocked on Lucus’s door.

“What is it.” 

Lucus didn’t sound too excited to talk to whoever was at the door.

“It's me. Do you still want to see why I keep disappearing?”

Rain heard hurried footsteps approach the door before it opened. Lucus was wearing slightly rumpled clothes.

“You’re going to show me where you hide?”

“Sort of? I want to show you why I need to keep disappearing.”

“All right, show me!”

Rain motioned for Lucus to follow her into her room, then gestured towards the clothes scattered on her bed.

“Put those on.”

Lucus gave her a dubious look before changing into the clothes. 

“All right now for the fun part!”

Rain was certain that if they tried walking out the front door, that no one would stop them; but sneaking out sounded like so much more fun. Incidentally, Rain had spent the last day and a half casing Estom Manor for security flaws that would allow them to sneak out unnoticed. Frankly, it hadn’t been that hard. Most of the nonessential staff had been let go to save money, and that included most houseguards. 

There had been a man telling stories on a street corner, and while spoken stories weren’t as exciting as full plays, one part of the man's tales had caught Rain's attention. A daring thief had snuck into a building by climbing a rope through its window. Rain couldn’t wait to do that herself, though in reverse.  

With the rope firmly tied to her bed, Rain threw it out her window and then turned to Lucus. 

“Ready?”

He looked more confused than ready.

“What are you doing?”

“Making us an escape route!”

“...”

Rain took his silence for understanding and grabbed the rope before climbing out the window. She could faintly hear Lucus calling her a weirdo.

It turned out that climbing down a rope was harder than it sounded. By the time Rain got to the bottom, her hands were exhausted and raw from the rope. Why had the man made that sound so exciting!

Whatever. Not long after, Lucus touched down next to her. He was in slightly better shape than her but was still panting. 

“All right, we’re almost out.” Rain whispered.

“Where are we going?”

“Into the city.”

“You want me to follow you into the city in the middle of the night?”

“You wanted me to show you what I was doing, didn’t you?”

“... you aren’t planning to eat me, are you?”

“Why would I eat you?”

“I don’t know. Why would you eat anyone?”

It was a fair question, but Rain had no idea why they were talking about eating people. Was Lucus alright? 

Rain let the topic die and motioned for Lucus to follow her, which he reluctantly did. 

The rest of the escape wasn’t too hard. Some of the decorative stone monoliths in the garden were small enough that they could be used to climb onto larger monoliths and then over the wall. When Rain's feet plopped onto the street outside the manor, sending up a poof of ash, she felt like a master thief escaping after grabbing her loot. Not a moment later, her partner in crime landed next to her.

“So where are we going now?”

Lucus was starting to look excited, too, as he got into the spirit of things. Rain grinned at him.

“Now, we need to head to the Low Ring. Follow me and try to keep quiet. There’s a lot of people who try to capture lone kids like us.”

Rain was glad to see that Lucus wasn’t scared by her words. Good, he was into the adventure as well.

The trip to the Low Ring didn’t take too long. Rain was familiar with the city and could easily see the signs of trouble. Lucus was confused by the first few seemingly random turns they made as Rain guided them away from ambushes and shady people. But when he heard the sounds of a man being beaten coming from the street Rain had just diverted them from, he stopped asking questions and walked closer to Rain, especially as they entered the lower rings. 

Rain, for her part, was basking in the feeling of having someone willingly stay within arms reach of her. It didn’t happen often. 

All too soon, the fun part of the night ended as they approached the Rothford Auction House. Tonight was the night more children were going to be sold. Rain had informed the staff that she would be returning with a junior, so hopefully, there wouldn’t be any problems getting in. It was time to show Lucus what the world was like outside his ebon manor. 

“The food in your pockets smells really good. Can I have it?”

Wait, who was that!

Rain looked around for the speaker but saw no one. The only other sounds were made by the passers-by, nocturnal animals, and the slight keening of wind through the stone streets. 

“What's wrong?” Lucus asked, seeing her expression.

“...nothing.” Rain answered uncertainly.

It couldn’t be a good sign that Rain was hearing things. It sounded like the words were being said right into her ears. Was this her corruption finally acting up?

Unable to find answers, Rain turned to Lucus.

“We’re going to enter a slave auction. Don’t say a word until I tell you. If you have to speak, then your name is Thorn, and you are my trainee.”

Rain liked the name Thorn. Hopefully, they wouldn’t need to use it tonight, so she could use it again, maybe give it to one of her minions as she had done with Mr. Mirage. 

“Why are we going to a slave auction?” Lucus looked thoroughly confused by this. “Why would you even come to such a dangerous part of the city?”

“We're here because you need to see what things are really like. And I grew up in this part of the city.”

To be specific, she had grown up right under the Rothford Auction House. She looked at Lucus’s confused face before finally sighing.

“Just follow me.”

Lucus looked back the way they came before nodding.