Library of Rain

Getting Ariana to the Fiddler’s Retreat was more challenging than it should have been. Not because Miggos’s men were behind every corner, criminal organizations were trying to attack her, or any other thing Rain would have guessed might cause a delay. In fact, by all accounts, the journey was uneventful. The problem was Ariana herself. 

 

The girl got easily distracted and would run off in random directions whenever something caught her eye. More than once, Rain had a panic attack when she realized the girl wasn’t following her, forcing Rain to backtrack and look for her before something bad happened.

 

After the third or fourth time this happened, Rain forced Ariana to hold her hand. Rain felt incredibly guilty about this, but she had no other choice. She tried not to enjoy the feeling of the girl’s hand in her own. Even holding the distractable girl's hand, Rain almost lost her a few times. 

 

After a while, Rain discovered a tactic that kept Ariana focused. She turned it into a race. By picking a destination in the right direction and challenging her to a race, Rain could get Ariana to put all her attention towards going in the right direction. Rain did have to add different rules to the races to keep Ariana’s interest but Rain couldn’t deny that running backwards as fast as possible, or trying to race while remaining unseen by some random passerby, was kind of fun. 

 

When they reached the Fiddler’s Retreat, Rain went straight to room number two and knocked. The door opened before Rain could even lower her hand.

 

Manas stood there, arms open wide.

 

“My Girl! You’re safe!”

 

Ariana ran into Manas’s arms, and he swept her up into a massive hug. Rain felt a roiling pit of jealousy build up in her. To have someone care for her, to be hugged like that, to have someone to comfort her when everything went wrong, Rain wanted it so much it hurt. 

 

Tearing her gaze away from the two, Rain looked at the floor. 

 

“Thank you, Thirty-six, for bringing her back to us.”

 

Rain looked up at the words to see the smiling face of Manas. He was holding out a roll of paper to Rain. 

 

“Here is the information I promised you and instructions on contacting the Watching Stars. I look forward to our future business.”

 

Rain took the information and the implied dismissal and left.

 

As Rain wandered the streets looking for a good door to use to go home, Mr. Purple appeared, reminding her of all the messages she had ignored during the events of the day. Rain was tired and didn’t want to deal with them right now, but she wanted to be rude to Mr. Purple even less, so she let him show her the first messages.

 

[Congratulations: By raising another human’s mental corruption, you have reduced your mental corruption. Mental corruption has fallen 10%. Current mental corruption, 9%.]

 

[Congratulations: By raising another human’s physical corruption, you have reduced your physical corruption. Physical corruption has fallen 10%. Current physical corruption, [Error].]

 

Rain felt sick and immediately regretted looking at the messages. Was she being rewarded for what she did to Lon? The pit of self-loathing in her stomach grew at the thought. Looking down, Rain realized she could no longer feel the things moving under her skin. She had gotten so used to them that she hadn't noticed them disappear. Looking back at the messages, Rain was certain they had been connected to her corruption levels. Now that her corruption had dropped, the unpleasant hallucinations disappeared. 

 

Mr. Purple rearranged himself to show her another message.

 

[Congratulations: By raising another human’s mental and physical corruption to 100%, you have unlocked a new skill: Artisan of Abominations. Do you accept?]

 

Rain felt like someone had punched her in the gut. If the last messages weren't a reward for the awful things she had done, then this definitely was. What did this skill even do?

 

[Artisan of Abominations: You may bind the will of any Human with 100% physical or mental corruption, turning them into your thralls. This effect can not be undone.]

 

“I refuse!”

 

Rain wanted no part of that skill; she never wanted to let someone read one of her books again. Turning people into savage monsters was terrible enough, let alone turning them into a thrall afterward. Rain hated slavery; was her class trying to turn her into everything she hated in the world? 

 

[Artisan of Abominations has been added to your list of potential skills. You may change your mind and accept it at any time.]

 

Rain could scream.

 

No! Get rid of it. I don’t ever want to see it again!

 

Nothing happened. Taking a deep breath and unsure how much more she could take tonight, Rain asked for the last message. 

 

[Congratulations: By forcefully empowering your skill ‘Aura of the Unnatural’ with your will, you have raised it to level [Error Level System Unavailable]; all passive effects of the aura increased.]

 

Rain worried about all the errors in Mr. Purple’s messages. Was she hurting him too? Maybe she should stop looking at his messages so he wouldn’t get hurt. 

 

At least this time, the message gave her something she felt she deserved. With her aura empowered, people would be even less likely to go near her. She wouldn’t have to worry about hurting anyone because no one would get close to her. Rain started to cry as the realization that she would always be alone hit her. She knew she deserved it, and that she was dangerous, but she hated the idea of being alone. And she hated herself for being so selfish.

 

Hugging herself, Rain picked a door to use to go home. She needed to get some sleep. Maybe tomorrow, she could figure out how to deal with things.

 

“Hay there. You look like you need someone to talk to.”

 

Rain whirled around at the sound of a soft voice. Sitting on a doorstep was a young man in his mid-twenties with golden hair so bright it reflected the little light the night offered. He smiled softly at Rain and sipped from a steel flask. 

 

The man patted the step next to him.

 

“Have a seat and tell me what's wrong. I won’t promise to fix it, but I can lend you my ear.”

 

Rain hesitated; there was something off about this man. He dressed like any other Mid Ringer, but the fact that he could afford a steel flask instead of the common bronze meant he had money to waste. To top it off, Rain was certain he hadn’t been there. She had been about to open a portal to her library and had scanned the street for anyone who might have been in the area. 

 

“Don’t worry, I rarely bite these days. You have my word; I won’t harm you.” the man took a drink and looked up at the sky. “Honestly, I came here to investigate a new disturbance. Never thought I’d find a crumb of hope instead.”

 

Rain had no idea what to make of the odd man, but he didn’t feel hostile, and shockingly enough, his words had the color of truth to them. She also felt that given the way he seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, he was powerful enough to be safe from Rain.

 

Rain walked over to the man and sat on the step next to him. The man she decided to call Blondy smiled and offered her his flask.

 

“Have a drink. It's just juice, nothing funky.”

 

Rain saw he wasn’t lying and took a sip. The juice was both tangy and sweet easily the best thing she had ever tasted. Blondy chuckled when he saw her face.

 

“It's the juice of a fruit called a lemon mixed with some extra goodies to make it taste better. Do you like it?”

 

Rain nodded fervently. She was a little sad to give the flask back. 

 

“You look like you’re having a bad night. Tell me about it. You don’t have to give me details if you don’t want.”

 

Rain hesitated only for a second. “I killed my only friend today.” her voice came out in a warbling whisper. She expected Blondy to be shocked by her statement, but he kept staring at the sky. 

 

“Why?”

 

“I didn’t want to! I didn't mean to! I…. just wanted to help.” Rain hugged her knees and buried her face. She didn’t want Blondy to see her crying. Well, more than he already had. “I kept telling myself I needed to leave him alone because I would only hurt him, but I didn’t because being around him made me happy.”

 

Blondy gave her time to say more if she wanted. When it became clear that she was done he finally broke the silence. 

 

“So it was an accident?”

 

“Yes. But I could have avoided it; I should have avoided it. It only happened because I’m a monster, and I acted without knowing what might happen.”

 

Blondy actually laughed at that and ruffled her hair. “Trust me, kiddo, as a real monster, I can tell you you aren't one. I used to kill people for the fun of it. Killed some of my siblings, too, when I thought they were trying to steal from me. You didn’t even want to kill your friend.

 

As for not knowing something that got your friend hurt, it sounds like you have your heart in the right place. You can only act on the knowledge you have at the time. As long as you try to learn as much as you can, you can’t blame yourself for what you don’t know. Just make the best decision with what you know at the time.”

 

Rain thought she would be scared to sit next to a self-professed murderer, but he didn’t feel threatening, and knowing that he wasn’t good made her feel like she wasn’t unworthy to talk to him, putting her at ease.

 

“Get as smart as I can so I can’t blame myself when I don’t know something.” Rain mused to herself. It made sense to her, but the pain and guilt at Lon’s death were still there potent as ever. Now though, Rain felt like she had the tools to turn those things from pain to something else. Time would tell. 

 

Rain turned to thank Blondy, only to see him walking away down the deserted street. His flask of juice was resting where he had been sitting. Picking it up, Rain called to the strange man. 

 

“You forgot your juice!”

 

Blondy turned his head so she could see the left side of his face and called over his shoulder. 

 

“No I didn’t. Why don’t you keep it? You can give the flask back to me when we next meet if you want, but you’ll have to hold on until then. That means you can’t give up on yourself, kiddo.”

 

And with that, he walked out of sight.