Library of Rain

It turned out that waiting in the church was a futile idea. The priests ushered everyone out at nightfall without the money in the collections box ever being moved. On second thought, Rain should have realized that the money wouldn’t be collected until the people were gone. The question was, when would it be moved? Did they do it every day or once a week? With no choice but to guess, Rain decided that a few hours before dawn was the best time to try her plan. If it failed the first time, she might still be able to try again.

With nothing better to do, Rain retrieved the coin she had hidden in a bush and used the back door of a closed shop to enter her library. She noticed the moment she entered the library that she could no longer feel the coin she had left in the collection box. Worried that something had happened to it, she stepped out of the library; the moment she was back in the real world, the connection reformed. She was relieved to see that the coin was alright; her plan would be dead if she lost a coin. 

Rain stepped back into the library, and the connection disappeared again. Deciding to test her theory, she put her other coin on the ground inside the library and stepped out. The moment her head passed through the dark vale, the connection to the coin in the library vanished, and the link to the coin in the temple reappeared.

Her best guess was that the library was too far away from the rest of the world for her connection to work. This made her wonder how far she could hold a connection. She would have to find a way to test that sometime.

Heading back into the library for good, Rain went straight to the bed in her room. After listening to the priest all day, the screams and whispers from the books in the mist were like a soft lullaby.  

A few hours later, Rain was back out in the world in a district a few blocks away from the temple, staring up into the stars. It would be dawn in a few hours, almost time for Rain to start the riskiest part of her plan. 

Rain asked the stars to watch over her, then, taking a calming breath, set down a coin and warped to the one she had left in the temple. 

This part of her plan was completely up to chance. Odds were she would end up near some corrupt priests' money-safe or an unemptied collections box. All Rain would have to do is grab as many valuable things as possible and warp back to the coin she left in the city.

What happened in reality was even better than she could have predicted. Rain found herself in a treasury. The walls were lined with chests of gold and silver. There were shelves of fine cloths and silks, piles of precious stones, and other valuable objects. Gold-covered statues with gems for eyes and fine swords were mixed in with the other treasure. 

Seeing where she was, Rain had to revise her plans immediately. There was no way she would just fill her pockets and leave. This was an opportunity of a lifetime. It was time to test a few things.

Looking around, Rain found that a large vault door was the only way into this treasury. She wasn’t sure this would count as a door. Walking over to the thick steel door, rain pulled on it, using her skill to turn it into a gate to her library. It worked. The locked vault door opened, its inside filled with murky darkness. 

With a grin evil enough to scare a dark god, Rain scooped up an armful of treasure and walked through the door. The library entry room was the same as always, except that the door was larger than usual. Rain walked to the middle and deposited her loot on the floor of the room. 

After escaping the auction house, Rain had been thinking about how much she wished she could take one of the fancy chairs with her. That was when She realized that the library could be so much more than just a place to keep strange books. Now, she would prove it.

Thus began several long, sweaty minutes of hauling enormous amounts of wealth into her library. Gold, jewels, idols, tools, books, nothing escaped her pilfering. If she could lift it, she took it. She got a thrill of enjoyment out of stealing a display of what looked like ceremonial objects. 

Once all that was left in the treasury was the heavier things, Rain had to think of the best way to steal them, too. She could leave them behind, but she had the opportunity here and now. No good ever came from passing by an opportunity. 

The thing she wanted most in this room was a life-sized gold statue of Agro. If she could steal it, she would have raided the temple of a god and carted away his image as a prisoner. A part of her simply couldn’t resist trying such a stunt. The only problem was she couldn't move the thing. 

Looking around the room to make sure that there wasn’t anything else she wanted left, Rain went back to her library to retrieve a large ceremonial hammer she had taken from the treasury. 

Bringing back her hammer, she stood in front of the statue once more. Resting the heavy hammer head on the floor, Rain waved cheerfully at the statue.

“You’re coming with me, mister.”

Heafting the hammer, Rain brought it down in a crushing blow at the statue's ankle. The sound of the hammer on the statue was deafening. The blow left the ankle deformed and weakened. After a few more blows, the ankle broke, and the statue crashed to the floor. Chips of the stone floor flew up from the heavy impact.

Rain rushed over to the head of the statue and started beating on it with her hammer, deforming the side of its face and slowly breaking it off at the neck. Fortunately, the statue was hollow, or there was no way she could have ever broken it.

Before she could get the head off, Rain heard a voice from outside.

“Something's in the treasury, get the guards and ensure no one leaves the temple!”

“Yes, Pontiff,” a second voice said with the sound of running footsteps. 

Rain redoubled her efforts, the head deforming more with each hit as the crack in the neck grew.

She could hear someone trying to open the door. However, like the man this morning, he couldn’t open it from that side while her portal was active.

“This is the work of another Prince of Darkness!” the outraged Pontiff said from just outside the vault. “I won’t allow this insult.”

With a reverent tone, the Pontiff began saying what sounded like a prayer. “Oh, mighty Agros, Lord of Lies Treachery and Deceit, one of your brother’s chosen conspires against you in your own stronghold. I implore you to rip away this barrier blocking me from punishing this vile intruder.”

As soon as the Pontiff began to pray, Rain sensed a pressure on her soul as a powerful energy attempted to forcefully shut the gateway to her library.

Straining to keep the portal open, Rain took one last swing at the statue, parting its head from the body. She jumped onto the head, wrapping her arm around it while holding the hammer in the other hand. Exhausted, she let the portal to her library get crushed as she warped away to the coin she had left for her escape route, taking her prize with her.