The End of the Beginning

The End of the Beginning

As Rain trudged through the city, she thought about what she needed to do. It was the best way to keep her emotions at bay and to prevent her hands from shaking.

She had helped some people, but there were far more that she couldn’t save. Even among those Rain had tried to save, some had died. The memory of the girls being cut down by soldiers after her portal was crushed caused Rain to start breathing faster. It got so bad that she had to stop and focus on getting it under control. She needed to do her best to avoid those memories for now.

Rain started walking beside and slightly behind a man and woman. She would try to look like she was part of their group as long as they were walking in the right direction.

Feeling like she had a handle on things again, Rain returned to her thoughts. Things had gone badly, and people had been hurt. If Rain could barely help a hundred and fifty or so people, how was she supposed to save the world from whatever was so terrible that her past self had been willing to die to prevent it? Rain needed to be stronger.

Rain looked down at her hands. She was small and weak; she had never won an actual fight, ever. But maybe she didn’t need to be the kind of strong that the heroines and heroes of plays and stories were. All the victories she had come from tricking people. Rain should try to get better at that.

But sometimes, tricking people wasn’t enough. If it was, Rain wouldn’t have had to experience those hours of fear and pain. She also needed to be better at escaping. Then, she could trick her enemies, and when things went bad, she could escape. That would help her get what she needed better than trying to learn how to use a sword or fight with skills. She should probably try to learn some basics, but if a real fight came up, well, she would have her minions take care of those.

A small group of soldiers was coming down the street, talking to and examining people.

Rain stepped into the crevice of a building and dropped her coin, then warped to her other coin.

Okay, let's add getting better at escaping to the top of my list of things to do.

She already had learning about antiskill barriers and contracts on her list. If she had only made more effort to understand antiskill barriers... she needed to do that before trying anything else. It was clear that the brothel had been a trap to prevent her from teleporting away. Since they hadn’t tried using the barriers to attack the Grifters' base, they must have limits. She just needed to find them.

Though now that she thought about it, maybe they simply hadn’t wanted to attack the Grifters base now that they had multiple classers. If they had learned about Rain’s library, they probably wanted to capture her so they could control it.

Would they attack the Grifters now that Rain had escaped? It seemed doubtful. At least not tonight. They would need to gather more men and classers before challenging a dozen black classers. Rain’s escape should delay their plans by at least a day or two.

Feeling enough time had passed, Rain warped back and picked up her coin. The soldiers were behind her now, so she continued on her way.

Rain had also promised Mr. Purple that she would explore the other parts of her library, but she was starting to wonder about that. Mr. Purple hadn’t spoken to her since her corruption went down. Had those messages been her corruption talking, or had they been real?

The fact that she hadn’t even considered that they might be from corruption until after her corruption went down worried her. On the other hand, Mr. Purple had given her that weird message back when she got her ‘Mother of Monsters’ skill, so there was something going on. Rain just wasn’t sure what.

That reminded her of the ‘Artisan of Abominations’ skill; it was always there waiting for her to accept it. If she did, she might be able to trick people into corrupting themselves; then, she could control them and have them help her save everyone. If she had accepted it, she might have been able to protect herself.

The idea still made Rain sick. Destroying people's minds and bodies so she could enslave them with a skill, how would she be any better than the people she was trying to get rid of?

Rain arrived at one of the roads that ramped upwards to connect to the Mid Ring. To her annoyance, guards were inspecting people as they passed. With a sigh, Rain turned right and followed the base of the cliff. She didn’t know if the guards had any way to identify her now that the curse of tracking was gone, but there was no point risking it.

The problem with ‘Artisan of Abominations’ was that it was too strong. It would completely take a person’s free will. But, if there was a way to make sure that people did things without completely enslaving them... The contract Rain had signed with the Estoms came to mind. Maybe she could use something like that. It would prevent traitors like Tist.

The thought of Tist brought back all the things Rain was avoiding, and Rain had to crouch down and hold herself while she got things back under control.

When the shaking was gone, and her breathing was back to normal, Rain stood back up and wiped away her tears. Looking around, she decided that this was as good a place as any. There was a building close to the edge of the ring with a tall spire. Rain used her coin and her usual method of warping to higher and higher ledges to climb to the top. Then she threw her coin up onto the top of the neighboring cliff, and like that, she had bypassed the checkpoint and entered the Mid Ring.

Rain continued on like this, avoiding anyone who looked important as well as her own emotions. She snuck through the Mid Ring and entered the Crown Ring using the same method. Fortunately, the search was far lighter there, making her think that no one suspected her to be from the Crown Ring. That, at least, was a huge weight off her shoulders.

The city was firmly in the clutches of night by the time Rain arrived at the gates of Estom Manor. She didn’t even bother sneaking in and instead just strolled past the house guard. She wasn’t with Lucus, so while the guard did note who she was, no one cared. Rain technically had the rights and status of a daughter of the house, but she didn’t have the affection; still, that made her life easier.

Sunrise was the one shaking now. Rain had seen Sunrise get angry before, but never this badly. Seeing her sister angry on her behalf filled Rain with warmth again, but Rain was tired of seeing angry people. So, instead of answering, Rain decided to be selfish again.

“Ise, can you do something for me?”

Sunrise's face twisted a little at the question, but she accepted the nonanswer and nodded.

“Okay.”

Rain grabbed Sunrise's hand and led her out the door. Then Rain used her coin to slip into Lucus’s rooms and unlocked them for Sunrise, uncaring about showing her skill.

She led them straight through the outer room and to Lucus’s bedroom. There he was, sleeping in a bed that was definitely big enough for three.

Rain was holding her sister’s hand, and her brother was right there; it was time for Rain to experience something she had dreamed about for years as she watched the other children in the pen sleep together.

Rain didn’t hesitate as she got into the bed and pulled Sunrise with her. She grabbed Lucus’s arm and wrapped it around herself, then she grabbed Sunrise's arm and wrapped it around herself from the other side.

“Wha! Jeeze. I wanted a sister, but I never realized how annoying they were.”

Rain didn’t need her skills to know Lucus was lying, the way he hugged her did that.

“Are you alright?”

Rain nidded at Lucus’s quiet question.

“Ya. can we sleep with you tonight?”

It was a bit late to ask, but Rain was starting to feel a little awkward.

“Whatever.”

Rain took that as a yes.

If being hugged by her sister felt great, then being surrounded by both of her siblings felt even better.

Rain may have failed to save everyone, and she might be far too small to save the world from whatever big threat her past self was scared of, but she had her family, and in this moment, she felt like she could do anything. The pure bliss of being snuggled between her two favorite people and having them accept her, aura and all, made Rain squirm in pure bliss.

“Stop moving around weirdo.”

“It’s okay if she wants to move; stop telling her what to do.”

“This is my bed!”

“Sorry. I’ll stop moving.”

Rain had a family. And with that thought, she allowed herself to drift off to sleep. She knew she wouldn’t be having nightmares tonight because, for the first time in her young life, Rain felt safe.

End of Part One