The Garden

The Garden

The greenhouse really was a pretty place with its vibrant colors and fun scents; it was even prettier when the servants were gone, like tonight. So naturally, Rain was going to do her training with Ise here and capitalize on the servants being either off duty or accompanying the Lord and Lady.

“What are we doing, Rain? Does it have to do with the you know what?”

“Yes, but don’t call it the ‘you know what’; that sounds suspicious.”

The last thing Rain needed was for Svend to hear Sunrise talk about obvious secrets.

“Are you going to give me a book to read!”

Rain froze up momentarily and turned to look at Ise. She could see the excitement on the bigger girl's face; she had a big dopy grin, and her cheeks were all flushed. Sunrise wanted to read one of the books? Of course, she did.

Rain didn’t like that idea at all. The books could drive people insane or turn them into monsters. If Rain let Ise read one and something bad happened to her, Rain... Rain would...

Tears ran down Rain's cheek as thoughts of Lon ran through her head, only now Ise was there being transformed and killed.

Rain was on the ground, gasping for air, clutching Snow tight to her chest. Her eyes were wide, but she couldn’t see anything around her; her gaze fixed on visions of Sunrise’s death.

“No. No. No, no no no no”

“Rain! Rain, what’s wrong! Are you hurt? What's going on?”

Warm arms wrapped around Rain, holding her and driving back the terrible visions. The two of them stayed like that for a few minutes while Rain beat back the visions, the fear, and the pain of what she’d done.

When she could control herself again, she jerked her arms out of the death-grip they had on Snow and hugged Ise.

“Sorry, I'm okay. Sorry for scaring you. I’m sorry.”

That last part wasn’t just for Ise. It was also for Lon.

“You’re okay?”

“Yeah.”

Rain used her sleeve to whip her face.

“You’re sure?”

“Did it work this time?” Ise asked with a hint of worry.

“Yep! Thank you!”

Sunrise didn’t respond; instead, she gave Rain a big hug, which Rain happily returned.

“All right, what’s our next step?” Ise said, releasing the hug.

“Well, my next step was going to be practicing to make copies of my skills. You don’t need to wait around while I figure that out.”

“No, I’m staying. You aren’t allowed to be alone today.”

Rain cocked her head. Why wasn’t she allowed to be alone today? There was nothing special about today, was there?

“What's wrong about me being alone today?”

Ise pulled her back into the hug.

“You’re just not, okay.”

“Okay. But I’m probably going to be staring at nothing for a while.”

“That's fine. I’ll just hold your hand.”

Ise did just that, grabbing Rain’s left hand and humming to herself.

Rain smiled at her little sister. It would be nice to have her here.

Now for the last step. Rain had Mr. Purple show her the descriptions for two skills. The first was the skill that had started this whole quest.

[Librarian’s Search: Think of Information you wish to find in the Library of Oru, and the skill will guide you there at the cost of permanently raising physical corruption by one percent. Uses left: 2]

The second was the passive skill Rain had gained when she made a deal with Ms. White.

[Binding Promise: A deal has been struck. Should either party break the terms set, they will be subject to the other's mercy. This skill will be lost on completion of the deal.]

Rain had two Items to make.