Library of Rain

Lay of the Land

Rain turned her eyes away from the silvery sky and towards the darkened city. She was a few stories up, high enough to see a good chunk of the surrounding city. Only a few buildings were lit at this time of night; the rest were only jagged silhouettes made of sharp spires and vicious angles. 

The view of the street below was obstructed from Rain’s view by the roof of the building below her. Still, she had been looking for a window, and this would work. Taking her coin, she threw it past the roofing beneath her and into the unseen street below.

Looking around the room, Rain briefly thought about searching through the items. Maybe she could find something to take as a trophy or leave something as a prank. Her eagerness to be free stopped her; instead, she mentally grasped the coin she had just thrown and warped to it. 

Appearing in a dark street, Rain bent over to pick up her coin. Before she could grab it, the coin began convulsing and writhing. Large bubbles formed and shrank as the coin grew to three times its size, churning in on itself. Then, without any indication of why, the coin shrank down to nothing, leaving a crater carved out of the cobbled street where it had been.

Rain backed away from the divot that was slowly filling with rain. She could no longer feel the coin in her mind. Thinking back to the skill, she remembered it mentioned that each coin would have a limited number of uses. It seemed her silver coins could be used three times. 

With nothing left here for her, Rain took one last look at the large auction house that had been her home for the last ten years of her life. Grateful for her freedom, she turned and ran through the rain to her new future. 

The next day was full of new experiences and a constant sense of Deja Vu. While Rain had never experienced anything outside her pen, she had enormous amounts of knowledge from the information packet her past self had snuck into her “terms” skill. Because of this, her day felt like she was cementing her knowledge into personal experience and making it truly her own.

After escaping, Rain ran through the rain until she found a large market square. Out of breath and entranced by the sky, she had rested against a wall to stare into the rain. Not long after, the sky lit up, and a warm light peeked over the rooftops. With the sun, the city came to life, a bustling and noisy place full of people amongst whom Rain may one day find a family. Needless to say, Rain added sunrises to her list of favorite things just below the rain and soft beds.

With daylight, she could better see the city and people around her. Most people had grim faces; they were the kind of faces people made when things were hard and hope was thin. Their clothes didn’t help the gloomy atmosphere. They were all grays and browns, sturdy but drab. Rain was disappointed that their red and blond hair was the only color they really had.

Most of the clothes were a bit loose, like they were missing a layer underneath, and despite the different styles, everyone had a scarf and pair of goggles around their neck. 

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The city was as monochrome as the people. Most buildings were made out of smooth black stone with flowing patterns. The roofs were tall and sharply pointed. They all had at least one sharp spire or twisting tower, whether they were shops, homes, or any other building. 

Despite there not being a tuft of smoke or fire in sight, the streets and roofs were stained in gray ash. There were piles of the stuff against the walls or in the middle of open spaces. A few men were already using shovels and a cart to haul it away. 

In the near distance, Rain could see a cliff with bigger, nicer buildings looking down on the area she was in. Deciding to search the area, Rain started wandering the rigidly straight streets.

As Rain entered a seven-way intersection with a large open square, she found a group of playing children, watched over by an older man and middle-aged woman wielding crossbows. 

The children were playing a game with an inflated bladder of some kind. Rain couldn’t understand the rules, but they looked like they were having fun kicking the ball around and laughing. 

When Rain approached them, hoping they would let her join, they shied away from her just like the children from the pen. A small girl with red hair and freckles even started crying at Rain's approach. 

Immediately, the woman pointed her crossbow at Rain and called out.

“Get lost, kid. Yer not wanted here.”

Rain froze in fear and shock. All she had wanted was to play with the others. How had things gotten so bad so fast? They had just met, and these people already seemed to hate her. To make things worse, Rain could see that the woman was telling the truth by the cloud of vibrant colors that plumed from her mouth as she spoke. 

“I said get lost,” the woman snarled, firing her crossbow at the wall next to Rain.

Rain jumped, breaking out of her shock; she ran away as fast as her legs could carry her. 

A similar scene played out multiple times, with children being scared of her and adults being distrustful. Rain could tell from people's reactions that her “Aura of the Unnatural” skill lost potency on people as they aged. Rather than fear, they seemed to find her creepy and untrustworthy. 

Despite people's distrust in her, Rain had managed to wheedle some basic information from street vendors. She had tried entering a few stores but been promptly thrown out due to her tattered cloak and filthy shoeless feet. 

She had learned that they were in Tineak, the capital of the Crescent Archipelago. More specifically, they were in the Low Ring. The city had four rings, the Crown Ring at the top of the mountain with a pit of fire and molten rock at its center. Around it was the Mid Ring, then the Low Ring. Finally, at the bottom was the Dead Ring, named thus because no one lived there anymore. 

Knowing she was in the Crescent Archipelago helped explain why she didn’t know many common things here. Her information was mostly about places on the mainland. 

Through her other conversations and observations, she found that the local currency was different from what her information told her. The two coins in her pocket were not from the Crescent Archipelago. The most common coins here had holes in the middle, allowing them to be strung around a person's neck. The coins were also pretty small, about as wide as a person's thumb. 

The least valuable coins were made of copper. Most people called them opps. It took about three opps to buy a small loaf of bread. Rain wasn’t sure if opps had enough value for her “Path of Welth” skill to work on them. Then there were the silver coins, vers. Ten opps made a ver. Lastly, gold coins olds; ten vers to an old.

Listening in on conversations in the street, Rain also got an idea of how some islands were doing. More than a few people talked about how Estom Island had been labeled a lost island because of a plague. This was the third different plague to break out in the last eight years. 

At nightfall, Rain learned a valuable lesson. Three men cornered Rain in a deserted side street; when she tried to run, one of them punched her in the stomach, knocking the air from her lungs and making her fall to the ground. While she tried to pull air into her lungs, the men began to tie her up. The moment she felt the rope tighten around one of her wrists, Rain panicked and warped to the coin she had thrown into a pile of ash in case of emergency, taking the rope with her. 

After her misadventure, Rain realized that this was why she had seen so few beggars or street urchins in Tineak. Anyone who no one would miss likely disappeared. It also helped explain why at least one armed person was always watching wherever children played.

Shaken enough for one day, Rain used a random door to enter her library. The dark mist and strange whispers didn’t even bother her as she found her way back to the room and fell asleep on the straw mattress.