Lucus’s eyes immediately narrowed at the question.

 

“What dangerous thing are you planning now? Have you already forgotten how beat up you were after whatever you did last time?”

 

“No, no, there’s nothing dangerous this time. I just wanted to share something with you.”

 

Rain decided not to add ‘in case something happens to me’ to the end of that sentence, but she felt like Lucus heard it anyway with how he was looking at her.

 

“ I promise!” Rain looked down as she admitted the truth. “I feel bad because I caused you guys so many problems, so I wanted to explain what's going on.”

 

Lucus didn’t look impressed.

 

“The last time you showed me something, we nearly got killed by that psycho.”

 

“If you aren’t interested, Rain and I can go without you!” 

 

Sunrise sounded a little too excited to leave Lucus behind. Maybe they weren’t quite as friendly as Rain hoped.

 

“Whatever, let's get this over with.”

 

Lucus closed his book as he stood up, and Rain finally got to read the title, ‘A Genealogy of the Lords of the Gathering.’ With a title like that and the book's thickness, Rain doubted she would last five minutes reading it.

 

“Why are you studying the genealogy of the lords?”

 

Lucus threw a disgusted look at the book.

 

“There’s going to be a gathering of the lords in two weeks. Mother and father want me to learn about the other houses and their connections to each other, so I don’t embarrass the family. Apparently, while the heads of the houses are in meetings, it's customary for the rest of the House to mingle and make connections. And now I’m old enough to attend.”

 

The whole thing sounded kinda fun to Rain; there would probably be good desserts. But the way Lucus said it made it seem like he was being prepared to be thrown into the heart of Tineak. Seeing her brother so gloomy made Rain forget her big reveal for a bit.

 

“Um, why is that a bad thing?”

 

“Mother and Father will probably use me as payment for some of their deals. They’ve done it in the past when they attended partial gatherings, and the age for attendance is lower. Some powerful lord will want to show off how great they are by throwing a party for the scions of their house. I’ll be forced to attend, then the scion of whatever house paid Mother and Father will do everything they can to insult and embarrass me so that they can show the rest of the guests how powerful their house is compared to ours.”

 

Rain didn’t know what to say. Not only did that sound like a terrible idea for the Estom House, but it was also an awful thing to do to your family. So she did the only thing she could think of. She let go of Ise, put Snow down, and hugged her brother.

 

“Get off, weirdo. I don’t need your pity. Besides, if I learn enough about the houses to be useful, they won't do that to me this time.”

 

Rain resisted his attempts to push her off and hugged him tighter. Already, she was thinking of ways to help him. The easiest one would be to find a way to take his place. People already hated her, so she would make everyone's job easier. She still didn't relish the idea; she was kinda hoping to use the opportunity to make a friend, but if she could do anything for her brother, then she would.

 

“Seriously, didn’t you want to show us something? If not, then I’m going back to my studies.”

 

Right! Rain wasn’t here to talk about this. She threw an apologetic look at Ise for wasting time, but Ise wasn’t looking. She had her arms folded and was glaring at a random bookshelf. 

 

Rain let go and picked Snow back up.

 

“Right, um, let's go back to our room. That would be the best place to show you guys from.”

 

Rain led the others back to her rooms through another barrage of fake goodwill. 

 

Before they made it to the refuge of her rooms, they were stopped by the head butler, Mr. Drab - or whatever his real name was; Rain had never bothered to learn it.

 

“Ah, Young Mistress, the Lord and Lady invite you to dine with them tonight. The meal will be served at sundown. I trust that the young Sunrise will be able to prepare you for the appointment.”

 

That last part was said to Ise as though Rain would naturally accept the ‘invitation.’ 

 

“Am I invited too?” Lucus asked hesitantly.

 

“I am afraid not. Only the young mistress has been invited.”

 

Rain threw a covert glance at Lucus. He was clearly disappointed. Best to end this encounter quickly.

 

“Thank you for informing me. Tell them I would be honored.”

 

Mr. Drab bowed and withdrew. Rain led the others into her room. She hoped that not being invited hadn’t hurt Lucus too much. But, his shoulders were slightly more slumped than when they found him in the library. 

 

When they were in Rain’s rooms, Rain took them to the door leading from the sitting room to her bedroom. Then, with one last look at her siblings, she said.

 

“Just follow me through, and I’ll explain on the other side.”

 

And with that, she opened the door and created a portal to her library, stepping through the dark veil.

 

Rain spent a moment in the entry room, staring up at the carving of the man with all his tongues rolling out and wrapping up the struggling people around him. Now that she had interacted with this place for a while, that carving made more sense. This place would pull people in and devour them if they weren’t careful.

 

The next moment, Sunrise walked in, closely followed by Lucus.

 

The two had very different reactions to the constricted dark atmosphere of the Mist Rooms. Sunrise was breathing deeply, like she had found a calming, fresh scent and didn’t want to miss a bit of it. The peaceful look on her face was at complete odds with the dark room and the faint wailing of the books in the next room.

 

Lucus reacted like most others did when exposed to this place for the first time. His posture became more defensive, and he kept an eye on the exit. 

 

Rain had expected worse from him after he made his opinions on how their last adventure went known. So she was pleasantly surprised when he didn’t say anything or even freak out now that he was here.

 

Rain closed the door, ending the portal in case a servant came looking for them - not that anyone except Sunrise and Lucus ever came into her rooms.

 

“Rain, what have you gotten into this time?”

 

Rain waited for Sunrise to jump in and defend her, but she remained quiet. Rain realized that Ise was just as curious as Lucus. 

 

“So, um, you both probably realized that I’m a black classer by now.” 

 

Ise didn’t look shocked by that. She had seen Rain warp with a coin before, as well as her aura. Lucus, on the other hand, looked a little more uncomfortable with the announcement. His face was slightly scrunched. However, it didn’t look like he was shying away from Rain; more like he was worried that she might get into trouble. So Rain continued.

 

“This place was my first skill: access to the Library of Oru. The part we’re in now has books that can grant classes to the people who read them and can understand them.”

 

Rain explained how her power worked and how the corruption worked on others and herself. As she did, she led them through the mist room.

 

She had to tell Ise off more than once for getting distracted by feeling the shelves or touching the books; fortunately, Lucus seemed to have more sense and avoided the books. He even looked a little repulsed at some of the tomes, like one that resembled a hunk of raw flesh that was constantly dripping blood down its shelf into a pool at the base. 

 

But despite all the disconcerting sounds and sights, Lucus never looked at Rain with the same revulsion that he did the books. It made Rain's chest all glowy, knowing that her siblings wouldn’t reject her even now. They simply listened to Rain's explanations and her stories about what she had done so far.

 

Eventually, they finished the tour and ended at the door leading to Rain’s first bedroom. Rain opened it with a flourish, exposing the pile of treasure inside. Rain had lost a lot of her coins over the months to her skill and to the bribe for the Estoms to adopt her. But that only made her hoard look cooler as it was made of fancy ceremonial objects, gilded weapons, and golden items like the large mirror. Resting on top of the glittering pile was the crowning jewel of Rain’s collection, the misshapen head of Agro perched like an ugly bird on a mountain.

 

“And this,” Rain said, throwing her arms out wide, Snow dangling from her right hand, “is my hoard. Pretty cool, huh.” Rain didn’t really need to show them this, but what was the purpose of having a hoard if you couldn’t show it off to the people you loved?