Rain gripped the fabric of her dress as she walked through double doors held open by servants and stepped into the dining room. This was the room Rain usually met Lord and Lady Estom in, and she had few good memories of the place.

 

The unusual setup of the table had been completely thrown out in favor of a more intimate seating arrangement, with Lord Estom at the head of the large table, Lady Estom sitting to his right, and a spot for Rain at his left. Usually, the seats for Rain and Lucus would be farther down the long table as though the Lord and Lady didn’t want their food spoiled by the children's grubby hands. 

 

“Ah, Rain dear, come and have a seat.”

 

Rain's hackles immediately raised at that. Lady Estom never called Rain Rain; she insisted on using that stupid name Raina, to the point where most people in the Crown Ring knew her by that name. The fact that she was now using Rain's actual name when she ignored Rain's complaints about being called Raina for so long added fuel to the burning suspicion.

 

“Ah, Rain, my beautiful daughter, I’m so glad to see you’re looking better!”

 

Rain could see Lord Estom was lying, especially when he called her beautiful. She buried her ugly hand in her dress and forced an appropriate smile.

 

“Thank you, Father. Your concern is noted.”

 

She stepped forward and took her seat just like her etiquette classes had instructed her before looking at the food. It had all her favorites, with lots of sweet desserts, a thick meat stew, and not a slice of bread despite bread being typical for a meal like this. They must have been paying attention to what she ate. What else had they been watching?

 

“I’m glad we have a chance to eat together, Rain darling. It's a shame that running an island takes so much time. I hope you and Lucus can forgive us for not doing this more often.”

 

Rain took note of Lady Estom’s tone of voice and body language; she was the perfect image of a caring yet elegant mother. Rain might have believed her words if they weren’t a putrid shade of black. And why bring up Lucus if you weren’t even going to invite him?

 

Looking at the two liars, Rain was reminded of her original reason for being adopted by these two. But how could she kill them now? They were awful humans, but they were still Lucus’s parents, and he cared about them. 

 

For a while, the only sounds were the quiet noises of eating as the three enjoyed the meal. Rain wished Lucus was here; he actually enjoyed getting attention from these two. 

 

“Rain dear, I don’t think we ever had a chance to go shopping together. What do you say, now that you’re feeling better, how about we have a mother-daughter day?”

 

What was their goal? They had been completely dismissive of her before this, but now Lady Estom wanted to go shopping together? Well, if they were going to angle to get something, then so would Rain.

 

“Sorry, mother. I’m still feeling a little unwell, and besides, I already have plans to go shopping with Lucus.”

 

Rain could swear she saw a brief flash of irritation on Lady Estom's face. However, the woman regained her cold elegance before Rain could be sure. 

 

“Bwa ha ha! I can understand that! A day of shopping can wear you out when you’re recovering. How about I take you to a bakery that sells a delicious dessert? Just the two of us. I’d love to get to know my daughter better.”

 

It seemed that now Lady Estom had failed, Lord Estom was trying to worm his way into her good graces. It was time to drop the second hint.

 

“I would love to, but perhaps another time. I have already tried many of the sweets in the Crown Ring with my dearest brother.”

 

That was a lie on Rain's part, but she needed them to realize that if they wanted to get closer to her, they would need to invite Lucus, too. It wasn’t right for him to be ignored when he fought so hard for their approval.  

 

Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to quite get it yet, and the conversation died down while they quietly ate. Eventually, Lord Estom broke the silence with another attempt. 

 

“I hear you’re quite the theater-goer, my girl. You even bought a permanent booth at the Crown Theater! We should all go as a family and spend some time together.”

 

The last thing Rain wanted was for these two to ruin her favorite pastime, but she could recognize an opportunity when she saw it.

 

“All of us as a family?”

 

“Why, of course!”

 

“Great! I’ll inform you when there’s a play that Lucus might enjoy.”

 

In truth, Lucus wasn’t a big fan of plays. Rain had dragged him to one, and the only thing that had interested him was the painted backdrops. But now that Rain had mentioned him, Lord and Lady Estom would be forced to bring him when they went on this outing. Hopefully, he wouldn’t mind going to a play if it was just an excuse to spend time with his parents. 

 

With that mutual victory, the three of them finished their meals before Rain excused herself. She was feeling sick, and she couldn’t understand why. The food had been fine, and the problem wasn’t with anything in the room. As she walked back, she passed Lord Estom’s office; its door was cracked open.

 

Curious Rain slipped in and looked around. The room was lavishly furnished. Like most things in the manor, it stank of wealth the Estoms didn’t have. Rain looked through some documents on the polished darkwood desk. Most were reminders of debts owed to various houses hidden in vague pleasantries alongside reminders that the gathering was approaching. One letter from House Redye mentioned the Estom ‘servant acquisition business.’

 

Looking at it all, Rain realized why she was feeling ill. It was because she was a hypocrite. The servant acquisition business was a polite way of referring to the Estom’s practice of selling their own citizens into slavery to pay for their lavish lifestyles. She condemned and killed Isster because he wanted to buy slaves and was an entitled jerk who lorded over and hurt others. But she refused to lay a hand on the Estom’s because it would hurt her brother.

 

She was as bad as the people she hated, not caring about the morals of something as long as she and the people she loved got what they wanted. 

 

“...hate dealing with that disgusting thing.”

 

“It’s only temporary. If you don’t want to deal with her, then don’t buy any new girls.”

 

Rain could hear Lord and Lady Estome heading this way; she didn’t have the motivation to deal with them right now, so she simply warped to the coin in her room, avoiding any awkward encounters. 

 

When the world unfolded around her, Rain found herself standing in her room again. She picked up Snow off her bed and peeked into the sitting room to see if Ise was still waiting there. Her sister was sound asleep sitting in her chair, which she had moved back into the corner. 

 

Rain sighed and put Snow down then walked into the sitting room and picked Ise up. The girl was incredibly heavy, but Rain could just manage to lift her. Rain staggered back through her room to Ise's room and placed the bigger girl in her bed, tucking her into her sheets. 

 

That's right, you may be bigger, but I can still be a big sister. 

 

“Urg… love you…” Ise muttered in her sleep.

 

Rain had no idea what Ise was dreaming about, but she answered anyway. 

 

“I love you too, little sis.” 

 

Rain kissed her sister on the forehead before leaving the room in total darkness, just as Sunrise liked it. 

 

Right! Rain had been delayed a lot from her exploration of the library, but now she had all night to look around. Her nightmares might be less frequent now, but that was no excuse to waste a bunch of time sleeping! Plus, she needed to get her mind off of how awful a person she was.

 

Rain quickly warped to the coin she left in the Mid Ring and collected it before returning to her room. It would be annoying to have to walk back into the city on foot, especially since she felt like people followed her when she did. But Rain needed two coins, and it would be far harder to replace the coin on Estom Island. 

 

Armed with two of her coins and a fluffy white wolf to protect her, Rain entered her library.