Rain woke to the sound of Ise bringing in breakfast. The smell of roasted mushrooms made her mouth water and drove away the remaining vestiges of sleep.

 

“Good morning, my lady,” Ise said with a curtsy, holding the tray of food in both hands.

 

“I’ve told you Ise, you’re my sister, not my maid.”

 

“Can't I be both?” 

 

That was unfair. When Ise pouted like that, there was no way Rain could refuse!

 

“Fine, you win, but I get to brush your hair after breakfast.”

 

“Okay!”

 

Rain would do whatever she had to to stay a big sister while also making sure that she never neglected Ise’s feelings again. She wished she knew what it meant to be a big sister, but no one ever showed her; her past self’s memories were absent on the subject, and nothing she read gave her the specifics. So until she figured it out, she would do everything she could think of.

 

“Let's eat together in the sitting room.”

 

“Okay. And is that one of the books from the, you know what?”

 

Rain followed Sunrise’s gaze to her nightstand to see that the black book had moved again while she slept and was now resting there, begging for attention.

 

“Sort of; this one is more dangerous than the ones I showed you guys. If you see it, don’t ever touch it.”

 

“Okay.” 

 

Rain didn’t miss the slightly black pitch of Ise’s response or the way her eyes lingered on the book. Great, Rain would have to find a way to make sure that the book stayed out of Ise’s reach.

 

For now, there was only one thing Rain could do: give the book some attention. Rain changed her cloak into a day dress, then picked the black book up and tucked it away into a hidden pocket.

 

Ok, cursed book or not, it was kinda cool to have a secret mystery book in a hidden pocket. She felt like a character in a play with secret information that she needed to deliver. Hopefully, keeping the black book close would prevent it from appearing around her until she decided what to do with it.

 

That out of the way, Rain joined Ise for breakfast. The two of them sat shoulder to shoulder on the ground in front of the couch as they ate their breakfast with their fingers, ignoring all table etiquette. For a while, they didn’t say anything, as Rain simply enjoyed being close. Sunrise eventually broke the silence.

 

“Are you doing anything dangerous today?”

 

Sunrise’s voice was quieter than usual; it almost sounded sad. Rain wasn’t sure what Ise was feeling, but she didn’t like it. Ise should always be cheerful and happy. Rain relied on her bright smile. 

 

“There shouldn’t be anything dangerous today.”

 

“Then… can I come with you?”

 

The hesitance in her little sister's voice broke Rain's heart. Rain threw her arms around Ise and hugged her. 

 

“Of course you can!”

 

Rain had a feeling this decision would bite her in the butt, but she didn’t care right now. She just wanted to see her little sister smile. And she did. Just like her namesake, Sunrise’s smile broke through the clouds and lit up the room.

 

“When do we go? What are we doing? What should I bring?”

 

Smiling at her sister's exuberance, Rain forced herself to let go of the hug and got up. 

 

“We need to talk to some people. Give me a second while I get something.”

 

Rain rushed to a door and used it to make a portal to her library. However, instead of rushing in to grab something as she planned, Rain found Ise hot on her heels, clearly intending to follow Rain into the library. Rain thought about it for a second before shrugging internally. Rain grabbed Ise’s hand before the other girl could get into some kind of trouble and led her through the mist room to her hoard. 

 

“Alright!” Rain said, patting Agro on his golden decapitated head as she started looking around for the vial of river juice she had harvested. “We’re looking for a small gray vial about the size of my finger.”

 

And like that, the two of them started looking around, right until Rain found a pretty necklace of delicate gold with a sky blue sapphire set in it. 

 

“Ise, Ise, come over here!”

 

Ise did, and Rain placed the necklace around her neck. The delicate ladies necklace lying on top of the maid outfit Sunrise insisted on wearing looked kinda odd, but the gold and blue matched Ise’s hair and eyes. 

 

“Oh, that’s pretty!”

 

Rain’s words sparked a competition as both sisters tried to dress the other in the prettiest jewelry. Though that quickly shifted to more and more ridiculous outfits - the search for the vial had been completely forgotten. Before long, Ise was wearing a floppy gold and green abomination on her head that Rain wasn’t sure was supposed to be a hat; it might just be an oddly shaped sack. Some of the ceremonial clothes Rain had freed from the temple of Agro were weird. 

 

Rain turned Ise towards the mirror so she could see herself, and both girls broke into fits of giggling at the ridiculousness. Unfortunately, Rain also spotted the Vial that had started all this. She momentarily considered pretending she hadn’t so they could keep playing, but her sense of duty wouldn’t allow it.

 

“Ah, found it!” Rain scooped up the vial and proudly presented it to Ise.

 

“What is it?” Ise asked, taking a closer look at the simple gray vial.

 

Rain explained about the ‘Enter Dream' skill, and that she wanted Ise to drink a bit of the river juice along with her blood so they could talk to people in their dreams. Sunrise seemed to understand it all. However, the way she started breathing heavily when Rain mentioned drinking her blood scared Rain a little. 

 

Sunrise could be a little strange sometimes, but that was ok. Rain loved her anyway. 

 

“Are we going to sleep here?”

 

Rain thought about that for a second. She realized that, just like with her coins, she couldn't feel people outside when she was in the library. 

 

“No, let's go back and do it in our rooms.”

 

“Okay!” 

 

Seeing how excited Ise was made Rain feel warm inside, almost like she was getting a hug. 

 

Before they left, Rain scooped up the first necklace she’d had Ise ware and put it around her sister's neck again.

 

“Keep it.”

 

Ise looked thrilled to have such a pretty necklace, and Rain made a promise to herself that she would give her sister lots and lots of gifts so that Sunrise would always be happy. To make everything even better, Sunrise hugged Rain. They stayed like that for a while, and Rain was so out of it she forgot to stand on her tiptoes. 

 

Eventually, they broke up and exited the library. 

 

“Okay, drink this.” Rain said, offering the cup of water with a drop of river juice and blood in it.

 

Sunrise immediately downed the glass and sat there, her face scrunched slightly like she was waiting for some feeling to sweep through her. She looked adorable. 

 

“Is that it?” Sunrise looked a little crestfallen when there wasn’t some big feeling or whatever she had been waiting for.

 

“Yep! Now, you just need to go to sleep, and I’ll be waiting for you.”

 

“Can I sleep with you?” Ise asked, looking down bashfully.

 

Rain perked up at the question. “Let's snuggle!”

 

And with that, the two girls scampered off to take a nap together. It would have been almost perfect if Rain couldn’t feel the small book in her coat wedged between her and her sister begging to be read. She would need to deal with that soon when she was alone. Until then, Rain sent her mind off to enter River’s dream world, where she could wait for Sunrise to fall asleep.