Library of Rain

Cursed Child

When Rain returned from Mr. Mirage’s dream, she found that being in other people’s dreams was the opposite of getting a good night's rest. Not that she had had many of those recently. Still, she felt even more tired and wrung out than she did after spending a whole night fighting through her periodic nightmares. 

She also apparently spent more time there than she had thought; light was already pouring through the windows. 

Feeling hungry and with nothing to eat but the dried bread left from last night’s sandwich, Rain prepared herself to warp out so she could find something to eat. Before she could, though, Rain looked at the bread on the table. If she lived here, she should be able to eat whatever food the people here ate. The idea of eating food out of a kitchen or pantry was novel to Rain; she immediately wanted to try it out. 

After tidying up her clothes and hair a bit, Rain set out to find a kitchen. Maybe she could cook for herself. She’d never cooked before other than that brief time with Lon, a thought that caused her to grimace. Still, cooking might be fun. 

Rain set off to start her cooking adventure; however, a servant called out to her before she could get far from her rooms.

“Ah. Young Lady Estom, there you are! Where did you disappear off to? Oh, never mind, you need to report to your lessons.”

Rain turned to the man. He was the same dully dressed servant who had shown her into the lounge for the document signing. With a grimace, Rain thought of telling him that she wanted to go get food first, but this man seemed important in the household. She worried that he might be able to cause her problems if she refused him. 

With an inward sigh, she told him to lead the way. While he led her through the manor, Rain noticed that the other household staff seemed to stay away and that none would look at her. Rain wasn’t sure if it was her or the man leading her that caused the behavior, but she wasn’t fond of it. 

Eventually, Rain was ushered through a door into a ballroom where Lucus was being taught how to dance. 

“I brought your runaway student.”

Lucus’s teacher, a stately-looking man, looked toward Rain and her escort.

“Have you now good good. Young Master Lucus, this is a prime opportunity for you to learn how to dance with a lady who lacks in experience.”

Rain didn’t like that the man immediately assumed that she had no experience with dancing just by looking at her, even if it was true. 

She looked at Lucus to see what he thought about all of this and received a shrug. Walking over to him, Rain waited for someone to tell her what she was supposed to do. Seeing her confusion, Lucus grabbed her right hand with his own right hand so their hands were clasped between them, left arms slack at their sides.

The next hour was a blur of pain and exhaustion. Apparently, the dancing style popular amongst the lords involved a lot of spinning, kicking, and twirling under each other's linked arms. Rain was sure it would look beautiful if done by two people who knew what they were doing, but with Rain being a complete novice, she ended up spending most of her time twisting her arm as she failed to pull off some maneuver or move in such a way that would allow her shoulder to rotate. Still, Rain had fun.

By the time they were allowed to take a break, Rain’s shoulder was thoroughly strained. Lucus decided to use this time to complain about Rain’s disappearance. 

“...And because you weren’t there Ms. Drostan yelled at me for not copying that journal!” Lucus paused for a moment from his lengthy tirade before continuing in a calmer tone, “I don't think she likes you. She kept calling you that wicked child and saying you were a bad influence.”

Rain wasn’t surprised; she saw how the servants had avoided them this morning. Plus, they had said no one could find her to take her to her classes this morning, but Rain had been lying on the couch in her rooms. The only reason for no one to find her would be if no one looked. It didn’t take much imagination to realize that the people in this manor found her creepy and distasteful. They couldn’t be overt about it because of her newly purchased position as a daughter of the house, but that didn’t mean they would ever do more for her than the bare minimum. 

The real question was, why didn’t Lucus avoid her?

“Do you think I’m creepy?”

Rain said it before she could think about whether it was a good idea. Lucus, for his part, looked confused.

“I mean, that's one way to put it. I think you’re a freaky weirdo.”

The way he said it with complete honesty and a total lack of malice somehow left Rain feeling better. 

“What's with the dumb question?”

Rain didn’t know how to answer, so she stayed silent.

“Whatever, we still have to finish up here. Try not to be so bad at this. You’re tiring me out, and I need to be ready for sword training this afternoon. Father told me he wanted me to prove myself at the next swords tournament.”

“Swords tournament?”

“It's this dumb event they hold twice a year where all the Young Lords on Tineak and some of the closer islands come together and have duels. Then afterwards, everyone tells the boys who enjoy sword fighting and are good at it that they’re better than the rest of us just because they have the ‘right’ hobby.”

Lucus was getting more and more visibly angry as his rant went on. Rain didn’t quite understand what was wrong, but it sounded like he might be mad because no one liked his sword fighting. Maybe she could help.

“When is the tournament? Can I watch?”

This didn’t seem to help.

“It's next week. And do whatever you want, weirdo. If you want to go fawn over Toivo, go ahead.”

“I was actually hoping to watch your matches.”

Lucus paused, though only for a moment, as he walked away.

“I don’t care; do whatever you want.”

And that was a lie.

Lucus didn’t talk to her much for the rest of the day as they went through their classes. Most of the time, they were taught together, and Rain was expected to figure out what was going on as the teachers continued the lessons they planned to teach Lucus. It was a constant struggle, and Lucus, who hadn’t cheered up, seemed in no mood to help her. 

At first, Rain thought the lesson's difficulty was just because no one knew what level she was at on the different subjects, but as the day went on, she realized there was more to it than that. The teachers seemed to actively hate her; even if they tried to hide it, they would sometimes let things slip.

The teachers weren't the only ones either. The rest of the staff were polite and did whatever she asked of them, but they still tried to avoid her. Towards the end of the day, Rain heard some of the servants talking. 

“Are you Okay? You’ve spent so much time around that thing today I was getting worried it might hurt you.”

“That's because none of you would help me with that hideous cursed child!”

Rain recognized that voice. It belonged to one of the maids who had been consistently kind to her over the course of the day. Apparently, it had all been an act.

“Oh, that's a good name for it! I still can't believe The Lord and Lady would be willing to take in that cursed child even with all the money they were offered.”

With her head down, Rain gave up on the rest of the day's classes and snuck back to her rooms. She doubted anyone would come looking for her anyway. There in her rooms, Rain thought about the conversation. 

Funnily enough, as much as it hurt, as much as being shunned made her feel like something was wrong with her, she would rather be forced to listen to the servants' hate than do what she was planning. Because shortly, she would likely be responsible for the madness and death of another person.

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