Library of Rain

Going into Business

A little over a week after Lon’s death and her conversation with Blondy, Rain finally felt like she could do things without wanting to cry. Now she just felt empty, as though after so long of being sad, she no longer had any emotions left in her. Compared to the pain, it felt nice. She hoped it would last.

Taking the roll of paper with the information the Watching Stars gave her, Rain unrolled it to see what it said. Manas had broken the information on the scroll into two lists, one of failing merchants and the other of major gangs. At the bottom, he had listed a few ways to get a hold of the Watching Stars should she want to buy more information.

Rain chose to focus on the merchants for now. She was sitting on a pile of money, which was doing her no good. Looking through the list, she saw five names. 

The first name was Ard Dulman. He specialized in selling cosmetics and fashionable women’s clothes. Renowned as one of the best in the Mid Ring, he built quite a profitable trading company with suppliers all over the Isles. His lousy fortune came when he was caught cheating on his wife with multiple customers. Now, he had a long line of angry husbands trying to take him down and an equally furious wife. From everything Rain could see about him, it looked like he would be forced into an early retirement, and one of his kids would be taking up the business. Rain wished the man luck and moved on to the next name.

Low Porter was a second-generation merchant who was undercut in every item he sold. The most significant loss he sustained in recent days was when he spent a small fortune on frost silk from a distant northern island only to have one of his rivals start selling the silk two days before Low’s shipment arrived. Not only that, but his rival was able to sell at a cheaper price than Low could. That one shipment alone almost bankrupted Low, and it was hardly an isolated experience. From what Rain could tell from the information, the problem was that Low tried to do things exactly like his father and failed to adapt.

Rain decided to pass Low by for now and moved to the next name. Ack Friend ran a small shipping company that supplied fine lumber. The problem was that the island where he sourced his lumber had recently been pronounced a dead island after a plague broke out there. Ack was a vocal advocate for sending a team to the island to check on the state of the people there. However, until the island was pronounced safe or he found a new source of fine lumber, he would be a merchant with no wares. 

The next merchant on her list was Ad Purson. He was a slave merchant, and that was as far as Rain read before moving on. She would not be partnering with a slaver.

The last name was Ind Markson. Ind was known as a savvy businessman who traded in all kinds of things and had connections across the archipelago. His current problem was that brigands were targeting his ships and caravans. The information speculated that one of his competitors had hired the bandits to attack only his shipments. After his last shipment was lost despite increasing guards, Ind was left with barely two opps to rub together.

As far as Rain was concerned, he was perfect. The man had a good sense for business and the contacts to make it work. However, he would be unable to recover without someone to get rid of the bandits and the money to restart his business. Rain was already forming a plan to get rid of the bandits, and she had money to spare. If she could pull this off, she would have a competent merchant making her money and providing her connections to the other islands.

Rain looked through the information on the man to get a better idea of who he was as a person and how she should approach him. He was married and had a son around Rain’s age. Any information on his family life seemed to paint him in a positive light. It made Rain like him. 

After a little more skimming, she found a warehouse in the Low Ring that was all that remained of his holdings in the city. It sounded like he was spending a lot of time there trying to figure out how to get out of his current situation. Rain felt it was as good a place as anywhere to find him.

Looking through her hoard for something she could use to impress Mr. Markson with her wealth, Rain found a small bag of large gems. She figured it would have to do. She would prefer to show him one of the bars of gold she had pilfered, but they were too heavy to haul around the city; even if she used a door to retrieve it right before entering the warehouse, her arriving carrying a bar of gold she could hardly lift would make a bad first impression. She would wait until they had an agreement before showing up with suspicious goods.

Tucking her pouch of gems into her cloak, she changed her cloak to look like drab gray Low Ringer garb and headed out to find Mr. Markson’s warehouse. 

It was a bit of a walk from where Rain had last entered her library in the Mid Ring to Mr. Markson’s warehouse in the Low Ring, but fortunately, it was a nice day. The gossip Rain heard in the Mid Ring was mostly standard stuff. Still, occasionally, she would hear different theories about what happened at Miggos’s manor or about monsters attacking people in the streets. Apparently, Rain burning down a good portion of Miggos’s mansion was a big deal. If she was being honest about it, she was kinda proud of that. 

The number of patrolling guards decreased when she entered the Low Ring, and the casual rummermongering turned into true fear. There was a general air that people here weren’t safe. Rain felt like someone had stabbed her in the gut. The Low Ring had always had an air of unease, but now, in part because of what she had done, people were even more afraid than before.

She tried to ignore the pain around her and keep to less populated areas so she wouldn’t feel guilty about the state of things. However, when she heard a quiet call for help from a narrow sidestreet, she couldn’t help but make a detour. 

In the cramped street littered with ash-covered refuse, a tiny figure was crumpled in front of a young blond woman. The woman was ranting at the tiny figure and kicking it to punctuate her words.

“If you can’t” kick “get that rich fool” kick “to accept you” kick “as his daughter,” kick “then why have I” kick “been feeding you?” kick.

Rain had no idea what was going on, but she had seen enough. She poured her rage into her aura skill, and the shadowed street came to life. The shadows formed a million pools, then each pool formed an eye, and each eye focused on the woman. 

“What do you think you are doing?”

Rain’s voice came out different from last time. It sounded like a thousand angry whisperers speaking in discordant union. The strange voice slid right into the brain.

The woman stopped her rant immediately as all the blood drained from her face. She spun in every direction, looking for a safe way out and seeing only eyes of shadow gazing back at her. When she saw Rain slowly walking towards her body cloaked in shadow, the woman panicked and ran in the other direction.

With the woman gone, Rain tried to lower the intensity of her aura but found she couldn’t return it to normal; her anger was still too high. All she managed to do was reduce it a bit and shrink the affected size. It would have to do for now. Going over to the crumpled figure, Rain found a battered girl about her own age with sunny blond hair and tears in her sky-blue eyes. Rain expected to see fear in the girl's eyes when she saw Rain; after all, Rain’s aura was still blasting stronger than usual, and most children Rain’s age couldn’t take her usual aura. However, instead of fear, Rain could swear she saw stars. 

“Are you okay?”

The girl nodded, sitting up from where she had been huddled in a ball on the ground. Rain noticed she had a split lip and bruises all over. 

“Are you hungry?”

A nod.

“Well, come on then.”

Rain didn’t offer to help the girl up, no matter how much she wanted to. Honestly, Rain wanted to hug her and tell her it would be alright; then, she would tell the girl that they would be good friends. But Rain couldn’t. She just didn’t know what might hurt someone, and she wasn’t willing to risk this poor girl. 

Rain watched with pangs of guilt as the girl struggled to her feet and limped after Rain. The girl was clearly hurting. Rain led the girl to the end of the street in the opposite direction that the awful woman had run off in. As she walked, her aura returned to normal as her anger was replaced by concern for the struggling girl behind her. It took every fiber of self-control she had not to go back and try to carry the girl. 

Eventually, they made it to a more crowded street, and Rain found a cart selling food. Telling the girl to sit, Rain bought them both some food and offered the girl her portion. The girl looked at Rain like she was a goddess. Rain tried not to preen too much at the admiration. She failed.

Once they had eaten, Rain looked at the girl. She was worried that the girl might be unable to find a safe place to live. It sounded like the older woman Rain had found beating the girl was her mother or something.

“Will you be okay?” Rain figured that the best way to find out was to ask.

The girl nodded.

Comforted, Rain got up and started back towards Mr. Markson’s warehouse. The girl got up and started limping after. It was at this point Rain realized there might have been a misunderstanding somewhere.