Tragedy Of Rain
/ Tragedy of Rain 11 Chapter 11: Stars
The grass was covered in dew and a light fog had risen like a ghost, but it couldn't mask the light from above.
Rain had heard stories about how seafarers used the stars to guide their way to distant shores. She tried to picture patterns arrayed in them, and wondered how anyone could piece together anything in all that chaos.
She was not too far away from the ruins, keeping her back to them. The carriage from before was gone, the horses along with it. She hoped they found their way home, or somewhere safe. It wasn't like her to care about animals, maybe for the first time she could think about something other than herself.
"So enjoying the air?" Maxine walked toward her from the ruins. Rain didn't realize it but it was the first time she saw her in anything other than robes. She wore a cream gown with a bodice that revealed a woman of ample curves. Her skin was milky white. She kept her cowl to hide her maimed ears.
She sat next to her and looked upward, "I grew up in holdenheim? Ever hear of it?" She asked Rain.
Rain had only ever heard of the city in passing. It was the largest city that bordered the province and part of the northern kingdom. It was a large and ancient city that protected the Kings road. She shook her head.
"It's near the ocean and at night you could go out to the beach and see the stars just like this." She seemed captivated by the memory.
"In the alienage, we we're lucky to ever see anything but the moon." Rain remembered how claustrophobic it was.
"The alienage was near the tanner districts, I image there was constant smoke," Maxine laid on her back, her arms extended in the grass.
"The smell was the worst," Rain took a deep breath of fresh clean air. The scent of mildew and nature gave it a nice smell.
The two sat there in silence, looking upward at the sky. Rain kept her hands on her knees, Maxine behind her head. Rain learned that she loved star gazing and could spend all night simply looking into the heavens. She would miss the sun, but the trade off didn't seem so bad.
"I'm sorry for deceiving you, I never was part of the cloister..." Maxine spoke softly, the sounds of insects in the background her only backdrop.
"Obviously...what were you doing there?" Rain didn't really understand why she wanted to talk about this now.
"I pretended to be a sister from another city, and had really good dossiers to prove it. The creature that was there in the red wing, it was a servant of the cult. I was trying to find a way inside to kill it. But they sent you instead..." she let the words drift.
"It's still there, why did they want me to face it?" Rain remembered the creature had many names, none of them seemed to fit it properly. Humans liked them to vampires. She heard some people in the undercroft call it a Vandire instead. She meant to ask more about it, but even now talking about it made her want to avoid the topic.
"It's your blood...something about noble bloodlines. Every Knight they sent in never returned. But noble bloodlines seem to make them hesitate," Maxine's answer made Rain remember how Sir Olsen was so fixated by her eye color. How he never gave her any answers but treated her with elevated indifference?
"If that's the case, they sent me into a hopeless task." Rain laid on the grass next to Maxine, her arms outstretched, her grey skin seemed to glow in the light.
"They had to have had some sort of job for you? Nobles aren't that stupid," Maxine rolled over to her side, facing her, "They must have assumed the catalyst would have worked with you."
"What was this catalyst anyway?" Rain's eyes met hers with mild curiosity. She felt a knot in her stomach as she looked at her. Was Maxine blushing?
Maxine suddenly turned away, "An ancient relic that the King wore around his neck. It's said to have the power to use magic similar to the vellum, like a pure form of magic."
Rain thought it strange that her friend suddenly avoided her gaze, "It didn't work for him."
"Probably because it's already used up, such relics don't last forever." Maxine sat up and hugged her knees.
"So that's what Zane meant earlier...still though maybe the Vandire just liked toying with me longer than the others. I still don't understand what it wanted."
"Such a stupid name, I always called them simply the cult or cultists. They all serve the same master anyway." There was something in Maxine's voice that sounded frustrated or perhaps disappointed. Rain didn't understand why she wasn't as talkative or open with her as she was in the past. Then again maybe she never knew her to begin with.
"Master?" Rain slowly sat up next to her.
"The one that keeps getting in our dreams, trust me you want to avoid him as long as possible."
Her words were met with a sound in the woods, breaking twigs and whispers. They both glared at the edge of the trees, a shadow hunched over and then ran away.
Rain stood up and walked toward the trees slowly. Maxine intended to stop her but then thought differently of it. She followed behind closely.
As they made it to where the shadow had been there was nothing left but something red and sticky on the ground. A pair of eyes laid neatly almost as a gift for them.
Rain was appalled but remembered she had seen this before.
"We should get inside," Maxine cursed and grabbed Rains shoulder to pull her away.
A million questions circled in her mind as she turned around and followed her back to the ruin. As they walked down the steps Rain had a second to look back at the tree, the shadow was there again and there were others behind it.
Chapter end
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