Party


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain followed behind the Estoms as they entered the massive ck spire that was Imter Manor. Well-dressed servants led Rain and the other guests to the center, where the roof opened until she could see the very top of the manor several stories above. Rain knew it wasn’t verydylike, but she couldn’t stop herself from gawking up at the rows and rows of balconies and windows covering the inside wall of the hollow spire.


    <span style="font-weight:400">The gation itself was starting on the ground floor. Rain had thought that the sword tournament had been stuffed full of people, but this was on an entirely different level. It was also more diverse than the tournament, with people in clothes that ranged from Estom levels of gaudiness to neat yet humble. Rain noted that there were far fewer different hair colors amongst those in iner clothes.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Leaning over to a stiff-looking Lucus, Rain whispered, hoping the ever-sour Lord and Lady Estom wouldn’t hear. “What does house Imter provide the gathering?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Lucus muttered back, “Wind stones to power ships. They also have the best warships in the isles.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain wasn’t sure what a windstone was or how it would power a ship, but it sounded cool.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Lord and Lady Estom broke off without a word to the children, leaving them standing there wondering what they were supposed to do.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Are you going to go find your friends?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Lucus gave her a baleful stare.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh right, sorry.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">She’d forgotten that Lucus didn’t have any friends.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I should probably go and talk to Ulf, Keld, and Maj,” Lucus said with a sigh. “Do you want toe with me?”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain was curious about what Lucus was up to. But between wanting to seem distant from him so the Estoms wouldn’t target him and not wanting him to get caught in whatever Svend’s people were nning, Rain shouldn’t. So she shook her head.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Whatever.” Lucus huffed before sulking away.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain hummed to herself at the sight of Lucus, annoyed that she didn’t want to go with him. She needed to be extra careful that nothing happened to him. But now that he was gone, Rain could start working. She didn’t know how to protect herself from Svend’s people, but she could at least start looking for people to turn into minions while she waited for her opponents to make a move.


    <span style="font-weight:400">All around her, people were bustling and moving; some stayed with their families while others broke up like the Estoms to go and socialize. What really captivated Rain were the colors. People everywhere spoke in small groups, almost all of them spouting gouts of murky lies. Yet amongst the lies was the asional glittering truth, like a rainbow in the middle of smoking chimnies.


    <span style="font-weight:400">None of the conversations were easy to pick out among the hubbub of other discussions and the nketing sound of the traditional flute and drum band ying in one corner, but Rain still heard interesting snippets: a married man flirting with another woman, a humbly dressed lord bragging to others about his harvest being spared by the famine, a woman gossiping with her friends about the dashing young lord of another family.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain listened to all the wants and desires of the people around her. How could she solve their problems? How could she use her gifts to extract service from them? Already, her list of people to visit was growing. If enemies were already looking for Lady Tyix, then Rain might as well spread the name as someone who could grant wishes and make ambitionse true.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain casually walked through the crowd, bodies parting around her when people noticed her. She couldn’t deny that her aura was useful. Still, it was a shame she couldn’t turn it off.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Her aura might make people examine her closer, and she didn’t want them to connect her to Tyix. She had discovered over the past few months that unless she flexed her aura, people didn’t realize it was there; they just felt uneasy around her. The people she asked - and could convince to talk to her - said that some part of her felt wrong. The part in question changed, with something about her face being the mostmon.


    <span style="font-weight:400">That meant that if part of the reason Lord Imter was holding this gation was to find Lady Tyix, then people would find Rain creepy but not immediately recognizable - unless she flexed her aura too hard.


    <span style="font-weight:400">While Rain was wandering around thinking and looking for a snack, something caught her foot and sent her sprawling.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rolling to her side so she could see what she tripped on, Rain saw nothing but the thick crowd. That is until she spotted a boy a few years older than her smirking from where he stood right next to the spot Rain tripped.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“I’m so sorry. Let me help you up.” the boy offered. A cloud of ck lies leaving his mouth as he reached out with a hand to help her to her feet. Only he was offering his left hand, and unless Rain was an idiot, that was on purpose.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Not wanting to give the boy an opportunity to do whatever he was nning, Rain sprang to her feet without taking his hand and stered a smile on her face. “Oh, no worries, I’m just fine.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The boy’s smile flickered before he drew close to Rain and said in a low tone so only she could hear. “I haven’t forgotten how you helped that worthless brother of yours cheat at the sword tournament. You stole my chance to fight Toivo.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The tournament? Wait. Rain looked at this boy. His red hair and the sneer he had right now were familiar. This was the boy who beat Lucus! The one who tried to embarrass Lucus by ying with him instead of finishing the fight quickly.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh! That''s who you are! You’re the boy with the sneer face!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">“My name is Loke Irert! Remember it!”


    <span style="font-weight:400">The smartest thing to do right now would be to brush this off and leave before something happened. But Rain could still remember the look this boy had when he spoke to Lucus in the arena and how much his words upset Lucus. If someone was nning to do something with Rain, then she would have to wait for them anyway, so why not have a bit of fun?


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Oh, I will!” Rain said with a wide smile. She would remember his name if for no other reason than to make sure she always got it wrong. “Irert. That was originally, what? Liar Expert? That sounds about right for a house you belong to.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">It wasn’t her best insult. Or at least that''s what she thought, but Sneery’s face turned red, and he grabbed Rain by the shoulder, squeezing till it hurt.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“My house name was originally Fire Heart.” Rain expected him to yell in her face, but his voice grew quiet and unstable. Rain found it far more frightening. She put that tip aside forter use.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“My family may have gained our ce in the Gathering by producing Fire dust, but we use our ce to keep order in the isles. We protect everyone with honesty and honor. An honorless peasant like you who survives by ying underhanded tricks wouldn’t understand.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain wondered if this boy was looking for new reading material. Perhaps she could rmend something. She wouldn’t actually do something like that - yet. Because, despite how angry and annoying his words were, Rain could at least see that he believed them. She could respect that.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She still didn’t like him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain considered using Tineak''s uwful state to point out that if his family were great order keepers, they were failing. But she decided the less information she gave out about herself, the better. She didn’t need to connect herself to the uwful state of the lower rings.


    <span style="font-weight:400">She did want to y more with this annoying boy. Making him mad gave a different sort of satisfaction from teasing Runt, but if his family really were trying to keep peace, then maybe she should try to befriend him.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain took one more look at the red-faced boy and discarded any idea of befriending him. If she needed their help, she would need to go past him and straight to his family. Still, she better not make him too angry.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Knocking his hand off her shoulder, Rain turned around and started walking away.


    <span style="font-weight:400">“Well, nice to meet you, I guess.”


    <span style="font-weight:400">As she walked away, Rain expected to hear spluttering or a call for her to turn around, but there was nothing. Peeking over her shoulder, she saw Loke standing there watching her with pure hate in his eyes. Yeah, she wouldn’t be going to him for help any time soon.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain drifted around the room after that, avoiding anyone who looked at her like Sneery had while adding names and faces to her list of people to ‘recruit.’ Eventually, an old man who had a leathery face and was coated in shimmer got up on a tall pedestal in the middle of the room and started talking with a voice so loud that it silenced the whole room.


    <span style="font-weight:400">Rain paid passing attention to the old man, who turned out to be Lord Imter, as he opened the festivities that Rain thought had been going on for a good while already. Then he started on a long-winded speech about the history of the Gathering and the many benefits of working together to ovee these hard times. Unfortunately, in all that time he never mentioned where Rain could find the snacks.