Library of Rain

Dipping Out

Rain warped to Mr. Tist inside the building she had been watching. He was in the same room where they had purchased Ms. Wer.

This time, instead of seven slaves in a line, they had dozens, and Rain's sudden appearance caused more than a little commotion as people jumped in fright. 

“We’re out of time!” Rain cut off Mr. Tist mid-sentence. “Soldiers are coming as we speak.”

That caught everyone's attention.

“What's going on?” a frightened woman in her twenties asked.

Rain didn’t have time to explain everything to these people, so she instead gave them an ultimatum.

“I will help you all escape this place, but you will have to trust me and act quickly.”

Her words caused a stir, but Rain didn’t have time to care as she ran to the door and opened it, turning it into a portal.

“If you want to escape, then go through this door; the people on the other side will explain the rest. You have to act now; the soldiers are almost here to stop us. 

Rain's statement was met with a row of scared eyes untill one woman in her early thirties stepped forward.

“Nothing could be worse than this arkit.”

That said, she rushed through the portal. And like that, the floods began, as one after another, close to two-thirds of the people rushed towards the door. It wasn’t nearly as many as Rain had planned, but there was nothing to be done about it. 

Most of the people were through the door when a force hit Rain in the chest. She felt her connection to her portal cut off, and the gate closed, leaving half a dozen people stranded just outside. 

[Warning: You are in an antiskill barrier. You cannot use any active skills until the barrier is disabled or you leave the area of the barrier.]

Rain stared at the message from Mr. Purple in horror. If she couldn’t use skills, then she couldn’t escape using Path of Wealth.

“We need to run!” Rain shouted, looking to Mr. Tist only to find him missing.

Soldiers poured into the room, light glimmering off their bronze spears and clubs. The half dozen stragglers who didn’t get through the gate in time were swiftly beaten or killed.

The door was blocked, so Rain ran for one of the windows.

“Stop her!”

Rain didn’t stop. She jumped through the window, busting its shutters open, and fell to the floor of the courtyard below, landing poorly and twisting her ankle. Refusing to let the pain slow her, Rain scrambled to her feet. The streets were blocked off, and someone had activated an antiskill barrier. Rain needed to get somewhere far enough away to escape the barrier without going through the soldiers.

Looking over the courtyard again, Rain saw her only chance. The well. Hobbling towards it, Rain glanced over her shoulder to see a manically grinning woman pointing at her through the window; near-colorless shimmer encased her arm. A classer. Rain jumped in the well as something cold hit her between the shoulder blades.

Rain fell, losing skin when she scraped a wall on her way down before crashing into water that felt as hard as bronze.

Things only got worse once the water had her. A strong current pulled her under and tumbled her down, slamming her into one wall after another. Rain couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see, couldn’t tell which way was which. All she could do was go where the current took her.

Within seconds, Rain could feel her skills again as she left the antiskill barrier, but when she tried to warp to one of her coins, Rain found it impossible. She could feel the connection to the coin, but it was slippery. 

As Rain panicked, Mr. Purple bled into existence.

[Warning: you have been hit by the skill ‘Curse of Sealing.’ You will be unable to control any of your skills for 24 hours.]

[Warning: you have been hit by the skill ‘Curse of Tracking.’ The Curse wielder will know your general location for the next hour. And anyone with a curse tracking stone will be able to locate you from 30 feet away for the next 24 hours.]

Rain was going to die. There was no way for her to escape without her skills, and with someone able to track her, even if she did escape the water, she would be quickly hunted down and captured or killed.

Rain's lungs were seizing as they tried to take in air, only to be stopped by Rain’s willpower. She needed to surface now!

That was when Rain realized she could vaguely see by Mr. Purple's light. There were holes in the dark stone to her left leading sideways. No, not sideways that was up. Rain thrashed as she tried to grab onto the rim of one of those holes, her hands slipping on the smooth stone every time. 

Rain couldn’t control her lungs any further. Desperate for air, she inhaled water, causing her whole chest to seize up as she was wracked with fits, her body trying to expel the water.

Her vision was going dark when she saw it: a bucket dipping into the water. With all the desperation of the dying, Rain grabbed the bucket and held on for her life.

Her sudden weight caused the bucket to sink further into the water before stopping and slowly lifting Rain out of the current.

Rain coughed and hacked the moment her head was out of the water before trying to pull in air, only to cough more. Her throat didn’t seem to want to open, and she could barely get any air in before a violent fit of coughing attacked her again. 

No matter what she did, she couldn’t get all the water out. Rain coughed until she vomited, then coughed some more. Eventually, she managed to take some ragged breaths. 

Never had air been so amazing.

Rain realized that someone was calling to her as the bucket slowly rose, but she couldn’t get her mind to parse the words. Everything was spinning too much, and all she could focus on was the air. 

Rain clung to the bucket, happy to finally escape the water, only for it to stop a foot from the top of the well.

“Ahhh, monster! There's a monster in the well!”

The shouting faded as whoever had been pulling her up fled. They must have pulled her up far enough that they could feel her aura.

Rain wanted to be insulted by being called a monster, but she was too tired to care right now. Instead, she wrapped an arm around the bucket so she could use her other hand to clear her vision from the wet, dark hair that was plastered over her pale face. 

The night sky hung above the whinching system her handhold dangled from. Rain had never been more grateful to see it. 

Despite knowing how it would end, Rain tried to warp to one of her coins. Nothing. Like before, she could feel it but not interact with it. That meant Rain was going to have to climb out of here. 

Rain grabbed the rope and pulled herself up, or she tried. Too tired to grip the rope properly, it slid through her fingers, leaving her in the same situation as before. The exit was so close, less than a foot away. Rain could almost grab it, but it was just out of reach.

“Please, can someone help me?” Rain rasped tears starting to mix with the water on her cheeks.

No one answered. 

Rain could hear muttering from places around the well. Judging from the size, this was a public well, yet no one offered to help. 

Why? Rain knew that her aura made people uncomfortable around her, but to leave someone who had almost drowned and was begging for help to fend for themselves; did these people have no sympathy?

She grit her teeth and tried again, pulling herself further onto the bucket. Then she got her knees on top of her perch, which gave her enough height to grab onto the lip of the well and pull herself over.

The heartless beasts who had been watching her struggle, screamed and ran as Rain crawled out on the well and plopped onto the ash-covered street. 

As much as she would have liked to stay there, Rain knew that the soldiers were minutes away from her, and they had someone who could track her. So Rain pushed herself to her feet and shambled off.

[Curse of Tracking: time remaining 52 minutes.]