Page 43 of Runes To Rain
“Real mature,” Dio growls behind us as we keep walking.
Lent leans toward me, conspiratorial again, like we have a secret, and says quietly, “I feel like we have an angry guard dog following us.”
Both of us suddenly have a fit of the giggles, and that’s how we arrive outside the door of the small bookshop.
Somehow, we get control of ourselves before we walk through the door, but the little old man still glares at us as though he recognizes trouble as we enter his shop. A giggle tries to break loose from my chest, but I push it down, burying it before I get in further trouble.
Before the shop owner can kick us out proactively based on his suspicions, Lent pulls me further into the library. I follow him for a bit before I remove my arm from his hold and begin wandering on my own, getting lost among the stacks.
As I walk, I occasionally pull a book off the shelf, the cartographer in my head somehow pointing them out as landmarks. As I choose them, Lent takes them from me, following and carrying the ever-growing pile. After he’s amassed quite a large stack, we return to the shopkeeper and pay for our treasures.
I wonder as we leave the shop if we’ll go home based on how many books we found. However, Lent doesn’t seem to feel we have enough books yet and says, “On to the next shop, Shorty!” as he hails a carriage.
Dio is clearly annoyed that we’re not done, but doesn’t say anything and climbs into the carriage with us without further complaint.
The trip to the second bookstore doesn’t take much time, so I don’t need to deal with the awkward tension caused by Dio’s moodiness for long. It also helps that Lent and I are already digging through our purchases. As we talk animatedly about the books we found, Dio sits silently, staring out the window and only occasionally glancing at us. A silent, but stormy dark cloud.
Shopping at the second bookstore is much like the first. The only real difference is that the books are organized differently, there is a pet cat with fluffy orange fur, and the shopkeeper is a little old lady.
Finally, with another armful of books purchased, we load ourselves back into the carriage for the drive home. This trip is quieter because I’m exhausted, and even Lent must be a little tired because he’s unusually silent.
When we arrive outside the mansion, we discern that we may have purchased too many books for the two of us to carry, at least with my still unhealed wound. Dio surprises both of us and offers to Lent that he’ll carry half the books. After the brief moment of shock passes, Lent accepts.
I follow behind the two of them as they carry our prizes inside. Even after a long day, Lent clearly can’t help himself as he turns to me and wiggles his eyebrows while gesturing at Dio.
When I get close, he whispers, “I think he might be in love with me.”
I punch him in the shoulder.
Laughter follows us into the house, and that night I have the best sleep I can remember.
DIO’S JOURNAL - ENTRY 195
Annum:5614
Entry 195 - agnosco
After the fucked up “conversation” I had with Lent and Reem where they warned me to “play nice” with the demon’s pet and told me again not to piss off Malam, I decided that some things had to change. I’ll repeat again, I’m not without reason.
I also have an excellent grasp on my self-control.
With the aforementioned “conversation” freshly in my mind, I offered my services for the errands that Lent was kind enough to allow Chaosta to tag along on. She was, of course, still acting like a child and behaving rudely towards me, but I managed to retain some level of politeness and took the role of protector. Not her protector, of course. My mind was on ensuring that Lent wasn’t hassled as he went about his errand,especially since the books he is after are imperative to our cause.
I also thought it might be helpful for me to go along to keep her in line since he’s clearly too blinded by her to take the risk of her thoughtless actions seriously enough.
If I hadn’t realized it before, it was clear on this trip that Lent is smitten with her. He follows her like a love-sick puppy and takes every opportunity to make her laugh, even at the expense of his fellows. Something I’ll need to keep an eye on.
I will admit my surprise at how she handled herself around those carriage horses. They’re massive, aggressive, and have a history of being dangerous to humans. When she approached them, I initially stepped forward to intervene, but wasn’t quick enough to stop her. I was sure one of those massive hooves would crush her, and I’d have to drag a wailing Lent back home. Instead, she managed famously, even feeding them something from her pocket. Why she had food in her pocket, I didn’t ask, but that doesn’t really matter.
The rest of the trip went as smoothly as it could with Lent ignoring Chaosta’s immature behavior and allowing her to randomly pick books from each shop. I have no idea what he was doing other than wasting money. I was watching closely, and she didn’t even read the titles or look closely at the books. Neither did he.
I almost said something to him because now they’regoing to waste a bunch of time reading through trash. They’ll be spending time we don’t have reading random books instead of making progress on our understanding of weather magic. In the end, though, I decided I needed to keep my mouth shut rather than risk further confrontations with the others.
There has already been enough strife with my bandmates, I want to mend the rift with the guys that’s been caused by the girl’s presence.
MEMORIES OF TREES
The next few days pass calmly. I continue to heal, and it becomes easier for me to make it through a whole day without needing to return to my room to lie flat and rest.
