After riding out the next week in bliss, Nina was beginning to believe that everything might actually go as smoothly as Reina had planned after all. Jade and Aline had taken her shopping for some sorely needed spare clothes the day after they had arrived, and from then on she really hadn’t had that much to do. She had initially feared that Reina would decide to surprise her with a cooking request or two, but she was relieved to find that the estate would cater for their meals on request. If she wasn’t sitting out on the street in one of the shopping areas enjoying the afternoon with Jade and Aline, she was usually eating a sandwich or some other combination of freshly delivered food down by the lake.

The small lake which was not too far from their cottage had steadily grown on her over the past week. It was close by, quiet, and importantly she could sit just under one of the small rolling hills so that she was out of sight from the surrounding buildings. Today she was here yet again after politely declining Jade and Aline’s offer to join them for lunch, instead laying back against the hill in the sunshine. With her jacket spread out underneath her and a simple white hat over her face, she was enjoying the gentle lapping of the water against the bank while dozing in and out. Unfortunately for her, however, it seemed as though the peace and quiet would be short lived.

“I was told I might find you here,” Rucille said as she appeared at the top of the hill. Nina removed the hat from her face and tried to look in her direction, but even after shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand it was difficult to see. She thought she saw Rucille smile, but it was hard to tell.

“Do you mind?” Rucille asked before stepping down the hill and sitting herself next to Nina without waiting for an answer, although it provided Nina with the chance to get a proper look at her. She still had her hair tied back in a simple fashion, but the grey dress had been swapped for a red shirt and a white cravat that matched her pants. Rucille in turn smiled after running her gaze over Nina, noting her casual dress as she lay against the hill. “Were you sleeping?”

“No,” Nina replied quietly as she finished her own examination. She hadn’t seen any of the women out in the street dressed like Rucille, but at the same time she thought it looked quite good. A little tomboyish if anything, but in comparison to the noble ladies in the shopping district anything but a dress would probably qualify as such.

“That’s good,” Rucille laughed with a carefree response as she lay back to mirror Nina’s posture. As they both stared up to the empty blue sky above them, Nina resisted the temptation to place her hat back over her face. She had initially been irritated by being disturbed, but Rucille’s attitude and genuine smile were almost infectious. Even without any extra words, she already felt as though they were almost in sync.

“Are you here to ask some questions?” she asked after closing her eyes to block out the sun. She’d had a week to think of something interesting to say about her time on Caecus, but the more she thought about it the more she was beginning to realise that her previous life had been empty. It was almost laughable when she thought about it now, how she had tried to isolate herself from the world so that she could control her fate. She had thought that she was playing the role of a puppeteer, but ultimately she had never realised that what she thought was the bigger picture was only the surface after all. An important cog in her organization had been a laughable thought - it had truly been closer to a random grain of sand crushed underfoot by someone who could actually see the horizon.

“Not today, although if you want to talk I’m all ears,” Rucille mused. “Father said I spend too long indoors and that it hurts my complexion, so I thought I’d relax outside for a while to shut him up. I don’t get it though, why does it matter if my complexion is poor? Shouldn’t he just care if I’m happy or not?”

Probably because he thinks that it dents your value as a wife, Nina thought to herself. “Maybe he just wants you to be healthy. You’re his daughter after all.”

“He doesn’t care about my health,” Rucille scoffed as she pulled out a tuft of grass before gently scattering it in the breeze. “He only cares about results.”

Results?

“But enough about that,” she sighed. “I’m here to relax, not vent.” Nina heard her shuffle around beside her but didn’t look over, instead yawning as she placed her hands behind her head. She wondered if Rucille was waiting for her to start a conversation about something mundane like the weather so that she could forget their earlier discussion. Why was she here in the first place? Surely she had her own friends or siblings that she could spend time with instead of her, and while she knew that Rucille was interested in Caecus it didn’t seem that she was planning to ask anything yet.

“The sky is so blue,” Nina finally said. “It’s always like this, an endless stretch of blue without a trace of cloud.”

“It isn’t always like that,” Rucille answered with a chuckle. “We do get rain sometimes.”

“You do?”

“Of course we do, although it’s a rather… quick process,” she said before pausing to think for a moment. “Once a month clouds will quickly build over a couple of days until the sky is black, and the rain will pour down during the next. After another two days the clouds are usually gone and then we wait under clear skies until the next time.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Nina replied. “It always rains exactly once a month? Shouldn’t the cycle be a little more unpredictable?”

“Why would it do that?” Rucille asked with her own question. “The sky isn’t thirsty all the time, so it drinks once a month when it is time.”

Nina ignored the temptation to sit up with an incredulous expression on her face and instead sank into thought. Surely there was a more scientific explanation as to why the rain would cycle in such a fashion, but again she was reminded of how many of her earlier ‘scientific facts’ from Caecus had been blown wide open when she had fallen to the plate below. She knew that taking an approach similar to Jade and the others by simply not questioning things would be the easiest in the long run, but she had always been someone who wanted to understand things.

“I’ve studied the rain here quite a lot, actually,” Rucille said as she interrupted Nina’s thoughts. “It’s quite useful when it functions so predictably.” She smiled before standing up and wiping the grass off her pants before stretching her arms above her head. “Anyway, I was actually here to ask you if you would join me and a friend for lunch tomorrow. I’ll have my questions about Caecus ready for you too. Is noon alright?”

“A friend?”

“Ah, you want to know who it is?” Rucille smiled. “Sorry, but it’s a secret,” she said while placing a finger over her lips. “You’ll be surprised though, promise.”

Nina thought about it for a moment before sighing. It wasn’t like Rucille was going to invite Ormain to lunch or anything, so it probably wasn’t going to be an issue. A noble from another estate was her best guess, it didn’t seem like there were many other possibilities.

Rucille smiled in response when she saw Nina nod. “Great! I’ll have a carriage ready in front of the manor at noon tomorrow, wear something nice okay? Seeya!”

Nina watched as Rucille disappeared over the crest of the hill before sitting up and staring at the lake. She didn’t have any plans tomorrow, so that wasn’t an issue, but wearing something nice? That would have to be a question for Jade and Aline. Pushing herself up, she stepped up the slope and looked out over the estate, Rucille’s red and white figure standing out against the green as Nina watched her walk back in the direction of the lab. She seemed to spend a lot of time there, but it wasn’t something she had talked about. Some kind of research, obviously, but what exactly was anyone’s guess. Stepping back onto the path and walking in the direction of their cottage, the image of Rucille tightly clutching the box of abysswort seeds with a smile on her face drifted into her mind.

Who was she really?

“Welcome back,” Reina said as she made it to the bottom of the hill. Stepping up onto the deck, she joined Reina, Trim, and Svanda at the small collection of wooden seats that looked back up the hill. Not much of a scene compared to the view from the top, but at least it was private.

“Anything interesting?” she asked them as she eyed the loose collection of papers that sat on the table.

“Tracking Ormain’s movements,” Reina replied as she casually tossed one of the papers to Nina. She took a brief glance at the page to see that it contained timestamped entries of where members of his group had been seen. “Seems they came down the day after us and have holed up at a hotel in the Merchant District. They know that we’re here, but judging by their movements I’d guess that there information is delayed by at least five or six hours which would rule out any informants within the estate. Matching it all up, my best guess is that their information is coming from someone in the shopping area.”

“Should we stay away then?” she asked as she dropped the paper back on the table.

“No need to tip them off that we know,” Svanda said. “The other thing to consider is that Trim, Reina, and I have been wrapping up negotiations over the last week and haven’t left the estate. Unless Ormain has someone inside one of the visiting parties, he doesn’t know how many people we have or even what we all look like.”

“Whichever way it is, we’re safe here,” Reina concluded. “I’ve got another few meetings to handle over the next few days and then if everything goes smoothly we will use the shaft in the castle to drop to Areinis. Our safehouse down there isn’t as secure as this one, so we’ll use the time we have on Ormain to duck under the radar while we can.”

“Speaking of meetings, we should head over to the manor,” Trim added as she stood up. “It’s almost time to meet the people from the Oyan Estate.”

“Hopefully they’re not as frustrating as last time,” Reina sighed as she also stood up before glancing at Nina. “Want to join us?”

“I think I’ll pass,” she smiled before pausing. “Could I ask if you know where Jade and Aline are though? I need some advice on some… clothing.”