I Had Strings, But Now I'm Free (Dream SMP)

The Vault In The Mountainside

tw: language, mentions of violence, blood, death, torture

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"What is it? What's in the letter?" Techno asked. Rain glanced towards him with a seemingly knowing look, her eyes drawn open and her lips forming into a thin line. She raised the seal she had peeled off, showing it to the two.
"Guess the fucking Teletubby isn't done with me, yet." She hissed.
"Wait- Dream wrote that for you?!" Tommy exclaimed. Rain folded the letter back up, only responding with a simple "Mhm."

She walked out of the stable, still with the letter in hand before sliding it into her pocket.
"Seriously though, what did it say?" Techno asked his question again, hopeful for a straight answer. His sister paused when she was three steps away, turning around halfway.
"I'm...not going to tell you..." She said.
"Rain-"
"Yet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tommy asked. Rain turned fully, eyes sparking pink for a moment.
"I'll read it again inside, then I'll tell you. Come on, we still need to get you some gear, you're unarmed."
Rain said nothing more and began trudging back to the cabin, furling out her cloak behind her as she adjusted the placement over her armour. She heard a distinct noise of rhythmic footsteps and hoof steps behind her, continuing her pace to the cabin where she could read the letter again. She glanced down at where the letter was barely sticking out of her pocket.

He's got some nerve sending me this after what he did.

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Rain sat upstairs in her hammock, her eyes on the letter unfolded in her lap. She was reading it again, and again, and again. Like reading it more than once would reveal something else. Alas, all it was was ink on parchment. Techno was outfitting Tommy with some armour downstairs, their voices indistinct between the boards separating the floors. She tuned out their antics as her eyes focused more closely on the paper.

Rain,
I know that I'm probably the last person you want to hear from right now, but I figured you'd stab me if I tried to see you in person. A note was my only option, really.
I want you to consider the horse a gift, not a bribe or anything, just a gift. I assume Techno will tell you that I helped him escape his execution, so naturally, he owes me a favour.
Looks like my quest to use you as leverage against him has gone sideways, Huh?

I want to make you aware of something.
I know where the cabin is.
That's not a threat or anything! Just...making sure you know so that if I happen to show up one day, you know how I found the place.
I'm not going to tell you how I found out, that wouldn't be any fun :)

One last thing: I hope you're ok.
I know that's probably weird of me to say since I literally chased you and Techno to the border before you left after the War...and that I tortured you for a week...
...but things have changed a lot around here.
Including myself.

Stay safe. Your masked contact.
Dream :)

Rain scoffed at the letter, resisting the urge to crumble it up and burn it to cinders. She instead folded it and returned it into the envelope carefully, sliding it into a drawer under her hammock.

The information it contained did help some things to add up, though.

The horse was most definitely some way of Dream trying to talk to her. She didn't know what it meant yet, but Rain had a feeling it would have something to do with the strings. The strings that were contained around his heart and attached to her fingers.