PART VII - ANTHEM
“Excuse me,” an unfamiliar voice said, and Callie turned to see a female Gnome with red hair standing behind her. It was one of the Gnomes that had arrived on the brightly-colored carriage the day before; presumably one of the Bards that had kept Nevikk entertained on the journey here.
“Hello!” Callie gasped in surprise, trying to untangle from Pixyl and Jesca in order to scramble to her feet. Thankfully, it was still a little early and she hadn’t had too much to drink yet. She finally was able to extract her limbs and climb over the log to get close. Immediately she was pulled into a big Gnome hug.
“I’m one of the musicians hired for the holiday,” the Bard began after letting Callie breathe again.
The new Gnome was a little shorter than Callie and definitely older than she was, although she was nowhere near Pama’s age, probably around Fizzlebek’s or a bit younger. Her hair, more orange than bright-red in the firelight, was shaved close on either side, with the rest then pulled back into a thick ponytail that hung below her shoulders. Each of her long ears had several pieces of jewelry pierced through them, some hanging, others not, and all-told there had to be at least a dozen in each. Callie grinned, immediately liking the Gnome’s vibe. You got the sense there was an eclectic rebellious streak in the musician, which reminded Callie immediately of her days clubbing back home, and so many slightly-strange musicians she’d met or admired through the years.
“You play quite well,” the Gnome continued, “and I … I was wondering if you could show me what you were playing. I’ve never heard anything like either that first song you sang or the one you played after. We’re always looking for something interesting or new, and particularly liked that instrumental. What do you call it?”
For some reason, being asked to talk about music by a professional musician made Callie verbally stumble. Up until now she wasn’t being critiqued by anyone here with musical background beyond casual playing, so wasn’t worried about mistakes and fumbles, but suddenly there was a bit of a sudden spotlight and she honestly felt intimidated.
“That second instrumental part is called ‘the blues,” Callie said. “There’s lots and lots of different styles, but that was just something simple to set a mood. What I was playing is not very hard to do, once you get the chords and rhythms down. I could show you, if you’d like.”
“That would be wonderful!” the Gnome replied with a happy grin, and then put an embarrassed hand to her face. “Oh my, I realized I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Deduxia, Deduxia Sparkbrite.” She reached into the dark and pulled another Gnome into the light. “And this is my husband, Nikeni. He’s rather embarrassed right now.”
“What?” Callie laughed. “Why?”
“He thinks I’m being too forward.”
“She is,” Nikeni said, rolling his eyes in disbelief and apology. “She should have waited until tomorrow. She’s always like this if something seizes her attention, and I apologize for whatever torture she’s about to subject you to.”
“I’m just excited to learn something new!” Deduxia said with a laugh as she lightly slapped her husband’s arm.
“No, no! It’s fine!” Callie said, feeling the need to apologize for some reason. “I’d be happy to show you.”
By this point, Pixyl had fluttered over the big log and was now standing next to Callie, looking up at the two Gnomes. She bumped Callie lightly to get her attention.
“Oh! This … this is Pixyl. She’s … my girlfriend,” Callie said carefully and with a slight questioning inflection, a little worried what a stranger might think about the two of them being together. She was still trying to get a read on how people, outside of the Dwarves and Beastkin, viewed same-sex couples. Awkwardly, she pulled Pixyl close.
Without missing a beat, Deduxia squealed and bent down, pulling Pixyl off the ground and into a gigantic hug. “Hello!” the Bard giggled. Pixyl’s eyes went wide in surprise and then almost seemed to bulge out, as if being squeezed out slightly from the inside. Nikeni took the moment to step close and pull Callie into a much-less-aggressive Gnome-hug of his own.
“Do you see the lute anywhere?” Callie turned to ask Vanis as she scanned.
“It’s somewhere around the circle.”
“We both have instruments,” Deduxia interrupted, gesturing generally behind her into the darkness. “We thought we might be asked to play tonight, so we brought two up with us.”
“Oh, that works then,” Callie replied.
Together, the three Gnomes, with Pixyl tagging along, retreated a distance away so as to not disturb the rest of the people. While it was dark without the fire throwing light for them, all four had Darkvision, and one of the moons was rising and waxing overhead, so they were easily able to navigate over to a secluded spot surrounded by a few trees.
Nikeni had trailed behind a bit, having detoured to pick up the instruments, and he handed a lute to Callie as he walked by, before sitting down next to his wife. Callie was shocked to find that what she’d been handed was smaller than the one she’d been using. In fact, it was perfectly Gnome-sized and felt far more comfortable in her hands. It was a little odd to no longer have to awkwardly stretch so hard to use, and Callie quickly played out a few notes to get the fingering re-coordinated. It felt so much more natural.
“So, show us your music,” Deduxia said excitedly, leaning in close to watch Callie’s fingers.
Callie looked up into the Bard’s excited eyes and grinned, but then frowned. There was so much more to the style of blues she’d played than just getting the notes right. In a way, you had to feel it, too. How could she explain that? Then she remembered back to her childhood. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight, and her grandfather had sat her down to properly explain this exact thing as he introduced her to her first child-size guitar. It was probably the same way he’d introduced her father to music, and how he’d been introduced himself.
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Plucking a couple notes, a quiet, soulful melody began to ring out as Callie tapped a rhythm against the body with her thumb. “Blues isn’t music,” she began, paraphrasing what her grandfather had said. “Blues is an expression. The music lays bare the singer's or player’s feelings, whether it's heartbreak, hardship, or even joy.” With each emotion mentioned, the melody changed slightly to reflect it. “When you play, you want to channel yourself through your fingers, to let the music tell the story. You want your audience to …”
Callie’s words were abruptly cut off as Nikeni picked out a few notes on his own instrument, trying to mimic what Callie had just played. The sound was different from the lute, and familiar, and her eyes went wide in absolute disbelief.
“Wha …. Oh my god!”
The Bard looked confused, and then to his wife and then back to Callie. “Is something wrong?”
“Oh my god!” Callie gasped again, her voice fading to almost a whisper. She tried to make more words, but none would come out, and finally all she could do was point at what Nikeni was holding. She started to feel faint, and barely had the wherewithal to pass the lute to Deduxia before falling back against the tree, trying not to hyperventilate. Her vision whirled as memories she thought she’d firmly put to rest earlier in the week came flooding back into her, and her head spun.
“Callie, what’s wrong?” Pixyl asked.
“Where did you get that?” Callie finally gasped, her voice barely a croak.
“This?” Nikeni said. “I think it was in Imor, maybe ten years ago. Why?”
“Imor? Really?”
“Um, if I remember, some master crafter made it custom for me, because it needed to be smaller. I don’t remember his name. A Catkin of some kind, I think. His shop was in the High Terrace district. Why?”
“Can I see it, please?” Callie pleaded, extending both hands in an urgent ‘gimmie’ gesture.
“I suppose,” Nikeni said cautiously. “Gentle with it, I use it for our performances.” He placed the wonder into Callie’s hands.
With a single, almost sob-like gasp, Callie looked in awe at the instrument, before placing it into her lap. Her fingers instantly found the right place and an intense rush of homesickness flooded in, making her feel even more woozy. She squeezed her eyes shut, unable to believe what she held, and played out a single chord, the sounds rich and whole and familiar. She was holding an acoustic guitar. A real guitar, not a lute, almost exactly like one of the ones she had back home. It was sized down for a Gnome, but it had the same shape, the same feel, the same tone. The strings were slightly thicker, so even the pitch was almost the same. It had frets on the neck and tuning pegs at the end and a simple, perfect warmth. She played out another familiar chord. “What … what is this called?”
“It’s just a guitar,” Nikeni said, his face growing more confused. “They aren’t a common instrument, but not uncommon either.”
“It is beautiful,” Callie whispered, almost in reverence at the familiar word, and somewhat surprised it went by the same name here, for some reason.
“That’s right. Similar to a lute, but I honestly think it has a richer sound.”
“I have another one back in our carriage, too,” Deduxia added. “We play duets in our shows sometimes.”
Unexpectedly, silent tears came in an increasing torrent. Tears that Callie tried to will away because she didn’t want to explain, but that she simply could not stop. She was holding a guitar that in almost every way was like what she had back on Earth. In fact, it felt nearly identical in shape and feel to her grandfather’s perfect Gibson Hummingbird that she had inherited when he died, different only by the size being proportional to her now-Gnome body.
“Callie,” Deduxia said, her voice low and comforting as she reached out and touched Callie’s knee. “What’s wrong?”
“My … my father taught me to play this,” Callie said, gushing out a single sob, but her face somehow smiling at the memory. She strummed two more familiar chords, and then plucked a few of the strings in a light, bluesy rhythm. “He was an amazing player,” Callie continued. Another tear of confused, homesick emotions dripped off the end of her nose. She wiped her eyes with one hand, still holding the guitar’s neck with her other. “My grandfather, too. Both of them, when I was a little girl.”
“She has no memory of b-b-before coming here,” Pixyl interrupted, trying to quickly at least put some context to Callie’s behavior. “It sometimes comes to her in p-p-pieces like this.”
“Yeah,” Callie said, almost laughing as she repeated the lie she had learned to so casually say. “Why do I remember that?”
Callie’s hands found their familiar place again, and before either of the Bards could say anything, Callie began to play. She didn’t know why she’d picked this song. It wasn’t one she’d played very often; maybe a few times with her father, playing to her mother, or maybe she had played it for Morgan. It wasn’t one of her go-to karaoke selections, either. It wasn’t even a song she particularly liked. Somehow, though, it poured out of her, the simple opening, familiar repetitive notes, and uncommon 7/4 time-signature that left you wanting, mixing with the quiet darkness and now-distant memories.
She hadn’t intended it to happen. She’d played a little with the spell earlier in the week, with some success. It hadn’t worked well though, Vanis explaining that her emotions accompanying the music were a big part of the magic. But in this moment of shocked familiarity, as she played the opening notes to Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill [1], Callie’s Inspiring Melody came to life. It washed over Pixyl and the shocked Bards, and at once they were filled with Callie’s emotions, too. Callie’s homesickness, grief, and pure determination wrapped them like a blanket, feeling heavy and wonderful; raw and beautiful.
Callie’s magic almost seemed to flow from her, out and over the field like fading ripples, causing a few around the campfire to temporarily stop their conversations. The distant notes were strange and mesmerizing, but there was more to it than that. Callie’s magical power, translated by notes and words, pierced through them as each ‘boom, boom, boom’ was called out.
Vanis immediately knew what was happening, recognizing the magic, and knew from whom it was coming from. Feeling a little proud, he stood, one hand holding Juniper’s, while he took the one Lena offered in his other. The three walked towards their small friend, followed by Jesca and her Companions. They were joined enroute by both Xin and then a flying, winged kitty that dropped almost silently to the ground at the back, before taking on its huge, hulking form. The way was slightly lit by a deeply-red glowing ball that Xin had summoned, floating in mid-air, just bright enough so she and Tazrok could see. They came close, seeing Callie with her eyes closed as she swayed and sang to the strange music.
Deduxia and Nekini were enraptured at what they were hearing and feeling. They were Bards, and had their own, more-advanced versions of Inspiring Melody that they used for almost every show. Thus, they were particularly sensitive to what Callie was feeling, and the feelings welled within them, too. They stayed silent, Deduxia lying back into Nekini’s arms as they simply absorbed. It was a moment of perfect beauty, despite some of the heavy emotions they were feeling.
As for Callie, she didn’t just play a song. She didn’t just play notes. Callie played an anthem! An anthem announcing personal liberation and new beginnings. A testament to following one’s own path, of leaving behind what's safe and familiar, of growth and the courage to embrace the unknown. Callie sat there and played and sang and beautifully announced to the universe that this was her world now. She called as if a herald that she had fully accepted, even embraced it. Callie finally truly knew she was home, and that she was ready to take on anything. She didn’t know what the future might be, but her music was challenge. Let … it .. come!