I’d lost track of how many times I was worried I’d broke Meg, but this time I was getting sincerely concerned. She looked almost as out of it as Garlic had when I’d reached into his head and hit the ‘Pause’ button. After a minute or so, I got up and walked carefully to her side. I reached out and touched the hand she’d called Shadow with, and she started violently. It was like she sneezed with her whole body. I jumped in response.

“Master Chris.” She said, looking up at me. That was all she managed to get out.

“Yes, that’s me,” I said with a smile. “And do you have to call me ‘Master’ now that you’re a Song Mage too?”

“I’m a Song Mage,” she said in disbelief. “I’m a Song Mage. This isn’t happening. I’m still in the dream.”

“If you’re dreaming so am I,” I said. “But you came and woke me up, so I’m pretty sure we’re not dreaming.”

Meg looked at her hand, then back to me as I stood over her. “This isn’t possible. You can’t make someone a Song Mage. I’m just a girl.”

I reached down and took both of her hands firmly. She looked surprised, but didn’t try to pull away. Bringing them together in front of me, I gave them a little squeeze so she could feel it was real.

“You’re not just anything,” I said. “You were never just anything. But now you’re a Song Mage too. You have power. You don’t have to be afraid any more.” Meg looked at me in wonder

Then she popped out of the chair and threw her arms around me.

She moved so fast I let go of her hands in surprise, and she was crushing me with her embrace. Her head was against my chest and she was sobbing. It took me a second to respond.

“Are you okay?” I asked tentatively.

“Thank you, Master Chris, thank you, thank you, thank you, thankyouthankyouthankyou…” She lapsed back into sobs but I hoped they were happy sobs. I put my arms around her and hugged her back. I’m not going to lie, she felt amazing.

To distract myself from the beautiful girl weeping with gratitude in my arms, I thought, “Meg Brightman Character Sheet.”

Name: Meg Brightman

Class: Song Mage

Level: 2

Health: 100

Breath: 75

Stamina: 100

Strength: 9

Intelligence: 11

Wisdom: 13

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 14

Resonance: D

Element: Water / Creation

Skill Points: 1

Known Manifestations:

Create Water, Call Shadows

Known Harmony Manifestations:

Create Dream Water (C#/D)

Special Skills:

Harmonize (Primary Singer, D)

Okay, her stats aren’t too far off mine, but how does she have another Level already? Did she get it for learning to Harmonize? Stupid cheat Leveling System. Hey, wait, did I get one for adding a Primary Singer? ‘Character Sheet.’

Meg’s Character Sheet disappeared and mine appeared.

Name: Chris Erikson

Class: Song Mage

Level: 3

Health: 110

Breath: 140

Stamina: 100

Strength: 10

Intelligence: 16

Wisdom: 12

Dexterity: 14

Constitution: 10

Charisma: 12

Resonance: C#

Element: Shadow / Thought

Stat Points: 1

Known Manifestations:

Call Shadows, Slow Thought

Known Harmony Manifestations:

Create Dream Water (C#/D)

Special Skills:

Omniglot, Leader of the Band

Band Members:

Meg Brightman (Primary Singer, D)

Figures. Stupid Leveling System. Of course she gets one. Although I guess I got one for Harmonizing with her the first time, or adding her to the Band, or something, so another one for promoting her might be a little OP. She has way less Breath than I do, even though her Strength and Constitution aren’t far from mine. It must have a lot to do with Intelligence.

While I was noodling over Meg’s sheet, she was winding down with her crying. Eventually she let out a long sigh and looked up at me. “Please let me go for a moment, Master Chris.”

She didn’t sound mad, so I relaxed my arms and she back up a little. Then she took a deep breath, reached up, and undid the braid in her hair. Her lips were pursed tight like she was afraid of how I’d react. I meanwhile had no idea why this was such a big deal. I was about half afraid that she was going to start with her dress next. (And a tiny, tiny bit afraid that she wasn’t.) But she just stood there and stared at me like she wanted me to say something.

“I’m from a long, long way away, Meg,” I said after an awkward pause. “Your hair is super pretty but if I’m supposed to say or do something I don’t know what it is, we don’t have any rules about how people wear their hair.”

Meg looked nervous for a second, like she thought I was rejecting her. When she spoke it was low and shy, and her eyes wouldn’t quite meet mine.

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“In Gaston, girls wear their hair in braids until they find a man,” she said quietly. “It shows that they’re… not attached. For this gift, Master Chris, I’m yours. I’m yours forever.” It seemed like she wanted to say more, but her tongue got tangled and she started to cry again, gently.

“Hey, hey,” I said, taking her in my arms again. “You always have choices, Meg. I like you a lot and I want you to be with me, but you don’t owe me anything, this is just… something I could do.”

She looked up at me and almost seemed offended.

“Master Chris, the King and all his Song Mages can’t do what you can do. No one has ever been able to do what you did. Even in stories secret Song Mages were Song Mages all along and just didn’t know it. You shouldn’t treat such a magnificent gift as if it didn’t mean anything. It means everything.”

I swallowed. Oh, shit, I thought. This is much worse than unlicensed magery. This is alter-the-fate-of-nations level shit. I’m in big trouble.

“Okay, Meg, if you mean that, then the first thing you have to do in return is swear you’ll never tell anybody how this happened. If people find out I can make Song Mages, they’ll hunt me down and put me in a lab or something.”

“A lab, Master Chris?” She looked confused. Apparently she either didn’t know the local word for that, or there wasn’t one.

“A dungeon or something,” I said. “They’ll try to figure out how I do it, try to make me do it to make Song Mages for them. I don’t want to be locked up and I don’t want you locked up.”

Her eyes, which had gone back to just regular big blue eyes, got big again in a hurry.

“Oh, my goodness, Master Chris, I didn’t even think of that,” she said in a whisper. “You’re right. Song Mages are precious to kingdoms. A kingdom that could make them would be the most powerful kingdom in the world.”

I looked down and gave her a big smile that, I hoped, didn’t look terrified. She was looking up with concern and it was so adorable I could barely stand it. I really, really wanted to kiss her. But I didn’t want to screw this up.

“So do you promise to keep it a secret?” I said. “We can pretend you were secretly a Song Mage all along and just never realized it, but the fight tonight brought it out of you or something.”

“That’s very clever, Master Chris,” she said in astonishment. “How in the world do you think of all these things? And of course I’ll keep your secret. I’ll do anything for you.”

Comic books, I didn’t say. What exactly does ‘anything’ include? I didn’t say that either. Although I really wanted to.

“I like to keep a low profile, I don’t like hassle and I don’t like people to fuss over me.” … is what I did say. “You’re the first person I’ve given this gift to, but I’ve tried to be… unremarkable.”

“Then why did you use your power to stop those men in the bar earlier? Now everyone in Pirisi knows there’s a Song Mage staying in the Merchant’s Rest.” she said. She sounded like I had done something idiotic.

“Because they were hurting you,” I said.

I just thought her eyes were huge before. They turned into… bigger blue pools. (I told you, not good with metaphor.)

“You did that just for me?” she said incredulously.

“Well, yeah,” I said. I didn’t understand why she was so surprised. “You’re a nice girl and they were total assholes. Of course I did it for you.”

Suddenly, her knees seemed to go weak. She still had her arms around me and I had mine around her, but she sagged and almost fell to the floor. I took a stumbling step and managed to get the chair behind her. She slumped onto it, her face slack.

“Are you okay, Meg?” I said. She hadn’t passed out again, but it looked like somebody’d hit her in the head.

“For me. All for me. An unarmed Song Mage stopped two men with swords. He sang with me and we enchanted water. He gave me power beyond my wildest dreams and asks nothing but my silence. This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening. This isn’t real.” She looked up at me, regaining a little focus. “You’re not real. This is a dream.”

I sat on the bed and faced her. “It’s not a dream, Meg. Sometime I’ll tell you what it cost me to get here. I wish it was a dream, but it’s not. Well, I would have wished it was a dream, until I met you.”

Meg started crying again. Now what did I do?

“You’re like a hero from a story,” she said. “Every little girl wants to be the hero’s love and you just show up and pick me? Who am I? Why me?”

Now, believe it or not, that one I had a snappy answer for.

“Why not you?” I said with a smile.

She stopped crying and gave me another one of those ‘I don’t believe you’ looks.

“Are you a good person, Meg?” I asked with a smile. “It seems like you work hard, and your aunt and your uncle care about you a lot. Do you do bad things? Do you steal from the till? Do you pick the pockets of drunks in the tavern?”

The look went from doubt to outrage. It made me happy to see her spirit come out again.

“Of course not, Master Chris,” she said, sputtering. “I’m a good girl! Aunt Miranda and Uncle Peter raised me from a child, I’d never do anything to hurt them. And stealing is wrong!”

“There you go,” I said. “You’re a good girl. You do your best. Why shouldn’t you be the fairy tale heroine? It’s not like I did anything special to earn these powers. I was in the wrong place at the right time, that’s all. Sometimes things just… happen.”

I didn’t know if they had actual fairies here but the term seemed to translate okay. (As opposed to ‘genie.’) Meg just looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.

“Now, then, let me show you the rest of the gift,” I said. “Maybe we can figure it out together. I’ve never done this before either.”

“All right, Master Chris,” she said. Her voice was a little uncertain but she seemed to have accepted things for now.

“Say, ‘Character Sheet,’ and the words will reappear, in a box. Tell me what you see.”

“Character Sheet,” she said, and then looked startled. “They did! They did come back! I see words and numbers in a box.” Meg moved her head from side to side. “It stays right in front of my eyes.”

“Think of it moving to the left,” I said.

She looked startled again.

“It did! Now it’s to one side and I can see much more easily.” She looked at me in confusion. “How can this be happening? I’m not singing. Are you singing?”

“This has nothing to do with song magic,” I said. “It’s a gift that only I have, as far as I know. Why I have it is another story. I’ll tell you later, but for right now let’s get your gift figured out.”

“All right, Master Chris,” she replied. “I see the box. It has my name, and it says my… Class? Is ‘Song Mage.’” She hesitated. “I really am a Song Mage. How does it know?”

“Keep reading,” I said. She went through the rest of the box, I had to help her with the words “Harmony” and “Harmonize,” she didn’t know them and had no idea how to say them. What she read matched what I could see when I called up her sheet to follow along.

“Great, Meg,” I said encouragingly. I explained that the stats represented her body and her mind. She struggled with the idea but didn’t argue. Then I explained that we made Dream Water by Harmonizing, and she could see the Manifestation right there in her Character Sheet.

“So that’s how you knew what it was?” she asked, the bulb… pardon me, the glow stone… lighting up over her head.

“Yep,” I said. “I’ve been using boxes like this for a long time.” I didn’t introduce her to the Help System just yet. I had no idea how she would react to the fact that the boxes could communicate both ways.

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen,” she said in wonder. “It even knows how much Breath I have. Is that a lot?”

“How much water could you make before you ran out of Breath before?” I asked.

“I can fill the pitcher in each room, and if I wait a minute between rooms, I don’t run out. I can fill the big stew pot as full as it needs to be for soup, but I have to rest for a while when it’s half full. That’s why I do it in the mornings,” she said.

“With that much Breath, now you could fill… hang on.” I called up her Character Sheet and asked the Help screen about her Manifestation ‘Create Water.’

Create Water: A Manifestation that creates pure water. 1 Breath per liter. Element: Water.

Doing the math, I continued, “You could fill about thirty pitchers with water before you ran out.” The pitchers weren’t big so I just guessed they held a little more than two liters of water.

Meg gasped. “That’s unbelievable. I’ve never seen anyone who could make that much water so quickly.” She paused. “How much Breath do you have?”

“About twice that much,” I said like it wasn’t any big deal. It didn’t work. She gasped again.

“Master Chris, that’s… that’s impossible. I’ve seen Song Mages win the Song Fair who didn’t have that much power. Nothing like that much power. You’re like something out of a legend.” The look in her eyes was somewhere between worship and fear.

“I cheated,” I said with a chuckle. “I’ll explain later. Anyway, tell me what you think about what you see on your sheet.”

“I understand most of it now,” she said, “But why does it say I have a ‘Resonance,’ and what is ‘D?’ It says that’s my Resonance and also my Primary Singer… something. And next to ‘Create Dream Water’ it says C, and then two strange markings, and then D.”

It was my turn to be surprised. They don’t have musical notation here? They have letters, and the Leveling System is translating them to the ones I know, but she doesn’t recognize them as being associated with notes. I thought for a second. Maybe Song Mages or Academies or whatever have them, but they sure aren’t common knowledge.

“‘Resonance’ is what the sheet calls your gift. Even though you’re a Song Mage you still have a gift that you’ll be strongest at. Does that make sense?”

“Of course, Master Chris,” she said. Aaaand we were back to the tone. “Everyone knows that Song Mages have a gift they’re strongest at and then several they are not as strong in.”

“Okay, good, don’t have to explain that part,” I said. “Anyway, the letters are the… names, I guess you’d say, of the sounds that each gift is associated with. For your gift of Water, the sound is named ‘D’ in the system the sheet uses. For the gift of Shadow, it’s named ‘C sharp.’ That weird little symbol of crossing lines means ‘sharp.’ Without it, it’d just be ‘C.’”

“Why doesn’t it just call them by the name of the gift?” she said. She was catching on. Her Intelligence might not be sky-high but she was certainly no dummy.

“Because the sound is the same whether or not you are putting Breath into it. If you don’t put Breath into it, it’s still the same sound, and the sound has a name. We call sounds like that ‘notes’ where I come from. So your Resonance is the note ‘D,’ and when you put Breath into it, the note D produces Water.” I paused to let her try to digest this.

“This is very complicated,” she said. “I don’t know how to keep it all straight.”

“Practice,” I said, like it wasn’t a big deal. “I had special schooling, but I can teach you.” I didn’t mention that the ’special schooling’ was three weeks of classes and some reading ahead. It seemed like it was a lot more than she’d gotten, and she lived in a world where every child had magical music in them.

“Thank… thank you, Master Chris.” She teared up again. “Uncle Peter taught me to read a little, and do sums, but I’ve never met anyone as learned as you are.”

A line from an old song my mother loved came to mind. It made me a little sad to think of it, because it made me think of my mother, but looking at the beautiful girl in front of me, it played loud and clear in my head.

“You’ll learn, Meg,” I said gently. “The magic’s in the music, and the music’s in you.”