Keirah left the forge wet and still a little bleary. She spent an entire day working on Ryser’s gift, she spent the last six hours asleep. Oddly to her there was a shower inside the forge, it was stocked with all kinds of different shampoo and soap. It even had the two kinds she used. Two because she always combined her two favorite types of shampoo. One smelled of pine trees, the other of a citrus variety. She liked both of the scents, but she never could decide which kind she preferred. Either the more mysterious forest, or the attention grabbing fruits.

She was looking for the kitchen it had been a day of using magic, with the wings guidance, to forge a weapon. To say she was hungry would be an understatement. A long smooth sound percolated through the hallways. Keirah was frightened for a moment, but then was intrigued. The sound was beautiful, she immediately forgot her hunger and went looking for the music. As a princess she was entertained by many musicians but she had never seen one that played an instrument that made a sound like that.

It took about a minute but she found Ryder playing a strange instrument. Ryder’s back was turned, but Kierah could clearly see the instrument tucked under his chin, while he pulled some sort of stick across it. Suddenly Keirah heard footsteps behind her, she spun around and saw a man in a blue plaid shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, on his shirt was a nametag that read “Robert.” Robert put his finger to his lips and took position next to Keirah, he whispered. “The song is called ‘Crystalise,’ it was created by an ancient musician called ‘Silver,’ that’s what Mrs. Bayman discovered. Only the names of the songs were intact, she says she found the name though deductive reasoning, so it could be wrong.”

“What instrument is he playing?” Keirah’s eyes did not leave Ryder. The song had crescendoed and she was in awe.

“It is called a violin, that one right there is one of three in known existence, and according to Ryder, the one in his hands is special, on the front there is a pair of the letter ‘S’ turned inward facing each other. It was found in a museum, like all the other ancient buildings, was buried deep below the surface. Adrianne and Adrian would know more than I, for that is their Path.”

As the song ended a woman with came into view, her voice was a melody with every syllable, and a crow, stood on her shoulder. “That was much better you put real feeling into it this time, I’m proud of you. This is the first time I’ve seen you put all of your emotion into to your music, rather than leaving it at technical perfection. Alright next week I will test you with the piano, but, this time, since we have two new guests, one of them will pick the song.”

“Keirah will.” Ryder said, without hesitation. Keirah found the decision, and confidence strange, considering he was so angry with her.

“Well, unfortunately Rose is busy today and I have to Raum, he is learning how to scry today. And Marta as you know, is still in Spain with her family, and since all the other ladies are busy as well you'll have to do dance tomorrow.”

Keirah saw Ryder, he looked slightly crestfallen. She noticed Robert looking at her, and when she met his stare, she saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. “No don't!” she whispered as she reached for his arm.

Robert nimbly avoided her and called out. “Hey Polla! If the young master doesn’t mind, and it's fine with the lady, how about we have her be his dance partner for his session?”

Polla peered over, her eyes were an exotic mixture of gold, brown, and green, which widened with a smile at the suggestion. “Robert! A splendid suggestion! Ryder, what say you?”

“Well, if Angel does not mind me using her for my gains, then I would surely be glad to have her be my partner.” Ryder looked at Keirah with beaming smile.

Keirah was again confused, she thought he was angry, so, why did he seem happy?

Polla interrupted her train of thought, “Robert, why don't you call me something all lovey-dovey like that?”

Robert stared at her and spoke dryly, “for some reason, I think you would fail to appreciate ‘Chomsky.’”

“That is because he is male.” Polla grabbed her husband's hand and pulled him out of the song and dance hall, all the while he was muttering about how one should be honored to be know by that name affectionately or otherwise.

Their interchange caused Keirah to giggle as she approached Ryder.

Music started playing. “How was your sleep Angel?” Ryder asked with a smile.

Oh now he is mocking me?!? Keirah was seething, but she spoke calmly and evenly, “you have not seen me for two days and all you can say is ‘How was your sleep?’ Unbelievable.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Ryder frowned, which worried Keirah a little, but not enough to evaporate her anger. “Nisa stop the music.”

“Yes daddy!” Nisa responded and the music stopped.

“You have a daughter!?” Keirah froze, she did not know what to think, she was angry, confused, heartbroken. And all Ryder did was hold up a finger, a request to wait.

A man arrived in the room. “Gabriel, did you give Angel your special guest room.”

“Haha! I wish the would've been perfect!” Gabriel paused taking in the seen. “Ahem, no, no I did not.”

Ryder turned to Keirah. “Angel.” He got no response. “Angel! Keirah!”

“No!” As heartbroken as she was she still wanted to be called Angel, otherwise there was no hope. “Call me Angel, please, never stop calling me Angel”. She said it so softly Ryder could barely hear her.

“Of course Angel, obviously my Nisa calling me daddy affected you, I do not know why. I will address it first since it seems to be the most impactful. Nisa show yourself.”

“I'm sorry daddy, I can't.”

“Why can you not?”

“I have no body.”

“Why is that?”

“‘Cause you haven't made me one yet. Daddy, why are you asking me these questions? They make me sad.”

“I am sorry sweetie, just one more. What are you?”

“I am a digital organism.”

“Thank you Nisa. You were very strong. I will play an extra round of four dimensional chess today.”

Miss instantly forgot her sadness and let out a small cheer.

Keirah had recovered by now and was grinning, it was all just a misunderstanding.

“Where did you go after we watched the sunset?”

“I went to the magic forge, I made you a gift.” Keirah started turning red. Ryder had turned very happy.

“A gift? Well, we shall see. But first, we dance!”

“No, I…” Keirah protested, but Ryder was having none of it. He grabbed her spun her around and told Nisa to play the music. A different song came on, she could hear the same instrument that Ryder was playing.

“Johann Sebastian Bach” Ryder said.

“What?”

“The composer, and the song is an excerpt from his Partita Number 2 in D minor, Chaconne.”

Kierah lost herself in the music and the dance, Ryder was skilled. Everymoe leading to another, never wasting a step. Keirah decided to make it fun. She added her own spins ad flourishes in between steps. It was not until she started pressing against Ryder that he lost a step. She moved her hips in the way women do to arouse men. It was plainly seen Ryder was captivated.

He still led as he should, but he was no longer thinking about the moves, going through routine, he was feeling it, and it was exhilarating.

As the song ended, Ryder surprised Keirah by spinning her into a tight embrace and planted his lips firmly on her mouth. Keirah was ecstatic, Ryder had voluntarily kissed her, without prompt. She was worried it would take time to get to here from what happened yesterday. As their tongues evolved from playing hide and seek, to tag, to Smackdown, she knew she had to break it up before it evolved to more than just kissing.

Not that she would mind what came next, but the music hall was not the place. Besides, her dad had ruled against it. Her dad had adopted one of the most infuriating, but reasonable lines in parenting history. “My house, my rules.” And, “he who maketh the gold, therefore maketh the rules.” She had no problem with either montra, her problem was, being that he was Emperor, the entire system was “his house” and he had all the gold.

“I thought you would be mad at me.” She hated bringing it up, but she was curious, besides she had to tap the brakes on the passion train.

Ryder laughed, “I forgave you before I went to bed. A long, long time ago, a wise man once wrote, ‘do not commit transgressions while angry, do not let the sun go down on your anger.’ I believe this was not just a moral sentiment, but one of health as well. For anger is stress, and sleep is how your body repairs itself, stress is like giving the body incomplete blueprints, nothing gets done right.”

She kissed Ryder lightly as she thought about his answer. It had all the honesty of Ryder answers, but, call it intuition, it felt like he was holding something back.

As if he read her mind he broke the kiss, “but, I still want to see this gift.”

There it was, the missing piece. “Maybe I want to hang onto it, since you are no longer angry.”

“That is fine, I am sure I could find, something else, another way you could repay me.”

Keirah nearly guffawed, she looked into his eyes and saw pure, unadulterated primal passion, an animalistic presence that could devour her in an instant. But she also saw it was tempered, strengthened by control, rather than caged. Damn, that's sexy. Was all she thought. “You would not dare.” His eyes held his answer, he would and gladly. She knew that he knew it would not be a difficult task of persuading her.

Keirah took Ryder’s hand and teleported them to the door of the magical forge.

Ryder activated the doorway and they stepped through together. The first thing he saw was everything was out of place. Ryder thought of an idiom about a tornado, but it didn't fit. Tornados pulled things inward, but everything as strewn about. The problem was easily remedied, he cast a spell which began to place things in their proper locations. About halfway through the spell the magic backlashed throwing Ryder clean through the wall of the magick forge, and the wall after that, and after that, and… well he went through a lot of walls ending up in his backyard. The dimension with the magical forge had his entire house and property, and the forge was not the only entrance. It was built this way so his entire family could be with him in that dimension.

Ryder sat up and rubbed his temples. What the fuck!? He knew what he happened, whatever Keirah had made did not like his spell and knocked the shit out of him.

“Ryder! Ryder! Are you okay!?” Her worried look diminished only slightly as she picked her way through rubble to see him sitting up.

Ryder nodded his head.

“Are you sure? How do you feel?”

* Ryder looked at her with a smile and said. “Excited!”