“Shouri, you have to be one of the most interesting people I know,” said Emily upon meeting up with the Maestro on the sixth of September.

That morning the two had decided to convene in the MA office they were both staying at to go where Elijah was staying. It was only then Emily asked about the fourth member of Shouri’s team who he revealed as a Lyrebird.

“Next the dude’s gonna walk up with an Ethereal,” scoffed Albarich.

“So someone explain what a Lyrebird is?” Ritika asked.

“Lyrebirds are a supposedly extinct species of Resonator who have the unique ability to transform into other Resonators,” Shouri quietly explained. “The caveat is she has to cut her rhythm in half to do it,” he added. Vienna nodded in the affirmative.

“She looks just like any other Maestro though,” Emily pointed out.

“Yeah, she can just turn parts of her body invisible,” Shouri countered.

“It doesn’t cost me as much rhythm to do simple tricks like that,” the Lyrebird herself finally spoke. “Behold.” She held up her hand which flaked away into a stub as if she had suddenly been amputated on the spot.

Ritika tried to grab the space where Vienna’s hand once was and found it simply passed through. “That’s crazy… how does it work?” asked the cat.

Vienna shrugged. Shouri was more than happy to share the fruits of his research. “There aren’t many modern papers about it, but Lyrebird’s species trait, Echo of the Soul, enables them to copy any Resonator’s form down to their voice, spells known, everything. Unlike Allucinazione di Massa which just changes how one is perceived, Lyrebirds physically becomes their target,” Shouri explained.

To demonstrate, Vienna’s tail appeared back in view giving the new quartet to marvel at the beauty of the twin tail feathers. She extended them up, splitting them and revealing the net-like connecting fibers that connected them. She draped it over herself and in an instant, her form became that of Taika’s (earning a glare from the copied Resonator in question.)

“W-woah…” Ritika gasped.

Albarich rubbed his eyes and shook his head.

“If she hadn’t stayed in place, I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart,” Emily admitted.

“Really?” Rebecca asked.

“You can’t tell?” Pacifica furrowed a brow.

“They look the same? What are you seeing that we aren’t?” Albarich questioned incredulously.

“Her rhythm-” Pacifica started

“-isn’t like Taika’s,” Rebecca finished.

The two Resonators looked at each other and smirked at the shared thought.

“You’re fucking with me,” Albarich protested. “They feel the exact same!”

“No, they don’t?” Now the confusion was on the other tail, as Pacifica and Rebecca thought it obvious.

Shouri decided to speak up. “Vienna’s copies are very good, near flawless even,” he admitted. “But Pacifica and Rebecca are right – the one crack in her guise is tempo. It doesn’t feel the same as Taika’s. That’s the one thing she can’t replicate.” His gaze rested on the false fox in the room, who glared back at him.

“I’ll figure it out one day, and you’ll never know,” warned the Lyrebird with Taika’s voice.

“I’m sure,” chuckled Shouri.

“Tch.” Vienna clicked her tongue before glowing and returning to her own form.

“That tangent aside, she knows a ton about what we’re going to be dealing with, so we’re working together for the moment,” Shouri informed the other Maestro.

“Right, so what’s our next step?” Emily asked.

“We’re gonna go get her real Maestro and then I guess take the fight to Ilea himself,” Shouri shrugged at the last part.

“You guess?” questioned Ritika.

“Look, I’m just trying to stop the fuck from spreading Feroce any further. I don’t have a good idea how we’re going to do that besides kicking his teeth in.” Shouri motioned at Rebecca when he mentioned kicking, who was more than happy to nod heartily.

----------------------------------------

“You certainly have a knack for extraordinary,” said Elijah upon the group gathering in his suite at the Sotirio Hotel.

Day had passed to evening and as promised the Klein heir had taken up residence in the fanciest suite the luxury hotel offered. It was no presidential suite, but it managed to fit four Maestros, nine Resonators, and one Natural comfortably enough.

It was a blessing there was so much room seeing how Taika was giving poor Miro the stink eye the entire time, even going so far as to bare her fangs at him at one point.

As such, Shouri was on pacification duty, allowing the girl to sit on his lap (she still shot the Natural petty glares when she thought she could get away with it.)

Thankfully, they could get away with such public displays of affection thanks in part to Vienna being the star attraction.

Colette had been scooped up by Elijah at some point and was staying in the suite with him and Miro (Zino was there too). The scholar was excitedly taking notes on the thought-to-be-extinct Lyrebird, who did nothing to stop the obsessive documentation.

“So, Ms. Vienna,” Elijah began. “I believe Mr. Tomoshibi had mentioned something about your sister, no?” he asked.

Vienna nodded curtly. “Yes.” The lyrebird lowered her head for a moment, narrowing her eyes. After a moment, she rose to meet Elijah’s curious gaze. “Her name is Faith, she’s been living in Quiretteh for some time now.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Of course, it’s freaking Quiretteh,” Shouri instantly complained.

“What’s wrong with Quiretteh?” Pacifica questioned her Maestro.

“What even is it?” Taika threw in a bonus question.

“Quiretteh is the Riterran capital, right?” Emily chimed in. “I remember learning about it from my teachers. It’s where all the big politics get done from what I was taught.”

Shouri grunted. “Yeah, I just don’t want to go there because it’s a tourist deathtrap on top of the security being annoyingly tight,” he continued to complain. When no one backed up his frustrations, he huffed and turned his head. “You’ll see,” he grumbled.

“I do wonder,” Emily mumbled. “I’m the lunar princess. Elijah figured me out instantly – the Riterran government has to know who I am at this point,” fretted the young woman.

“They most certainly do,” Elijah nodded in agreement. “I am privy to the fact that even though trade is open and free the two powers of our system do not play nice with one another,” he said, speaking slowly as he carefully picked out his words.

“What’s the big deal here?” Ritika chimed in, wondering what this had to do with her Maestro.

“I think what moneybags is getting at is if we’re not careful the Terran big-wigs could think we’re trying to start some shit,” Albarich told his teammate.

“As if! We’re trying to clean up the mess they’re ignoring!” shouted the cat.

Elijah nodded. “Quite,” he agreed. “Our movements have to be quite calculated. With myself and Ms. Emily in our ranks, we attract quite a bit of attention. Though that isn’t to say Colette and Shouri don’t have their fair share of attention as well.”

“Why’s that?” asked Colette, looking up from her notebook.

“The same reason we’ve all united in the first place: Feroce,” Elijah answered with a knowing smirk.

Another annoyed grunt from Shouri told all how he felt about that concern.

“So, what the heck do we even do?” Rebecca wondered.

The room fell silent, as the group didn’t have an answer to that simple question. All were deep in thought. That is, everyone except Shouri. Taika stared at him, interlocking her hands with his, pushing her rhythm into him.

With a big dramatic sigh, he finally spoke. “Here’s the plan,” he begrudgingly announced.

“Before that-” Vienna cut him off. “I need to see who is staying and who’s going,” said the lyrebird.

“Who says you get to make that decision?” Albarich challenged, rising to his feet. Ritika was right behind her teammate, joining him in glaring down the mysterious Resonator.

“I’m the strongest one here, full stop,” the lyrebird stated as fact.

“Making a whole lot of assumptions here,” Ritika said behind her glare.

“You’re not making an ass out of me, only yourself lady,” Albarich growled.

Vienna’s cold gaze shifted to the Maestro of the two audacious Resonators. “Control your animals, please.”

“That’s it!” Albarich extended his wings out and launched himself at the smug bird like a missile. Ritika was right behind him with a pouch of sand ready to go.

“Al! Rika! No!” Emily cried out.

In an instant Vienna was no longer herself, she had taken the guise of Albarich to use against him. Using her borrowed form, she easily parried the dragon’s haymaker and effortlessly tossed him away like a used tissue. As she pivoted around to face the second attacker, her form changed again, becoming Ritika.

Ritika cared not and swung her sand crescent wrench down on the false cat.

Who caught it with a single hand, not budging an inch despite the power behind the blow.

“What the?!” Ritika tried to move the sand, but it was stuck.

“Oh, my apologies, here,” Vienna said in her stolen voice. The sand lost its shape and blasted out, striking its owner square in the gut and sending her flying to the couch. Thankfully for the couch, Soot was standing by and caught his teammate. The discarded sand flew everywhere as Vienna cared not to keep it under her control after her use of it was done.

“Any other takers? I’m accepting all challengers!” Vienna boasted.

Zino went to get up, but Elijah pushed him back down and left his arm extended to prevent the dinosaurian from doing anything rash.

Kaira remained seated, her expression stoic and unchanging as she studied the powerful Resonator. Miro, seated next to his fellow earth element was unsurprised at the spectacle, having seen similar exploits of the lyrebird in Subterris.

Finally, Shouri’s trio didn’t give in to the provocation and remained by their Maestro’s side.

“You proved your point Vienna, that’s enough,” Shouri’s authoritative tone killed the joy gracing the thief’s lips.

“Fine,” she begrudgingly obeyed, resuming her true form.

Albarich picked himself up off the ground and dusted his jacket off. “Bitch,” he grumbled, returning to Emily’s side.

“You’re not making any decisions about who stays and goes,” Shouri asserted.

“I will judge your choices audibly then,” said Vienna, folding her arms across her chest and rolling her eyes.

Shouri shook his head but pressed on. “Anyway, like I was saying before I was rudely interrupted,” he earned a scoff from Vienna and she earned the glares of most of the Resonators in the room. “Here’s the plan.”