Given how early in the morning it was, official tours of Castle Lyreann hadn’t started yet. However, that being said, Shouri and co were still allowed to wander the halls of the castle (or at least none of the Resonators employed by the castle cared to stop them).

“Damn, even the hallways are super nice.” Rebecca whistled, impressed at the architecture on display. Everything was pristine but elegant. Paintings of distant times in the past hung proudly on the walls. Long rugs from foreign lands were stretched down the walkways for them to tread upon. Even the little decorations and ornaments that adorned the walls were all of the most precious relics, treasures of conquests from far-off lands, or even relics originating from locations closer to home. Just as with the lord’s bed chambers, there were little labels describing each piece. Some were roped off, some contained within glass.

Through it all, though, the air that hung within the walls of the castle was fresh. It didn’t feel like they were walking through a musty antique shop, but a clean modern home that just happened to be the size of a small town.

“What we really need though is to figure out where this secret meeting thing is,” Shouri grumbled, not having a clue where to start.

The quartet came to a stop and formed a small circle.

“What do we even know about this meeting?” Rebecca questioned.

“Well, mom, dad, and my uncles were invited because of their strong etude,” Pacifica recalled.

“Also, there’s some sort of secret puzzle or test to get in,” Shouri groaned, still not liking that fact.

Taika looked between her three friends as they spoke in turn. Suddenly she sniffed their air. Something smelled good, causing her stomach to growl in protest. “Ho fame…” she mumbled sadly, rubbing her gut.

“Oh.” Rebecca looked at Taika.

“That is a good idea.” Pacifica nodded.

“I’m down to cheese the ‘puzzle’, whatever it is.” Shouri grinned toothily.

“Ch-che?” The lunar in the spotlight backed up nervously as her friends approached her menacingly.

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

Sniff sniff

“This way.” Taika pointed them down one of the stairwells tracking the scent of whatever banquet was being prepared for the meeting in question.

“A thought occurs to me,” Pacifica spoke up as they descended the stone steps.

“What’s that?” Shouri queried.

“Couldn’t we have had her just Rilevare l’intenzione and just detect where a bunch of people are at?” the otter suggested.

“We could, but this is way funnier,” Shouri pointed out.

“Ah.”

Sure enough, the rest of the group learned to trust Taika’s nose that day as they ran into a procession of chefs wheeling trays of food down the hallway.

“Think that’s our group?” Rebecca questioned in a whisper.

“Looks hoity toity enough,” Pacifica commented quietly.

“Smells good.” Taika’s mouth watered, now able to see the delicious food she had been tasked to track.

“I doubt they’d just let us stroll in with them, but fuck it, let’s act natural.” Shouri waved his girls forward, following the train of the wait staff as if they belonged there.

But apparently, it was that easy, as they just slipped into the meeting room without anyone calling them out.

It was still early, and a few people who were not staff loitered about the massive room. It appeared that this was some kind of reception area. Former reception area, as this was a space not open to the public. Nothing was roped off or barred behind glass. There were some modern amenities such as a conference table, complete with a full telecom set up meant for business or other social gatherings. They had the whole gambit of electronics: high-resolution cameras, a full high-definition display the size of a movie theater screen, professional microphone set-up, the works.

Even so, more was being added to the room. Under the main screen, a small stage was being constructed by a small squad of Resonators who handled the grunt labor, with the tech crews making sure that the audio set-up was hooked up to the room’s sound system. It was an entire production here.

“Woah…” the four gasped in awe. They were certainly out of their element here. This was the world of adults and business, and while they were young adults, they were well out of their wheelhouse here. Regardless, thanks to Shouri’s strong stave of knowledge it made the group itch with curiosity.

“Now how did you lot end up here?” a voice spoke up from behind the group.

Panic ensued as the four young travelers feared they had been caught. But when they faced their captors, they discovered an unfortunately familiar presence.

“You’re that guy!” Pacifica cried out uselessly.

“Oh come on, we fought together that one time, surely you remember my name?” the larger Resonator man chuckled.

“I think it’s a repressed memory,” Shouri commented, looking between the man, and his much shorter Maestro.

“Aster, Quiretteh special forces.”

“Kiki, also Quiretteh special forces, sniper.”

Both were dressed in their combat attire, looking particularly menacing this early in the morning. Notably, Kiki lacked her large case containing her signature weapon. Instead, she wore two visible pistols, one on each side. One of the two firearms had her blue tuner clipped into it.

“My eyes are up here sprout,” the sniper grumbled irritably at the younger Maestro.

Shouri didn’t verbally acknowledge the soldier but did raise his gaze to meet hers.

“Don’t mind her.” Aster chuckled. “Not often civilians get to see guns out in the wild. The best you can see them is pictures online,” the water element added.

“What even is a gun?” Taika questioned. She had seen pictures of them, and knew they were some kind of weapon, but didn’t know what they actually did.

“It’s a weapon that shoots rhythm,” Pacifica told her fellow Resonator.

“They’re highly regulated, you have to be military like they are to even touch one,” Shouri added.

Kiki slowly nodded in the affirmative.

“These bad boys compress and concentrate rhythm to shoot them out in bullet form,” Aster chimed in. “They’re ridiculously powerful, easily able to pierce through even the sturdiest of rhythm defenses and deal significant physical damage to anything unfortunate enough to be in its way.”

“So why are they illegal then?” Taika asked harmlessly enough. “They seem useful for fighting Scherzando since they shoot rhythm,” the lunar fox pondered aloud.

“Civvies can’t be trusted with them, simple as,” Kiki huffed, clearly not wanting to be involved with the conversation.

Aster smiled and shook his head. “To put it another way, it’s much easier to take out a crazed Maestro using a Resonator to try and do harm to others than it is to take out a gunman who has lost their marbles,” the soldier-Resonator explained to the uninitiated.

“You can reason with a Resonator you can’t reason with a weapon,” Rebecca said, her lips settling into a frown; not liking the implications.

“Part of it. Guns are just too efficient at what they do. Don’t care for the things myself.” Aster eyed his own Maestro’s firearms with some disdain.

Shouri nodded slowly. “I’ve heard even just having a gun doesn’t do anything, you need a special tuner to interface with it. Even stealing the tuner won’t make it fire as it only works with the owner’s unique rhythm signatures. On top of that, the production of them is highly secretive” He explained. Though he said this, there was something that had bugged him ever since he had researched them:

How did the man who kidnapped Pacifica and himself get ahold of such a locked-down weapon?

“Well look at the head on you kid!” Aster laughed loudly, taking Shouri out of his thoughts. “You’re a smart one, aren’t you?” the larger Resonator laid on the praise.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I do a bit of reading,” Shouri replied sheepishly.

“Knowledge is power after all,” Kiki mumbled to herself.

“Too true.” Aster raised a hand to offer a pat on the back but held back from completing the act. “Glad to see you all are doing well though. When I saw you all I thought we’d come over and check in.” He paused, contemplating what he was about to say. “My apologies for showing you the-” Another pause. “-unsavory functions of our job,” he decided on.

Another slow, short nod from Shouri. “I-” The younger Maestro too considered his choice of words. “-understand,” he spoke quietly. “Someone had to do it,” his voice fell to a breath.

Taika and Pacifica’s hands found their way to Shouri’s left and right shoulders respectively, rhythm coursing between the three.

Aster analyzed the younger group, lips setting to a smile. “Have a good morning folks.” He waved before moving on with an apathetic Kiki right behind him.

Once they were out of earshot, Pacifica spoke up. “They’re good people,” she mumbled.

“I know they are. I just-” Shouri’s voice cracked.

“Shh shhh…” Pacifica took the initiative and pulled her Maestro into a hug, focusing herself on him.

Rebecca decided to help out, placing a hand on her Maestro’s back while keeping a watch for any nosy looky-loos.

“I think I’m fine.” Shouri recomposed himself, pushing away from Pacifica.

“If you need me-”

“I know, thank you, Paci.”

With their Maestro calmed, the trio of girls allowed their curiosity to run amok, that is to say, their eyes were fixated on the food being set up for their future consumption.

“Ho fame…” Taika whimpered, being held in place by her shoulders.

“They’re not done yet Taika.” Pacifica kept a tight grip on her friend.

“Let’s not get immediately kicked out,” Rebecca added, also helping to hold back the hungry fox.

They moved off to the side as more worker Resonators entered the room with a set of tables and chairs. Not wanting to do any physical labor, Shouri shuffled his little gaggle of girls off to a corner so they could not be perceived by anyone else who belonged there.

As soon as a table was placed and set up near them, the four quietly slid into the four chairs provided to them, continuing their desperate attempt to remain as small and unnoticed as possible.

“This is cute,” Pacifica commented, looking over the table decorations.

It was a simple white vase with assorted blue, red, and yellow flowers. A small bottle of artisan water was placed next to a wine glass which was set upside down on the navy-blue tablecloth.

“Seems pretty elaborate,” Shouri mumbled, pulling on the hood of his jacket.

“But when is food?” Taika sat the tallest of the group, eyes fixated on the continuing prep work on the other side of the room. However as she watched the wait staff work, her curiosity turned. “How does that work Sho?” she uttered.

“Hm? How does what work?” The Maestro raised a brow. The curious vixen merely pointed at the labor being completed in the distance.

Shouri regarded the chefs and other wait staff with some thought.

“You gotta be more specific,” Rebecca commented.

“No no, I get what she’s asking,” the Maestro cut in. “It’s just not something I’ve thought about.” And as usual, a free hand was being dedicated to looking up an answer for his wondering lunar fox.

“Why do you ask?” Pacifica wondered.

“It’s a lot of food,” Taika replied simply. Her tail swished behind her as her thoughts slowly bubbled out. “And there’s a lot of people helping.”

Setting the tuner face-down on the table, Shouri smiled at his knowledge-hungry fox. “Perhaps we can take a look in a professional kitchen one day,” he suggested.

“Can we? That sounds fun!” The vixen lit up, her tail twitching with excitement.

It wasn’t too much longer before the room started to fill up with actual guests. Almost instantly Shouri and his three Resonators felt underdressed, nay naked seeing what some of the people were wearing.

Business suits, dresses, top-of-the-line fashion. No expense was spared for these people’s wardrobes. Undoubtedly, these people were important, but neither the boy nor the three girls at the small table in the corner of the room could name any of them.

That was until they walked in.

“N… no fucking way…” Rebecca uttered, growing pale.

“What? What?” Pacifica looked around.

“Them.” The fire Resonator pointed to an older gentleman clad in a dark blue jacket and black suit. He moved to his table pretty quickly despite the cane he used to aid in his movement.

Behind the old man, a practical giant towered over every other person in the room. The creature was wrapped up in a thick blue parka and pants. Way too warm for the climate they were in. One could tell no features of the beast, given even their face was obscured by a mask made of ice.

“Oh, that’s Jacque Halifax and Wren,” Pacifica realized.

“Who?” Taika raised a brow.

“Jacque is one of the current Grand Masters,” Shouri told his fox.

Taika now furrowed her brows, lips in a hard line. “Who?” she repeated.

Rebecca sighed, loudly. “The Grand Masters are the four most powerful Maestros in the world. To join their ranks, you have to best one of them in battle and be accepted as one of them, and you can only get the right to challenge them after winning the World Championships in December.”

“That’s a big deal?” Taika asked hesitantly. She didn’t want to ask, but the curiosity was just so itchy.

“Yes!” Rebecca barked. Pacifica patted the fire fox’s back, silently urging her to calm herself.

“Being a Grand Master basically gives you immunity from the law, but you also get a pretty sizable paycheck from the government just for holding the seat,” Shouri explained.

“Grand Masters do usually help deal with crimes and natural disasters and such,” Pacifica said.

“They’re more like natural disasters themselves.” Rebecca rolled her eyes.

Taika slowly nodded. Her gaze drifted over to the old man and the mysterious giant who was seated next to him. “So those two are really strong?” she questioned.

“Grand Master Jacque is the oldest of the current four and has held the title for the longest,” Pacifica started. “He’s an ice master who sticks closer to that side of the water element,” the otter added.

“Wren, that big guy next to him is a total mystery. Nobody even knows what species of Resonator he is. The only thing we know is that he’s a guy, water element, and piercing attribute,” Rebecca chimed in. “Oh, and he's an absolute demon if you have the unfortunate honor of facing him down in battle.”

Shouri’s eyes were fixated on the black tuner of his laying on the table in front of him. “Really that strong huh?” the boy mumbled.

“They’re both true rhythm masters. Like, if I didn’t spot them walking in, I’d have no idea they were even in the room.” Rebecca shuddered. “They’re like that sniper chick and her Resonator – except I could still sense them if I really focused. Grand Master Jacque and Wren? It’s like they don’t even exist rhythm-wise.”

Shouri reached across the table and grabbed Rebecca’s hands. “Shh shhh…”

“Sho…” Rebecca gulped, trembling as she gripped his hands back.

“All of the grand masters are like that,” Pacifica told Taika. “They’re insanely strong and can hide it well,” she added.

Taika hummed in thought, digesting the information she had been provided. After mulling it over, she spoke: “So we can get much much stronger then? Like they are?”

All eyes turned to the lunar element. It was such an optimistic view it disarmed the rest of the group. Rebecca’s fear began to subside. She felt her hands squeezed again. Whipping her head to meet her Maestro’s gaze, he nodded to her and smiled.

Her lips slowly rose. “M-maybe.”