Playing in the music room felt a bit different than playing in town. There weren’t much or any witnesses, for one—that helped her on some days, discouraged her on others. Passerby could hear anyone playing one of the instruments, but it didn’t reach very far inside the palace; it was a good place to experiment.

Still, with the rain as a kind of backing—steady and quick, having stayed consistently harsh since the morning—Adelinde played on the piano with Matteo sitting behind his toy piano on one side of the room. Her professional music blended in well with the weather outside, but contrasted with her son’s less experienced tapping. She smiled nonetheless, enjoying being able to play with him.

She looked up when the door opened and Rene cautiously entered, visibly wet.

“Thank you for coming out,” Adelinde said. She offered a kind look. “I didn’t think it would rain so much when I asked you here—I have clothes I can lend you if you want to change into something dry.”

“I don’t mind being a bit damp,” Rene replied, shaking her head. “I laid my jacket out, so otherwise it’s just my hair. I’ve been in worse.”

Adelinde tried to argue—a jacket wasn’t quite suitable in this weather and she would gladly buy an umbrella for her if she needed one—but Matteo only then noticed Rene had come and stopped her from making further comments.

“Oh! Reny! Hi!”

“Hey, kid,” Rene said nicely. Matteo got up so he could hug her, and Rene lightly patted his head when he came close. After a second she glanced at Adelinde and continued, “I saw it was raining but didn’t want to just…not show up—and I’ll be gone for a week or so soon anyway.”

“Your father needs you again?” Adelinde asked. She gave the explanation a few times before—typically to explain why she couldn’t stay or to clarify why she didn’t make any appearances for a few days. They were infrequent enough that Adelinde didn’t mind; every time she said Lord Dazuz needed her, she spent two or three more days than usual with Adelinde and Matteo to make up for it. She genuinely seemed regretful whenever she had to announce a planned trip away.

Rene nodded. “I can only stay for a few hours. He wants me out and about by sunset.”

“Only the far trains run at night,” Adelinde noted. Matteo separated himself from Rene and wandered back to his piano, tapping on keys again. Fortunately, it wasn’t quite loud enough to deter any conversation. “Where does he want you to go?”

“I need to greet an old friend of his,” Rene explained. “The guy’s Sólstaðuric and doesn’t like to travel—Lord Dazuz is actually coming with me this time.” She gave a kind of joking smile. “And wish me luck on that part, by the way. I haven’t travelled alone with that man since he brought me back from my hometown.”

“His wife and other children aren’t coming?”

Rene shook her head. “Just me. It will be…interesting, to say the least.” Her expression shifted a bit, into a more genuine smile. “I can probably bring something back for you. Ports tend to have more souvenirs than other places, so they make for better presents.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Matteo responded before Adelinde could.

“Reny presents best!” he declared. “I wanna present!”

“Matteo,” Adelinde reminded him lightly.

He pouted for a second, then unconvincingly added, “Please?”

Rene smiled nonetheless. “I’ll try,” she promised.

Matteo cheered, and after a moment Adelinde’s attention went back to Rene.

“If you don’t have a lot of time,” Adelinde reasoned, “Then go ahead and take a seat at whichever instrument you want.”

“You want me to actually play with you?” Rene asked. Somehow, it must have surprised her.

Adelinde laughed. “You should expect this by now, I think.”

“It’s one thing to play with you,” Rene said, somewhat hesitant. “A duet where one half doesn’t know what they’re doing is one thing—playing with you and Matteo is different.”

“Reny play!” Matteo said firmly, whether or not he understood the context of the conversation.

“The child has spoken,” Adelinde said jokingly, smiling at Rene. “Especially since you won’t be here for a while, I’d like to be able to play with both of you. I’ve always had a goal of sorts to write a song for each important person in my life—including one or two with those that worked together to influence me.”

“It’s going to sound horrible,” Rene warned. She seemed slightly less resistant of the idea, but still cautious.

“You said that last time, love, and I still wrote that down.”

‘Love’ seemed to catch Rene off guard, but when she recovered a second later she laughed.

“All right,” Rene conceded. Matteo laughed and Adelinde smiled as she wandered a bit closer to the chairs. “Do you want me to have the guitar again?”

“I think it suits you best,” Adelinde replied, nodding. “We can try different things as we go if something feels off while you’re playing.”

Rene nodded, carefully picking up the guitar and sitting down with it. Adelinde opened up a score book so she could write down anything particularly inspiring, then started off with a simple melody. Matteo was the first to add on, giving his own ‘style’ of random notes that somewhat mimicked hers. Rene tested with the guitar a bit before doing her best to match Adelinde.

Three types of musicians were represented in that song: someone who was professionally taught how to use their given instrument, one who had some kind of talent but didn’t quite understand how to best use it, and another who was just learning and playing whatever first came to mind.

Honestly, she considered it to be beautiful in its own way—each performer had their own intentions, proficiencies, and talents that made it stand out. The unpredictability of a three-year-old’s whims clashed with Adelinde’s experience of more than a decade, while Rene seemed hesitant to show much deviation from the same few notes yet created a strong backing because of it.

Adelinde started writing down notes once they had the tune stabilized, noticing a few similarities with other songs as well. Ultimately, they were following her lead save for a couple of outbursts of notes from Matteo—due to her tendency to play whatever seemed to voice her thoughts, the general pattern was similar to the songs she had already written about or for Matteo or Rene. It was fitting; each section came together well.

They continued playing like that until a staff member came in roughly two hours later to announce that Lord Dazuz waited in the general area for Rene, which prompted her to leave. She gave a final promise to bring back something for Matteo and offered Adelinde a light parting kiss before heading back out.

Even in the few seconds after the music ended, Adelinde found the memory of them playing together wonderful. She couldn’t think of anyone else who could help her create something so…complete.