Chapter 6: Heartsong
> "Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words." -Robert G. Ingersoll
:Close your eyes. Listen.:
Avery was confused, but she shrugged and did as the whisper in her mind instructed. She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath, slipping into a slow breathing ritual that she used sometimes to relax. In… out… after a few deep breaths, she let her senses extend outward. She listened.
The chatter of voices around her. The crunch under feet as they walked along gravel paths. The songs of birds in the trees near the temple of life. The chirps of insects. The burble of water as it ran down a series of stones near the temple of water and splashed into a pool at the base. The melodic jingle of the wind chimes that were hung around the temple of air. The-
Wait.
Avery focused in, listening more carefully to the windchimes. There was a melody, but it sounded familiar, as if a variation of something else. Then she heard it again. Similar, but with variations, this time in the humming of a pair of priests as they meditated near the temple of thought.
Once she had caught the melody, Avery started hearing it all around her. No… not a melody, she realized. A harmony. A musical theme woven through the entire great park. The songs of the birds, the rippling of the water, even clang of a distant hammer on an anvil at the back of the temple of earth. The sounds merged into a symphony unlike anything Avery had heard before. It wasn’t just nature creating its own music, either. There was something else, an undercurrent of sound, of actual music, though she didn’t recognize any instruments that she knew. The music was subtle, and Avery was sure that no one else could hear it, but once she caught on, she couldn’t ignore it. It filled her mind and drew her in, a song of peace and power and balance. It was an interweaving of elements and their power grew in the mixing. Together they were far greater than they were apart, and the symphony was rich with the mix of each harmony woven into the whole.
Avery found herself drowning in the sound; the power completely overwhelmed her, and she let herself slide deeper into the song, intoxicated with the feel of it as it thrummed through her very blood. She didn’t realize how far she had slipped until the feel of something wet ran over her face, causing Avery to yelp and jerk back to full awareness. Her eyes snapped open and she stared into the dark chocolate eyes of Camlen, the old dog from the Temple of Life. He was standing on his hind legs, his front paws on her knees so that he could lick her face. As Avery stared at him, he snorted and lowered himself back to all fours, then leaned against her, a warm weight on her legs.
“Okay.” Avery murmured and found she was breathless, her heart racing. She leaned down to give the dog a pat. “Okay. I’m okay. Thank you.” Avery took several deep breaths to steady herself, then swallowed hard. “What… what was that?”
----------------------------------------
Special Ability: Heartsong
In ancient times, many bards had the ability to hear the music inherent in the world around them. Using the ability to listen to the world, these bards became great healers, evokers and diplomats. You have discovered this ability to hear the heartsong in the land around you. Be warned, however: with such power can come great danger. There are places where the heartsong has become warped by the events that have occurred there. Even with a healthy heartsong, there is a danger of becoming overwhelmed by the music. Traditionally, every bard with the gift of listening had a soul-bonded partner who kept them anchored so that they did not slide too deep into the music. Those who did go too far were could be lost forever. Any bard without a soul-bond to keep them anchored should be very careful when listening to the heartsongs around her.
----------------------------------------
Avery read the ability description, then read it again. Then she dismissed the window and looked down at Camlen, frowning. “Does this mean… I’m a bard?”
She didn’t know how she felt about that, honestly. Tales of the Everblossom hadn't had a bard class option, but among the tabletop RPG systems that Avery had played, there had been many variations of the traveling minstrel, not the least being the traditional Dungeons and Dragons bard. But Avery had never played one herself, and had never imagined herself as a bard. She certainly enjoyed music - who didn’t? - but she had very little musical talent, and had barely managed a handful of years of piano lessons in primary school. Of all the classes she might have considered for herself, a bard was at the very bottom of the list.
“Surely it’s not set in stone,” Avery mused aloud. “The quest said I should be able to pick my class once I finish this trial. I’ll be able to choose from multiple classes, right? Maybe this is just an option.” She nodded to herself, and reached down to give Camlen another pat before standing. “Thank you again. I promise I’ll be careful from now on.” The dog seemed to accept her words and he stood as well, then began to wander back towards the Temple of Life. Avery smiled as she watched him disappear behind a turn in the path. Around her, she could hear the sounds of the city, but it suddenly felt… raw. It reminded her of when she watched a part of a movie without any soundtrack. It had dialogue and sound effects, but no music. The movie had felt unreal and discordant, without the soundtrack to direct her attention, her emotions, her energy. This felt the same, and Avery found herself yearning to reach back to the music, knowing that she could hear it again if she only let herself listen.
“No. Focus, Avery. You promised you’d be careful.” Shaking her head at herself, Avery straightened her shoulders and stepped onto the path that led back towards the city. It was time to finish her trial.
* * *
The northern-most quadrant of the city of Isonar held the Nobles District, which abutted the palace, where Queen Fohrea lived and ruled. The Nobles District, aptly named for the lords and upper class that lived and worked there, was surrounded by its own smaller set of walls to separate it from the rest of the city. The gates between the Nobles District and the rest of the city were generally kept open day and night, and the guards didn’t exactly restrict who entered the district, but they did make note of any who did not have a residence or worker’s license. City-goers were sometimes blacklisted from entering the Nobles District, but that was only for those who were caught committing crimes against the lords and ladies who lived there. If a person kept their hands clean, they were welcome in the neighborhood no matter their appearance or station.
Still, there were those among the populace who had no intention of letting the guards track their movements going in and out of the district. They instead found other passages through the inner walls. These entrances were themselves monitored, not by the city guard, but by the local thieves’ guild. The guild tracked those who used the secret entrances with the same devotion as the city guards tracked those who used the gates, and, surprisingly, they enforced the same blacklist that the city guards did, though for different reasons. The thieves’ guild of Isonar had a vital role in the social dynamics of the city, and the leaders of the guild would allow nothing to threaten the power and influence that they wielded from the shadows. To that end, chaos and social unrest was anathema to their design, so while the leaders of the guild had no qualms about lifting the purse or valuables from a nobleman of the city, any member of the guild who got caught doing such would not be granted a second opportunity to bring unwanted attention to the guild. In short, it was not the crime itself for which the thieves’ guild might blacklist their members from the Noble’s District - it was the act of getting caught.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Dordryn Vettlemark could have entered through either the official or secret entrances into the Noble’s District and he used both regularly, depending on the purpose for his visit. On this day, he used a third entrance, one that only 3 other people knew about. The passage through the center of the outer wall led into a canal of water straight from the mountain streams that flowed through the Noble’s District, and the grate through which the water flowed appeared rusted and securely shut. No one looking at the grate would have believed that it could open, much less that its hinges were well oiled and allowed it to slide away quietly.
The grate was hidden behind a tall hedge so that even if anyone had been in the area, enjoying the afternoon in the public park that grew along the canal, they wouldn’t have seen Dordyn slip out of the hole in the wall and lock the gate behind him, then hop up onto the path and saunter out through the park as if he was just one more lord going for a stroll.
The tall elf wore a slate gray suit of trim lines and polished black shoes. His long obsidian-black hair was tied back in a braid that hung to his waist and the curved tips of his ears were lined with dozens of small silver hoops. His eyes were the color of tarnished silver and were constantly shifting as he scanned his surroundings. He didn’t relax even as he stepped into the main thoroughfare and slid into the crowd of people moving through the district, but no one spared him a glance - just another nobleman going about his business.
At the center of the Noble’s District stood the Dancing Swan, the most exclusive inn in all of Isonar. Instead of a tavern, the inn boasted a prestigious restaurant for the most exclusive of patrons. Tables at the Dancing Swan required reservations months in advance and patrons were expected to dress appropriately - diners in casual wear would be politely turned away at the door.
When Dordryn entered the Dancing Swan, the maitre de simply nodded in his direction before turning his attention back to the young human couple who stood nervously nearby. The woman wore a dress of deep blue silks, while the young man’s black slacks were paired with a simple green jacket. Dordryn barely spared the couple a glance, but that’s all he needed to size them up. The jewelry that the woman wore was tasteful, but not extravagant, and while their clothes fit them fine, they weren’t tailor made for them. The young man had one hand in a pocket, fidgeting with what he held in there, and both of them stared around at their surroundings in awe and wonder. Dordryn hid a smirk as he moved past the maitre de into the restaurant proper. The couple were clearly not of noble rank, but not poor either. They had either rented or borrowed their outfits to enjoy a special night, starting with a dinner at the Dancing Swan. They were probably planning to attend the Dawn's Light Theatre after dinner and, unless Dordryn had missed his mark, the young man had every intention of proposing to his lady before the night was out.
Ah, to be young and in love.
Dordryn chuckled to himself as he bypassed the main room of the restaurant and passed under the archway that led into the backrooms of the inn. He nodded to the chef and his two assistants, then opened a door in the back of the room and stepped into the darkness beyond, descending down the stairs into the wine cellar. At the bottom of the stairs, casks and kegs sat in rows along most of the walls and almost all of the center, leaving barely enough room to maneuver around them. If there was something the Dancing Swan was even more famous for than its restaurant, it was its wine. The grapes were grown on a private orchard just up the slopes from the city, and the recipe was a secret that few were ever privy to. The sales of the Dancing Swan’s two labels - a merlot and a chardonnay - made more money for the business owners than the restaurant and the inn's rooms combined.
As part owner himself, Dordryn was very proud of the success of the Dancing Swan, but on this particular trip, he barely glanced at the kegs and casks. He moved past them to a well-hiden door against the back wall. It unlocked with another key from his keyring, and opened into a long hallway. Despite being deep underground, the hallway was wide and well-lit with colored lanterns, the stone walls decorated periodically with various framed cityscapes of the capital. Dordryn passed doors on either side of the hallway made of thick, polished maple, and decorated with intricate designs, some with labels beside the doors to indicate either owner or purpose of the rooms beyond. A few of the doors had guards, men or women in the dark leather tunics of the Isonar thieve’s guild, all of whom nodded respectfully to the elf and let him pass. At last, Dordryn turned into a door on the right which had no label. Beyond, the large room was set up as an office space, with a wide desk facing the door through which Dordryn had entered, and floor-to-ceiling shelves against one wall that held all manner of books and scrolls. Behind the desk, a middle-aged tiefling woman was copying something out of a tome onto a scroll. She looked up as Dordyn entered and set her quill down.
“Lord Vettlemark. I wasn’t expecting you.” Her tone was respectful, but stern. This was a woman who kept the business of thievery running smoothly and did not appreciate the unexpected.
“I’m sorry for not sending word, Terese.” Dordryn responded, equally respectful, but with a great deal more authority. “It couldn’t be helped. I need to speak to the boss.”
Terese pursed her lips, then nodded and stood. She led Dordryn to the door in the back of the room, then knocked twice and entered, letting Dordryn follow her in. Unsurprisingly, this office was twice the size of Terese’s and held a large sitting area in one corner. The man who sat behind this desk had fiery red hair and bright green eyes that looked up and narrowed at Dordyn as he entered.
“Lord Cipher,” the elf gave a bow. “Forgive my intrusion. I have come across some information that I thought imperative for you to hear immediately.”
The man stared at Dordryn for another few seconds, then nodded to his secretary. “Thank you, Terese.” The tiefling bowed, then stepped back out of the room, closing the door behind her.
For a long moment after she was gone, the two men stared at each other, neither speaking. Then, abruptly, the man behind the desk relaxed and settled back in his chair, giving the elf a smile. “Dordryn. Welcome back.”
Dordryn relaxed as well and lowered himself into one of the plush visitor armchairs. “Grad. Good to be back. How have things been on the home front?”
Grad shrugged. “Mostly as you’d expect. A few deals going down, but nothing major. We made contact with the new guild forming in Peligark.”
“I heard that,” Dordryn nodded. “That Seikra’s doing?”
Grad laughed and shook his head. “No, her hands are clean there. She’s been busy elsewhere.”
“Busy?” Dordryn smirked. “Is that your excuse?”
At the ribbing, Grad shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Come off it, Dor. You know how it is.”
“Oh, yeah. You know she knows, right? She’s waiting to see how long it will take you to grow a pair and ask her.”
Grad pursed his lips, then shook his head. “I know you didn’t come back just to heckle me about Seikra. What do you need, Dordryn?”
As the subject shifted, Dordryn straightened. “I have something. I need to speak to him.”
“He doesn’t like uninvited guests. You know that, too.”
“Yeah, well, this can’t be helped. Is he in?”
Grad sat silent for a long moment, then sighed and nodded. “Yeah, he’s in. But it’s on your head.”
Dordryn grunted and stood. “You’ve been getting too comfortable, sitting in your plush office. Maybe it’s time someone stepped into the fire. Might as well be me.” He turned to one of the tall bookshelves and pulled a thick tome out, then reached to the back wall of the shelf and pressed his hand against a small panel, watching as the entire bookshelf slid aside to reveal a hidden passageway. “But I’ll give you a piece of advice… my gut is telling me that things will be getting very busy, very soon. If you don’t say something to Seikra now… you may not get another chance for some time.” He shot Grad a pointed look, then stepped into the passageway and let the bookcase close behind him.