„This is truly breathtaking, we have never seen such a vast storage of undiscovered knowledge and culture…what is this?“
Master Skywalker had walked to the closest thing in here.
„That is a grand piano, master. It’s the musical instrument I am the most proficient in at the moment. I think there are already a few recordings of me playing it circling around the holonet, to play it you have to open this lid over the claviature“
After I opened it, he looked at me questioningly and with a short nod from me he pressed down the d‘ key, with a little bit too much force, the note came out rather hard.
„Oh, I think now I remember the sound“ master J’zargo had come over, while the other masters had fanned out, each looking at something else, „but in the recordings it sounds more beautiful.“
I smiled at him and refuted: „Not exactly. Master Skywalker just doesn’t have the training to produce the sound a proficient player can. His finger was stuck out straight and he pressed the key without any caution or control, producing a very hard note, something you mostly try to avoid if you’re not playing something that needs that kind of sound. If I want to produce a soft sound I bend my fingers and press the key with little force, like I’m trying to pet the the instrument.
There is a saying I found somewhere in this storage: „Love the piano and it will love you back“. To play this instrument as good as possible, you need both the right technique and the right musicality, that means interpretation and emotion.“
„Like this?“ Master Skywalker tried again, this time the note wasn’t as hard and loud as before, but still the typical sound produced by a beginner.
„Let me show you.“ I shushed him away and sat down on the stool. Closing my eyes I took a deep breath and placed my hands on the keys. This was the first time I would play in front of somebody else in my second life, I had almost forgotten the feeling of nervousness I always had before a performance, no matter which piece I would present, no matter who or how many people listened, always the same feeling.
I leaned forward changing my posture from the straight, normal exercising posture to a rather bent one.
I breathed in deeply again and started to play. This was one of my favorite works for piano, as well as one of the best known from my first world. A rather unusual sonata. The first movement, adagio sostenuto (slow and sustained), was very melancholic and mournful, maybe even a bit suffering and I preferred to play it rather slowly – slower than average for this piece -, the pitch never travelling very high. This movement had three voices, the lowest moving mostly in long accords, the middle one a constant stream of broken chords played in tercets, the upper voice, which mostly held the melody moving soft and slow.
The second movement was a Scherzo in Allegretto (a little quick), a very lighthearted and innocent piece and in my opinion the least notable of this particular sonata, but it contrasted nicely with the other two movements. The famous hungarian pianist Franz Liszt described it as „a flower between two chasms“.
The third movement, presto agitato (fast, agitated), a very emotionally … you know, agitated piece, full of furious, fast paced note chains and the occasional staccato part, raging all over the keyboard.
This sonata was unusual, because unlike normal sonatas it’s slow movement opened the sonata, whereas most sonatas had first a fast, then a slow and at the end another fast movement.
While playing I tried and mostly succeeded to reach the state that produced the best music: Being one with the instrument. That may sound really cheesy, but a decent musician can if he or she knows a piece well enough let the music flow out of their fingers or whatever other part is needed to play the instrument by itself and solely concentrate on pouring his or her emotions into the piece.
It isn’t necessary for the piece to be played technically perfect, in nine of ten cases a piece played with a few faults, but while being one with the instrument is much better than the same piece played with impeccable perfection and accuracy, but little emotion in it. Of course that always depends on the style of music, the former description can not be applied to pieces that require said perfection and accuracy, but this sonata isn’t one of them.
I played and forgot anything else around me, there was only me and the music, playing it and moving with it, giving it life and transmitting it’s unfathomable tragedy to the world around me.
When I finished my hands stayed on the keys of the last chord, my head bowed forward, close to the claviature as I relished in the silence, before slowling straightening up, releasing the breath I held at the end and letting all the tension streaming out with it.
The pause after the music, something really important for both the audience and the musician after the music had ended, an unspoken rule among the people playing and listening to the many styles and epochs of classical music. A moment that still held the atmosphere that exists during the performance of a musician and ends when the musician releases the tension.
Even people who normally don’t listen to classical music are able to sense this moment (though some are too ignorant and start clapping before the end of that moment and end up destroying the mood), so it was no big surprise that the council members only started clapping after the moment was gone.
I had totally forgotten that they were in the same room, so I was a bit startled. Though I will always deny that I blushed when they began to compliment my performance. I didn’t blush. Really.
„Thank you. You probably have never heard of the composer of this sonata: Ludwig van Beethoven. A genius musician and composer, who was also deaf. Imagine that, he composed music like this when he couldn’t hear anything, though I don’t know when in his life he lost his hearing. The piece you heard just now is his opus 27 no. 2 and was dubbed the ‚moonlight sonata‘, one of his most famous works.“
In the end the council allowed me to take whatever and however much I wanted from the vault, since it was me who discovered it. I decided to take one grand piano (the one I had played on), one violin and an archive of the internet.
Before they left earth, humanity had copied all the content of the internet onto a single data storage, which was understandably way too large for me to take with me, but technology had advanced, a single data spike was sufficient enough to store all the data, though the problem was that the terminal connections of the original internet storage weren’t accessible for the data spike, it had taken me nearly six months (before I was a padawan) to build an adapter capable of connecting the spike and the storage and translating the data from the old data language to the new one.
I also took the best computer in the storage, along with the best screen, I wouldn’t be able to access that data from a holo terminal and even though color holos had spread over the past millenium, everything in this storage was designed for a two dimensional screen, it just wouldn’t feel right on holo.
I left on the same day, but this time I didn’t use the public transport, but a ship belonging to the dubrillionian senator, better this way, I didn’t think I would be able to get on another one of those public transports after what happened last time.
During the flight I spent most of my time sitting in my room watching series and movies and reading webnovels. Even I needed a break once in a while and I wouldn’t be able to train on the ship anyway, too many people around that would distract me. Though they wouldn’t really. I just didn’t want to do anything at that moment, just relax and not worry about anything, I was going on a vacation after all.
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That didn’t stop me from pranking, I mean practicing my skills on the crew by using both mind manipulation and telekinesis. There was for example this one guy, who seemed to always trip when he walked into and out of his room. He even exchanged his quarters with someone elses, that didn’t help at all.
I didn’t really do only annoying stuff to them, there was this one guy who had fallen in love with the captain – who was a woman by the way -, but was too shy to confess his feelings, unknowing that the captain felt the same vise versa. With a little help from the crew I arranged a private dinner for the two of them, in a perfect romantic atmosphere, an opportunity they couldn’t refuse. Because we trapped the two of them alone in the prepared room and didn’t let them out for the whole evening and following night. A little sneaky perhaps, but hey it brought them together.
I could have just used mind manipulation for that one, but it highly clashed with my morals to manipulate others mind when concerning such matters. Little odd things, like a skip in the step or a short jump with no reason I didn’t have a problem with, but messing permanently with someone elses mind and life is despicable.
All in all it was a relaxing flight, lasting just a few days and when we came out of the hyperspace – I was on the bridge for that occasion – I could see a beautiful green and blue planet, similar to earth, but with different continents and oceans.
After we entered the atmosphere I could see the surface of the planet and was awed. Yes, there was a big population on Dubrillion, but the cities where filled with green, everywhere were plants and docile animals freely strolling around, the rest of the planet was covered in nature and oceans, all in all a planet rivaling the legendary former planet Alderaan in beauty.
The crew brought me towards the biggest metropolis on the planet, Draydon, which was truly gigantic. Especially in the middle of the city, where huge mansions stood side by side, surrounding the biggest building in the city: the palace.
My father had previously complained that the palace was way too huge and didn’t want to move in there, but the citizens left him no other choice. After it had been heavily damaged in the dubrillion rebellion the commonfolk of the capital had worked in cooperation to repair and further expand it, were my father to decline moving into the palace, it would be something akin to an insult to the citizens, who had worked tirelessly in order to repair their royal families‘ home.
I was glad for that. The palace was huge, which meant there were many places to hide from the crowd if it got too much for me, and from what I could see from the ship, behind the palace and in many of it’s yards there were lush gardens, the whole property stretching on for miles.
Our ship landed on a small indoors platform within the confines of the palace grounds, though I didn’t see our landing. I was already on my way to the ships exit and when I felt the small landing jerk I immediately opened the door and quickly walked out, two steps from the ship and I found myself trapped in the arms of my mother, though unlike the former reunions it wasn‘t me who cried loudly but my mother, though I too had a few tears forming in my eyes.
Just a second later I felt somebody embrace me from behind and was able to identify the familiar scent of my father, he didn’t cry like mother, but I could feel the deep warmth and love from his hug.
„Hi Mom, Dad, I’m home.“
The reunion with my family was tearful. Describing it would surpass my ability to convey it in words. Anyway, as a result I was stuck with a Cathar stuck to me. Literally. My mother didn’t want to let me go for at least three hours after my return and that was without me telling them what happened to me during my absence. I just couldn’t burden them with all that had happened to me.
Of course it was impossible to hide the fact that yes, I had been kidnapped and held captive for two years, but at least I could hide the torture from them, it definitely helped that all the evidence had been healed. I even tried to summon up my often smiling personality again, though I wasn’t sure I was able to fool them.
I also met my little, almost six years old brother Marco and my one year old sister Sina. I would like to say that we hit it off well, but Marco wasn’t really happy to see me. I didn’t really understand why though. All the times we had spoken over holo he seemed to like me well enough.
He wasn’t a nekomata like me, but a full cathar, though he inherited our fathers coloring, he had blond fur and pale eyes, honestly he looked really cute. The problem was that as soon as I had come out of the initial hug of my parents and walked up to him, mother still having an arm around my shoulders, his former smile changed into an angry frown and he turned to run away and avoid me from then on. Even at mealtimes he didn’t want to acknowledge me at all, talking even to our parents only in a quiet and strained voice. When I asked my parents about it they just exchanged a strange look and told me he’d come around.
I was almost tempted to get the information directly from his mind, but I had already decided long ago to not unnecessarily read the deep thoughts of others and not even the surface thoughts of my family. Technically it wasn’t morally correct to read others mind at all, even surface thoughts, but because of the prejudice against my species I heard of on my first day, I decided to make it a habit for my own safety. It may seem a bit extreme considering I would just be reincarnated into the next life, even if I were to die, but I was quite comfortable with my current body and chances. Besides there could always be a limit to how often you could be reincarnated. It was never mentioned by anybody, but knowing Bob he could have implemented something like that and forgotten about it, or just hadn’t told anybody.
Nobody had bothered me because of my species yet and I had considered stopping scanning the surface thoughts of all surrounding people, but after the last two years I would never ever stop doing that.
A special exception were the other champions, the information from their minds would increase my chances in the tournament. It may be a bit unfair, but I really needed to ensure my win, imagine if somebody unsuitable gained control over something as important as time, it was for the greater good. I didn’t like the phrase „greater good“ either, but sometimes you need to think about what’s better for the highest amount of people possible, or necessary for a better future. The privacy of a relatively small number of people is not as important as a suitable person to control time itself.
So in the end I decided against using my powers to understand his hostility to me, but it still bothered me, he was family after all.
Sina on the other hand was completely human with mothers colorings. Short pure white hair like mine, just, well, shorter and without the cat ears, and beautiful blue eyes. She seemed to like me, at least as far as I could tell, she didn’t immediately begin to scream when I first picked her up at our first meeting and she let me play with her.
All in all I was quite happy in my family‘s home, which in reality was only a small part of the palace. I didn’t really know why it was so huge, most of the rooms where empty, it was just way too big for a family of five…and their ministers, delegates and the army of butlers, maids and droids, as well as all of their families. I had been there for three days and spent those three days only in the part of the palace reserved for my family, either with my family, in my room making music and relaxing or in an out of the way garden meditating and training with my lightsaber. During the latter I could swear I felt my little brother watching me, though I had no idea why.
On my fourth day on Dubrillion I would meet a few of the movers and shakers of the government, nothing too formal - my staying here was not that well known yet - just a few introductions to who I would work together with and their families. I was here officialy to learn the art of diplomacy after all.
But in the night before that something else did happen. Something terribly frightening and worrying.
My reunion with my other little brother, Deuces.
It was a rather normal night, Luna and I were spending the night alone this time, at the moment we were singing together, my lesson with her had just ended and she wanted to sing a duett with me, when the door opened – the door to Luna’s living room was really amazing, it took you whereever you wanted to go in the deity plane, as long as it wasn’t warded for privacy and everybody who was permitted in her house would pop up from that door – and a slim elven boy around the age of eight stepped through, while saying: „Hi Luna, how…“
He stopped, looking at me with widened eyes.
I smiled at him, a true, warm smile that lit up my whole face, one of the few real smiles I had smiled in the last few weeks.
„Yo lil‘ bro, how’s your girlfriend?“ I couldn’t help it. I lately had had way too many teary reunions, at least one had to be a little funny, besides it’s fun to tease the younger siblings that don’t try to ignore you.
His cheeks got really red and he automatically responded angrily: „She’s not my girlfriend!“
It was good to be back.
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So, here is the next chapter...a little late.
The long waiting time doesn't mean I spent more time on the chapter, I just wasn't in the mood to write on this story, the little block I had around the middle of the chapter didn't help.
IMPORTANT
I may not be able to update this story weekly in the future. The next semester is about to start and my schedule is much tighter than the last one, so don't expect me to update weekly.
If you want to make a suggestion for the story's name, just comment or PM me.
IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE MOONLIGHT SONATA YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO IT IMMEDIATELY.
NOT IMPORTANT
How many people remembered Ces' full name? And how many remembered, what the tournament is all about?
I'm not confident in this chapter, those who read this far could you please tell me if it's acceptable?
Concerning Shira's little brother Marco, has any of you any idea what's up with him? Cause I don't.
Well that's it for today, see you in the comments.