Chapter 13 - Song of Hope

~ Nine cycles of the seasons - 14 Years earlier ~

The cold light of the full moon blessed the city and the Academy of Spyres, the fortress of the Arcana. The home and largest collective of sorcerers, mages, arcanists, and alchemists on the continent. The city that surrounded it was quiet this evening, a hush had descended on all quarters, its people waiting in a respectful silence as the sun had set. The many trees in the forest of the Chancellor’s sanctuary were starting to brown; their reddening leaves beginning to fall, autumn making its mark. Kelis swept through the canopy, her wings only making the slightest sigh in passing, rustling some leaves that fell behind her. She came in at a swoop, dusting over Lia’s shoulder from behind and sweeping up onto a low branch, her wings outstretched, slowing her momentum. Settling herself, she tucked her wings and watched.

Lia settled herself in the middle of the forest, a clearing of lush grass and fallen leaves. She stopped, looking to Kelis as the owl watched her intently. Half a year had passed since she had accepted Eira Lin’s offer and had arrived at the academy. In that time she had begun her learning, guided studiously by Jaina and her father, Harks. Her adopted mother, Eira had taken her under her wing, both teaching her the basics of politics and that of the Arcana beyond Lia’s thread from the day after her turning nine.

Lia sat on a small mat, crossing her legs and reaching to the black, embossed, boiled leather case of her guqin. She drew it close, her thumbs resting for a moment on the clasps before snapping them open. The forest was filled with a gentle glow that was not bright and mixed with the moonlight it made the polished black lacquered surface of the instrument seem to soak in the light and give the impression that ghostly forms shifted and swirled within it. Lia gently caressed the strings before lifting it out and settling it across her knees. She reached and tapped the lid back into place.

As the lid dropped to a close, her eyes met the soft mesmerising lavender orbs of the dryad.

“Are you,” she gasped, quickly lowering her voice as the dryad flinched and squinted at her, “Are you the dryad that tends these woods?” Lia leaned forward, “It is so nice to meet you, my name is…”

“Your name is Lia, watching you I have.” said the fae, the grass around her feet growing like tendrils.

The dryad stood, her height coming to little more than a child of five, yet the matured body of a woman in her prime, taut and lithe. Her umber hair silvered in the moonlight, wild and tumbling over her shoulders, her bare supple skin of rich walnut. Her peculiar beauty both enchanting and unnerving to a mortal’s eye.

“Watching you from this tree and that, sometimes when sleeping.” suddenly the dryad was at her ear, her small hand raised to tell a secret, “Ivyana.” she whispered.

Lia’s eyes widened, “Ivy…” she stopped, Ivyana’s finger pressed to her lips.

“You use, Ivy. Only real name when in real trouble. Power it has.” said Ivyana in a conspiratorial manner, checking if anyone else were listening.

“This, music you make with this, it makes me quiet inside.” Ivyana said, her eyes bright and looking at the guqin lovingly, “It is like secret inside is being let out, from Lia’s fingers.”

Lia watched her with wide eyes, her movements as she tried to inspect the instrument, “Ivy?”

Ivyana stopped and met Lia’s eyes.

“Tonight I will play a sad song, it was my mother’s favourite.”

Ivyana glanced at Lia, “Sad?” she stepped back and forth as if pondering a thought, she stopped and looked at Lia, “I do not know what this ‘sad’ means. Don’t tell you saw me.”

Lia watched Ivyana as she suddenly went taut, turning quickly and running, her form evaporating into the shadows as she concealed herself in a tree.

“Lia?”

Lia turned, “Papa.” she called back, waiting for Harks to find her.

She glanced at the tree that Ivyana had concealed herself in, but could not see her. Harks walked the path silently, she could make out his gentle smile as he came up to her and removed the case, placing it aside.

“Dearest daughter, I am here.” Harks said, crouching before her and carefully sliding some of her loose copper hair back behind her ear.

“Papa, it is so quiet in the city tonight, it is like everyone is sleeping.”

Harks nodded, “It is the custom here that on the anniversary of the death of those loved by the people or those of great import that silence is observed from dusk to dawn. Grief to hope, stories to heal the loss and the dawn of a new beginning. This will be observed for the next eight years.”

Lia stared at him in realisation, “Papa, who was Odessia to these people?”

Harks looked at her wistfully, “She was many things. To you, dearest daughter, your grand-aunt and your mother for a time; to me a dear friend and mentor; to dear Jaina, a teacher and inspiration, to Eira…” he stopped as he saw Lia nodding, “To the people… Soon you will know.” he said, his voice growing husky.

“Papa, I want to do something special tonight.” she said, running her finger tips over the strings gently, drawing a faint strum from it.

“Special?”

Lia nodded, still keeping her eyes averted, “I want to,” she glanced up at him, meeting his eyes, “I promise I won’t over extend, I know what it feels like, I can stop before then.”

Harks nodded slowly, “So this is what you have been up to, you have been preparing for this.” he quietly looked around the clearing, “An extra serving at lunch and dinner, sleeping in this morning and having a nap this afternoon.” he said with a chuckle.

“Papa, can I?”

Harks met her eyes, “As you wish, dearest daughter.”

“Can you keep an eye on me, just in case?”

He nodded, running the back of his fingers against her cheek, “Be careful.”

Lia met his eyes and gave him a small smile and a nod, watching him stand and seat himself on one of the simple stone benches behind her. Lia slowly started to pick at the strings, letting the notes fall like gentle rain as she waited. She let her eyes close, the pick and brush of the strings on her fingertips were comforting. But this time it would be different, it felt as if the whole city were waiting for her music. The stillness in the city was almost oppressive as she looked out over it from the edge of the abutment, the streets were still moving but conversations were hushed in respect.

Here in the forest it was different, it was still, the sounds of the city did not penetrate any further than the outermost trees. The breeze seemed to be borrowed from the mountain passes, fresh and clean inside its confines. It always seemed bigger than it was, a trick of the dryad to be sure, that if you wished to be lost or wanted for a time to be far away, the forest seemed endless and hours could be lost just trying to find the middle. But the very moment you wished to take a short-cut in haste, cutting through the forest it was a quick journey of less than a minute.

She had asked Eira about it not long after she arrived, passing through the forest and finding her guardian in her private study. Eira’s ice-blue eyes smiled at her in amusement as she listened to Lia’s animated concerns about the density and how it did not make sense. What followed was Eira taking her out into the forest, the white-haired wilderelf and her walking among the trees and quietly talking, Eira explaining the magic that made her sanctuary such a special place. Lia was surprised when the sun was close to setting and they hadn’t came across any edge despite walking all afternoon.

Lia felt a slender hand on her shoulder. The few strands of white falling in the breeze letting her know that Eira had arrived.

“We are all here, Lia.” she said softly, a warmth in her voice, “We are here with you, for her.”

Lia nodded slowly, feeling Eira move back. She gently ran her fingers over the strings until she felt ready. Somehow she knew that the people in the city would hear her playing, just like she knew the people of Heimlan’s Pass could hear every note she played of a morning. Without opening her eyes she struck the first true note of the song that passed from her mother to her. It rang out clear, dancing about the clearing and flittered through the trees. The song she had played more than any other erupted from her. She was at its mercy, the rhythm and notes being struck by her fingertips as she felt the pain and grief of the past wash through her. The loss of her parents and of Odessia were replaced by a steely calm, the people who cared for her now all felt that chasm of loss inside.

Where they had found her, she had accepted them. They had become her family, loving, protecting and unlike any other. She smiled and for the first time she did not feel sorrow when thinking of what could not be righted. Instead she thought of what she had gained, of Harks, Eira, Jaina and Erann. She did not need to be afraid anymore. She thought of Orlwen, Rietta, their boys and the other villagers back at her home in the mountains. How she was so loved by all. The first tear started to wet her cheek, not a tear of pain and sorrow; but of happiness.

She opened her eyes in the dim light, the first azure embers coming to life within those amber depths, growing and sparking until her eyes were ablaze. Fuelled by her lightness of heart, they spilled out leaving a ghostly shimmer on the black lacquer of her guqin as the notes continued to caress the night air with their song. Maybe it was her imagination, but the silence backing her playing was even deeper than before, the night air almost frozen with its clarity. Losing herself in the song with her eyes half-lidded, her ethereal fire burned from the slits, she let her thread come to life, guided by her emotions and the play of the notes that plucked and strummed through the moonlit night.

A gentle breeze picked up, stirring the free strands of her copper hair. Blue embers bleeding from her like tears that danced on a gentle breeze, frolicking and shimmering as they spread out. Lia continued to play, each cascade of notes and chords sending the ethereal flames further into the forest as floating embers of light, bathing the trees in their luminescence. She frowned in concentration, expanding the volume making each ember multiply and become like glowing azure snowflakes.

She felt Harks’s hand on her shoulder, her playing increasing in intensity as he squeezed gently.

“Dearest daughter, this is how it looked that night before we found you.” he said quietly.

She nodded slightly, adding a flourish to the continued song, the transparent flakes of azure overflowing the forest and starting to float out over the city from the Chancellor’s Sanctuary. Like mist brimming out from a goblet of freezing water, slowly drifting down and dispersing among the quickly gathering crowds of citizens. Their silent faces upturned in wonder, the song of Lia’s guqin like a gentle half-remembered sigh on the breeze. The feeling of hope flooding the populace as the snowflakes drifted down, dissipating over them like a quiet rain.