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tamingthemuseTitle: Even on Paper.
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Coda
Warnings: None.
Rating: G
Summary: Sari finds something she never expected to encounter.
Whatever made Sari pick up this parchment, she’d never know. Her life would have been so much better without it. Really, it would have been.
She now sat on the cold stone floor of the ancient temple, surrounded by her own books and other decaying and crumpled papers as she fought to understand the strange words on the parchment.
Her group had long ago left her to it as she plucked a pen from behind her ear and made notes in a book. Maybe…
She frowned and scratched it out. This stupid thing was in a language she should have been able to understand, but somehow couldn’t. The words and other strange markings were all thrown together haphazardly and left her with an aching head.
The worst part was that she felt that this parchment was more important than the rest.
She had found it sealed away in a vault and carefully preserved against time and water and all those other nasty things that ate away at parchment. The ancients must have really cared about this jumbled mess of words and random marks.
Sighing, Sari leaned back against the heavy stone that made up the great walls of the temple and banged her head against it. She felt like she was getting nowhere. The words didn’t make sense at all, and the random markings didn’t help at all.
She stared up at the distant ceiling, then frowned as she noticed words marked up there too. She squinted her eyes to see better and cursed lightly as she realized that the words up there made just about as much sense as the words on the paper. They were all nonsense and it was starting to really frustrate her.
She began tapping her fingers on her thigh as her mind began to wonder to other, less frustrating things. Her group had mounted those stairs over there when she had stalled in befuddlement at the strange pattern of words, leaving her to it. She wondered what mess they were getting in. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the bit of air rushing through the small hall.
She wondered if they found anymore books? Or maybe a codex for this strange writing. The tempo of her fingers grew with her thoughts until she suddenly noticed a spirit next to her, watching her fingers with huge pools of black of eyes.
It was an air spirit, an air elemental, tiny and wispy. It had no body, but a mass of swirling air and dust that made up where a body should be. Its head was tear shaped and the eyes took up more than half its face. It had a tiny slit of a mouth and its whole head bobbed with the rhythm of her fingers.
Sari grinned and changed the tune of her tapping and watched as the air elemental got excited watching her. Sari played a tune she knew and the elemental began humming along, sounding like a flute.
They played a song together and Sari laughed. “Well, little one, I’m impressed. You really like music, don’t you?”
The spirit looked up at her with the dark, dark eyes and the little mouth smiled. “This is the manse of an ancient Solar that loved music.”
Sari blinked in surprise and looked back up at the words on the ceiling. “It’s music, isn’t it?”
The air rushed up to the ceiling and spun about a moment. “If you play the music, the manse comes to life.”
Sari stood, pushing herself up with help from the wall. She still clutched the parchment in her hand. If that’s the music to play, what’s this?”
The air returned to her side, ruffling her hair and making the parchment rustle. “That’s the coda. If you don’t have both, the magic won’t work.” It turned to the ceiling. “That’s the first part of the spell.” It looked back at the parchment in her hand. “And that’s the ending of it. If you play one without the other, the alarm system awakens and you’ll die.”
Sari gulped and looked back up at the ceiling.
Now, who did she know that could read music?
Fandom: Original
Prompt: Coda
Warnings: None.
Rating: G
Summary: Sari finds something she never expected to encounter.
Whatever made Sari pick up this parchment, she’d never know. Her life would have been so much better without it. Really, it would have been.
She now sat on the cold stone floor of the ancient temple, surrounded by her own books and other decaying and crumpled papers as she fought to understand the strange words on the parchment.
Her group had long ago left her to it as she plucked a pen from behind her ear and made notes in a book. Maybe…
She frowned and scratched it out. This stupid thing was in a language she should have been able to understand, but somehow couldn’t. The words and other strange markings were all thrown together haphazardly and left her with an aching head.
The worst part was that she felt that this parchment was more important than the rest.
She had found it sealed away in a vault and carefully preserved against time and water and all those other nasty things that ate away at parchment. The ancients must have really cared about this jumbled mess of words and random marks.
Sighing, Sari leaned back against the heavy stone that made up the great walls of the temple and banged her head against it. She felt like she was getting nowhere. The words didn’t make sense at all, and the random markings didn’t help at all.
She stared up at the distant ceiling, then frowned as she noticed words marked up there too. She squinted her eyes to see better and cursed lightly as she realized that the words up there made just about as much sense as the words on the paper. They were all nonsense and it was starting to really frustrate her.
She began tapping her fingers on her thigh as her mind began to wonder to other, less frustrating things. Her group had mounted those stairs over there when she had stalled in befuddlement at the strange pattern of words, leaving her to it. She wondered what mess they were getting in. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the bit of air rushing through the small hall.
She wondered if they found anymore books? Or maybe a codex for this strange writing. The tempo of her fingers grew with her thoughts until she suddenly noticed a spirit next to her, watching her fingers with huge pools of black of eyes.
It was an air spirit, an air elemental, tiny and wispy. It had no body, but a mass of swirling air and dust that made up where a body should be. Its head was tear shaped and the eyes took up more than half its face. It had a tiny slit of a mouth and its whole head bobbed with the rhythm of her fingers.
Sari grinned and changed the tune of her tapping and watched as the air elemental got excited watching her. Sari played a tune she knew and the elemental began humming along, sounding like a flute.
They played a song together and Sari laughed. “Well, little one, I’m impressed. You really like music, don’t you?”
The spirit looked up at her with the dark, dark eyes and the little mouth smiled. “This is the manse of an ancient Solar that loved music.”
Sari blinked in surprise and looked back up at the words on the ceiling. “It’s music, isn’t it?”
The air rushed up to the ceiling and spun about a moment. “If you play the music, the manse comes to life.”
Sari stood, pushing herself up with help from the wall. She still clutched the parchment in her hand. If that’s the music to play, what’s this?”
The air returned to her side, ruffling her hair and making the parchment rustle. “That’s the coda. If you don’t have both, the magic won’t work.” It turned to the ceiling. “That’s the first part of the spell.” It looked back at the parchment in her hand. “And that’s the ending of it. If you play one without the other, the alarm system awakens and you’ll die.”
Sari gulped and looked back up at the ceiling.
Now, who did she know that could read music?
