*Scene: The Youngling joining with the Artefact*
The sun’s light was pale and thin, it flattened the cityscape, smudging any hint of definition in to bland greyness. From their vantage point above the scant, bitter clouds The Brother and The Sister rode the icy winds. They both welcomed the peace that the strong, clean currents brought, and a sweet calm took refuge in their hearts. To be any closer to the ground would have meant exposure to the fetid air, the dirt and the noise. They would have been drenched in the overlapping, syncopated beats of the myriad people and their squawking, filling The Fang with taught, prickly anxiety. From this vantage point they could survey the whole city with peaceful and a watchful eye.
A flock of gulls wheeled and circled below the Sister, rising up from one of the back alleys where the birds had screeched and argued with each other over discarded scraps. The Sister watched her brother drinking in the clean air, for the first time since this hunt had begun, he looked at ease; more like his old self, from the time before hope had turned sour. She recalled their earlier days surfing the massive, curling gravity swells, surrounded by their kin. Feeling the adagio of the cosmic rhythms unfurl around them like a series of great waves breaking over them, one after another. She smiled and rolled over in the cleansing winds.
As the gulls flew off to find fresh scraps The Sister saw the first of them. A collection of fluid stains, dotted throughout the streets; oily shadows that slid through the cityscape with a patient malevolence. Unseen by the human inhabitants and strangely at odds with soft shadows and the pale, limpid sunlight. She closed her eyes, when she opened them, she knew her brother had seen The Many as well.
“What should we do Brother?”
“We cannot fight them,” her brother’s voice trembled in her mind, a concoction of fear, anger and grief. “We dare not break the code like the young Collectoris, that way leads to madness.”
“I know my dear, Mother knows we have shared madness enough, but we cannot let them simply take the Prize,” she looked down at the City and the innocent humans that filled the streets surrounding the music shop. “Brother,” she called out and nodded to the scene below them. “We cannot fight, but we can keep the people from harm.”
The Brother looked puzzled. His sibling smiled, “Do you remember the storm runs on Voltis?”
The Brother slowly nodded. His mouth spread into a wide grin, eyes glittering with the glorious memories. They arched their backs and flicked their tales and dove towards the music shop dragging the winds behind them.
Beyond the dusty room, with its creaky floorboards and the smell of long forgotten birds’ nests, the sun followed a low arc, chasing indistinct shadows across the street as it moved through the hard wintery sky. Inside the Haven the warm golden light was tireless and unending; the shadows, that at first seemed so soft and delicate; were as immovable as iron bars. Everything within the glow was cocooned, swaddled, held in a deceptively gentle embrace. As the afternoon continued the air became warmer and sweeter, it hung about the room all stifling and sticky. Emyr felt like a he was trapped on the edge of a vast pot of honey; an insect about to topple forward and be lost to the depths of a viscous golden sea.
If this goes on much longer, he closed his eyes and focused on his breathing. Then I am going to puke!
Aunty Carol stood to one side, caught in an animated, whispered, conversation with The Herald. The Herald looked worried, concern flashing gold and green across their torso. Emyr couldn’t see Aunty Carol’s face but the set of her shoulders and her clenched fists told him everything he needed to know.
“How is my prize doing?” Jynn appeared on his shoulder
“Terrible,” Emyr tried not to jump, he was still surprised whenever Jynn or Peck appeared next to him in this way. “It’s a lot to take in.”
“Yes, it is but, for some reason, they,” Jynn gestured to Aunty Carol and The Herald. “They seem to think you are up to the task. Maybe you should place a little more trust in them?”
“It’s not as simple as that! They are asking me to direct and focus powers that, up until recently, I had thought were…” Emyr looked at the floor and shrugged his shoulders.
“What?” Jynn grabbed Emyr’s collar to keep her balance.
“Sorry!” Emyr stopped moving, allowing Jynn to settle. “Well, I mean, the Music of the Spheres? The Harmonicus Universalis? I always thought it was all just a load of old nonsense, you know. Science has proven that it doesn’t really exist.”
“Science!” Jynn looked down her nose at Emyr’s sweat beaded face. “Human science is not what it’s cracked up to be youngling! Some of your kind may have dismissed the music years ago but, like the universe, scientific thought is in constant motion. I believe that there are some among your scientists who like to indulge in what they term sonification. You should look into that! There are beings across the cosmos that are listening! Or, you can ignore it and choose to distract yourself with nonsense!
Emyr, music is the common language of the universe. There are many races that have seen this and understood it. There a few races that still stubbornly refuse, Humanity is not alone in that. There are as many definitions of music as there are stars in the sky! Some scientific, others more esoteric. But, one of my favourite definitions translates to – more than mere words. It is simple and beautiful, don’t you think? It’s from an ancient language found on Cassia Proxima, a once thriving world. As I say, the universe can offer us many such definitions but somehow, I think that more than mere words suits you best.”
“There is something to that,” Emyr smiled, grateful for the kindness.
“Your mother certainly thought so. Did she never talk to you about the music? About her work as a Siren?”
“Mum worked in the local Co-op!” Emyr settled on the dusty floor, resting his back against a pillar; Jynn jumped from his shoulder to land by his left foot. “She talked a lot about music, all the time. I mean, all her stories had a song in them or a tune that she would hum. But they were just to help me to sleep better… to stop me from dreaming and…”
Jynn, looked at The Herald and Aunty Carol who were still deep in conversation, when she looked back up at Emyr her eyes glistened like dew wet stones. “Emyr, you mother was part of a powerful network. A universal choir. The Sirens are a living embodiment of The Harmonicus Universalis. The cosmos has so much harmony and rhythm to offer us Emyr, the Sirens help to breathe life into that music in ways that even my family are unable to. I think your mother taught you more than you realise.”
“I think that maybe you are right, somewhere, somehow I knew that,” Emyr’s mind stumbled. How did he know this? Where was this coming from? It was as if Jynn’s words had cracked open a window somewhere and a fresh breeze was moving through a musty old house. The shadowy house was a place you remembered visiting as child and now, many years later, you found yourself back in the same building but things weren’t quite as you recalled. The more time he spent with the families, and now the Sirens, the more he felt he knew. Or more accurately the more he felt he should know.
He had recognised the Brother and the Sister when they had chased him to the clock shop. He had recognised the other families when they appeared to him, that understanding had to have come from somewhere. But where? His mother’s stories and songs? It felt as if the knowledge lay within him somewhere but, like an important set of keys that he had put somewhere safe but could never find, he couldn’t remember the details. Or maybe something, or someone, was moving the keys, or shuffling the rooms in the old house around, keeping him deliberately confused, stopping him from remembering.
“It’s like I said earlier, I can see and remember bits and pieces, but it’s a jumble. They just don’t all join up.”
“Not yet,” Jynn smiled and placed a hand gently on Emyr’s shoe. “There is strength in you. There is strength in these women. They are your family; they always have been. I think they want to try again.”
Emyr looked up, Aunty Carol and The Herald were staring at the two of them. Jynn bowed her head and Emyr grimaced. Jynn tapped affectionately on Emyr’s foot and slowly walked across the floor back towards Peck. Aunty Carol’s face could not hide her frustration as she strode past Jynn. Emyr took a deep breath and stood.
“We don’t have time for chit chat.”
“We were not chit-chatting,” Emyr looked directly at Aunty Carol. “Actually, Jynn was trying to help.”
“Well, you need to focus. You need to listen. I mean really listen Emyr.”
“I know, but I’m worried Aunty Carol. There is so much to think about.”
“If it were up to me, we’d have done this whole thing differently,” she brushed a strand of Emyr’s hair back from his face and smiled. “But I don’t always get a say in these things, do I? Besides your mum knew what she was doing. Listen for her Emyr, listen for her song.”
“Her song?”
“Yes, you’ve known it all your life, she sang to you in the womb and every day since. Her voice is softer now, further away, but she still sings the same tune. She will never stop.”
The notes that Emyr had felt circling inside his head when he said goodbye to Noah that cold morning suddenly reemerged, bright and shining and true. Emyr looked into Aunty Carol’s dark eyes, worry and fear crouched behind them and he could see the strength it took for her to try and hide that. He reached out and pulled her into a hug, folding his arms around her, burying his face in her untidy hair. Aunty Carol took a moment to recognise what was happening and then returned the embrace, fiercely and whole heartedly. When they finally broke the hug, they held each other at arm’s length, their eyes glistened and they smiled.
“Daft bastard!” Aunty Carol laughed, wiping away the moisture from under Emyr’s eye. “Now, we have to try again! Emyr, you need to listen, really listen. I need you to step inside and really feel the music. Okay? Good. Now ladies, let’s begin with Izzy and Ayesha. We’ll keep it low and slow to start with; I’ll bring the rest of you in, one or two at a time, when I think Emyr is ready. Emyr?”
Emyr looked at Aunty Carol and the circle of Sirens, beyond them The Herald glowed and the Collectoris stood proud. Emyr took a deep breath, closed his eyes and nodded.
*Scene: The Many Gather Outside the Music Shop*
*Scene: Mags Sees The Many and Raises the Alarm*
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