The Power of Ten

The word she uttered in Demonic was vile enough that the MP’s all spontaneously vomited to hear it, which no doubt would have entertained her were matters better.

“Huh. Disappointing,” I muttered, totally unfazed, of course. The Shards around me dissipated like illusions, just missing that last part of total reality before being released to kill her.

I glanced at the diamond in my hand, and golden threads of light shimmered around and through it, forming a complex pattern attuned very, very specifically to the Name she’d just given me, or it simply would not work.

I held it up for her inspection, and she grimaced despite herself. “Catch it, or I kill you instantly.”

My Shards all snapped back up. My Song and humming had never stopped, and the edges of the Words of Creation in the melody was obviously making her twitchy.

She snarled at me, but nodded as I lowered it, and I fobbed it lazily right at her.

I could tell that for a moment she was thinking of letting it drop, skitter across the Pentagram, and break the confinement on her. But she glanced at the Skull atop Clavus, swallowed, and caught the stone easily.

Golden lights streamed out, wrapped around her as she grit her teeth and glared at me. With a defiant shout, she was sucked inside the diamond in a blur of magic and motion.

The gem started to fall from midair, but the Pentagram snuffed out the instant she was no longer actually inside it, and Einz caught it with TK before it could hit the ground.

I glanced at the darkness wrapped inside the gold within the diamond, tossed it in the air once, and stowed it away.

There was a boom!, and everyone jerked as a bolt of lightning leapt for the horizon and the distant sky, taking me with it.

Yeah, Flame was still my sister, and I was going to save her.

------

I materialized in the hidden cave, which had no Wards on it, the traces of demonic energy about enough to dissuade any vermin with ideas. Devilsight let me see all the Husks here easily.

If the lilitu had died, all these people would literally have had little time to live, as the demonic energy would lose its hold on them and leave them alive at the very precipice of death. They might be able to last a short amount of time, but the faster someone came to save them, the better.

Holy healing magic swirled around them, first breaking the Husk Enchantment upon them, then destroying the Brands afflicting them which had formed it in the first place. Physical and mental healing and Restoration followed as the Husk Links were totally broken, and began to restore the five women and one man to some semblance of health.

They only woke up from their tortured nightmares for a moment before the Restoration sent them immediately back to sleep. This time, the dreams would be healing, reinforcing, and strengthening them, letting them know that they had endured, their nightmare had come to the end, and they would be all the stronger for it.

I whipped up the Disks, and Bey ‘Azzar politely Summoned up some geniecraft cloth blankets to wrap them in.

I couldn’t Linejump with them, so that meant flying them back. Thankfully, that wouldn’t take too long, and there was a Healing Hall of Amana right that way I should be able to reach in about twenty minutes.

The boulder blocking the cave’s mouth melted away, Shaped off to the side, and after everyone floated out, it flowed back and completely sealed the mouth of the cave, merging into the hillside and completely hiding it, to the point of being roughened by the winds and even matching crystal patterns in the surrounding stone.

Making sure they were protected from the wind, I lifted off the ground, the Old Steed erupting from the ground beneath me to carry me aloft, the Disks following. With a snort of ice and fire, flaming clawed hooves pounded at the air, and he raced north and a little west, making a beeline for the Healing Hall.

----------

The stadium where Morninglight was supposed to be playing was seething with all sorts of rumors and discontent. The arrival of the Inquisitors of Harse going backstage had been noticed and spread rapidly, but exactly why they had arrived was not known, although that didn’t stop the rumor-mongering from happening.

Some people just dismissed it, others were annoyed that their time had been wasted and were ready to start clamoring for a refund. Some had real concerns, and some were just looking for a juicy story.

“Please dim the lights.”

The Voice rippled through the air, and although it was very quiet, it cut through every conversation like a knife, and suddenly everyone speaking shut up abruptly.

They knew that voice...

Slowly and in series, the lights illuminating the seats on the floors and sections began to go out. Even the lights on the stage went off, and there was nobody out there moving on it even now. Murmurs went up, wondering what was going on, the majority of people sitting back, thinking the show was about to start, anticipating a bright spectacle about to erupt in Morninglight’s flaring and showy style.

The spotlight that went on came from above, but no spotlight sent it forth. It was gentle and serene, but in the darkness, bright enough, and it illuminated the woman walking forth onto the stage with supernatural clarity.

Once you saw her and recognized her, you would always know her and recognize her.

“Lady Traveler!” the first voices blurted out, and the shouts and calls began to rise.

“Quiet, please.” Again, the voice was soft, softer than the rising voices, and it still cut right through and overwhelmed them all. Those shouting the loudest almost curled up, feeling they’d committed some monstrous gaff of etiquette.

Halfway across the arena, they could see her as clearly as if she was only a dozen paces away. She was not clad in a fancy magical wardrobe or showy attire, but a loose and comfortable garb that they’d seen on those videos of her killing things in the American Firezone, the Yellowstone Charlands, and they had the distinct impression that she had just come here from a fight.

“I have some very sobering news for all of you.”

If one had good ears, they would have heard tens of thousands of people swallowing in unison.

“Sinead Morninglight is dead. She was killed nearly six months ago and replaced by a doppelganger, enhanced by a Ritual from the Church of Shoul. Her soul was annihilated, and her life taken over by a monstrous thing eager to claim her life, her light, and all she had made for herself and her fans, for itself.”

The horrified gasps from the crowd rose as one, and all eyes turned to the illusion above Lady Traveler, revealing the last moments of the thing that had replaced their Morninglight, ripping away the false seeming, an inhuman thing where once had stood their beloved Bright Minstrel.

“She was not alone. The same forces targeted her mother, Morningfire, and her sister, Morningflame.”

Isolated shouts and calls rose up in anger and defiance, as the violet-eyed, dark-haired face of the Warlock who’d done the one deed was killed and set on fire before the shocked eyes of the crowd, and a Husk barely recognizable as a halvyri melted into the withered, nearly lifeless form of Morningflame.

“I am here to say goodbye to Light with you. There is no body, there are no remains. The thing that killed her will be burned to less than ash and dispersed to the wind. I realize that you came here to celebrate... but the celebration we will have is going to be quite different.

“Morninglight was a performer, someone who blended magic and music to the delight of all those who loved her, chasing after the heart of music... something called the Sublime Chord.

“If she had not been murdered by the enemies of her family, I would have been able to teach her that Chord, and oh, the music she could have made with it.

“I am not a performer, and so I will not do this again... but in tribute and remembrance of Morninglight and the music she shared with the world, I will sing her Songs in the Sublime Chord, in the way she aspired to do, for all of you.

“I shall begin with one of her early songs, perhaps an effort she would laugh at as she grew older for its simplicity, but also doubtless one of the songs that made you pay attention to her, and made you fall in love with her and her voice.”

There was a shimmering as a piano, a violin, and a guitar appeared around Lady Traveler, and began to play. Notes keyed off, and the whole crowd began to hum and speak underneath them as they instantly recognized the light and bouncy tune.

“<Friday’s done and the weekend’s here, it’s time for fun without no fear...>”

It was a simple and easy pop tune, I’m going to Rise and See the Light, from a teenaged halvyri starting her climb to fame, almost mindless nothingness with a message of ignoring the world and following the heart, nothing serious to think about.

It had never been Sung to the Sublime Chord, and to the fire and glow of the essence of magic.

It thrummed through the souls of everyone present, bringing them back to all the moments they had sung along to it, the feelings that they’d had... and the feelings SHE had had, as she sung it, the joy she wanted to give away to all of them, to make the miserable days under the Haze just that little bit brighter, with a light voice and cheerful heart, throwing back the grim and gritty for a taste of the Morning Light.

She sang it in the original French, too, but Tongues was active, and everyone understood it beyond perfectly, even if that language was falling into disuse with the rise of the Human Tongue.

A copy of the video that had accompanied the original song played overhead, something some of them had seen hundreds of times. Sinead was young and bright and giving some light away to the world...

--------

The concert went on for longer than intended, and didn’t sell anywhere near the concessions that the owners might have wanted. Then again, all the concession workers were standing on the stairs with everyone else, watching and listening and really not caring, as their managers and bosses were doing the same thing.

When the final Song, I Came into the Quiet, was finished, the whole arena just sat there in silence, finally understanding what it truly meant to be spellbound, and what music and magic could really do together.

I didn’t need a microphone or anything, of course. My Voice could be heard everywhere within a mile, and had utterly shut down all traffic in the neighboring streets; cars stopping, drivers getting out to listen, and nobody even daring to shout at one another to get out of the way.

A Perform (Song) check at +51 is totally worthy of a Heavenly Choir, let alone a bunch of Threes and less. They had never heard anything like it, and unless they caught me combat Singing, it was likely going to be a long time before they ever would again.

They’d need to be Tens and higher, at the very least.

“Go in peace,” I finished, with the trailing Suggestion for all of them from the Fascination effect of the Heartsong.

Everyone rose together, and silently began to file out of the venue. There was precious little talk as the lights came slowly on, and the Tribute to Morninglight was over.