Chapter 10: Requiem

Noah returned to the Knight’s Sheath, which was fortunately undamaged. As expected, there were people inside, but they had locked the doors. “Lucius, let me in!” Noah hollered.

“Who’s there?” he heard from the other side.

“It’s Noah. I know I’m technically still banned, but would you mind? The city’s nightlife has gotten a little too rowdy for me.”

“You aren’t going to start anything, are you? You don’t have anyone chasing you?”

“No, I just need a place to wait this out.”

The doors opened, and Lucius hustled him inside. The parlor was full of anxious clients and prostitutes, all waiting for that first rock or torch to come smashing through a window or an axe swung at the door. Should they stay and hide or go out and try to escape the city? A handful had already left to rush back home to their families, and there was no telling if they had made it.

“You look terrible,” Lucius said before barricading the doors. Noah’s clothes were burned, torn, and bloodstained, and he was covered in thinly-closed wounds.

“Busy night. You still pouring drinks?”

Noah took a seat at the bar. Cyrilo was already sitting there, dressed in an evening dress and jewelry. It was getting late, so she had regressed to her thirties. After a hard fight, she was a feast for the eyes, eclipsing the other working girls.

“Remember what I said to Bella about pets tracking blood on my floor?” she cawed, looking him up and down in disdain.

“Colbrand is burning. A dirty floor is the least of your problems.” Lucius passed him a glass of spirits, and he took a deep drink. “It’s pretty crazy out there. This may be the end of your city.”

“We have survived worse,” said Lucius. “You should have been here when Colbrand was infested with slimes. It was so bad that many people assumed it to be a curse. I woke up in the middle of the night on more than one occasion because they would climb into my mouth while I slept and try to eat my tongue.”

“Around thirty years ago, the city was buried by a snowstorm that lasted an entire week,” said Cyrilo. “We got more than twenty feet of snow and had to dig tunnels to get around. People froze, starved, and suffocated, but you should have seen the view from my room.”

“Oh, remember that plague of boils?”

Cyrilo shuddered. “Ugh, don’t remind me. Everyone was walking around, oozing puss and looking like rotting meat.”

“Well, it looks like I might not be able to enter the academy after all, but after hearing you two talk, maybe it’s a good idea for me not to stick around.” Noah looked over to the empty stage. “I was hoping to hear Daniel play tonight.”

“Last I checked on him, he was sleeping like the dead,” said Cyrilo.

“Too bad. I think everyone here could really use the distraction.” Noah was about to take another drink but stopped. “Is he awake?”

“He might be. Go check,” said Lucius.

Noah emptied the glass and went into the back room. Daniel was still on his cot, but he was at least sitting up and munching on an apple. “You’re looking better.”

“I suppose so.”

Noah handed him his guitar. “Good enough to play?”

“On stage? No way. I feel like a blown truck tire left on the side of the highway.”

Noah handed him a healing potion. “Drink this.”

“Are you sure I should drink more of these? I’ve had a lot of these today, and Lucius said...”

“You choose now to worry about what you put in your body? Just trust me on this.” Daniel shrugged and drank the potion. It seemed to return the strength to his body, but he groaned from nausea. These things were a double-edged sword. “And this too.” Daniel took the mana potion with lethargic reluctance and immediately grimaced.

“Holy shit, ugh! That’s like drinking orange juice after brushing my teeth. Is this what you adventurers really put up with in the field? Imagine all the poor bastards who died with that aftertaste left in their mouths.”

“How do you feel?”

“At the moment, not very appreciative, but yeah, I suppose I’m a bit better.”

“Perfect. Come on, let’s go.” He led Daniel with his guitar out into the parlor. “Cyrilo, would you mind helping me with something?”

“Wait, that’s not ... What the hell?!” Seeing her younger form, Daniel looked like his brain had just blown a fuse.

“What can I do for you?”

“I know you have a thing for jewelry, but do you have any enhancement gems?”

“Why? Are you planning on going out there and fighting everyone yourself?”

“They’re not for me.” He pointed to Daniel. “They’re for him.”

“What?” they both asked.

“We need to attach every jewel you have to his guitar to boost his magic.”

“Dude, I can’t use magic. And can we back up a bit and go over why she looks like this?”

“You can. You just don’t know it.”

“And what will that achieve?” Cyrilo asked.

“Do you really want me to tell you, or do you want to see it for yourself?”

“Hmph ... Very well, follow me.”

“Darling!”

“Not now!”

She brought them to her room and retrieved a jewelry box from her study. She opened it up to reveal several enhancement gems, cut and uncut, small and large, each one like the gem on Noah’s ring. Daniel stood in the corner as the fifth wheel while Noah and Cyrilo began sticking the gems onto his guitar with some makeshift glue.

Noah handed it back to him. “Come on, up to the roof.”

“Over here.” Cyrilo brought them back into the bedroom and revealed a small door behind her folding screen. “I had this installed during that storm I told you about.”

They had to crouch to get through it and then stepped onto a level portion of the roof. It wasn’t a balcony so much as a perch. The three could see the width and breadth of the destruction and hear the screaming and fighting below. The air was thick with smoke, but this couldn’t be done anywhere else. The Knight’s Sheath was one of the tallest buildings in the whole city.

“Now what?” Daniel asked.

“Play. Pick any song and start playing.”

“Why?”

“Don’t worry about why. Just put that new guitar through its paces. You wanted a stage, well I’ve given you the best one in Colbrand.”

“I don’t get it. Wait, is this like the band from ‘Titanic’? The city is burning, and you want me to do a bit?”

“Actually, I was thinking that a picture from this angle would be a great album cover if you ever got famous.”

“Nah, too death metal. Seriously, what the hell am I doing here?”

“You’re just here to make some music. Choose a song that you know you can play, whether it’s your favorite, important, or easy, and put everything you have into it. If you want a reason to live, then live for this very moment, where you christen your new guitar and new life. If you want a reason to die, then let this be your swan song, the culmination of everything you’ve experienced and a soul’s worth of emotion. The choice is yours to make; just start playing and hold nothing back.”

Daniel appeared more than a little uncertain as he looked out across the burning city, but he put the strap over his neck and shivered. There they were; the feel and smell of the wood, the sharpness of the strings against his calloused fingers, and the weight hanging from his shoulder, all sensations he had dearly missed. It did not feel like his old guitar, but it felt right, as if he wasn’t holding it, so much as it had snapped into place.

He closed his eyes and forced out all the surrounding noises as he ran through his musical archive. What should he play to this city, gripped by madness? What rhythm would reach the expectation Noah was setting? A christening or a swan song, nothing felt worthy of the moment. That’s right; he had faced this problem on the beach. No song gave him the peace he needed, so he made up one of his own. How did it go again?

Using a coin as a pick, he began to play. His fingers were steady, almost machine-like, but there was passion in the chords that only a human could create. Noah didn’t recognize the song, couldn’t predict the notes, and didn’t know the timing, but something told him that Daniel was playing it flawlessly.

Watching him, it was like all the damage that Rita and potions had been unable to fix was being mended on its own, but more important was his mana, shrouding him and radiating from his guitar. Initially only visible to Noah when his own magic was active, it was now clear for all to see and shaping itself according to the rhythm as it spread.

The mana hit Noah and Cyrilo like a summer breeze. He felt it saturate his body and allowed himself to be hypnotized. The melody was playing through him, imprinting itself onto his thoughts and energy. Daniel picked up the intensity, playing multiple rhythms at once in a display that not even Noah had seen before.

There were no lyrics, not that it needed them. They would only be a distraction. As Daniel continued to play, his mana spread farther and farther across the city as if carried by the wind. It acted as a medium for the sound and brought it farther than it ever could have naturally gone. It hit everyone with the same volume and clarity, and they, too, found themselves enwrapped.

Throughout the city, fights stopped as all spells came undone or were outright blocked. All of the mana adhered to Daniel’s rhythm, unable to be shaped into anything else. Everyone’s magic was snuffed out, and so was the will to fight. No matter what side of the law they were on, knights and revelers, they lowered their weapons and stood like statues, transfixed. It was emotion—literal, palpable emotion, carried by the music and entering their minds, forcing all thoughts and feelings onto the same wavelength.

“What in the world is this?” Cyrilo asked. She was looking at her hands, watching as her skin flipped back and forth from young to wrinkled.

“The power of music, an overwhelming force of communication and feeling, shaping minds and allowing people to understand each other, and for Daniel, a means of drowning out the world. You said before that magic was fickle, depending on the user’s will. Behold, this is Daniel’s magic. When I felt it for the first time, it caused ripples in my magic, not unlike paladin spells, and that was with just a broken old guitar. I figured he would be powerful with a new one, but this ... this exceeded my expectations.”

Daniel was putting everything he had into this song, letting his every thought and emotion pour out to those who heard it. All the pain he had carried throughout his life, he used the strings to scatter it into the air like ashes from an urn. The voices of anger, disappointment, and despair that haunted his thoughts weren’t simply drowned out; they had gone silent.

The beautiful quiet brought tears of relief to his eyes, tears that streamed without end. His mana, untrained and unrefined, was burning out dangerously fast, not that he cared or even felt it. He didn’t want to stop playing, no matter what it cost. If the song required his mana, he’d give up his mana. If it required blood, he’d give it blood. If it required his life, then he would die fulfilled.

Over in the destroyed dungeon, Gradius and Tarnas faced each other, the two of them beaten, bloody, and having lost most of their armor. Once more, Gradius raised his axe with a monstrous roar, and Tarnas prepared to attack, but both men stopped as the music reached them. In their exhausted state, they both fell under its spell, and Gradius dropped his axe despite the rage that had flowed through him just moments ago. Around them, the surging flames and holy magic flickered out of existence.

“What is this magic? I’ve never felt anything like this,” said Tarnas. “Hey, where are you going?”

Gradius was climbing up a mountain of rubble and reached the top of one of the perimeter walls, now looking over the city. His breaths were deep, letting him taste the smoke in the air and smell the blood that had been shed. For so long, that’s all that had been in his mind, fire and blood. His thoughts burned in a persistent rage as if his brain was an angry sun.

To look upon the city was like looking upon his own soul, but now, the anger was fading, every muscle unclenching as new emotions sparked within his gray matter. The fires within him were extinguished, letting him see and think clearly. To protect Colbrand and its citizens without violence, he was starting to understand what Tarnas meant. Looking upon this charred and bloody city, he wanted to save it, heal it, fix it, as well as his soul.

Finally, Daniel’s hands stopped, and the music faded out. He had reached the end of his strength, and his body would not let him play anymore. Besides, the job was done. The violence had come to an end. Everyone had lost the will to fight, and the criminals who didn’t peacefully surrender simply ran off without being pursued.

As his magic dissipated, a ripple moved through the city. All the flames were being pulled into the air, shooting across the sky like ribbons of light. The burning buildings simply went out as the flames were channeled away like water flowing down a slope. The fire flew towards the destroyed dungeon, where they gathered in Gradius’s hand and disappeared.

With both the violence and fires extinguished, peace could now settle. True, the night was far from over, as there were still plenty of people injured, missing, and dead, all who needed tending to, but the worst had passed, and slowly, the smoke cleared.

“How do you feel?” Noah asked. Looking at Daniel, he almost expected him to crumble into dust.

“You know I’m a fucked-up mess of a person, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“You said that people can change. It wasn’t easy, but it could happen. Did you really mean that?”

“I did.”

“I don’t know if I’ve changed or if I’m any better, but I feel like ... maybe I will be someday. I have a long way to go, but for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m heading in the right direction. I think I’m ready to start looking, to start living.” He turned to Noah. “By the way, I never properly thanked you for the guitar.” He then closed his eyes and collapsed, and Noah caught him before he could fall off the roof.

“You should probably get Lucius. I’ve spent enough time today carrying this guy and can barely stand.”

“You can just lay him out in my room,” said Cyrilo. “He’s earned a comfortable night’s sleep on a real bed, and I suppose I can reinstate your evening privileges with Bella. After all, I can’t mistreat the two most interesting customers I’ve ever had.”

“In this city, that’s really saying something.”

It was a struggle for Noah to get Daniel back inside, mainly because he was fighting his own exhaustion, but he managed to drop him on the bed. He left the guitar with Cyrilo so she could reclaim her gems and bid her goodnight. He made his way toward Bella’s room, blessed with rare happiness. The effects of Daniel’s music were like a drug for the soul. Magic truly was incredible.

Of the myriad worlds he visited across more than a hundred lifetimes, this strange planet was close to being his favorite. He could feel the answers finally within his reach when all other means of achieving his goal had proved futile. He felt it in his gut that this was the final world. It was the final life he would be forced to live. He just had to wait a little longer, and in time, he would finally know peace. However, this world also offered him amusement, and he planned to enjoy it as much as he could until then. Besides, he still had the knight academy to look forward to.