Kalie Rana

The mess deck was the same as it was every evening before. Other than the first night aboard, I had only glimpses of the barely lit room through the cracked door that Maria received our meals through. It was pleasant to return to the room with its thick air. The enclosed nature of it—being below deck—and the absolute bulk of men that spent hours within it night after night had imbued the air with their natural mana. For an average person the high density of raw mana would feel comfortable to them—I had heard a mundane describe such rooms as ‘cozy’ or ‘inviting’—but to me, they were exhilarating.

In my past life, I was more of an introvert, when I was given the choice. As I grew up, I made a point of avoiding places like this, had I been able to see the immaterium however, I don’t think I would ever make that decision again. Upon first learning how to truly see, a realization hit me. After learning about raw mana, I didn’t really have a great first hand understanding of it. With my sight and a shaky understanding of highschool biology, my theory essentially was that raw mana was a sort of byproduct of people of this world. Mundane and majin alike. While majin would absorb the mana that they gathered through breathing, and eating, and even just standing in the sunlight, a mundane still does all the same but without a core that’s able to store it all as their own internal mana.

I pondered all this as I sat near the back of the mess deck, eating as quickly as propriety—and Maria—would allow. While I couldn’t know for sure, Valier’s glances at me from across the tightly packed room, told me that he was most likely waiting for me to be done before beginning his performance. And, just as I suspected, the moment that the galley steward cleared away my plate of stewed fish and hardtack, Valier jumped from his seat, and made his way to the little free space in front of the galley doors.

Seemingly out of nowhere, he produced a small surprisingly ornate instrument case. Gold filigree adorned the pitch black leather, running between the bright silver reinforcements.

“Oh my,” Maria, was the first of the pair of us to speak, her eye no doubt caught by the case's obvious value. Another mystery to add to the small pile already forming at the man's feet.

“Gents, M'lady, if you will allow me the honor, I would like to play a little for you this evening.” He withdrew the violin from within the case, and to my surprise, the violin was a simple one. While inherently intricate due to its size, it was exceptionally plain in comparison to its case. While otherwise made from a dark oak, its only adornment was a single golden string filigree stretched around its base.

After withdrawing the bow, he took a deep breath. Doing so, it was like something about him shifted, and the joviality that defined him before was gone. He began with a tune that I was unfamiliar with, but seemed to be a hit amongst the men, a few of them even adding to the harmony with liquor soaked voices.

It was as he began his second tune that I noticed the other effects that Valier's playing was having. At first, I thought that it was nothing more than a trick of the light. A flickering of the candles that lined the room. It wasn't until I closed my eyes and let the slow and methodical building of the music wash over me that I saw the majic.

Tendrils of faint gold filigree spread from the heart of the simple dark oak violin. The multitude of gold had skewered and gathered almost every errant particle of mana in the room. With each strum of Valier’s bow against the violin’s strings the filigree, and the mana upon it, vibrated in response.

“An instramentalier.” The words escaped my lips as a whisper, but that fact did little to stop Maria from hearing it as well.

“Who? That man?”

“Of course,” I responded immediately, “can you honestly not tell? Look at the way that the room itself dances. Look at the light!” There was no doubt in my mind that Valjer was an instramentalier, a master of the Tune of Creation. But, as Maria looked around the room her lack of amazement only compounded my other suspicion. That the nature of Valier's majic was not of the physical realm like my own, but of the ethereal.

The twinge of the light, the subtle beauty of the flame, even Valier himself. All were enhanced by his majic, and its control of the light itself.

I watched him enraptured as he played both with the notes of the many shanties songs and with the mana in the room around us. I couldn't even bring myself to break my gaze from him for even a moment as he played.

It wasn't until his last song, that I became aware of the wonderous effect that his music was having on me. From the first note of the strings' section Xingfald’s 5th, I knew that the way I would see Valier from that moment forth, would be forever changed. Normally the 5th was played as a pair, but Valier was easily producing the competing highs and lows as the discordant tones battled one another for attention in the captivated mess deck.

A virtuoso of nearly every instrument, and a true master of the Tune of Creation, Xingfald, the legendary Majin composer, was hailed as the last great instramentalier. It was said that if played by anyone but him, that his music would only be a hundreth of the original's beauty. I was happy to say however, that for the first time in the two hundred years since Xingfald's death, there was another who could make those notes sound just as magnificent.

It was at that moment that I realized just what this evening was. It was a conversation between Valier and I. One of a certain kind that I hadn’t held in a long while. The last person who truly spoke with me through the Song of Creation was my Grandmother.

***

I waited on the high stern of the ship, breathing in the evening’s sea mist when his voice called out to me.

“Did you enjoy the show?” Still elated, I spun on the spot, speaking before seeing him wholly.

“I did! It was wonderful, your… Lux, I’m sorry I thought—”

“Thought I was that man, Valier, did you?” Lux said, as he loomed at the head of the stairs.

“I… I did.”

“Well then, don’t let me stand in the way of that.”

“Lux wait.” This time, to my surprise, he did. “You didn’t come to the mess deck this evening, I thought you said were coming?” Silence was his only response. Not much of a surprise considering the last week or so of the same. “Regardless, I’m happy you came to talk to me.”

“And yet, you were waiting for Valier.” He turned to face me as he lashed out at me.

“What? Are you honestly suggesting that I should’ve been waiting on you? When was the last time that you had come to speak with me outside of your duties? So of course I was waiting for someone who had deemed me good enough to speak with these past few days.”

“It doesn’t matter to me. You are free to do as you will.” It didn’t matter that his expression remained calm, nor did it matter that his expression seemed nothing more than indifferent. I knew the truth that lay behind his thin mask.

“You have no right to be angry with me! It was you who was avoiding me! If I approached you, you would ignore me, or finish the conversation with nothing but a few words.”

“I’m sorry Kalie, but I’m not like the other men on board. I can’t just approach you and speak with you openly like we’ve known each other for more than a few days!” On one hand, it was nice to hear my name on Lux’s lips. It felt like in a way, the arm’s length distance that he kept me at was shortened ever so slightly by that act alone. But on the other hand, the idea that he was blaming me for his aloofness, was not something I was going to take sitting down.

“Don’t blame me for your inability to hold a conversation with a person. I’m sorry that you can’t suffer a little awkwardness to get to know someone. Gods forbid you spend a bit of time being uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable? You think this is because I can’t stand being a little uncomfortable?”

“That’s how it seems to me.”

“This is propriety! You are a Princess, not some common dock-wife! It’s not—”

“A dock-wife?” Was he being serious? “I am no whore! Leona above, sir, you are an idiot! There is a difference between whoring myself out, and talking with someone.”

“I know that! It's the other sailors who are the problem. But ask yourself this, do you think that Valier knows that however? What about the deck hands that see the two of you talking, do you think that they know that you are maintaining your chastity?”

“Do you?”

“What I think doesn’t matter, like I said its what--”

“I heard you the first time, I'm not asking what they think, I only care what you think.” Just as soon as the words came from my mouth, the emotions that charged them had changed. I truly didn't care what anyone else thought, other than Lux himself, and that realization surprised even me.

“I have come to learn that when you are a part of Ravencourt, the only thing that matters is the perception of others. So no, it doesn't matter what I think, nor does it matter what your true intentions are.”

“I have no intention of being a part of the Ravencourt! The thought of being caged by some monster, beholden to his whims and the wills of his court, it makes me sick!”

“And yet you're here. And yet you are on your way there now, to your open and empty cage. Your words and your actions are at odds Princess. You are acting like this is all a game, and your words are nothing but empty lies.”

“Lies?” As I muttered the word, the tears that had been fighting to break free of my will finally pushed through. “I haven't lied to you a single time. The only lies were your sweet words back on Cerith. I’m beyond furious with myself that I believed them for even a moment.” It pained me to see his emotionless expression staring back at me while the conversation had left mine a mess. I pulled myself together as he silently tried to formulate a response to my accusation. “If there's nothing else. I will retire to my cabin for the evening.”

“Kalie, wait!”

A lie. My name on his lips was nothing more than a lie. A manipulation.