The topmost landmark in my list took me away from humiliation and to a big, open room. The walls and ceiling were black, and the floor was apparently some sort of glass, with colored lights underneath. Streamers and signs hung everywhere, indicating it was a public place.
Perl Jam was leaning over some devices on a table up on a raised platform, and frowned when she saw me. “What’s up?” she asked, pulling her headphones off her ears. “Did you find my flash drive?”
It took me a moment to remember what she was talking about, even though it had been all she'd grumbled about for the past few days. Her tiny, missing device. “No.”
“Damn! You didn’t come for the show, did you?”
“I came to escape Aggi yelling at Milo for demoting me.”
“Huh. Sucks to be you! Well, if you’re going to hang out here, I’m putting your tall ass to work. I need to get my speakers up.” She pointed at a number of black boxes sitting beside the table.
I did as she instructed, placing and connecting speakers high up along the walls, and then angling them to her fussy demands.
“All right, let’s test them.” She stood in the middle of the room with a device and began pressing buttons, listening intently to the music that was now coming out of the boxes. At least, I assumed it was music. It sounded more like the computers on the ship, just much faster and louder with the beeps and buzzes.
She made me tilt one more speaker and then nodded in satisfaction. “That’s perfect.”
“How so?”
“Listen.” She went back to the table to push buttons and move knobs on her equipment.
The new song had no vocals, and I couldn’t identify the instruments, but the sounds shifted and harmonized and then competed with each other in a jarring manner. She watched me carefully as I stared at her, puzzled, and continued to fiddle with the knobs and levers on one of her machines.
The sound began to move, shifting from one speaker to another, racing around the room. I turned with it, though there was nothing to see, except Perl’s mischievous grin as she somehow made it run the other way, and then randomly hop from speaker to speaker.
“I do this for my nephews once in a while, they love it.” Then she changed the song. “Imagine Dragons,” she said, as a man began to sing to sharp drumbeats.
“What will that do?”
She only snorted, and I listened, fascinated, as the sound continued to roam the room.
Was this what Elorhyn was talking about? I’d always assumed he’d been talking about something more metaphorical that I wasn't smart enough to understand. But how could you possibly do this with only one source of sound?
He’d magnified elfsong with wizard magic. Could I make it move with . . . technology?
“Check check check!” Perl chirped, her voice echoing through the speakers now. “Watcha thinkin’ so hard about, elf boy? Shirtless Dan Reynolds?”
“How did you do that?”
She waggled a fat wand in her hand, with a fuzzy ball on one side. “Freshly charged microphone! I guess you’re not into karaoke?”
“What’s that?”
“Come over and sing something into it while I run some more tests.”
I took the wand from her. “Hold the mic down here, don’t try to eat it,” she said, pushing my hands toward my chest. “Go on, let’s hear what you got.”
“You want me to sing?” I flinched as my voice reverberated around the room. It sounded strange.
“Sing, count, rap, recite a poem, whatever, just make some steady noise, so long as it’s not ‘I’m not rated for that.’”
I sang a simple song about the stars as she played with her devices, altering the sound of my voice through the speakers.
“You’ve got hidden depths,” she said. “My crowd wouldn’t like it, but I got some connections if you want to perform. You’re good!”
I didn’t think I was a good singer, but no one had ever complained about it, at least. But an actual compliment from Perl? I’d yet to hear her not complain.
She didn’t seem inclined to stop me as she started fussing with some shiny decorations, so I ran a quick test of my own. Elfsong isn’t normally audible to humans, so I wasn’t sure if her equipment would pick it up.
One of the speakers squealed alarmingly.
Perl snatched the mic from my hands. “OK, thanks, that’ll do, we’ll call you,” she said, shooing me away from the table. “Feel free to stay for the show, though I don’t think you’ll like it. It’s gonna get loud.” She put the original music back on.
I didn't want to return to the platform yet, so I retreated to the bar, where the wall hangings and carpet muffled the sound somewhat. I tucked the earpieces Bryce had sent me into my ears until the sound was almost bearable.
The bartender looked like an elf, but for some reason, didn’t feel like one to me. It had been a totally different experience meeting Aggi. I knew he wasn't Lyran, and after seeing what ImaMess could do, I now doubted that he was really an elf at all. “I can’t start pouring drinks til five, would you like a soda?” he said. “And if you’re looking for work, I know some places where you can get great money as a male dancer.” I shook my head to both, but he gave me a drink and a notecard anyway, and went back to slicing fruit.
The room began to fill up with people, who began dancing while Perl alternated between music and making snarky comments to the crowd. I tried to ignore it as I struggled to think. Oddly, having so much chaos going around me made it easier to ignore, so I was quite surprised when Aggi suddenly sat on the stool next to me.
How did she find me? I hopped off the stool and bowed formally.
Aggi shook her finger at me. “No, none of that,” she said. “I’m no good at formalities.”
“Yes, Portmaster.” I started to bow again, and vertigo threatened to topple me over.
“Sit,” she ordered, pointing at my stool. I did. “You heard everything Milo said?” she asked cautiously.
“Yes.” I’d found out yesterday that Bryce had been recording every conversation over the comm system, and now found myself worrying that he had also been playing them for her.
“Well, eff Milo! He can’t tell us what to do!” I frowned, ready to object, but she cut me off again. “Ok, fine, he can order us around all he likes, but he can’t enforce it!”
“I am of no use to him here. He was right to transfer me. You should not have scolded him so.”
“You don’t know what it was like, growing up with him. He was as bad as the elders, always wanting everything to be perfect, everything done a certain way, and only that way!”
“You will find he has not changed, not at all.”
“I just know whatever I do, he’ll complain I did it wrong! I wasn’t mad about you working for me, I was mad about me having to work for him! I’m just glad he’s not here to nitpick. You, I don’t mind at all.”
“I doubt I can be of use to you.”
“None of that, now! You’ve got skills and talents like anyone else.”
“I am a guardian. A fighter. It is one of the few things in which I excel. Do you have enemies you need protection from, or do you intend to put me in an arena for entertainment?”
“Listen carefully to me. You can do Whatever. You. Want. while you’re here. Particularly if it leads to you figuring out your energy chamber. You don’t need to ask my permission to do anything. I just want you to check in once in a while so I know you’re still alive, because that’s my biggest concern right now. Have you made any progress?”
“I think elfsong needs to move,” I said, gesturing. “I now know sound can, and must make a study of it.” I waved at the speakers, but you couldn’t see them from where we sat.
“You mean like vibrations?”
“Perl can make the music move from speaker to speaker, all around the room. Elfsong just made them squeal.”
“Huh. Maybe she’ll let you experiment, or will know about different equipment that can pick up your harmonics.”
“I will ask. Have you come up with any ideas?”
She made a strange face, and then grew more thoughtful. “When you were singing to me the other day, I felt something. And that song got stuck in my head for days, like a gnat buzzing around in my brain. It eventually stopped, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe I can feel elfsong, but not produce it? And I’m wondering if it’s possible for you to sing to me, and then somehow I can give it back? Like, it seemed to stick for a few days.”
I didn’t answer immediately, just stared stupidly until she raised an eyebrow questioningly. “I - I know someone,” I stammered out, ashamed I hadn’t thought of him sooner. “A human, a healer, do you remember those? He could sense elfsong, and somehow take it and use it to heal elves if someone sang it for him.”
“A human? Really? How?”
“He’s goddess touched. It’s complicated.”
“So . . . it’s possible? It could work?”
“Perhaps?” I shrugged, feeling helpless.
“Well, only one way to find out!” she chirped, and held out her hands.
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