Simple Words Spoke

[Vega]

24th Ymiden, 718

"I'm hotter'n Faldrun's pits," Vega said, with her usual complete lack of anything resembling ladylike. Flopping down on the ground next to him, she lay on the grass and looked up at him with a grin. "But it were a good workout."

It had really unnerved her when, a few trials ago, they'd met Vivian and she'd commented on Vega's limp. Vega didn't have a limp, thank you very much. She did not have a limp because she was completely healed from the leg breaking, knee snapping incident. Yet, there must be something, she knew because Vivian had no reason to think that she had a limp. So, the last few trials had consisted of Vega pushing herself hard. Harder than she should, possibly, but she was fit and well and healthy and she needed to know that she'd beaten this. Because she had.

"So, I've come to the conclusion that I haven't got a limp no more," which was good, really, considering he'd been telling her that since they left the Inn. "An' it was probably jus' a slight thing left over from runnin' up all those steps," also, of course, what he'd told her. "So, yeah." With a straight face, Vega looked at him and she had a slight, and entirely false, air of accusation in her tone. "I don't know why you didn't tell me none of that."

The evening mist was rolling in and Vega frowned at the damp grass she was laying on. Pulling herself up, she sat and looked at him. "So, in order to make it so that I don't have a limp no more, I've been practicin' a lot with my sword." She didn't need to tell him, she'd barely done anything else the last few trials. "An' I've been thinkin' about sound an' stuff. An' music. An' you know, our swords, they make a sound an' that got me thinkin'." She'd worked something out, she said, about how swords were like musical instruments and how they changed sound. And how sometimes, sound vibrated. "Like, that trick with a glass an' yer finger movin' over it?" Getting up, Vega was frowning slightly. "An' it can shatter things? Well, I reckon ever'thin's got like... I dunno, a vibration like noise or... I dunno what clever people call it. But look. Umm.. a'right, watch this. I think I've worked it out."

Vega moved a log over to an empty area and then got her usual, mundane longsword, not the one in the pair with his. Then, having fussed him so that he was well out of the way she moved her sword in a swinging, graceful motion, moving it faster until the sword itself seemed to emit a high pitched sound, rather like the sound that was made when a finger was run over a glass, as she'd just talked about. Then, she swung it to hit the log, which shattered, small splinters and pieces of wood flying as the log more or less exploded. Looking at him with a grin, she shrugged slightly. "It's the right sound for wood, that. There's another for metal, stone, stuff like that. I'm gonna work on it." She looked a little perturbed at the mess, then moved back over to him.

"There's some other stuff, too, but I thought you'd like that. I can shatter a cast iron pot, I can. Anyhow, I was wond'rin'. I've finished my lessons an' I can play a piano an' a fiddle now, an' sing passin' well." Vega sat down next to him, on his obligatory log. "So, I was wond'rin' if you'd teach me to play the guitar thing?" Bumping against his shoulder, she gave him a cheeky grin. "So long as you don't mind the bad noise to begin with." She missed learning and playing, she realised. It had only been a few trials, but she was itching to try something new.

[Arlo Creede]

"It's going to get worse before it gets better," Arlo said when Vega finally went still and sat down beside him on the grass, where he'd been sprawled on his back watching the clouds float by overhead. It was too hot to do anything else, and he'd pointed out more than once, that Vega was out of her mind for pushing herself in this heat. "What we've got now is just Ymiden clearing a path for Saun to stroll in."

Of course he'd told Vega she didn't have a limp. And he'd told her that more than once. Vivian was probably only seeing two people who'd just trills before, been racing up a flight of stairs, only she hadn't known it. Even he'd jarred an ankle on the way up, when he'd collided with a gaggle of middle aged women and scattered their shopping bags. "I should've and I'll do better next time," he teased her, and grinned a little when she said he ought to tell her those things.

Arlo frowned when Vega began explaining what she'd been thinking about, so far as swordplay. He didn't know what it was called either, just the right sound. But he knew what she was talking about at least. "There's sounds that can shatter glass apparently. Never seen it myself but I guess it's probably true." At any rate, he'd seen her practicing with her blade. He'd have needed to be blind not to notice. Whichever the case, when Vega grabbed her sword, he sat up where he was in order to watch her.

And he frowned curiously when she grabbed a small log. What she did first was interesting, swinging the sword in a way that caused it to as good as sing. What she did next was fascinating. The log just shattered as if it was a glass that had been dropped on a hard tile floor. "Now that's handy," he said, standing up off the ground and judging by his tone, Arlo was impressed. "The right sound for wood? Or the right sound for that log?" he wondered. "I mean, there's different types of wood, some are softer, some harder, some more brittle." Chances were though he was over complicating things.

"Long as you keep your blade off my log," he teased her, walking back to sit in the center of their camp, where there would have been a fire was it not too hot to tolerate one. "and it probably goes without saying, never my pots or skillets." Grinning then, he handed Vega mug of cold water and poured one for himself. "You want to learn the gittern?" he asked then, but figured, well of course she did. It was an instrument and one she hadn't mastered yet.

Grinning, he got up and collected his gittern from the tent, then came back to sit down beside Vega before handing it over. "I'm not familiar with any of the stringed instruments you've been playing, but I'm guessing you've already learned to read music." Arlo could read sheet music and follow it, but as a rule he preferred to play by ear. "Anyhow, I'm not sure if the strings on the violin are the same as on a gittern." But the notes of the open strings were probably the best way to start. After he showed her how to hold the thing, of course, which he did first.

"So the thinnest string is the first one, and it's an E," he explained. "Second is b, third g, fourth d, fifth a and the sixth, the thickest one, is another e. You tune your own violin, yeah?" he asked, before handing Vega the tuner he tended to use with his gittern. An e was an e after all, violin or gittern, and there was no question that Vega had a good ear and could probably even tune the thing by ear alone.

[Vega]

"Yeah, well Saun can go do one." Vega said and she quite meant it. The heat now was too much and, even though in part it was due to her having been exercising all trial, it was still too hot already. She grinned at him when he said he'd do better at telling her next time, but there was a serious aspect to it for Vega. They were a lot fewer and further between, but she still woke from nightmares of burning, of trying to crawl on shattered legs and just the hint that there might be something wrong with her legs sent her into a low-grade state of panic. But, she'd spent the time, she'd pushed and pushed herself and she was sure now. He could tell her all he wanted, until he turned blue in the face from lack of air, but she needed to know for herself. It had always been her way, and probably always would be. "D'ya reckon my dreamwalkin' will ever go back to normal?" It wasn't a random question, they both knew she had stopped dreamwalking completely after the Scalvoris docks. Now, she still did, but far, far less than before and he was as likely to find her dreaming fully as lucid. Lucid, in fairness, was more rare still. She wasn't worried about it, not in the slightest, though she had to admit, why was something that she'd considered.

And then, she'd decided that the why was probably the remit of thinking sorts of people, and that wasn't what she was. Not in the slightest.

No, Vega was "doing things" sorts of people and that was what she'd been doing. Learning things - how to move in a certain way. It was all about getting the sound right, she knew, and she looked at him and grinned as he said that it was handy. He sounded impressed and that pleased her, more than she'd admit to herself and certainly more than she'd say to him. And then, he started with a line of questions which had her chuckling, thumping him on the shoulder and shaking her head. "Get a grip, Arlo, it's jus' wood. I don't need t'ascertain the right type o'wood before I can splat it. It's the splat noise for wood. Jus' wood. All wood. So far. I mean, I haven't tried it on all the wood types. Maybe I should start a journal an' experiment." Shaking her head slightly she bumped him with her shoulder and grinned. "Dweeb."

When he talked about his log, though, she waggled her eyebrows at him wickedly and then, she chuckled. "You're awful into material stuff, you are. An' yer possessive. Your log, your pans, your skillets. What happened to 'what's mine is yours Vega'"?" The mug of cold water, though, that was more than enough for her to forgive him anything, she assured him and drank it with pleasure, after holding the cool mug against her warm skin and just enjoying that feeling.

But of course she wanted to learn the gittern, she said and he brought his out, she was positively excited at the prospect. Vega looked at it and when he handed it to her, she held it for a few trill just exploring it and then turned it in her hands and held it, her hand moving over it and she moved one hand up the neck, her fingers naturally sitting on the fret board and her wrist in the position it needed to be, just like when playing the violin, but adjusted for the difference. It came to her as easily as holding the violin had. Listening to him she nodded, "I can read music aye, but I don't like followin' it. But you should see, Arlo, music for the piano," As she spoke, she shook her head to his offered tuner and she plucked the strings, one then the next, turning her head to hear it.

"Each hand does somethin' different," she said and then grinned slightly. "So, you've got notes for your left an' right. It's astonishin' but it works. Hang on," Breathing in, she sang a single note, and it was strange to her to think that he'd never heard her sing, but she'd done it a lot in her lessons. Because her singing voice was good and her ability to hold it and hear it good, Vega had learned to tune this way, too, which she did, just slightly adjusting the E string and trying again, much more pleased with the result. "It's the same strings, but differently ordered."

Her lowest string was the E, she said, her fingers plucking, then strumming the strings. "These are diff'rent too," she said, motioning to the fret board. "Handy little stoppin' points for the chords an' stuff? Don't have those on the fiddle, but you can't see it, not like this. The spacin's bigger though." Placing her fingers in the correct position, but looking at her hand on the fretboard, she strummed and then changed chord. With a smile, she nodded. "Yeah, that's weird, cos the strings are in a different order. So, on my fiddle, a c would be this finger placement," which was wrong for the guitar, because she was pressing the wrong strings, but when she moved to compensate, she got it right. Unaware that any of this might be in any way impressive, she nodded. "That's real interestin'. An' these bits are real helpful, too. Weird, though, puttin' my fingers in a different place, but gettin' the same chord." Looking down at it, she frowned as she considered the difference between plucking and strumming, then she lifted her head up and pulled a face.

Then, with a couple of hesitations, she played a song. It wasn't a difficult or complicated song, it was fairly straightforward in terms of the speed, change of notes and so on. The pauses and hesitations frustrated her, but she accepted that they were an inevitability of learning. Handing it back to him, once the tune was finished, she had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Sorry. I warned you about the bad noise though," there was no trace of irony on Vega's face, she recognised the noise she could coax from the instrument now was far less pleasant than it would be soon. "I like that. I might buy one." She did like it, it was challenging being so different and so similar to the fiddle. "If I want to elongate a note, or emphasise one of the strings in the strummin' how would I do that?"

[Arlo Creede]

"You're a right poet, Vega. That's what you are," Alro quipped when she said Saun could just do one. She wasn't wrong. The sentiment wasn't unwarranted and she, and he, were of like minds over the matter. Vega did have a colorful command of the language though, and it was one of any number of the reasons he loved her. Either that or he was a glutton for punishment and both of those things could be completely true at once.

Dreamwalking was a more serious matter however. The fact that she hadn't really done it since what had happened...had happened. He hadn't pushed, he hadn't asked. He hadn't even mentioned it. The way Arlo saw it, it wasn't for him to say whether she should or she shouldn't, or even if she could. If Lyova knew, she wasn't telling. "Do you feel like you could, and just can't bring yourself to do it?" he asked. "Or have you tried and can't?" The two scenarios he suggested might even be one of the same.

"I don't know," he finally concluded with a shrug. "If you don't? Well that's alright. And if you do, then I wouldn't worry about when. It'll happen in good time or it won't. I think it's your instincts that'll let you know which it is." And not until then, he meant.

And it wasn't just wood, he insisted, after she'd shattered the log with her sword. In large part, Arlo was simply doing what he enjoyed the most, as often as not. Getting under Vega's skin and getting her back up. "Take oak for example. It's very hard wood, very dense. When it's old it can be brittle. Teak on the other hand, the older it gets, the wetter...over time, it gets harder and harder. Wouldn't brittle wood be easier to shatter than something softer like cedar or fir which would have more give and flex to it?" And yes, in large part, he argued just for the sake of it.

"It's called playing by ear. Or at least that's what the book I bought says." The thing, he explained, where you played a song on an instrument, having heard it before, but you didn't need or care to look at the sheet music in order to do it. "I don't care for reading one line of music, I can guarantee you I wouldn't like reading two of them at once." But then he fell quiet as Vega took the gittern and familiarized herself with it. Weighed it in her hands, plucked at the strings. He'd seen how quickly she took to new instruments and knew this one would be no challenge for her.

That she tuned the instrument with her voice wasn't expected but neither did it surprise him. Or that she had a nice singing voice. Why wouldn't she, Arlo figured? A good ear was a good ear. "That's handy," he said, grinning when she'd refused the tuning instrument. "You come equipped with your own, and a nice one at that." He guessed you'd need to reach farther, Arlo added when Vega pointed out that the frets, or note placements on the neck were farther apart than they'd be on a violin. "Means you don't need to bunch your fingers up though."

So she'd had the thing in her hands for a few bits and already played it as well as someone who'd been practicing for several ten trials or more. Figured, and he grinned when he took the gittern back. "Your bad noise is someone else's livelihood in an upscale tavern." And it was as good as some of those players would ever be, while she'd continue to improve. But to emphasize a particular note? "Well there's variations between picking and strumming, it's not just one or the other."

To make one stand out? It was more a definitive pick he guessed, in the midst of notes that were more like strumming. "Sustaining a note though has more to do with the fingering than the picking or strumming. Holding, vibrating, sliding even, all after the note's been struck." But the more honest answer? It had more to do with instinct and experimentation than hard rules and published techniques.

[Vega]

She'd grinned when he called her a poet and said no more. On Dreamwalking, though, she didn't reply for a moment, shrugging slightly and just letting it go past and not answering him. Yet. He knew that it was yet, or he should know. She had to think about things a bit. Let them sit in her head and she'd answer him when she knew what the answer was.

She knew exactly what the answer was regarding wood, though. "Shurrup, you dweeb," was it, of course."I told you. It's wood-splattin' noise. There's a slightly different noise for different things. But that one, that's wood-splattin'" She grinned delightedly, glad that he was impressed - she knew he would be of course, frankly Vega could wiggle a finger and he'd be impressed at it. However, she also knew that it was a good trick with the log. It would be handy too, she said. Just in case they were ever attacked by vicious planks of wood.

"When we were lost in Desnind an' met Stu an' Jeannie, I told you I could sing." Vega recalled the time clearly. They'd been playing a game, two truths and a lie and she'd told him that she could sing, that her father had arranged a marriage for her and that all she knew about boats was knots. He'd chosen her being 'unable to carry a tune in a bucket' as outing her lie and she told him then she had a nice voice. "An' I sung at the Dawn Ball." That had been a dream they'd stared, of course. "I miss it, but I think I'm stoppin' myself. Not purposely or nothin' but like, subconsciously." Looking at him she shrugged. "I dream about stuff to do with my legs a lot, still. Maybe I've gotta heal yet, that way too an' not dreamwalkin' means I can."

There were no ridges on the neck of the fiddle, she said, but yes, he was right. It was the same finger position, moved over two strings and less bunched up. But still, she played a little and then handed it back. Shaking her head, she grinned at him. "I think yer a bit partial, you know. You'd better be, any'ow." That was to the comment about people earning livelihoods. It caused her to pause a moment, that and she took hold of his hand, just briefly. "I love you, Arlo. I know you know, an' that you love me too. But.. " Frowning, she tried to explain and then grinned as she realised what she was trying to say. "That gittern feels right in my hands, you know, an' that thing with the sword is great, but us is the thing for me. The proper miracle." Briefly, she leaned forward to kiss him and then motioned to the gittern.

"Whatcha mean? Stop talkin' about it an' show me, then?" That, of course, was in answer to his comment on how to elongate or emphasise a note and she grinned at him. "Stop messin' about."

[Arlo Creede]

Arlo didn't press when Vega appeared to have dropped the topic of dreamwalking like a very bad habit. Mostly because he knew it hadn't been forgotten. It might be a few trills, a few bits, a break or a season from now. But when she decided she wanted to talk about it, she would...Or if she chose never, then she wouldn't. The storyteller wasn't the type to like being pushed or pressed, and neither was Vega.

As for the log, wood and blade song debate, Arlo could have argued the topic all the trial through, just for the sake of argument and the teasing that was sure to get under Vega's skin. Except that this particular debate had run its course, so he merely shrugged and grinned. "Suit yourself then. Just keep your fancy singing sword away from this log," The one he was currently sitting on, "and my pots and pans."

"Well dreaming is different," he pointed out when Vega reminded him of the dreamed up ball and her performance there. "I can fly in my dreams, pose as a hawk or even a dragon." Couldn't, outside his dreams, was what Arlo was getting at. But there was no question she could sing, and do it well, whether it was in or out of Emea. But there it was again, the question of whether she would or wouldn't, could or couldn't, just like he'd predicted. "You're not ready yet, that's all," he said. "And when you are, if you are, you'll do it again. No one is saying you must. There's no pressure." he reassured her.

Well of course he was partial. A lack of being impartial was one of the things that came with the package, he told her. "It doesn't change the fact that you can sing and play like nobody else I've heard. Or that isn't an impressive thing you've done with that sword." They were a miracle, she said as she leaned closer and they kissed, for some time if he had anything to say about it. And when she pulled back again, he grinned then gave her another, very quick kiss. "Magic, but much better than rabbits out of a hat I'd say." It was a quip that to anyone else might have seemed flippant. It was anything but. Vega knew him as well as he knew her.

Show her though? Arlo took the gittern, taking a trill or two just to strum it before beginning to play a tune that was as much picking as it was strumming. A note that seemed to distinguish itself from others seemed to be merely a case of pressure, or picking midway through strumming. Elongating notes had much more to do with fingering than actually playing the strings. One held down longer than others, a finger slid along the length which inevitably changed the tone altogether in a not unpleasing way. Or even a fingertip pressed and moved in a way that created sort of a vibrato effect, that slight variation in pitch that a singer or violinist would be familiar with.

After a few bits of playing, Arlo stopped and put the gittern down, declaring that at least for himself, it was enough for one trial. The heat. Immortals the heat. There was only one solution for it, he told Vega then, and it was a nice long swim in the nearby river. "Race you," he said, grinning as he stood, and then took off running.

[Oberan]

Review Rewards

Vega

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:

Singing: Holding a single note
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Plucking and strumming for better effect
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Placements of strings
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Tuning by ear
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Using a tuning fork
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Similarities with a fiddle
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Sustaining a note
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Frets to help finger placements.

Magic: No magic exp

Other: N/A


Arlo

Points awarded: 15

Knowledge:

Endurance: Continuing heat
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Plucking and strumming for better effect
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Placements of strings
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Tuning by ear
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Using a tuning fork
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Similarities with a fiddle
Musical Instrument: Gittern: Sustaining a note
Musical Instrument: Gittern: More about instinct, the way you do it

Magic: No magic exp

Other: N/A

Notes:
Now I don't know anything about music, but I do believe Arlo and Vega are quiet in tune with each other. I am somewhat disappointed that Vega didn't try to shatter glass with her voice, but hey, at least Arlo now knows she can actually sing.

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