Fae and Arpeggios

Log Info

• Title: Fae and Arpeggios

• Emitter: Rune

• Characters: Ravenstongue, Rune, Telamon

• Place: Ravenstongue and Telamon's house

A quiet has fallen over the streets of Alexandria. It is evening, past the usual point that most people have retired to their homes for dinner or to rest from the day's work. It is also when Rune finally has some time to pay call to her friends, given that her days have been remarkably busy as of late.

In a bit of a change of pace, the rogue is not wearing her attire. Instead, she has a simple dark gray tunic with a vest over it and her hair is pulled back away from her face with a silver hairpiece. It's as if the normally athletic Rune has been replaced by some sort of nerdy counterpart, complete with a pair of reading glasses which she has resting on her forehead at the moment.

With one arm completely occupied with various rolled bits of parchment a small bag of supplies, she precariously balances this before knocking on the door to the Lúpecyll-Atlon manor. Apparently, she has come prepared, just largely for crafting music rather than for her usual tasks.

Inside the house, Cor'lana Lúpecyll-Atlon, famed lyricist, sorceress, and (if you believe the vicious rumors) seductress sits on the couch, wearing a dress that hangs looser on her than her normal fitted gowns. However, she's taken up a new talent as she pours herself a cup of tea, one that can be heard from the outside as Rune comes up to the front door: a portion of an aria sung in Mynsandraal, the older language of the elves--and she comfortably climbs up and down the arpeggios given that it's a slower piece.

However, the moment a knock comes from the door, she pauses in her singing. "I wonder who that could be," she murmurs. "Tel, can you get the door?"

Meanwhile, Lana isn't the only one exploring some musical talent. Telamon is sprawled in a chair indolently, one leg cocked up on the arm, dressed in a loose-fitting tunic and trousers against the late-summer heat. A finely-made lute is in his hands, and he's tweaking the tuning. "I'm going to have to go back to Master Mayhew on this," Tel grumbles. "I just cannot get the tension right."

At the knock, his head comes up, and he offers Lana a brief smile before getting out of the chair and setting the lute down next to it. "I've got it," he says, walking swiftly over. Opening the door slightly to see who it is, before swinging it wide. "Leirune," he greets Rune with a grin. "New look for you? Come in, the heat is atrocious today..." He beckons for her to come inside.

"Evenin' Tel." Rune greets with a somewhat sheepish smile. "Figured I shouldn't really need to pay you a visit in full armor, and besides... this is more comfortable for spending late hours harassing your wife about music." She explains, offering him a playful wink.

Following behind, there is a slight twitch of one ear as she listens, having picked up on the aria being sung. "I haven't heard anything in Mynsandraal in a long time. It's beautiful." She offers with a small smile, her eyes taking in Cor'lana's appearance and her choice of attire with a curious lift of one brow.

"I hadn't had a chance to offer congratulations, though, I admit, I am a bit surprised. Last time we talked about you two growing your family, I got the impression that it wasn't in the cards just yet." Of course, Rune has likely heard the other rumors, too, but she doesn't immediately link the two topics. Instead, she looks for a place to set down her burden of scrolls and supplies. "I hope my visit isn't too much of a bother."

Cor'lana visibly cheers, and yet looks a little nervous, as Telamon greets Rune. She rises from her spot on the couch out of politeness. "Hello, Rune! Ahh, don't worry, I can clear off the table a bit here," she offers, gesturing to the table in the living room that usually contains a Pothy and his snacks. But it appears the leucistic raven is having a snooze elsewhere, as he's not in residence, and his bowl of snacks (it's little pretzels today) is easily moved elsewhere.

"All of Alexandria's heard by now, I imagine," she comments regarding the news of the growing family. There's something a little odd in her voice before she looks back to the door. Seeing it's closed, she looks back to Rune and sighs.

"I'm--I don't like lying to friends," she says. "Can you keep a secret, Rune?" It's an unfortunate opening line.

Telamon turns and looks at Lana, and something passes between them -- intangible but there all the same. Then he coughs, covering his mouth, before making sure the doors and windows are closed with a swift step. That done, he says, "Why don't I get some refreshments?"

Swiftly, the half-sil sorcerer collects a large pitcher and three mugs, carrying the tray to the table. He puts his fingertip on the pitcher, and frost forms on the surface. "Chilled tea is very refreshing," he says with a calm expression. "Besides, the cider is still settling."

GAME: Telamon rolls spaceBS: aliased to Bluff+3: (5)+26+3: 34

There is a quick moment where Rune's eyes look between the two. She knows very well that they can communicate through magical means, but she only gives a slight tilt of her head and focuses on setting her things down on the offered portion of table. Amongst what she's brought is a number of scrolls that look to be old copies of some of her mother's music, as well as some empty bits of parchment and scribe supplies.

There is a moment of hesitation, though, as Rune looks to Cor'lana. "If it is within my power, I would never let free any secret put in my care." She presses her lips together, and then shakes her head, "But... I do know that I do not have the strongest of mental defenses. We both know that I've had those weaknesses exploited before. If... it's possible someone might try to gain access to information through me, it... might be best to keep me out of the loop." Though, it is obvious that Rune does not like admitting this fact.

Uncertainty lingers in her, though as she nods to Telamon, "I'd love some tea. I'll admit, I never thought I'd miss the cold of the winter, but it's starting to get to that point."

"I'd rather you be informed, because I think you'll want to participate--and that you'll be an instrumental part of what's going on," Cor'lana replies gently, taking her mug of tea from the tray and offering a quiet little nod of gratitude to her husband for the gesture. "We are currently within a safe space to discuss, as well. I cast the private sanctum spell earlier today to ensure we had some privacy from those who might otherwise try to glean information off of us."

She looks at Rune for a moment longer before she says, "You remember what we've told you before of the Corpse-Eater, yes?"

Telamon's expression shifts. What looked like a smiling face to hide deep stress and concern falls away -- and then the worried expression falls away as well, revealing a relaxed -- but still alert -- Telamon. "Hells, Lana, if I'd known how much of a pain in the arse putting up this front was, I'd have suggested we try something simpler, like invading Quelynos." He rubs his cheeks, before taking his seat again.

"Listen to my wife carefully though, Leirune," Tel advises. "I can slap a couple spells on you before you leave, to keep you from being followed. But you'll have to keep this quiet. We don't want to spook our quarry."

"The Rook? Yes, I don't think I'd be able forget him if I wanted to." Rune replies with a shake of her head. "I haven't seen hide nor hair of him since that first encounter weeks ago, but I imagine if he's coming up in conversation, that he has reared his head yet again?" She asks, brow raised.

Then, looking to Telamon, she seems to linger on that confused look, eventually taking a seat near the table, blue eyes flicking between the two of them. "If being followed is a concern, I can usually handle that, myself. The shadows and I are good friends, these days, but... you know I won't decline any defensive precautions."

Then, despite not being in her usual attire, the rogue folds her arms across her chest, nose scrunched slightly, ears tucked against her dark hair, "I'll do my best to keep whatever it is to myself. So... what is this about, then?"

"I'm not pregnant." The words fall out of Cor'lana like a lead weight. "Hence why we asked for any gifts to instead be donations to the Temple of Eluna and the Muses of Ceinara. And the fliers you've likely seen are all our handiwork, too."

She takes a sip of her tea before she continues. "We're setting a trap for the Corpse-Eater. He likes to prey on happy couples--he likes to split them apart when they're at their happiness and convince one or both of them to kill each other, themselves, or both. And then he feeds on the remainder like the ghoulish specter that he is, haunting my family."

Cor'lana frowns deeply. "This plan was suggested by Auranar, because we've collectively decided--we have to be rid of him. For our sake, for our family's sake, and for the collective wellbeing of all. Auranar had the brilliant idea of a faked pregnancy and vicious rumors. Make the Corpse-Eater believe that there's some teeth to the rumors and have him approach Telamon. And when Telamon and the Corpse-Eater meet to discuss things in 'private', where there's actually everyone waiting in hiding... We all strike."

"Which means a lot of this rides on my acting ability. Not the debut I was hoping for," Telamon quips with a small grin, but the worry is still there in his eyes -- just a different kind of worry. "Honestly, if it was for anything less than the Corpse-Eater... but yes. We're laying a trap for the bastard."

He picks up the lute, fiddling with the strings. "Ideally, we bind him, and force an oath to leave us and our family alone forever. I don't want to kick off some kind of feud with the fey courts, though I suspect they won't cry too much if he gets killed. But to quote an arvek I met once, if he dies, he dies." Tel shrugs, his expression grim. "I don't feel like leaving this problem for our children or grandchildren to deal with. So we deal with it now."

The immediate answer is met with a couple of slow blinks from Rune before she closes her eyes and nods her head, "You know... Harkashan is likely going to be bringing gifts, regardless. You're among our closest friends and he isn't likely to let it go un-celebrated. So... you'd best be prepared for some awkwardness." It is obvious that she has no intentions of even telling her companion about this news.

"It is a bit of a shame, though. There's a part of me that was looking forward to being auntie Rune and spoiling the kid rotten." She smirks, "Then again, I suppose it will happen eventually." Her brows lift. There's obviously no hard feelings there.

"Ahh, that would explain the other rumors I've been hearing. Clever idea." Rune flicks a quill between her fingers, an idle motion. "I'll be honest, he caught us all off-guard last time. If we do face him, we're going to need some strong mental defenses, likely some magics, maybe a fair share of cold iron..."

Then, she nods her head, "If nothing else, our friendship is reason enough to explain the visit. And most people are well aware I'm working on a song and had plans to work with you on it. I doubt my visit tonight will raise too many eyebrows. But... it's important not to let plans go awry, either."

"I've already had Dirk, Vaire bless his beautiful heart, drop by to give us a wonderful little baby mobile that he crafted," Cor'lana says with a sheepish little smile. "I did inform him, too, as he's an experienced tracker and may be able to do considerable damage against the Corpse-Eater if it comes down to it. I'm just fortunate that, so far, not many of our friends have come by to personally offer congratulations."

She shakes her head. "I'm also thankful you're not holding it against me," she adds. "But you're right. You'll be Auntie Rune eventually, but for right now--we'll be taking him out so that the children who'll call you Auntie never have to know the dread that he brings."

Cor'lana takes another sip of her tea. It seems something unspoken passes between her and Telamon again, as he goes to another room, presumably where Pothy's studying. "Now then. The real reason you're here--the offering we want to give to Grandfather's old... paramour. Gods, that still feels odd to me to say."

"I have no idea what Harkashan has planned. He's Makari, though, so it's probably going to be something strange." Rune groans softly, "You know, he probably believes the rumors, too. Like... Makari don't really pair-bond the way soft-skins do, so it isn't at all weird of an idea." She can't help but laugh a little bit, "Just... don't be surprised if he brings you like, chew toys for a werewolf child or something."

And then, Cor'lana comments about holding the 'lie' against her. The immediate response is a shake of her head, "Never. You have good intentions behind it." She tilts her head a little, "But you can't blame me for wanting to live vicariously a little. Children aren't likely for me. Not outside of adopting somewhere down the line."

As Telamon heads into the other room, Rune seems to settle a bit, taking the moment to roll out a bit of parchment which seems to have some scrawled lyrics on it. There's lots of chicken-scratch, individual phrases, scratched out sections, and it's mostly a bit of a mess. "Your Grandfather is beyond attractive. It can't really surprise you that he has turned a few heads in his many centuries."

Then, Rune grabs one of the neater scrolls, rolling out what looks to be a far more professional song. It has lyrics, musical notation, all written out in a delicate and careful hand. "I brought a few samples of my mother's old music that I rescued from home before I left. As for me... I'm a half-decent singer, but I never really practiced the notation."

Cor'lana looks like she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the idea of chew toys for a werewolf child. She eventually settles for just shaking her head. "I don't know what a werewolf child would want and I'm thankful that I never have to find out," she says, "unless Telamon ends up becoming a lycanthrope himself at some point."

She pointedly pauses to knock on the wood of the table before she looks over at the scrolls that Rune unrolls. "It's not that it's... surprising, it's just that he always speaks of his wife as the love of his life and hardly mentions anyone else. I was named partially after her, you know. Her name was Lana'lel."

Cor'lana looks over the music notation and lyrics, and softly she hums the melody that's there on one bar. "Maybe it could be a duet?" she offers Rune. "With Telamon on accompaniment with his lute. And anyone else who might want to join in."

"Just... be prepared. He's bound to come by." Rune seems content to leave her warning at that. Though she may be very enamored with her Makari mate, that doesn't mean that she is always prepared for his ways of handling these sort of social situations.

Then, with a small smirk, she adds, "Oh, I bet your Grandfather has had plenty of lovely individuals rocking his bed over the years." And now it's obvious that Rune is just teasing Cor'lana. Playing on the discomfort that tends to come with talking about anyone sleeping with a parent or grandparent.

Then, with a soft laugh, she turns back to the writings, her ear twitching as Cor'lana picks up the music easily enough. "We could try. I'm pretty decent at harmonies. What I'm struggling with is theme." She taps the quill slightly onto the chicken-scratch of notes. "We... probably want to avoid anything about love. Since we don't exactly know how she and your Grandfather parted ways." She motions at a few sections lyrics, "I thought about playing to what I know."

There, on the page, are a few scattered phrases and words, largely associated with things like loss, the trials of following in the footsteps of someone else, the feeling of being drawn by fate, feelings about not having enough time. That last one, perhaps, might seem a bit strange, but having already died once, Rune certainly does struggle with her own mortality.

Cor'lana flushes red. It's very apparent on her, because she's on the paler side of things. She even flails a little, shaking her head. "Please no bed-rocking," she murmurs. "That's the last thing I want to picture my Grandfather doing."

But she looks thoughtfully at the phrases and... she nods. "You know, it's probably a good idea. To sing about something regarding time and mortality. Fae don't really know those concepts themselves, and they find mortals interesting at times because we do have to deal with them. Even the Queen of Air and Darkness has lately taken an... uncharacteristic interest in mortals." There's something bitter there in her voice.

She takes a sip of tea. "So let's workshop this a bit. Time, so it has to do with the passage of time, culminating in one certain ending: death. What sort of symbols do we we want to hinge on? Clocks are a bit overused. What about... the rising and falling of the sun and the moon?"

"I'll stop." Rune still snickers softly to herself. Sometimes, it is amusing to tease your friends, especially when it is so easy in this case.

Then, with her more serious expression put on, Rune tips the reading glasses down onto her nose. It's at that moment when she really does look the part of a bookworm, and all her stories about having been raised as a scribe and emissary for her father seem to fall into place. "That makes sense, though. Play into the things that they don't have as much experience with. Try to draw out emotions associated with those things."

At the corners of her eyes, there is a slight tightening at the mention of death. Rune bites at her lower lip and idly rubs at her chest as she seems to consider the notion. "The setting sun, the shifting moon, the changing of the tides... winter to spring and summer to fall..." Rune dips her quill and starts to jot down each of these ideas. "Trees growing towards the sky?" Her brows furrow slightly, "Maybe.. the way that a single death, a single loss, can have ripples like raindrops on water..."

There's some poetry there in the way Rune speaks, though it doesn't have the training or experience that Cor'lana has with the written word.

"Yes, I like all of those ideas! But we should have something that doesn't change, or doesn't change very much at all, as a contrast," Cor'lana points out. "Something that's always constant. Like how the sky in Grandfather's woods is always that beautiful twilight. How they always feel a little chilly no matter the time of year. The stars in the sky almost never change, either. They're still there, even when the clouds hide them."

She looks thoughtful then, looking down at the table. "There's also a certain point of poetry in pointing out that a cycle is a constant, too. Constantly changing. Changing constantly. But in a manner that's predictable and measured."

Cor'lana twists her mouth up for a moment, humming. "The stars, they are fixed in the firmament, but we who live and dwell underneath them--we are not... Something along those lines."

GAME: Rune rolls perform/sing: (2)+12: 14

"Things that remain the same..." Rune flicks the quill's feathered end against her cheek, coincidentally tapping it along the tattoo there.

"So, like the flowers bloom, the leaves fall... even in change, there is consistancy. The ocean waves always find the shore." Each of these things that Rune points out all seem to be imagery. So often in her childhood, it was the images that her mother's stories and songs brought forth that stayed with her.

As Cor'lana starts to hum, Rune looks up, ears perked as she listens. Though she doesn't pick up the words, she does seem to have an idea. "Can we try something?" She asks, "Take that melody you were just singing... and I'm going to try weaving another one underneath it."

When she tries that, the melody that Rune sings out does seem to work well at points, though there are some instances where it doesn't quite harmonize right. Her brows furrow, and she seems thoughtful. "It's... part of an melody my mother and I used to sing together. It... didn't really have words, so I thought... maybe play into it as an undertone, but I think it needs some work."

GAME: Ravenstongue rolls Perform/Sing: (8)+16: 24

Cor'lana listens to it carefully, and when Rune pauses in her thoughts, she thinks. "Mmm, mmm, it's--it's not actually in the same key, the two parts. One's in a major and the other's in a minor key. So they clash. One sounds bright, open, and happy, and the other just sounds... complicated, rich, even a little mysterious. Which is how it goes sometimes."

She takes her own sheet of paper. "But there's nothing that says we can't key change both parts so that they match, even in the middle of the song. We exalt living and the fleeting part of mortal lives in the major key, and then when we discuss how an immortal must view the mortal as fleeting--we change it to a minor key. So that we pull at the heartstrings for our fae audience. I think a muse would appreciate that, don't you think?"

It's obvious that, while Rune has some gifts in raw vocal talent, actually writing music, herself, is something that she hasn't delved very far into in her life. "Yeah. That makes sense." Thoughtful, the rogue closes her eyes and laughs a little bit, "I always loved music, but I never really tried my hand at it. I guess I always figured I'd never live up to what my mother could do." She reaches up, rubbing a bit at the back of her neck.

"Shit, the first time I even sang after coming back was over a year later, when Jacob caught me singing a lullaby to my horse." Clearing her throat, Rune sits up a little straighter, "I like your idea, though. We can weave the song in on the minor key. Like a call back. If... if this Fey knew my mother, it might even spark that recollection."

With a plan on how to arrange the song, the two at least have a place to start from. However, it would likely be a long number of hours before it takes shape into a final form. Late into the night, the harmonies of two half-sil voices fill the halls of the manor, sometimes joined by Telamon's playing, or Pothy's commentary. It is all part of the creative process.