The Silver Knife

Chapter 2

Did you see them? Did you? They were so different.... Oh yes it's me again, your narrator. You might think I am annoying but I am really trying to tell you about..... Ok never mind, you'll come to know anyway....

The students had gathered for lunch at the tables where a mix of students from different years and ages were sitting at the long tables lined along the length of the huge hall. Their different coloured robes were the only difference that separated the number of years they had spent at the Academy. The three of them sat opposite to a group of loudly chattering youngsters, who were discussing something and giggling in shrill voices.

"Eden Crestbreeze...." A deep voice called out from behind. It was their astronomy professor, holding out a letter. "Send this to your father, I have business to speak of with him." The older man said in his deep voice, handed the letter to the blonde boy, turned his heel and left in a swish of dark violet satin robes. The boy looked at the seal of the letter -- it wasn't the seal of the Academy -- and he heaved a sigh of relief.

"So you two have the afternoon free, don't you....?" The brown haired girl asked a bit unsure. 

"Well yes..... and no." Lilith said as her dragon perched on the table, shielding her face from the eyes of the brown haired girl. 

"What work do you have huh, just after exams? Studies? Term's over so no. Some stupid patrolling? Well no. What else huh?" The girl said quickly in one breath and huffed. 

"Well, that's hard to explain but we have work." Lilith said in a steely cold voice, making the girl shudder for a moment. She turned to her dragon who was looking at her with an annoyed look. It snuggled into her arm and plopped down on her lap with it's head under the wing.

After lunch, the two off them disappeared past the hallway and the brown haired girl was left to trail behind, but she being slow, had lost track of them. She started wandering the halls and came past the bulletin where one professor was pinning up the results of the tests with the names of the students who had made it till next year. She searched for her name in the list.... Ah there it was: Sansa Maignes.

She searched for the names of the two others and found them, at the very top of the list of students in their year: Lilith Nightwind Sapphirus and Eden Pridewood Crestbreeze. Sansa gaped at the list for a complete two minutes before dashing down the hallway in the fastest of her slow pace in search of the two of them.

The sound of soft music floated down the hall from one of the practice rooms in the music department of the Academy. A violin with a piano accompaniment were playing in perfect harmony in the silent breeze and reddish glow of the setting sun.

SLAM!

The door of the room crashed open, causing a few birds perched on a nearby balcony to fly away, chirping loudly in alarm. The music ceased abruptly.

"You made it! Both of you made it!! And" -- she gasped for breath -- "so did I..." Sansa said in a hurried quick breath.

"And what..... sort of way of entering the music section do you call it?" Lilith said in an extremely cold voice, her fingers still touching the ivory keys she'd been playing. Eden was standing with his posture still intact, the door having slammed open mid-vibrato, in the second bar. He looked at the sheet music which had fallen off the music stand and was sprawled all over the floor. 'More work after practice I believe.....' Eden thought with a sigh and removed the violin from under his chin.

Lilith turned from her sheet music to face Sansa, her icy-blue eyes ignited in calm fury. Sansa would rather have Lilith shouting her head off at her than stare into the depths of her soul in her calm gaze. "Sansa.... I appreciate you running halfway across the building to give us news but..... what do you call this?" Lilith emphasised the 'this' as her eyes flicked to the broken stained glass pane on the door of the practice room which had cracked on the impact. 

"Oh.... that... nothing a little spell can't fix..." Sansa said as she muttered a spell timidly as the glass put itself together. "There.... good as new..."

"You do remember the school authorities know what goes on in every corner, don't you? That'll put you in a month of detention." Eden said sternly. "And the two of us.... for a week." He said with a sigh.

"Yes, congratulations to your non-existent brain on getting us detention. Clap for yourself please." Lilith said, a little cross. "And now, we'll have to sightread the whole piece to put the sheets back together...."

"Isn't there a spell for that? Putting things in right order I mean...." Sansa said a bit unsure. "You fourth years should know...." She said twirling the end of her cloak. Lilith raised an eyebrow at her.

"There is, but apparently it wasn't created for sheet music for the creator either didn't know about music, or had forgotten the existence of musicians altogether. Last time I tried that I had two pages of Bach's Fugue inside Mozart's opera Don Giovanni." Lilith said as she got up to pick the music off the floor. "And.... this piece is Mozart's Eine Kleine...." She said beginning to look for the beginning sheet of the piece.

"Uhh how hard is putting music together like..." Sansa said a bit confused. Lilith stuck the music in front of her.

"Here, read." She said. "And tell me after you understand something. Take all the time you want."

"I-I can't....I can't read sheet music." Sansa said stuttering slightly as the sharps, key changes, and crescendos stared at her from the piece, seemingly asking her to beware of them.

"Then either leave.... or just stay quiet." Lilith said picking up the music from the floor. Eden sighed as he arranged the sheets and hummed the tune to see which one matched.

Sansa slipped out of the room. She ran across the hallway till she was on the other side of the building. She didn't want to go near those overwhelmingly large dots that sang, not near that room where wood and metal made a harmony. She liked music, yes, but she didn't want to go near that huge domain, that unexplored world, quite unknown to a lot of people.