War of the Heart

Merari

Warning: Upsetting Content (I updated the preface to include trigger warnings for whole book, feel free to check)

'You're playing the wrong rhythm. It should be ti gi ta-i, but you're playing ti ti ta.'

Merari glared at Cyprus. Maybe if she glared enough, Sorita would take notice and haunt Cyprus' dreams. Merari had taken extra care to speak the spirit's name as much as realistically possible during the rehearsal too.

'Is this it?' asked Merari, playing eighth triplets, with the last ome slurring into a quaver. It was deliberately wrong and part of her mastermind plan.

'No, that's horrific. How long did you say you've been taking lessons?'

Now Merari played what Cyprus had suggested.

The Leere shook her head in disgust. 'That is not what I said.'

'Actually, Miss Evergreen, that is precisely what you said. You claimed it was ti ti ta, which you just recognised as incorrect, and that it wasn't ti gi ta-i, which I believe you will see is what the composer intended.'

The teen scrutinised the notes, then agreed that it was in fact two sixteenth with a dotted quaver, but persisted in accusing Merari of having played a different rhythm.

The only reason Merari was in this torture scenario was thanks to everybody's favourite holy man, Tiresias. Ever since the new Leere had arrived, he'd insisted the Eseterrians take the time to get to know them. That had included forcing Merari to accompany Cyprus' violin concerto she was struggling with. Credit where credit was due, Cyprus was extremely talented and her intonation was remarkable, but she was permanently correcting non-existent mistakes and the piece was simply too difficult for her.

They called it a day and Cyprus give her a rather rude reminder to practice. Merari did the same, at which the redhead sniffed.

Some people compared Cyprus to Arcane—Tiresias included. Those people lacked a brain. They thought just because two people were talented, ambitious and sarcastic, they were comparison worthy. Cyprus was clearly more self-centred than Arcane and more of a pretender, whereas Arcane was genuine and caring. Her sarcasm was affectionate, unlike Cyprus'.

Life at court was draining nowadays. Once Merari had thrived, adoring the dinners and dances, even her Eseterrian duties. Now they felt like some play, an attempt to hide the fact that something was coming. Medea had started arguing with Tiresias more in spite of her lack of future vision. She insisted that they needed some kind of protection network because Detruienn wouldn't wait forever. The Chèr claimed he was trying, but Sutoku was reluctant. So Medea went to Sutoku and faced the same resistance.

Unable to believe that their king was so hesitant, Merari went to see him. Like they had in Kraspos, they spoke over a glass of something strong. Merari appreciated it, normally she couldn't drink something like that without a lecture on etiquette from Mr. Religion.

'They say you're refusing to take measures to protect us from her.'

He put his glass down. 'That's not true. I'm simply not taking the measures they want me to take.'

Merari tilted her head sideways. 'How so?'

'They expect me to have guards throughout the towns and in smaller villages, keeping an eye out for her. As efficient as our civil service system is, the number of those that become guards is slim, as is the number of those that stay on. Quite frankly, we don't have the manpower. Indra may have brought some of her own guards, but she requires some of ours and the Eseterrians require many—even though they regularly evade guards.' Reprimanding tainted his matter-of-factly report.