Song of the Piper

::37:: When the World Falls Down

Music is Farewell Life by Arn Andersson and Nights Amore. Play it! (Seriously, play it. I swear I'm not cutting any onions.)

Media: Hamelin during happier days.

******

"No!"

I tried to lunge for Heidi, but Elise's surprisingly strong arms held me back. "Klaudia, there's nothing you can do for her now," she warned sternly.

I watched as the skin of the Healer's body turned black, like it had been burned to a crisp. Then I watched as she gave one final twitch and finally lay still, mouth open in a silent scream of unfathomable agony. Her body soon sank into the darkness, as though shadows had sought to devour it, and soon there was no indicator that she had been there in the first place. All that remained was us, our heavy breathing, the memories of the sorcerers filling up the space, and the horror of it all.

First Frederick. Then Lady Gertrude. Now Heidi. Who was next to go? All gone. Gone in a blink of an eye.

Then I wondered why Heidi had suddenly twisted and fell. I wondered why her skin was thoroughly blackened, and why she had screamed. With a tremor in my voice, I asked, "Elise, what does this mean?"

She shook her head and blinked her eyes, as though she had just come out of a trance. She fixed wide, alarmed eyes on me. "This means we have to go. Now."

She led me to run back towards where we had come from, away from Lord Himmel's pulsing ball of light. I cast a quick glance over my shoulder. The memories were now covered in a fog of sorts, no longer allowing its light to pierce the darkness. That suited me just fine.

When we reached the end of the memories, Elise began to play her violin. But something sounded wrong. The notes were all disjointed, and the melody lacked its usual power, even though she was still absorbing magic from me. I noticed that her hands were shaking. I took hold of them and said, "Let me help."

She didn't say anything, only gave me a helpless look and nodded desperately. She picked up the song again. I sang to accompany her. The effect was jarring. Her tune was mournful, a woman clothed in black kneeling before her husband's grave; mine was full of hope, a soldier who had lost everything looking for something to anchor him, to keep him moving on. Elise played her violin harder; I sang louder. The gap between us only grew. There was pain from the wound I had gained on my side, and my mind seemed to be more intent on it than on my music.

I gritted my teeth, a headache winding its way up from the back of my skull and to my temples. Drawing in a deep breath, I changed the pace of my melody. As if she instinctively knew what I was trying to accomplish, Elise altered her melody as well.

We slowly started to accommodate each other. Elise weaved in a few chords of strength here and there; I toned down on the uplifting notes. And eventually, our melodies melded with one another, fitting the gap in each other perfectly, as though this moment was always meant to happen, fixed in the stars above us. It felt like I had finally found what I had been searching for, all this while. A family, a future to look forward to.

And Elise was right there, in the centre of everything that I had been searching for.

Our magic intertwined with each other effortlessly. I didn't know where we found the energy to continue, but we did. We were drawing strength from each other, I realised. She was relying on me as much as I was on her. I envisioned both of us slipping out of the memory world, back into our physical bodies.

Then I felt a rush of air and a buzzing in my ears. After that, chaos.

I opened my eyes. Yes, chaos was there, but it wasn't the full blown tempest of sorcerers attacking sorcerers like before. This chaos had a hushed quality to it. As though something had just interrupted the fighting, and both sides had no idea how to react.