The Lost Voices (OLD VERSION - New Version to Come)

CHAPTER 8... SEEKERS (PART 3)

Sketch 48: Confidants

8-21-1620 A.R.

Location: Elios, Terrarin 

An eerie quality to The Silent Mountains was inscribed to their names, as even the wind was drowned in a galling veil of mystically hushed snow. 

The pass crooked over pale cities, swept by the whitening streets of cobblestone villages, dared to echo against the noiseless howl of cracking ice, and crunched under the weight of blizzards that harbored no voices separate from those it claimed. Eventually, their trembling journey gave them sanctuary at the Westin's Barrel lodge they'd been searching for. It was a massive cylindrical lodge planted on the summit.

Upon arrival, Retraenon and Minimus temporarily parted ways with Mariana who intended to meet Kadin a couple miles back. She only came to make sure Retraenon made it up safely. He thanked her and she hopped back into the heated buggy. Mariana's goodbye was much faster than he expected and the abrupt nature of their separation caught him by surprise. He wasn't irritated, but it said something to the dissonance that always seemed to nag at her attention. Retraenon waved at the enclosed carriage, which, following a dull crack, lurched back to life and was quickly enfolded back into the white abyss.

Before long, he'd paid for a room, warmed himself, shaved, tucked Minimus into bed with their scarf as the pillow, and began making his way down to the dining area where the bar sounded extremely inviting after the last few days.

Retraenon skimmed the room, but still had no idea what Ithrayel looked like. He cursed himself for always failing to ask the most basic questions. 

A part of him opted to take the night off and wait till tomorrow, so his mind decided to wander with his gaze. Turning around in his seat, he breathed in the daunting view. On the west wall, a massive bow window stretched to the high ceiling, accentuating the blizzard and the great torchlights that surrounded their cylindrical structure. Exhaling, he ordered a drink and looked everything over. The spiraling bar sparkled with bristled travelers who appeared as exhausted as him, was decorated with drinks from across Regelia that felt like homages, and served the driest Grindstone he'd ever had. It was fantastic, while also maddening. 

What had he entered into?

*

Over the course of an hour, a piano shaped the bar's mood. Retraenon found himself absorbed by the atmosphere as he delved into his mind and the alcohol swam through his body like a sinking ship might drift toward the ocean floor. Peoples' chattering resembled the cracking planks, shouts were bursts of wind tearing the sail, feet struck the floor like waves crushing the contents, but before the ship's crew was swallowed in the storm, that piano's voice spiked again. 

For a moment, Retraenon thought the ship might have a chance and his eyes found the darkly suited pianist with a humming glass of garnet wine rippling in tune with the keystrokes. Perhaps the ship wouldn't submerge, but crimson bubbles could be felt rising from the ocean as the ship kept crinkling under the insurmountable weight of the sea. 

Then, the piano's tone altered to the chime of something back home.

This pianist's long, messily thrown back blonde hair shifted as he dipped and swelled with the piano's music, as though he were struggling to resurrect the sailors and repair the ship's ruined skeleton. Retraenon's gaze widened when the pianist's eyes rose to the ceiling and closed with a quick glance at him...and perhaps at someone else. It was then that the piano and pianist synchronized to call upon the remaining sailors with a chanty Retraenon heard once as a child. 

He remembered that the sea would be their cold bed, as it always remained, but the bittersweet melody would faithfully die beside the ones who sought The City of Love. Storms wailed as though driven by a cosmic heart beyond the ocean's soul and a song began in that now quiet lodge as the pianist's voice regaled both the listeners and singers alike with sounds that became mystic colors unseen by any in their most beautiful dreams.