Strange Aeons [Book 1]

24. The Man with the Silvery Voice [part IV]

He entered from backstage in a shower of applause. He sported his usual black jacket, but under it, he seemed to have worn a suit with elegant shoes. His face was, of course, invisible to everyone.

There were four black obsidian crystals put at the edges of the stage. Staccato stood right in the center of their diagonal lines and spread his arms wide, with his hands opened to the sides. He tilted his head a bit. And started to sing.

Everyone stood silent, thinking that the exhibition had started, but the words and the chanting weren't the kind they'd expected. The music was dark and fast-paced, with a creepy game of minors chasing one another, as he slightly battered one of his feet on the wooden stage.

The four crystals started to lighten up, at first just dim violet lights in their cores, that became brighter and brighter as the song went on. Staccato abruptly jerked his hands upwards, and a light violet smoke erupted from the crystals, thin at first, then becoming thicker and thicker, twirling on volutes all around him and for the whole stage. When the smoke settled everyone stood astonished.

The smoke had turned out to be a choir. An at least thirty-people choir. Elysials, pale and transparent in their gloom grey appearance. Their faces were unknown and serious, their clothing varied from historical to modern, they were men and women, already organized in the four sections of a choir.

Staccato lifted a hand, like an expert conductor, but still facing his audience and not the choir beside him and made a swift gesture.

The whole choir erupted in a perfect harmony of notes. Their voices were clear and wonderfully harmonized, as they sang the overture to a song without words. And after some seconds, Staccato's voice joined them, shrill and definite, dominating over them like a true soloist.

To heed our story, we shall go back

Unto those days of old

When peoples brave and roguish knaves

Were true kings of the world

No valiant knight, no princess bride

In our song will shine

But the true and saddest stories

Of Windstrike and Valentine.

The ballad was a well-known historical one, especially precious to the Order. And for Staccato to have chosen it, it was preciously ironic, since it was the first written proof of the existence of the Pandora's Boxes.

The song talked about two people. Valentine de la Neige, a French nobleman turned professional soldier turned soldier of fortune, and Windstrike, Valentine's faithful soldier

They went in the search of a Pandora's Box, trying to find it, hoping its prodigious content would help them live their lives, and their loves, peacefully and happily. But as it was a ballad and not a fairy tale, their endings were not happy.

It was a very long song and hadn't Staccato been such a marvelous singer and the choir so perfect, the whole room would have fallen asleep at minute three.

But Staccato's voice was something incredible. It felt like liquid bliss pouring directly in the hearts of the listeners, so different from the howling, disquieting notes of his battle songs.

There were very few dry eyes in the whole room, and even the plotters, for some minutes, completely forgot their plan and their hate for the singer.

A long, thundering applause greeted the last notes of the song. Staccato bowed with unparalleled elegance, as someone who was long used to such homage.