Who's Playing Music?

Krave rolled up the map, and the lessons continued, with both Krave and Omni losing track of time. They didn't slow down until Krave's stomach let out a defiant rumble, causing the old demon to fumble his quill. "It's lunchtime already? Where did the time go?" He grumbled, "There's still so much to be done; there's no time for food..." He complained to himself.

"We can work while we eat; I've already used Harmonize to inform John, he'll be here shortly with enough food for the rest of the day," Omni stated matter-of-factly.

"... John?" Krave asked hesitantly.

"Yes, John. That is the name I've given the former cleaning golem," the golem nods, "... Is there something wrong with that name?"

Krave shrugged, "No, I guess not. Harmonize is really quite useful, though."

Omni sighs, "Certainly, I just wish it didn't give me the urge to sing when I use it too much," it complained.

"To sing, you say?" The old demon asked while standing up; he shuffles over to a bookshelf and begins to rummage through the books, "While it may be just a coincidence, there have been cases in the past when magic has reacted to music far stronger than the old language."

"Before we get into Harmonize, I've been wanting to ask about the language I've been using to cast spells. I don't remember it at all. It sounds alien to me," Omni stated.

Krave nods and grabs an old book lying on top of the bookshelf, putting it to the side while he sits back down. "You've already seen it, the runes you broke when you woke up. You still haven't told me how you did that, by the way."

Omni tilted its head to the side, thinking back, "Right, there was something like that; it feels like it's been such a long time that I almost forgot. One of the skills I acquired through absorbing the magic tools is 'Hazard Storage,' I've not experimented with it yet. Still, it seems to be able to store anything with a sufficient amount of energy," it explains while tapping its chest, "Unlike how it reacted to the food, I still have all the runes quarantined in my core, or wherever the pocket of space is." Omni began to look at the runes and try to sound out what they were mentally. Making no progress, it turned back to Krave, "Teach me the pronunciations and enunciations for each rune letter; that will be much faster than memorizing each word."

Krave nods again, "Alright, simple enough, but later, I want to talk about Harmonize," he says with the familiar glint of excitement in his eyes. He picks up the book and sets it in front of the golem; the title was plain, 'Documented Cases of Musical Magic.' The book had no author, but Krave explains a shy adventurer wrote it of all things.

The book wasn't very thick, only containing ten pages, "The first three pages are dedicated to the documented reports, the next three are on rumours, and the last four are the writer's hypothesis," Krave says. "If what is written is true, then music might be the actual 'original language,' and not the ancient language we've been using. The problem is, nobody has been able to re-create the documented instances, and Diel'derose refuses to confirm or deny when asked," he explains while Omni flips through the book.

Each of the first three pages is dedicated to a single instance each, and the top half of each page is covered in rather well-drawn depictions of what may have happened.

The first instance was a tribe of lizardfolk commanding the sky to smite their rivals with lightning through song and rain dance; what followed is widely debated as either coincidence, actual musical magic, or a god acting on their behalf. The consensus of most is the lizards were high on swamp fumes.

The next was a dwarven clan's battle bolero coinciding with the appearance of a cryptid on the battlefield that attacked the opposing side while avoiding the dwarves, wreaking havoc and singlehandedly defeating the enemy. Naysayers claim the dwarves were simply drunk out of their gourds.

The third were eye-witnesses of a coastal town praising a wandering minstrel as their saviour, claiming he 'persuaded' a tsunami to split in half, striking the coast to either side and missing the town in its entirety. People once again said the witnesses were simply drunk.

Most of the rumours in the following pages were about the wandering minstrel and the writer's attempts at tracking them down. The last four pages were nothing more than the writer scribbling ideas as they went mad trying to figure out the connection between music and magic.

Omni flipped the last page and closed the book, "That's not very helpful at all; the only thing remotely interesting is this 'wandering minstrel' figure," it sighed.

Krave nodded emphatically, "Exactly, and that's what is so interesting about it! Just imagine what we could do if we could command that kind of strength without needing vast quantities of energy!" The old demon chirped with excitement.

The golem's stone lips turned downwards into a frown, "Crime, corruption, needless violence," it scolded.

Krave rolls his eyes, "And like that doesn't happen already? I heard about your run-in with the less pleasant members of society; what would have happened to Valentina if you weren't there?"

Omni sighs, "So you're one of those people who advocate everyone should have a gun."

Krave shrugs, "Can't say I'm familiar with that term, but if it's some weapon, then yes, I think everyone should have a gun to protect themselves. Criminals and scum will always find a way to bully civilians, and I want people to have a way to fight back."

"By arming them with some barely understood magic that can affect everything around it and might not even exist? That's just-" Omni starts, clearly upset, but is interrupted by a knock at the door. Through Harmonize, it realizes John is outside with their food and begins to calm down. It stands and goes to open the door while apologizing, "Sorry, Valentina told me things are different now; as you can see, I get heated easily when it comes to... violence."

Omni opens the door to let John inside, and the big golem crouches slightly to get through the door and sets down a pair of crates with a heavenly smell coming from them. Krave forgets about the argument when the smell hits him and hops up to get at the food. With a thought, Omni sends John back to the Quiet Respite and begins unpacking the food.

They settle at the table and dig in while Krave explains the pronunciations of each rune letter and what they look like. Omni confirms each rune letter against the runes contained within Hazard Storage, asking about the runes corresponding to two letters like the 'Ad' rune. It also affirms that they act like regular letters and words so long as the runes are not imbued with the energy. While converting the food to energy, it also engraves notes on the interior of its body near its core for easy practice.

"Right, I was so busy taking notes I forgot to tell you about your affinities," Krave states while wiping a bit of green sauce from his lips, "First is earth, which I'm sure you already figured, but you also have an affinity for water and lightning magic." He takes another bite before continuing, "And out of the higher elements of Space, Time, and Gravity, you have Gravity, which m-" Krave's explanation is interrupted as his eyes bug out and he starts trying to cough while hitting his chest.