The Melody's New Situation

Staring up and down at the 'building' that he'd been assigned, the student blinked a couple of times, shook his head, and then marched into the crumbling cobblestone, moss-ridden, dank, dark "Gargoyle Tower".

The entrance was a pair of rotten wooden doors that seemed to house some rather unsavory friends. Having a rather familiar past with these friends, the student confidently strides up to the door and grips the rusted metal handle.

Upon doing so, it instantly breaks off and seems to cause some kind of chain reaction. As if the metal handle he pulled off was the only thing keeping it together, the door broke away from its hinges and fell inward, shattering as it fell against the floor.

Watching as all the friends scattered as their home was destroyed, the student shook his head again. Taking a single step inside, the student quickly realized that there was no light to guide his way.

Sighing, the man trekked away from the building before coming back an hour later with a flaming torch. Hoisting it up into the seemingly endless darkness, the student's eyes bulged upon seeing that the inside was pristine.

There weren't a bunch of cobwebs on the ceilings or a bunch of rodents scurrying around the place, but it was instead clean granite floors, walls with inlaid designs, and perfectly clean chandeliers. Besides the little creatures he released upon destroying the door, the student could find nothing worth complaining about. From how the judge and headmaster had acted, this place was meant to be a way to make the students' life miserable.

"Such will suffice, I suppose." The student walked deeper into the building, fascinated by the works of well-cared-for art that littered the walls.

"Stop…"

It was but a single word whispered from the dark corridors, but it stopped the student dead in his tracks. Normally, the student wouldn't have bothered to listen to this hidden voice, but this shadowed figure emits nothing but the feeling of death.

"Who are you?"

Just as quiet as the first command had been, the crackling of the fire on the student's torch would have overpowered it if not for the weight of the words.

Adorning a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, the student took a bow, his eyes still locked on the darkness, "I am… Manus."

"Oh… you're that sophomore…"

Chuckling slightly, Manus stepped out of his bow, "What ever does that mean? …Everyone seems to believe I've done something, yet here I lay, unaware of a single action I've commit."

"Does a pact with a God not ring any bells? Or the ensuing aftermath where your room was decimated, covered in specks of golden dust?"

"So, the hidden figure can speak more than a few words…" Manus lets out a small laugh before shaking his head, "I haven't a clue what any of what you said means."

"Why are you here?" The figure gave up completely on trying to extract answers from Manus.

"Well, the headmaster thought it apt to place me here so that in the case of a recurring incident, which I'm guessing is this explosion you mentioned, it would not harm a single living soul… …besides you of course."

This time, it was the figures' turn to laugh, "Everyone worries about getting hurt by those that become a Fractured, but not a single person could do anything to me… Fractured or not."

"The first ones to die always say that." Manus wipes a fake tear from his eye, "I'll be sure to put flowers on your grave."

"Do you not know who I am?"

"I haven't a clue." Manus exaggeratedly shrugs, "Should I know?"

Without warning, a face appeared in the torchlight. What greets Manus is a girl with unblemished porcelain skin and whitish-gray straight hair that holds an ethereal glow to it. Her face is perfectly symmetrical with wide eyes, long eyelashes, and sharp eyebrows paired with plump red lips and a small nose. She has a relatively large bust and a medium stature that was levitating about an inch off the ground.

"Now do you know who I am?"

"No, I still haven't a clue." Manus breaks any semblance of intensity, causing the girl to fall flat on her face.

"I'm THE Nova!" She glides towards Manus, her expression shocked.

"I'm afraid that does not help." Manus gives an apologetic bow, his facial features flat, "And… before you continue… it doesn't really matter what you say to detail yourself, it will not help in rekindling a memory of a rumor I've heard of you."

With her mouth having gone dry, Nova smacked her lips together before she took a deep breath, glided away, and then morphed her face into a cold, uncaring one.

"I suppose you don't need to know me..." Nova seemed genuinely upset, but she didn't want to keep entertaining her new towermate so she instead went into detail on what Manus could and couldn't do while he lived in the Gargoyle Tower.

"So, you're telling me…" Manus placed a finger on his lips, discontent with the rules he just heard, "I'm to live only on the first floor, scavenge for food on my own, deal with anything and everything that enters the tower, fix the rotten door that 'protect' the entrance, and be as quiet as possible?"

Watching as Nova nodded at his list, Manus felt the urge to deal with her so he could have the tower to himself.

"I suppose I could follow those rules. All except the last one." Manus cleared his throat, "For you see, I am a virtuoso… I require music and I need to fulfill my fate of playing, especially now that I have some inspiration from this constant melody."

"So, if I allow you to play music, you'll do everything I ask and leave me alone?" Nova cocked her head at Manus.

"I suppose you could see it that way."

Nova seems to think for a moment before snapping her fingers, "There is a piano on the second floor. I'll give that to you and let you play."

"Excellent." Manus gives a shining smile, "The piano is the thing I indulge in the most, so, to have the opportunity to play it is music to my ears."

Feeling his hair stand on end, Manus looks to Nova who is giving him a chilling stare.

"If you play poorly, I'll tear the instrument from your hands and make your life a living hell."

"Me…" Manus lost a bit of his gentlemanly attitude, returning the chilling glare with his own, "Music is about perfection… and I will not do anything less than perfection. Especially not with an audience."

Feeling her skin crawl while Manus glared at her, Nova's body shook, and she receded into the darkness. "I suppose your power does revolve around music, so I guess it does make sense."

"IT DOES?!" Bursting into a look of pure joy, a wave of excitement radiated off Manus, "To think my skills would finally be recognized by the world and it'd be treated as a superpower."

Manus started to laugh maniacally, but by then, Nova had already disappeared. It took a few minutes for Manus to finally calm down, and when he did, he decided to start exploring the rest of the first floor.

There honestly wasn't much, just more paintings, more empty halls, a full kitchen, a ballroom, and a lot of dormitory bedrooms. Everything was well-maintained and clean, but amidst all the grandeur, there wasn't a single mirror to be found. That is until Manus decided to explore the bedroom he decided he'd make his own.

"Good God!"

Repulsed by the image in the mirror, Manus took a few moments to himself before reapproaching the mirror. Peeking his head into it, his eyes welled with tears. He was no longer suave. His brown hair was long and unkempt, looking like seaweed as it hung off his head. To make matters worse, Manus had an overly soft face with a lot of baby fat giving him a look of innocence and stupidity. And with his big eyes that'd be perfect for circle glasses, Manus couldn't help but weep.

"This is not my body." Manus came to a finite conclusion.

He'd been skeptical at first with how weak his body felt, but now that he could confirm it with his own eyes, Manus could no longer deny it.

Wanting to check the rest of himself, Manus ripped his tailor-fitted school uniform, which is a shirt, tie, overcoat, and dress pants, from his body. By doing such, Manus revealed his almost sickly-thin body without even an ounce of muscle adorning it.

"So, not only am I in a different body." Manus dresses himself slowly, his eyes glazed over, "I'm in a shit one."

Trudging out of his room, Manus lifelessly made his way out of the Gargoyle Tower just as the last breaths of the torch faded. Heading into the forest that surrounds the tower, Manus returned several hours later, long after the sun had gone below the horizon.

With another torch in his hand, Manus carried his body, which was now covered in dirt, blood, and sweat, into the Gargoyle Tower. Behind him, Manus carried a single rabbit. It was the one thing he worked to catch over those hours.

So, after cleaning himself and cooking a meal, Manus was ready to turn in for the day. Yet, when he checked in on the ballroom, a surprise gift awaited him.

There, in the center of the ballroom, was a grand piano.

Quickly he found himself sitting on the piano bench, his fingers hovering over the ivory and ebony keys. Even though he hadn't checked the piano's tuning, Manus felt that the piano was ready to create perfection.

Manus thought to play the strange melody in his head, but he knew he wasn't ready. He said he would create perfection, and so that's what he planned to do. 

Manus, careful, started his first movement, opening with an octave in his left hand and a triple figuration in the right.

It is a song Manus was confident in.

It is the moonlight sonata.

And the grand piano embraced it, perfectly playing out its notes. Manus lost himself in the music, not even realizing that light was forming out of nothing around him and that that light was reacting to the touch of every key. Above him, in the ceiling of the ballroom, an image of the moon in clouds formed, shining its brilliant light on the entranced Manus.

The music could be heard throughout the entire Gargoyle Tower and Nova, who was awoken by its melody, was instantly captivated. Never had she heard such a beautiful melody, nor did she ever have such feelings of personal despair.

For fifteen minutes it stayed like that until the third movement had finally concluded and Manus had ceased his movements.

Standing from the bench, Manus wiped his human insignificance from the piano and returned to his room.

Nova, who was left in awe in her room, wondered how much more of a powerful experience it would have been had she been beside Manus when he played. But Nova was quick to throw that thought away. One's talent did not dictate the goodness of man. So, as Nova fell back asleep, she kept the wall between Manus and herself. Though, she quietly admitted to herself that she was glad to have given Manus the piano.