Chapter Text
Music in the Valley
Chapter One: And She Was
“Benny, we’ve got to tighten up the beat on the back end of track 4, but otherwise, I’d say it’s pretty well in the can. See y’all next week?” Aurelia Anne Vesper closed her guitar case, a sense of accomplishment making her grin. It’d been a damn long week, but working with the best of the best of Nashville was worth every glorious minute. She loved her job, and she loved the like minded people she worked with. She shrugged into her coat and twisted up her hair to cram a knit cap over the unruly waves and curls.
“Later Ves!”
“Careful on the road, kid.”
“Thanks fellas. Tom, thanks for letting me borrow your banjo for track 7.”
“Anytime, shug. It was a good instinct!”
Blushing furiously at the praise, she shot him a smile and swung her messenger bag across her body, located her keys and hauled up her guitar case, making her way to the exit. Brow furrowed, she was lost in thought as she passed the night guard.
“Miss Vesper? Be careful out there, you hear? Storm’s blowing up, it’s already been spitting slush. Temperature’s gonna snap.” The old guard opened the door, protectively putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Bob! I don’t have far to go, and I'm holing up at home for the weekend. No gigs! Just me, frozen pizza, and my Netflix queue.” She flashed him a brilliant smile, wiggled her eyebrows, and jingled her keys. The old man melted a little, smiling back and scratching his head, tilting his cap back comically.
“Well be safe just the same, and stay warm. We’ll see ya on Monday.”
“Good night Bob!”
She traipsed out into the parking lot, humming under her breath and wrinkling her nose at the slush in the street. What a nasty night. She curled her lip at the salt encrusted snow lapping at her boots, and decided that she’d treat herself to a luxurious soak in the tub when she got home. After her precious boots got buffed out and polished, of course.
Whistling, Ves walked to her car with her eyes constantly roving around for danger. She had parked under a streetlight. She had parked close to the entrance. She held her keys in a defensive position. But even the most careful citizen can still fall prey to bad luck.
“Give me your bag.” The young man popped up from behind her car, making her jump and before she could scream, a hand clamped over her mouth and a wiry arm pinned hers against her sides.
A voice spoke in her ear, crooning, “Just give us your bag, you won’t get hurt.” The rank smell of unwashed clothes and soiled body rose around her and she gagged.
The first man’s blue eyes were so shot with red that they looked purple, and his mouth was a mess of sores. His body twitched uncontrollably as he scratched his arms through a threadbare coat. He was holding a gun. “C’MON!” He shrieked, eyes casting around nervously. Ves dropped her guitar case and tried to make a placating sound as she scrabbled for her bag. The junkie’s eyes widened and darted, and in a split second, he fired three times. Stomach. Lungs. Spine. She sprawled face first to the pavement as the man holding her shoved her away from him simultaneously. Her eyes bulged as she tried to scream.
“JESUS FUCK MAN you could’ve hit ME!” Screamed junkie #2, who proved to be a reedy teenage boy with black hair. “Why’d you fucking do that?!”
“NEVER MIND! Grab her shit!” She felt something snap in her as her body was flipped violently on its back. He roughly yanked her bag free as she heard the clasps of her guitar case click and jingle open. “RANDY! Leave that guitar alone! C’mon, let's go let’s go…”
“I’m keepin’ it, you almost shot me man.”
“Whatever asshole LET'S GO.”
Ves wheezed, blood pouring out of her wounds and mouth and mixing with the cold slush, soaking her coat and clothes. Her fingers weakly scraped at the pavement, but the rest of her body was offline. It had only been minutes. MINUTES.
“MISS VESPER!” Footsteps pounded around her. Too late.
“Jesus Christ! Ves! Hold on, kid, hold on! Help’s comin’!” A face swam into view, too blurry to make out. She wanted to tell him to move out of the way. Too late. The halos of light around the streetlamps were lovely. Snowflakes fell into her open eyes, her tangled hair, her open and empty guitar case. So lovely. Too late. Her vision began to dim, to pulse with her heart, and the halos grew in color, glowing a deep purplish pink. God, so LOVELY. A tear trickled down her face and she was gone.
—---------
“... Child …”
Aurelia Anne Vesper opened her eyes, dazzled in the glory of a million pink and purple stars. Was she floating? She felt weightless. What was this light?
“This Color is Magenta.” She thought, her hair riding the cosmic waves around her. Where was her body? She felt bits of herself snapping together, like iron filings finding a magnet. A vibration of sheer energy poured through each piece and it set her nerves alight.
“Your Time came too soon, My Child, your Birthing will be Violent. I am Sorry. You were running out of Light and I had to Take you. ”
“Who are You?” her thoughts cast out in a panic. Her form continued to coalesce and a pain started to roar from her core. A burning ripped through her eyes and she howled.
“It is Time. I must Push you through. It’s time for you to go out into the world. I have high hopes for what you will accomplish. ”
“WAIT! Who ARE You… and who am I?!” She felt a caress as soft as a feather against her face, a pulse of pure Love… and then the Agony began.
—----------
Jina had seen at least a hundred humans come though the Phoenix Shrine. It was becoming old news, which, in her opinion, was disappointing. Human resurgence really shouldn’t be something that one becomes accustomed to! But as the Shrine began to power up again, she rose to her feet, sighing a bit and running through what had become the “Welcome to Palia, Human!” script in her mind. The sooner she sent this one on its way, then the sooner she could get back to work.
She had received hundreds of them. Not one of them had ever come through screaming though. Or… dirty? Or with genuine human clothing!
Instead of a graceful landing among wisps of Flow colored light and wearing an ethereal but generic garment, this human hit the ground with a resounding smack in a wet coat. Shrieking in obvious pain and clutching it’s head, it writhed on the ground, then curled in on itself. Jina gasped and rushed forward, only to be held aloft by her Galdur protector, Helka.
“No, no, my Jina, you shall not go to it until I have cleared it of danger.” The calm robotic voice provided a ridiculous counterpoint to the obvious distress at the altar.
The human gasped, and rose onto its knees, whimpering and moaning. Its clothing and large coat were torn and bloodied. Its masses of long curly hair were matted with dirt and blood and covered its face. If it was clean, it would have been a pretty honeyed blonde, but it was gray with grime. It rose to its feet, wavered a moment, clutched its eyes and screamed, doubled over in pain, then fell over.
“Hekla PUT ME DOWN!” Jina kicked her feet and rained hits on the Galdur’s wide back. Heavy footsteps pounded down the corridor as Hodari Pavel skidded into the main chamber.
“What in the name of the Dragon is goin’ ON in here? Jina!” The miner had been assessing the temple ruins next to the Shrine and had heard the screams, rushing over to see what was wrong. “Jina! Are you hurt?!”
“Mr. Pavel! The human!” Jina motioned to the Phoenix effigy, still trying to free herself from Hekla. “Hekla! It passed out! I’m safe, put me down NOW!”
Hodari rushed to the crumpled form. “Do they usually come through so beat up? Good Embra, she looks like she’s been trampled by an ormuu! She needs to get to Chayne.” He felt for a pulse, and the body stirred and whimpered under his hands. “She’s alive. Jina, go on ahead of me and find Chayne, tell him what’s going on. I’ll follow you down with her.”
He smoothed the wild hair back and lifted her into his arms. She moaned and shifted, silent tears cutting through dried blood and dirt on her deathly pale face. There was so much blood, but there didn't seem to be any fresh wounds. She was beautiful. He shook his head, suddenly furious with himself. Dammit, Pavel, now is DEFINITELY not the time to be noticing if someone is pretty or not! He set his jaw and picked up the pace, determined not to look at her too closely again. That was, until her eyes flew open in fright and he almost dropped her. Flow. She has Flow colored eyes. Long eyelashes and Flow colored eyes and HODARI get a hold of yourself.
“Who are you?” She trembled out. Her eyes were thick with tears and terror and his heart went out to her.
“Hodari Pavel. Who’re you?” He drawled out kindly. He adjusted his hold on her and she scrabbled her arms around his neck fearfully for stability.
“I…I don’t know.” She whispered. He held her a little closer as she began to weep.