A Lullaby of Virtues

by Jr Bienvenido Buten

  If you liked Songs of Virtue, I would like to introduce you to my other series, Hearts of Ashes on the next page. A world governed by water, instruments, and heart parchments.

  Wait? More? Take me there.

  I: Silver Songheart

  Death… It’s not what I fear, my fear rises from the truth that I can’t protect everyone from it.

  Armed with my arched black violin bow covered in orchids, I dash through the lavender grass, tiny raindrops splattering inside the heart shaped f-holes of my lilac violin Ayzendri. White boots, lilac cloak, heart shaped ear cuff lings; clothes for a Songheart. The sky swirls with black clouds brining me to the secret cave entrance faster. I head uphill alone, death is near and at sixteen, I’m not strong enough to fight it.

  A thud of boots snapping together resonates across the hill. I pull my cloak against my body and hum. Their faces, thousands of men approach, instrument cases on their backs, lute and harps in their hands, armored. The air binds with the smell of the ashes left behind by their songs. And I will take no part of this.

  A girl my age approaches, violet highlights in her silver hair, a glow in her eyes to match them. She drops her white cloak, revealing her tunic imprinted with a symbol that only brings nightmares; a heart releasing ashes.

  She chews on a toothpick. “Hey you! What blood runs through your veins."

  I remain silent. Only fools answer to girls who assume power beyond our hearts understanding.

  She turns to the mass of soldiers behind her. Some of their legs shaking. “Can she hear me?"

  The armored harmonists draw their viola bows. “Answer her!” one yells.

  A forced smile rises from my lips. “Hello, I am Silver Songheart, sister of orchids."

  Whispers travel amongst the men and a laugh breaks out. The girl turns and marches through her soldiers, grabs the one with the loudest bark, and kicks him in my direction.

  Thankyou.

  She licks her finger and swipes it through her tunic. “I am Striata Songheart. Wielder of the violin Azyi.” Disillusionment strikes my heart. “Come Sister, show me the power of your orchids."

  I lift the lilac cloth covering my black gemmed marble container called cerami, held by my lavender thigh holster; violin symbols and a lilac gem in the middle. I sway my bow across my violin, the black gem lowers and lilac water rises from the container like a wave from the Songheart seas.

  Striata hums, creating an everlasting force in my mind that makes me regret being born under the violet spectrum. Gifts of lilac water that can calm the angriest of harmonist, but her strange rhythm reminds me that for each water than can protect, there are three that can destroy.

  Forgive me Fathers of Songheart.

  I hold, inhale, and let my bow limply fall to my side. I can’t leave without answers. "Why do you attack me?" I show her the emblem on my neck. A winged heart with a violin bow across. "We are the same, waters of Violeti."

  Her soldier charges, sword in hand, his viola planted where his laugh conquered the sky.

  My lilac water forms into the shape of a heart.

  The heart launches pellets of lilac water, each one melting away his armor at subcritical temperature that can rival the sapphire magma from Ochresni mountains. I aim my bow. “Harunay!”

  A lilac arrow forms and strikes him in the hand, violet smoke belches from it as it dissolves to ashes.

  My lilac water burns the grass.

  He screams.

  My eyes close and I wave my bow, returning my lilac water inside my cerami, one only responsive to the sound frequency of my violin Ayzendri.

  When I open them, the enemy lands a hit with his only arm.

  Pain shakes my temple, in rhythm, distracting me from from dodging the next kick. I tumble over the lavender grass, the words "May water light our enemies’ hearts on fire,” pounding in my head. Words of my ancestors.

  The girl laughs and raises her hand. “Power! Show me!"

  He charges and we exchange blows.

  Ayzendri’s heart shaped peg box figures strike his cheek, I kick him in the stomach, and dash toward my airship.

  Lying on the ground around me are harmonist with their eyes shut. The lilac, black, and white cloaks of my people. I reach the body of a child. He wears a suit with a graduation pin; lilac highlights in his hair. I try not to look at the ashes of his instrument, but the brightness of my cloak make the dark ashes more visible.

  "Help..." whispers a voice nearby.

  Over my right shoulder a solider rests on the trunk of an oak tree. A black glow in his eye pupil, a sign of death. He’s not the only one. Dead Songhearts replace the animals that should be roaming this part of the forest. Making me question my being here. Should I strike with my full power and fall?

  I approach him with cautious steps. A child died within my distance and I couldn't save him. One who showed me that not all Songhearts are of darkness. Someone has to pay for this and this man will let me know who I will receive my payment from.

  The lilac glow in my eyes can see through him. He fears this forest, as he should. I sit by him and play my symphony. This sound guides my lilac water through the dead leaves on the ground, surrounding us in a circle.

  He grabs my foot. "Don't leave me here," he says.

  My lilac glow shines on his face, a violin tattoo imprinted under his cheek. He is marked. “What does that girl want?”

  “The boy who rules the Songheart seas, the song whisperer.”

  My foot stomps his chest. “Why attack my home?” I gaze over at the boy’s body. “My clan…”

  “As my penance for the life I’ve taken. The boy is in the Kingdom of Ochresni, in the district of roses.”

  Ochresni… Ruled by Emperor Leriyu Ochresni, the strongest lute player of this generation, the tongue of hearts.

  He falls asleep before I gave him some sort of speech, letting him know his safety in the afterlife only lasts as long as I walk with the living.

  Shouts reach me from the distance, they look for me, for my instrument.

  The lilac glow from my eye pupils leads me through the narrow path of bushes, but the smell of ashes guides me toward the foot marks on the ground. This smell is no different than the one left behind by my orchid garden when it was still of this earth. But where are the ashes? Something else must be going on...something evil. I rest my bow on the strings and ready myself.

  I peer over my shoulders to see a man standing under the shadow, amber glow in his eyes. “A Songheart whose heart isn’t sealed? If that’s the case, show no mercy and take this child under your wing, as a child with such traits is worthy of a crown.”

  I take a knee. Master… “Come Master, let’s show them our power. Release me, I beg you.”

  He laughs and removes his hood. Two violin bows marked under his eyes. His hair grey and old, but his face young. “It is here where I die Silver. Now leave.”

  I shake my head. "Last time this happened, I wasn't able to dismiss myself properly. So this time I will not make that mistake.”

  He rips the top of his cloak, his tattoos of the ancient scripture glow. He removes his necklace, a golden heart with wings. “You have proven yourself worthy of the titles I have given you, but the world will not see it this way. They will reject your kindness, and if you're lucky, they will do so directly and not through deception. Just remember that you live with your decisions, not the judges that walk this earth."

  Lilac water swirls around Lyrin. “What is so important about this boy, important enough that you refuse to release me. Give your life to pleasure a manic.”

  The air dense. “He is my son, Songheart.”

  I lower my bow and my water returns to my cerami. "This won't be the last time we see each other so I'm going to save my words until then. For now, all I can say is...Thankyou."

  "Don't thank me sister of orchids, thank the person who is responsible for the pureness that you hold in your heart. May the night be with you, and shall it not, fill it with life so that ev
en the sun envies its light."

  I smile. “And may your song turn five thousand men into ashes.”

  Biting my tongue helps me hold the tears. I am now a Songheart, and crying violates our third law.

  Any sense of doubt leaves my mind and I forget about all threats that await ahead, and focus on one thought; I must reach him, protect him, kill for him…

  I sprint in the direction of the voice, catching a glimpse of the amount of harmonist that head uphill and think to myself, how even in the face of death, his aura remains pure. Death will not be comfortable in his departure. This is true, I know it.

  Maybe that’s the key to keeping death away!

  I turn, and he smiles before he flips in the air with his lyre, amber water swirling at his sides, cutting his enemies like hearted blades from the famous Lifloriz Armory Museums.

  Good-bye Master Lyrin, and may the ashes of your enemies give life to this forest.

  At the end of the hill lies my airship; Roof on the garden, covered in lilac vines, thorns made of ashes, and a large heart at the top with wings.

  I rush to my room, the control center. A large glass window to give me a view of this hidden forest, a hammock, and plenty of tools to help me fight this Songheart imposter. I turn on my wall fountain and play my song to turn the water lilac, the fuel source of my ship.

  Ayzendri’s sound sings through my heart. Relieving all anger, fear, and worries, molding the color of my marble stone fountain lilac.

  My lilac light reaches the wall. “Kingdom of Ochresni,” I say.

  The mass of men continues to rush Lyrin, he’s taken a quarter of them out, but he’s just begun.

  My fists pound the glass. The girl skips around the ashes of my home, her laughter piercing the glass that prevents me from jumping below.

  She looks up and and sticks out her tongue. She grabs a sword from one of her soldiers and points it at the ship.

  She twirls and dives it into her soldier’s heart, splattering blood onto her hair, an accessory for her highlights. A foreshadowing of my death.

  In her eyes at least.

  Thick violet smoke rises into the sky. My home reduced to ashes by water that burns no hotter than mine. My drawings, my writings, the belonging and souls of those who saved me. The things that forged my heart.

  Gone.

  This girl...she seeks destruction, chaos. I gaze at my reflection through the glass, the lilac in my eyes dark.

  Why would anyone force a Songheart to breathe chaos, ashes? It is all we know, it is the pleasure we suppress.

  But she doesn't have what I need. A Songheart with power, a child who will restore our name in this world of harmonies and war.

  ***

  Days have passed since my master died. I press my forehead against the coolness of the glass. The view of the Ochresni kingdom below, made of trees and skyscrapers with flowers blooming in their edges. Airships fly around me and avoid coming to close. They know the heart symbol that lies on top of my ship. I was promised peace as a child, and since the age of five, I’ve done nothing but train with forces that most harmonist only wish to meet. Curses overwhelm my heart and I have no solution without guidance; Only that I must travel through this Kingdom of Ochresni as my last task. Then I will be free.

  I head to my roof garden and sit on the edge of my ship. The orchids here are genetically modified to draw more energy from the sun, making them a good source of water when we need to play. I swing my feet, pretending to study the people below. Maybe I too should seek a young master to join the army I will build. But peers now a days, can get you captured, taken by forces I dare not speak of.

  I rip an orchid from a batch of winters near me and throw them off the ship. The lilac light from my eyes shine on them, causing lilac water to drop from the pellets onto the streets below.

  A warning to all those who threaten this new boy I am to protect. To think there is another of me. I hope for his sake he doesn’t wear the heart mark imprinted on my neck sides. Or he won’t make it past this year, before all cities, kingdoms, nations, and islands lust for power begins.

  My name is Silver. Clan name, Songheart, of the first Harmonist.

  Those who trained me gave me the name sister of orchids. Long story.

  And I don't know what the future holds for me, but I know this.

  I refuse to let my heart go unsung, as only the ashes of my heart can create the peace I long for.

  We are not Symphonist! You have a voice and I want to hear it.

  I hope you enjoyed this short-story prequel of “Songs of Virtue.”

  Unlike Symphonist, we don’t need a messenger phoenix to communicate. As an author, I love feedback.

  So if you’re inclined, I’d really appreciate a review. Loved it, hated it- I still want to hear what you have to say.

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