Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Music that can Reach the Soul

Chapter 4: Music that can Reach the Soul

 

In the afternoons, I would work with Redell on using magic to speak rather than my soul to speak. I wasn’t very good at it yet, and I couldn’t speak particularly fast or perform more complex activities like whistling, singling, and humming. Additionally, I practiced another application of my soul-speak that Redell held a curiosity in.

“If you can direct your soul-speak to one person at a time, you could create pseudo-telepathic communication. One-way, of course. You may also risk someone higher rank reading what you send through your aura, but your soul is exceptionally hard to read on account of it being…” He gestured around us into the air “… so dispersed. How did it become like that?”

“That.” I said slowly, using magic-speak. “A technique, to escape, notice, as a soul.” I paused and refocused when my magic control slipped away for a moment. “Memories hazy, as a result. To escape, dispersed.”

“With some aura control training, you should be able to disperse your aura in the future without scattering your memories. When you finally rank up by absorbing essences, greater control and strength of your aura will be one of the benefits. Now, try to use soul-speak on only me, without letting Laius hear.”

I hadn’t noticed, but Laius had been leaning under a nearby Veranda awning. Redell and I were sitting in a gazebo in a clearing. I focused, and tried to send a stream of thoughts to Redell.

“How many siblings does Laius have?”  I directed my soul-speak at Redell.

“Four,” Laius replied.

“No good, huh.”

“Developing an advanced aura technique like this will take time. For now, keep working on magic-speak, and we’ll also work on coordinating that with mouth movements.”

“Why are, you inter-rested, in, aura speak?” I asked Redell, trying to time my words with the appropriate mouth movements.

“I pursue music as a craft.” Redell responded. “I’m interested in how the soul and aura can be used to enhance music.” Redell materialized a larger acoustic guitar-like instrument in his hands, which translated to ‘baritar’, and gave it a few strums. “We can use essence abilities and magic to enhance the sound and effects of music. Music that can heal and enhance our allies and sound waves that can slice into foes is not uncommon. I am interested in music that can reach… the soul.” He ended his explanation with a dramatic strumming.

“You are, musician, and, a healer?”

“When you are a high ranked essence user you live a lot longer. We all have picked up some additional skills and interests. However, we are more eccentric than the typical high-ranker.” He started playing a gentle song on his instrument. It had a lower and smokier timbre than an Earth guitar. “That’s why this compound is built on this particular continent. We wanted to get away from politics and other responsibilities that were expected of us.”

“What makes, continent, different?” I could query my Guide for the name of the continent and world I was on, but I wouldn’t have access to a map until I inspected one and it was added to my archives.

“This continent is very dangerous. This is why you’re not allowed off the compound. However, the complex is expansive, to accommodate all of our pursuits.”

“What do, others do? Why, atypical?”

“Ah.” He bobbed his head to his music. “Amara is a rather eclectic inventor. She pursues any magic that interests her. You could say she is a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none with external magic. In particular, she pursues the invention and refinement of practical magic. In contrast, her essence ability set is for a close combat brawler. Typically, a magic researcher would have essences and abilities that would make studying and performing external magic easier.”

“You are all, like this?”

“My own abilities are those of a healer. Some of my abilities are sound related, but it is an influence of the soul rather than something I focused on.”

“Laius?”

“Laius pursues cooking. His abilities don’t include specific food related essences abilities, such as food replication. He does have his telekinesis and inventory abilities, among others, that can be used for cooking.”

“And, Chelsea?”

You are reading story Fear Not Death at novel35.com

“Chelsea’s abilities are focused on control and entrapment, with some minor healing. Her abilities are life and plant related, as is common with elves. She has a great passion for forging weapons, accessories, and armor. Mostly metalwork, but she uses her plant abilities for woodwork as needed.”

“I used, to play, some instruments.” I told Redell.

“Do you remember which ones?” He asked me.

“Not yet. Do you have, one, portable? I want to learn, again.”

Redell finished playing and set his instrument away. He contemplated, rubbing his chin. “It may help you recall your more personal memories related to music. It would also be good for your fine control.” He materialized another instrument and handed it to me. My [Guide] identified it as a Guitarlele.

-------

Item: [Guitarlele] (normal rank, legendary)

A simple unnamed [Guitarlele] crafted by [Redell Rowen] for anyone to use.

• Effect: Immunity to normal-rank environmental damage.
• Effect: Self-repairs from moderate damage.
• Effect: Self-tuning
• Effect: By channeling mana, can increase the volume of the sound.

[Record] of [Guitarlele] has been saved to the [Archives].

-------

“She is yours to keep. I have a some Guitarlele song books and practice books I can give to you as well. Have some fun with it.”

---

After the afternoon sessions with Redell, who I currently spent the majority of my day with, I’d return to the beautiful forest clearing beside a small lake and experiment on some of the limits of my other racial gifts.

Each race has six racial gifts, and Outworlders like me had gifts tailored to our survival. Often these gifts ended up being utility focused, whereas other races had gifts more useful in combat scenarios, such as increased power or affinities to spells and special attacks.

My [Guide] had a variety of useful functions, most of which were not very useful in the astral but showed their worth in physical reality. In particular, the query function was a useful information gathering and verification tool, but it had its limitations.

The answer to my queries were text based, common knowledge, and factual. What was considered “common knowledge” was considered easily accessible knowledge to me when it came to knowledge from Earth. I could query it for anything that I could reasonably find on the internet, such as Wikipedia-like articles, definitions, and even year-by-year temperature data. However, the phrasing in which I used the function was critical. If I queried [What will be the temperature tomorrow?] I would get no response. However, if I asked [What is a probable high-low temperature range tomorrow?], it would respond. Questions asking for future events without modifiers gave no answer. Questions asking for assumptions on future events on the basis of past data were answered.

Of course, these were just ‘probable’ temperatures. If a nearby volcano decided to erupt (if there was a nearby volcano) and coat the sky with ash, the answer would be inaccurate.

Additionally, I could receive advice related to my own situation. If I asked [Should I continue to stay at the crafting compound?] I would receive an answer [Answer: It is recommended to do so.] It wasn’t ever more than simple suggestions, however. I wouldn’t receive an answer if I asked it to detail a life plan. It only ever recommended one step, perhaps a reflection of its “time” limitations. Asking for guidance related to the situation of others gave no response.

The note function also had its purposes. I was never particularly good at keeping track of goals or tasks, and with the note function I could record important or small things I wanted to keep track of. This was even more important in the astral, where my sense of time and memory were distorted. The note function had reminded me of my task. I could title specific notes, and they were recorded in the archives for later reference.

The archive itself was self-explanatory. Anything I inspected would get added to the archives, and it was subdivided into useful sections according to content. I could manipulate and rearrange these ‘folders’ if I wanted. For now, there was a section on objects, books, my own status, and definitions of important terms. Unlike like query function, archive could save images. Objects such as the Guitarlele had a rotatable model, a schematic, and a [Record]. I could use [Records] to recreate objects with my [Astral Domain] ability, but the Guitarlele was far too complex for me to accomplish without significantly more experience. Books such as the music instruction book could be materialized as a copy in my hands that were invisible to others. Or I could manifest a screen with the book’s contents in front of my eyes like a hologram. It was like my own invisible music stand; gone were my woes of having sheet music blown away by the wind.

With display, I could display any of the previous functions to another person. I could even choose to show just one person in a group, or all of them. I could control whether one display was shown or multiple, but the ability would lose effect outside of my aura range. I had tested this together with Redell and Laius during another one of our sessions.

 

 

 

You can find story with these keywords: Fear Not Death, Read Fear Not Death, Fear Not Death novel, Fear Not Death book, Fear Not Death story, Fear Not Death full, Fear Not Death Latest Chapter