Refrain

by Nathan Ravenwood

  Well, no sense in not being friendly. Vann held out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Orianthi. My name's-”

  “Okay, first of all, don't call me that,” the harpy said. “You already mangled it even more than my own kind do. Just 'Ori' works fine.”

  Her words might as well have been a roc's talons, and Vann drew his hand back from their sharpness. “Okaaaaaaaay,” he said.

  “Second of all.” The harpy jerked her head towards the big structure. “I know what you're all here for.”

  Janaza raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

  “That thing that you had on your back, human. You're here for the other one.”

  Vann recalled Rorzan mentioning another guitar. “Do you know where it is?”

  “Aye.” Ori turned on her heel. “Let's not fly around the aerie anymore than we have to.”

  She led them across the flat top of the rocky spire to one of the staircases hewn into the ground that led down into the rocky depths of the harpy aerie. The temperature dropped considerably as they descended into the dark. The downward passaged was wide enough for two to walk abreast, with a gap carved into the wall following the slope to allow air to circulate in the passageway.

  “Shouldn't be too many people in our way,” Ori said from ahead of them as she rounded a corner ahead. “Most of those who use these passages keep to the lower levels anyway.”

  “All those who can't fly?” Janaza asked.

  “Aye.” They emerged into a round chamber, the entire wall open to the air outside. Inside were a few harpies talking in low voices as they sorted out baskets of what appeared to be fruits and vegetables.

  Out over the slowly undulating waves, Vann spotted harpies winging over the whitecaps with spears, their heads turning back and forth as they sought their targets. When they did, they dove into the water, leading with their spears, and emerged a few moments later with a fish or two wriggling on the end. “Do you eat mostly fish?” Vann asked.

  “Mostly. Other aeries have got better gardens going than we do.” Ori reached into a basket as they passed and picked out a few bright yellow fruits, tossing them back over her shoulder with freakish accuracy into their hands. Vann sniffed the fruit, then took a bite. The hard outside crunched between his teeth before giving way to a soft, sweet, pulpy inside.

  They kept going down as they ate, passing through more large chambers, each and every one open to the outside. They were filled with harpies going about all manner of business, from cooking to metalworking to weaving. One area even had a few chambers split off from the main one, and from quick glances inside Vann determined they were dwellings. “How long did it take to make all this?” he asked.

  “Hundreds of years,” Ori said, stopping at the edge of the open aerie to look out over the water again. Far in the distance, Vann could see the shadow of a large landmass – the Eastern Continent.

  The three of them stood there for a while in silence, simply watching and listening to the ocean and the wind.

  “Go ahead, ask,” Ori sighed.

  “Ask what?” Vann and Janaza said at the same time.

  “The question you both are trying to be polite by not asking.”

  Vann and Janaza shared a meek look. Were they that obvious? “I have no idea what you're talking about,” Janaza said.

  Ori actually laughed. “Okay, smartasses, forget I said anything. Let's go.”

  “Wait, okay,” Vann said. He gestured to Ori's back. “What happened to your wings?”

  The harpy reached up and rubbed her shoulders, crossing her arms as if she was hugging herself. “I fucked up is what happened. Didn't read the wind right and wound up running smack into those.” She pointed straight down. Vann leaned out of the aerie entrance slightly and followed her finger. Far below him, jagged rocks burst from the waves like a spike trap, their edges sharp and their tops pointed. “Well, fell is more the right word.”

  Vann made a face. “That must've hurt.”

  “Of course it fucking hurt,” Ori said. She lifted up her shirt a little. On her midriff was a circle of scar tissue the size of Vann's fist. “You ever had a rock stuck through you like a fish hook? Not to mention my wings were shredded by the fall. I'm the only one to ever survive a fall into those rocks.”

  Despite himself, Vann's eyes lingered on her toned and muscled belly for a moment before her shirt dropped. “Well, at least you're still among the living?”

  Ori blew a breath out of the corner of her mouth. “If you can call being unable to leave the aerie for almost a decade living.”

  Janaza's face was sympathetic. “You poor thing.”

  The harpy rolled her shoulders, and Vann saw the muscles underneath her tunic flex. “Look, let's just cut to the chase.” She pointed a taloned finger up to the ceiling. “They'll go back and forth with the negotiation crap all afternoon and into the night. I know what you guys are here for, and I know where it is and how to get to it.”

  “You do?” Vann asked.

  Ori smiled cockily. “Like I said, I've had a lot of free time to explore every nook of this hunk of rock. The Matriarch is just going to hand over the thing anyway, so why bother sitting around preening ourselves when we can just go get the instrument? Save everyone a little time.”

  Janaza waggled a finger at the harpy. “I like you; right to the point.”

  “Otherwise I'll just bore you to death with lectures about our way of life.” Ori snorted. “You don't need to know about that.”

  “I mean,” Vann said. “I kind of want to know.”

  The harpy gave him a curious look, then pointed down at the floor. “Compromise. We get the thing now, I'll give you the lecture later if you're still curious. Deal?”

  “Deal. Lead on.”

  Ori turned and strode off, Vann and Janaza following close behind her. Vann resisted the urge to reach out and take hold of her long tailfeathers so as not to lose her as they wound their way through throngs of harpies. Ori pushed through the crowd, heedless of anyone in her way. Those in her path were firmly nudged aside, the actions earning her muted squawks of irritation.

  They made it to the other side of the big chamber and followed the harpy down another series of winding staircases. The further down they went, the louder the sound of the sea became as it filtered through the carved slits in the rocky wall, the stone steps becoming a bit more slick under Vann's boots. Janaza seemed to have no problem, sure-footed as always, but he did notice that the talons on Ori's feet splayed out wide to help her balance on the wet stone. They looked sharp as the roc talons she'd saved them from, though he wasn't exactly eager to get up close and test his hunch.

  Then the air slit ended and the staircase levelled off. “We're as deep as the interior spaces go,” Ori said, pausing by a nook in the wall. She reached in and pulled out three fist-sized stones, tossing one to Vann and one to Janaza. “Well, at least the ones that are marked on the maps.” She struck the stone in her hand against the wall. The impact made a cracking noise, and the stone began to glow from within, emitting a bright blue light.

  Vann stared at the stone in wonder, then did the same as Ori. Despite the intensity of the light that shone forth, the stone didn't feel warm at all as he held it in his palm. “What's down here?” he asked. “Normally, I mean.”

  “Emergency storerooms,” Ori said, setting off down the curved passage as Janaza struck her stone against the wall and added it's glow to the other two. “Anything that can be kept dry is stored down here, and there's a couple hidden exits in the event of anyone attacking us.”

  “Has that ever happened?” Janaza asked.

  “Not in my lifetime, nor in my elders. The aeries have warred before, though, so it's always a possibility. Though probably not anytime soon. We're all on good terms with one another as far as I know.” Ori put her hand on the wall, running her fingers against the stone. “Now, I know it's around here somewhere.”

  “What is?” Vann asked.

  “You'll see... aha!” Ori's fingers
hooked into an otherwise invisible notch in the wall, no bigger than an apple. She set her talons against it and turned her hand slowly. “Just gotta find the little holes...”

  Janaza waggled her eyebrows at Vann and he snorted. The harpy missed it, intent on finding what she was looking for. Then, her talons sank into the stone, ever so slightly. Ori made a soft “ah” noise under her breath, then yanked backwards on the notch. The lump of stone popped out of the wall. Ori twisted it to the right a quarter-turn, then pushed it back in.

  As she did, crystals in the wall began to glow with the same blue hue as the rocks in their hands. It took Vann a moment to realize the glow outlined a door, inscribed with an angular script he couldn't read. A few moments passed, and the glow solidified into straight, unbroken lines of light. With the creak of stone against stone, the door opened inward.

  “That's so cool,” Vann breathed.

  “I found this place years ago,” Ori said, striding forward through the opening in the wall. “I think only a harpy can open that lock, the little holes in that hidden keyhole are the exact size and shape of our talons. Unless you had a bunch of lockpicks all pressing down at the exact pressures needed, which is a bit of a tall order.”

  Vann and Janaza followed her into the gloom. Ori struck her rock against the wall, blue sparks cascading down onto the floor. As she did, the stone began to glow, and the glow spread through the sides of the passage they were on like fire consuming undergrowth. After a few moments, their whole surroundings were lit up with blue, revealing they were within a tunnel that went deep into the center of the spire.

  When they emerged from the confines of the tunnel, the three of them found themselves on a small ledge overlooking a yawning black abyss. Vann peeked over the edge and immediately wished he hadn't, taking a few giant steps back. “What is it with today and heights?” he muttered.

  “Before you ask, I have no idea how deep this goes,” Ori said, kicking a loose hunk of rock down into the pit. “I'm fairly certain there's ocean at the bottom, judging from the smell in here.”

  Vann sniffed the air, and indeed, there was a faint hint of ocean salt and brine on the still, cool air. “Let's not make a point to find out,” he said. “Where to from here?”

  “Let me see if my aim is still good.” Ori planted her feet, weighed the light stone in her palm, then cocked her arm back and threw it. The orb turned end over end in the air, hanging suspended for a moment before landing with a sharp crack on another ledge down the pit. The impact caused light to blossom outward again, revealing the ledge and all the stone around it. “Boom. Still got it.”

  Janaza held up her stone and looked around. “That's all well and good, but how in the world are we supposed to get down there?”

  “Well, it's built for harpies with wings,” Ori said. She pointed at the wall. “I usually just clambered over using the wall.”

  Vann took one look at the uneven, jagged edges of the rock wall and knew there was no way in hell he was going to make a free climb like that. “I've got a better idea.” He unslung the guitar off his back and flexed his fingers. “Janaza, do you remember what Arielle was playing earlier?”

  “I think so,” she said. “Wasn't it like this?” She whistled the cadance, the sharp sound echoing in the cavern.

  “Yeah, that's the one.” Vann turned back to the cavern, setting his fingers where they needed to be. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ori watching him intently. Slowly, he played the sequence of notes that Arielle had used earlier to make the rocky platforms emerge from the sides of the spire and help them ascend. He felt magic pool around him, and directed it where it needed to go. It arced to the walls of the cavern and sank into the stone. A moment later, stone rectangles burst forth, a little more haphazard and uneven than Arielle's, but functional nonetheless.

  “Good job,” Janaza said, patting him on the butt.

  Vann noticed Ori eyeing the interaction before the harpy turned her head away with a bit of a snap to the motion. She trotted back a few paces, then ran for the edge of the platform and jumped. Her light, lithe frame cleared the gap between the ledge and first of the newly created rock ledges. “Come on!”

  Vann and Janaze followed, the orc going first as a precaution in case Vann slipped and she needed to haul him up – she was by far the most sure-footed of the two of them. They made their way around the edge of the yawning pit to the other ledge further down, where Ori was already waiting. The harpy struck the light stone against the surrounding rock several times, sparks of light flaring out and lighting the path forward. “It's just up ahead,” she said.

  They let her lead the way down another passage, occasionally striking the walls with their stones. The passage curled back in on itself, turning into a downward spiral that went down and down until Vann knew for sure they were under the surface of the sea. “How can a space like this exist down here?” he asked.

  “Likely a system of chambers to regulate the water pressure,” Ori said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “It's how we keep the lowest parts of the aerie from flooding during high tide. Where the chambers are for this place is a mystery to me, though.” The harpy picked up her pace. “We're almost there.”

  After a few more twists of the spiral ramp, it levelled off before the tunnel ended. When the three of them stepped through, both Vann and Janaza let out audible gasps.

  The underground – underwater – chamber was massive, hundreds of yards in diameter and height. The walls were lit from within by the same light-emitting rocks they'd used to guide themselves into the depths of the hidden chamber, casting the space with a soft blue glow. Around them was an artificial lake, the surface of the water still enough that it looked like glass.

  Ahead of them, a stone path rose out of the pool, far too straight to be natural. It led to an island that rose from the middle of the water, it's surface jagged and uneven as it rose into a miniature hillock. At the top was a stone plinth, though from their low angle Vann couldn't see what rested atop it. He could hazard a guess, though.

  “This is incredible,” Janaza breathed. She knelt down by the edge of the path and gently submerged her hand into the water. The motion sent a tiny ripple out that disturbed the surface, traveling out as far as the eye could see. She drew her hand out, holding a small amount of water in her cupped palm. After a cursory sniff, she drank it, then nodded. “Crystal clean. An oasis of freshwater buried underneath the ocean.”

  “Never made any sense to me, either,” Ori said. She set off towards the island, her talons clicking on the rock. Vann followed her to the rocky landing. Her lack of footwear didn't seem to slow Ori down as they climbed rough steps up towards the top of the artificial island's rise.

  At the top was a flat stone table, upon which rested a guitar.

  It was different than his own. Rather than a rounded body reminiscent of a lute, this guitar had a body that looked like the letter V, the edges angled to points that looked sharp enough to actually give someone a puncture wound. The material was slate gray, but not drab – there was almost a luster to the hue as it reflected the light from the glowing stone walls. The neck was a rich reddish-brown wood, capped with a head the same grey as the rest of the body. No rust marred the strings, and they sounded with a clear tone as Ori reached over and plucked one with a talon. “Looks like it hasn't aged a bit,” Vann said.

  “Not since I've known it was down here,” Ori said. Her fingers lingered on the strings, pressing down on them.

  Janaza poked and prodded at the tuning knobs. “Be honest with us – you've played around with this thing, haven't you?”

  Ori stilled for a moment. Then, she licked her bottom lip and picked up the instrument, throwing the lacquered leather strap over her shoulder. She took a few steps away from them, fingers working the turning knobs for a moment before she shook out her hand and wiped it on her pants. With her other hand, she reached up to her head and fished around in the baubles woven into her hair. A moment later, she
yanked a black guitar pick loose from the bits and bobs. She set her fingers against the strings, and scuffed her foot against the ground. The hair on the back of Vann's neck stood up as he felt the telltale buzz of magic emanate from the harpy.

  Then she started to play.

  There was no easing in, no starting slow and gradually speeding up the tempo. Ori played one string with the pick, and the talons on her other hand danced over the vibrating metal on the neck to create a needling sound. She did the same thing with the other strings, until her right hand was a blur on the neck of the guitar, creating a cascading series of notes that echoed through the cavern as she went up and down the strings, not playing anything recognizable, just playing as fast and as frantic as she could. Vann's jaw dropped open. She was just so fast.

  After a solid several minutes of non-stop up and down, Ori held a single screeching high note, bending the string a little to make it even higher. Her eyes flicked over to them from under the veil of her hair.

  “How in the world did you learn to do that?” Vann gaped.

  She shrugged one shoulder, taking her talon off the string so the note ceased. “When I first found this thing I just started figuring out how to play the ocarina cadences that's the basis for my peoples' magic.” She started to play absentmindedly again, sweeping up and down the strings with a series of arpeggios at a speed that made Vann's head spin. “From there I just kept wondering what they might sound like when I play them faster, play them backwards, mix them together, jump from one to the next.” She scowled a little, somehow managing to play even more aggressively. “Nobody wants to associate with the wingless freak, so I spent lots of time down here until I came of age and was able to hunt in my own way to provide for the aerie.”

  “Unfortunate for them,” Janaza said. “You clearly have a talent for this.”

  Ori kept playing, her pick fluttering across a single string while she went up and down it's length. Then, all at once, she stopped, cutting off the notes with a squeal. “Take me with you,” she said.

  Vann blinked. “What?”