So, I've been really obsessed with the new Nightwish album since it released on April 11th. I had a feeling it was going to be pretty amazing for a couple reasons. One, this is the second studio album with Floor as the new lead singer and while Endless Forms Most Beautiful was lovely, it generally takes Tuomas an album to really get a feel for just what his newest singer can do. Human. :||: Nature takes Floor's amazing talents and showcases them perfectly. The second reason I knew this album was going to really be one to watch was just how amazing the first single, Noise, was. That song floored me (pun definitely intended). But I also knew that Nightwish generally doesn't make their hardest hitting songs the singles (at least in my opinion). So, I figured that if Noise blew me away, the rest had to be better. And it is.
I've been listening to the album and basically nothing else. And, like so much symphonic metal, it gives me ideas and inspiration for writing. Since I've been getting so much inspiration from the music I thought it would be fun to write little flash fiction pieces based on each song in the album. These will be very loosely based because I don't want to just write a story about the song and not add anything.
I'm going to be titling each flash fiction piece and then in brackets put the song that the piece was inspired by. I'll also be adding a YouTube link if anyone wants to listen to the song before reading. Starting with the first song, Music.
*One last note*
All my stories take place within the same world unless otherwise noted. In an attempt to keep everything organized and clear, I have added the date and place the stories happen. I've gone back to The Reunion and made this change as well.
Divine
Year 6429 AC
Heartfair, Aiova's Capital
Temple District
It wasn't that Ryfon had never heard music before. As a caeles who'd lived for over 300 years, he was familiar with all sorts of art and performance. The issue was that nothing he'd experienced ever moved him. He just didn't care for or about any of it. He believed himself to be practical. Beauty was fleeting and while he could commend the mortals for being so imaginative, it all served no purpose to him.
He was a servant of Fyni, Goddess of Revenge, in charge of watching over one of her larger temples. He hadn't been thrilled with the position even though it was considered a privilege. A lifetime watching over mortals he couldn't give less of a shit about. The mortals were the creations of the gods who now barely cared about them, bored of their toys. Why should he have to clean up their messes? It was insulting.
The part that made it worse, in his opinion, was that Fyni had sent him to the Kingdom of Aiova, known across the mortal world for its exuberant atmosphere and culture. It was a place saturated with bright (and garish) colors. Every building and other surface was painted with shapes, symbols, and art. Everything with seemingly no connection to anything else. There was no cohesion to the city, unless the lack of order was, in itself, considered a style. He seriously doubted it.
There was always music filling the air and while Ryfon figured it must sound nice to others, none of it ever sounded like more than discordant noise to him. None of it ever resonated within his chest or made him want to listen. Not strings, not drums, not singing could make him care about their music and by extension, their lives.
And the mortals, with their bright outfits that almost hurt Ryfon's eyes to gaze upon. Their painted, metal jewelry (always gaudy), that also served as their currency, never failed to give him a headache from all the clinking and clacking as they hit against each other. The mortals and their boastful way of displaying wealth made him sick.
He considered himself lucky on one point though, he had been given the power to hide from mortals. They would never be able to see him if he so chose, and he very rarely wanted to be seen. If they couldn't see him, he wasn't obligated to interact with them the way a "proper caeles" was supposed to.
One thing that added to the noise in the air was that the temple of Naimi, Goddess of Art and Music was across the street from his temple. A slightly upraised stage was in front of the temple. Day in, day out, there was always someone performing on that wooden stage, in an attempt to give worship to a goddess Ryfon knew had no real love for any of them.
It was a hot evening in the middle of Aiova's drought period when he first heard her voice. He had been lounging in the small room set aside for him at the top of the temple tower. Her voice carried to him on the sweltering wind, high and powerful. It was a song he recognized, after all, the performers outside Naimi's temple often rotated which acts they performed throughout the year. No, he'd just never felt the music so deep in his chest before. Her voice pulled at him, even as he scowled and tried to block it out.
Other voices and some instruments he didn't care to place joined in with her, and yet still he could only hear her voice. It was clear and beautiful and he had to hear more.
Not giving himself any time to think, Ryfon grabbed his cloak from the back of a chair and, after making sure no mortals could see him, left the temple.
He could pick her out immediately. Standing on the platform outside Naimi's temple, she was a vision. The standard bright, mismatched clothing the performers always wore looked good on her. As if each color was specifically picked to make her stand out even more. He'd never thought those costumes could look appealing and yet she shone like the sun. He thought she was maybe supposed to be dressed like a bird, with dyed feathers woven into her deep, red hair.
She was dancing now, having let the chorus take over. She twirled, a huge smile on her face and she gestured towards the crowd that had gathered to watch the performance. She dipped and swept her hands against the ground before righting herself and twirling gracefully across the stage again.
Ryfon heard someone beside him remark that she must be new to the troop and someone else responded that they hoped she was around to stay. He hoped that too, wondering if maybe life serving in this city would be more bearable with her performing every night.
He noticed as she danced closer to where he was standing that she had a large and colorful god-mark of Naimi covering her right hand and her arm all the way up to her elbow. Not that he was surprised about which god had chosen her, but he hadn't really expected to see such a large mark on someone so young. God-marks normally grew over time and with accomplishments and devotion to whatever god the mark belonged. She was heavily favored, it seemed.
Suddenly she stopped dancing, eyes meeting his own and she started singing again. Ryfon looked around him, trying to determine if anyone else had noticed a caeles standing beside them. All eyes were on the performance but even so, he was sure no one had any idea of his presence.
He turned back to face her again where she was still singing and moving across the stage in a dance he'd never paid much attention to before. Her eyes were still on him and when he caught her eye again she winked before turning to stand at the back of the stage as two men dressed like colorful birds, complete with yellow beaks, started to leap and roll across the stage.
Ryfon found himself rooted to the spot for the rest of the show, unable to take his eyes off the woman who sang unlike anything he'd heard before.
At the end of the show, after all the performers had bowed and money and other offerings were left, the crowd started to disperse. Ryfon wondered if he should approach her, tell her how much he'd enjoyed her performance.
Instead, he waited and watched as a young man carrying a small boy approached her. The man kissed her on the cheek and handed the little boy off to her. She smiled at both of them and Ryfon felt any want he'd had to talk to her shrivel away. She was mortal, he couldn't forget that. For a moment, he almost had forgotten.
Her eyes slid to his again and she smiled before turning away to speak with the man standing beside her.
Ryfon felt his shoulders slump slightly and went back to his room in Fyni's temple. He resolved to forget about the woman who had made him hear music.
The next night he heard her performing again. It was a different show but it was still her voice. She was still music incarnate to him, the only thing that sounded beautiful to his ears in this awful city.
Ryfon found himself, once again, making his way down to the stage. Content to just stand there and soak in the music she created. There was no use fighting it, he'd never heard anything so beautiful and he knew he never would again. After all, she was mortal and she would die long before he went insane like caeles inevitably did.
That night while performing she caught his eye again and winked. He didn't know why she seemed to be the only one who could see him but he found he didn't care. He decided he'd keep showing up for as long as she performed. He'd bask in the sound she created. He knew it'd be the memory that would keep him going through the rest of his immortal life (until the insanity of a long life caught up to him).
So he continued to watch her perform. She was on that stage almost every night and almost every night, whenever he could, Ryfon watched her. Without fail, she would always catch his eye and wink. Every night he went back to his room in the temple and wondered how the only beauty he'd ever experienced could come from a mortal.
After a year, he found he couldn't muster the hatred for mortals that had once filled his chest. Now it was just her music that he carried with him wherever he went. He was still perplexed, however, that he had finally heard music because of a mortal woman.
He'd been watching her perform for seven years when he finally stumbled upon the answer. As he gazed around at the crowd who were all singing, dancing, and clapping along to the act (where she was now the lead) he realized it.
The smiles of the mortals around him, the smile on his own face he hadn't even realized was present, the unbridled love on the face of her husband and son, led him to the only conclusion that made sense. Mortal she may be, but anyone who could make others smile with such joy had to be divine.