Preparing a New Song

Closing down his open chat tab, Elric pushed back against his chair, wheeling it over to his nightstand.

Sitting on top of it was a small pile of colored sticky notes.

He could faintly hear the sound of the piano being played through his open doorway, so he didn't need to wonder where Ember was.

'Hmm… is it really right to do this…'

Elric's hand passed over the sticky notes' smooth surfaces as he debated. After a solid minute of sitting there, he ripped off only the top one of the stack, tucking the rest of them back into a drawer.

Elric's fingers continuously rubbed the one remaining sticky note as he got up and walked over to the music room.

"Hey, Ember, how's it going?"

The beautiful young woman looked up, a smile surfacing on her face as she saw Elric.

"I think I'm figuring it out. I've gotten all of the lyrics done, but I'm still struggling to make the instrumental sound right."

Ember rubbed the back of her head.

"Sorry, I've only worked with my acoustic stuff and pianos… I can't even seem to make an instrumental with those, let alone for an entire rock band."

Seeing the tired look in her eyes as she looked back down at a piece of sheet music that had countless crossed-out scribbles on it, Elric felt a bit of regret.

Accepting a gig for the next day was a bit too much of a rush, especially if they wanted to have a rock band accompanying them.

Heck, they didn't even have a band yet.

Not only did Ember have to rush out an adapted version of her first original song that she'd sung back at the bar the first time, but she also needed to put the finishing touches on the new original she planned to sing.

'I saw Leo starting to send over info for a few bands, I should check on that right away and pick one out. If we can get them over here for a small practice session tonight or tomorrow before the venue, it would help relieve a ton of stress for Ember.'

Before pulling out his phone to check on it, though, he walked over to Ember's side.

"I copied down some notes for you… hopefully this helps."

Elric's hair brushed against Ember's ear as he leaned down, placing the blaze-pink sticky note at the top of the sheet she was using for the melody.

Her face started reddening at the close physical contact, but when she read what was noted down on the note, she leaned toward it instead.

"This… this chord progression looks pretty similar to the one that's in the song right now."

Her eyes were still fixed on the note, her hands reached for the piano's keys.

~

And in the dimming light,

I fall down low,

This… is this my blight?

~

Ember sang a short passage as her fingers tapped on the keys, and a chill ran down Elric's spine.

Her voice was haunting, lost. Like someone who was about to give up on it all, yet still had some strange bit of resistance to the thought of an end.

It perfectly fit the tone of the lyrics, and the new chord progression perfectly synergized with Ember's singing, bringing it to a whole new level. Ember even changed the way she sang the verse slightly to adapt to the different notes.

'Hah, sure enough. I tried to adapt it with my own ideas a few days ago to help Ember out, but musical geniuses really are something else.'

Ember grabbed her pencil and flipped to a new sheet of paper, then hurriedly started scratching a progression to build up to the one Elric had just shown her.

She was rewriting a large portion of the previously almost-finished song, but at the rate her hands were moving at as they tested notes, Elric didn't have any worries.

'Haah… It feels like so long ago… but Mom would always get into little frenzies like this too. If she was still here, I'm sure she would get along so well with Ember.'

Elric's eyes fell back down to the sticky note he'd given Ember. It was his handwriting, but not his idea.

'Even beyond the grave… you're still not done with this industry.'

After watching Ember vigorously work on the song for a few more moments, Elric headed for the door and exited the room.

It would be better not to interrupt her focus.

Holding up his phone, Elric opened up his chat with Leo as he walked into the kitchen. The cowardly young fellow had already sent over the details for a few bands that had played at his uncle's bar in the past, completely ignoring any privacy rules or laws.

Even the performers' personal information was available for Elric to see.

As he scrolled through the list, he was able to recognize a few names, but one of them caught his eye.

Wagner Rock.

It was only a three-person band, and they had no delegated singer. A group of thirty-something-year-old dudes who just enjoyed rock and the classics, Elric had heard a few of their covers before.

He's even seen them live one time, albeit only catching the tail end of their performance.

'They don't have a singer, and according to Leo's info, they aren't related to any talent agencies… this should be pretty perfect for us, right?'

Elric clicked on the phone number Leo had listed under their group name, then held his phone up to his ear.

After only a single ring, the phone was picked up. The person speaking on the other end had a very strong German accent.

"Hello?"

Elric coughed to clear his throat, then opened his mouth.

"Hello, this is Elric Melov. I have a singer performing tomorrow… and I need a band to play with her. Would you be willing to?"

There was a brief pause, and Elric could hear the man speaking in German faintly on the other side, likely talking to someone else.

A few seconds later, a second, slightly different voice answered him.

"Melov, like zhe Melov talent agency?"

"That's the one, but I'm currently separate from them. I'm the owner's son, and I'm trying to manage a singer for the first time right now."

A burst of laughter came from over the line.

"Haha! And you want zhe band for tomorrow? This is a joke?"

Elric's hand tightened around the phone. It wasn't his fault they had no time to set anything up with how little notice they got ahead of time.