Skill activated: Musician

Once again bright morning light was thrust upon my sleeping bedroom and my head jolted upwards as the light shone through my eyelids and woke me up.

"Morning Milady!" I heard Mellie chirp.

"Morning Milady." Edna was more like a wise owl whose voice was like a low hoot.

"Come milady, rise and shine, we have much to do today!" Agnes squawked in my ear, she seemed more like a crow.

I sat up and was handed some mint tea, which I drank slowly. The tea really was the only I reason I was happy about waking up at 7 am, it was refreshing, and tasted good too.

"Mellie, get a corset from the drawer." Commanded Agnes.

I groaned at the thought of putting on a corset again, that tight suffocating tortuous device that strangled my waist.

"Milady, it won't be for the whole day, it's just until you have finished trying on the new dresses." Edna said comfortingly to me, but her words didn't clear the scowl off my face.

Soon I was helped out of bed and propped up next to a drawer where Edna and Mellie fastened the corset onto me, resulting in my stomach being pushed up into my rib cage, and my heart being pushed up into my throat, but I held my breath and tried on the first dress.

A very interesting black and white dress that I could potentially wear to a ball. Agnes gave her a look of approval and then we tried on the next dress.

A cutesy, princessy purple dress with a big cupcake skirt, Edna, Agnes and Mellie all loved it so I agreed to keep it. Then I took this one off and put on another one.

Another cupcake styled dress, but very pretty with white and peach flower aplicays on it. I was beginning to think that it looked a bit too bridal but Agnes had told me that brides didn't wear white on their wedding days in Girannon, they wore the gold-coloured garment for wedding days. So it was perfectly fine to wear big puffy white dresses. Then I tried on the final dress.

I loved the gold metallic shimmer it had to it, and I liked that it framed my breasts in a way that made them look bigger than there really were, I really like it. With that dress, I was done with my early morning fitting: off came the corset. Edna and Mellie helped me put on a looser more relaxed dress - one of the dresses I had gotten on the first day in my new mansion.

It was a very pretty, flowy, pinky-peach dress that had a few gemstones on it - It was simple yet very elegant and feminine - and it felt great on my skin. Edna slid some long dangling crystal earrings into my ears, and the put some subtle blush onto my cheeks and balm onto my lips, then I was ready for the day. when I got downstairs the music teacher had already arrived, and to my surprise, the person standing in the entrance hall was Dimitri Vassatross, the person I had fought against in the Mage tournament.

I rushed downstairs excited to get reacquainted with him. He turned to look at me as I made my way down the stairs and I saw the surprise flush his face as he recognised me.

"It's you!" He said pointing at me and laughing.

"No, it's you!" I said as I descended the staircase.

"Well, I see life has been very good to you." He said as he motioned around the room, seeming quite impressed with my new abode.

"Well, I just got lucky really."

"Powers like yours are not simply luck." He said smiling a genuine smile, which suddenly made me notice how handsome he was. As if his light blue hair wasn't beautiful enough, his bright blue eyes were captivating. He was also blessed with a good figure, built with the body of a swimmer - lean and tall.

"So you're a music teacher?" I asked curiously because most of the children of noble families I had seen or heard of, did not work, yet here he was, about to give me music lessons.

"Well, it's not because I have to teach music to earn a living, it's because I like teaching music. You see, my family used to be very rich merchants and we all used to work to contribute to the family funds, but then we became so rich that our titles were upgraded from merchants to fifth rank nobles, suddenly I didn't have to work anymore so it stopped for a while, but it didn't take long before I missed working and teaching so I decided to become a music teacher for nobles." He explained.

He seemed like a good honest person, and I remembered him being a good sport about losing to me, so I was sure that we would be able to get along.

I noticed a large instrument behind him on a little wheeled cart, it looked like a harp, the instrument was decorated in gold detailing and stood a little bit taller than me. When he saw me peering at it curiously, he asked, "Have you never seen an Uldreyin before?" As he cocked his head to the side.

"No, I haven't, I'm practically new here..." I said chuckling nervously.

"New here... What do you mean?" He asked frowning. Then I had to explain the whole bit about me waking up in the middle of a forest, and then finding Lucian, and then being brought to Gismead, the whole story.

"That's quite unfortunate... And you've had no recollections of your past?" he asked, sounding genuinely sorry for me.

"No," I said. I felt uncomfortable lying to him, so I abruptly changed the subject. "Let's go into the drawing-room for the lesson," I suggested and then led him into the drawing-room that I had discovered was next to the smaller dining room on the bottom floor.

The room had large glass windows so lots of light flushed the room making it a really pleasant place to work and do some reading.

Dimitri dragged two chairs from their places and placed them in the middle of the room, he then motioned for me to take one and he sat in the other.

"First I'll play you some music so you can get a sense for the sound and feel of what kind of music is popular these days."

He propped the large instrument in front of himself and then sat down in the chair. He breathed in and then his long fingers reached out towards the strings of the instrument and began to strum.

I was captivated at the very first note. The song was light and had many flourishes yet it was quite a low and hauntingly beautiful tune, it was nothing like the classical piano music that had bored me half to death during school. This music was enchanting and almost magical in its own right. Even though the melody was low and quite slow, I felt my heart racing in my chest, this music had me excited, I was eager to learn how to play it. Dimitri finished the song beautifully and I felt compelled to clap for his wonderful performance.

"That was beautiful." I was actually still quite mesmerised by the song, it felt like I had been enchanted.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that only half of the performance was me actually playing the instrument, the other half of its beauty was a magical skill I posses..." He also had a magical skill?

"What skill?"

"I have a magical skill called 'musician' that allows me to play the music that people fall in love with. It's quite rare and really comes in handy at parties." He joked.

"I also have that skill," I said, remembering it being one of the skills listed on the text message from he gods.

"Oh, that's wonderful, then you should be able to learn this quite quickly! Come over to this side, I'll teach you how this works."

Dimitri taught me all the names of the notes, as well as which notes worked well with other notes, and how I could strum up a tune quickly by just sicking to the strings that worked well together. Usually, I wouldn't be able to take in such large amounts of information but somehow everything he taught me about the instrument just stuck into my head.

After about an hour of theory, he brought out the music sheet for the song he had just played and held it up fo me to see as I attempted to play the song. my first try was a bit shaky, but my second try was much better and I could start to hear the actual tune coming through, by my third try I had memorised the song and could play it off by heart but the tune was still a little bit off, then by my fourth and the last try I could play the song quite well.

"You really are gifted... It took me days to master his song." He said shaking his head at me but smiling.

"Thank you." I blushed.

"When us nobles go to parties or soiree's or any such events, it's custom for one of the nobles ladies to sit down and play a song and sing to it as well..." He hinted, "How well can you sing?" He asked tentatively. I knew I had been in the choir at school, and one year we had won a national competition, but I had always been a back-up singer, not a lead singer.

"I'm alright," I replied honestly.

"We'll see." He grinned cheekily at me.

He brought another piece of paper out of his bag and held it up in front of me with his other hand.

"Now try to play and sing."

I sighed thinking that I wouldn't be able to do it but I tried anyway, I was surprised by how natural and easy it felt to me.

"In the wind, in the night

oh, true love comes to bite,

how it takes all our souls for itself.

Oh, the strong and the weak, oh, the mild and meek

can expect only love, that is called despair.

My dear sisters and my dear brothers

you envy the light that comes to others

yet you cannot see the shadow it bears.

Oh be warned, oh be kept

from the love that once swept

me away."

the song was so sad and yet beautiful,  it seemed to be about a woman with a broken heart, who had given up on the idea of love.

"You have a beautiful voice. And with a few more lessons and more practise you will be the best Lady musician in the Gismead." He was sweet. "Well then, I'll be going. But keep this music book so that you can learn some other songs." He got up and packed all his papers into his bag but didn't put the uldreyin back onto the cart.

"Don't forget your uldreyin!" I called after him as he exited the room.

"No, it's yours now, keep it." He put his hand up as I was about to argue with him, I couldn't accept such a huge gift, "I insist." was all he said before he walked out of the room.

I reminded myself to thank him when we had our next lesson. For the next few hours, I continued playing on the uldreyin, and I noticed that the more I played, the better I became, in that time I was able to memorise another three songs and their lyrics.

It was then that I heard a knock on the drawing room's door.

"Come in!" I called out.

Edna came in and curtseyed to me. "Milady, a letter was delivered here addressed to you, and it is from Lord Umfrey Marcellus." She then handed it to me.

"Disperse current!" I chanted and the envelope successfully unsealed.

I opened up the letter and immediately read its contents.

'Dear Lady Riley Delton

I received and read your letter in good faith that you would not have written to me if you had not created something substantial. Thus I took the liberty of calling a meeting with the board of the Mage society for late luncheon at the Mage Society headquarters within the Palace, today. Please know that both princes will be present. Please also bring the actual potion with you, so that you can demonstrate it to the board members. I look forward to seeing you there.

Best regards

Lord Umfrey Marcellus'

Lord Umfrey was so great, I would have to remember to bring him some iced cream when next I went to go and visit the Marcellus's. For now, I would need to hurry to get to the Mage Society on time because it would take at least forty minutes to get there by carriage and as of right now I needed to be there in an hour.

"Edna, please tell Bard to get a carriage ready, as I will need to leave for the Mage Society immediately."

"Yes, milady." She curtseyed and left the room. I followed her out to go and fetch the potion I had made and the enchanted ball from my alchemy lab.

Soon Bard and I were on our way to the Mage society and I felt the butterflies start fluttering in my stomach.