“Yes. We’re engaged, which means we don’t need to keep secrets from one another.”
He rolled his eyes. “Only for—”
“Four more days. Yes, I know.” She mirrored his expression. “The music?”
Casper slowly unspooled a length of twine as he gathered his thoughts. Sienna handed him a pair of shears to cut it, and he started attaching the pieces that she had so meticulously laid out. “The music seemed to be a variety of pieces, for both solo and ensemble use.”
“Instrumental or vocal?”
“Both, though mostly the former.”
“What makes you say that we don’t have anything of the kind here?”
He reached for more twine. “I know you don’t. Or at least, you didn’t. I’ve been in this realm long enough to have seen and heard a wide variety of different musical styles and genres.”
She tilted her head. The action caused a strand of her vibrant hair to fall over her forehead, and his finger itched to push it back. “How is what we found different?”
“It’s a little hard to explain.”
“Try me.”
“The music of Faerie is…safe. Controlled. Balanced. It can and does communicate emotion, but it does so in an orderlyway. Tonalities are clear, tension and dissonance resolve into harmony, active tones move to passive. There are unspoken rules that all of your composers follow.”
“Of course there are. They study for years to be able to understand how music and magic work together, and how to achieve the desired result. Without the rules, the magic would be wild, and chaos would follow.” Sienna reached for more greenery and began arranging a second wreath. “Especially for Elves. They’re not limited by Natural magic, but they also are unable to hear the music in the natural world as a frame of reference, so they rely on composers being very diligent and careful about what they write.”
Casper nodded slowly. “And that makes perfect sense. However, in the human realm, music is a little different.”
“And by different, you mean that it’s not magic there?” There was a teasing lilt to her voice.
“Eh, it’s magic, but of a different kind. But what I’m saying is that humans are not bound by the same constraints or concerns. We’re forever experimenting and trying new things in an effort to use music to convey all those thoughts and ideas that are simply too deep for words to express.”
A crease formed between her eyes. “What do you mean?”
He sighed and ran hand down his face. “It’s difficult to explain in words. If I had a keyboard, I could show you.”
Sienna straightened. “Wait. You’re a musician?”
Something about the way she said the words cut a little. “Does that surprise you?”
She sat back in her chair and pulled a small evergreen branch through her fingers. “Yes. No? I’m not sure. I think I made up my mind rather prematurely when you first were asking about the capabilities of music.”
“I studied music in a world where the only magic it has is in its ability to communicate emotion and beauty. That doesn’ttranslate well to knowing just what kind of chord progression is needed to heal someone or grow a tree.”
“Fair enough. So the music in the human realm is different.”
“Yes. We’ve moved past all of the order and balance to a style where tension and dissonance are embraced as part of the beauty. Tempos push and pull as the need arises, and extra chord tones are used to add extra color and dimension. The rules are still there, but we break them as we see fit, and keep them when it suits us.”
“That sounds chaotic.”
“It can be. We even have composers who have thrown the idea of tonality out the window entirely, preferring to deal in uncertainties, and some who have embraced the idea that any kind ofnoisecan be music. But, as I said, in our realm, the only consequence to come from such a thing is bleeding ears.”
“As opposed to here, where that kind of musical dissonance could result in some dangerous forms of magic,” Sienna concluded.
Casper nodded. “Exactly.”
She blew out a long breath. “I suppose that answers the question of why these smugglers of yours would go to such lengths to bring in music. Our compositions are so closely monitored and examined before they are allowed to be printed that there are a limited number of new pieces every year. Music such as you’re describing would never pass the quality and safety checks, but there are doubtless fae out there who would jump at the chance to get their hands on such potentially powerful music.” She was silent for a long moment. “Casper?”
“Hmm?”
