Monday, January 09, 2012

Theme 8: Innocence

Harmony surveyed the life-size clay figure stretched out on the table before her. She consulted her diagrams one last time, and then quickly began inscribing several runes in strategic places on the figure's body using her violin's bow. Normally, she would have employed a ceremonial stylus for the task, but this particular operation would require a speedy transition to her other talents. Her music would be required while the runes were still very fresh. Once she was done etching the runes into the figure's body, she picked up her violin. She took a brief second to ensure it was still in tune and then began her song.

Harmony played the Aria of Innocence. It was a song of her own composition, one that she had never played before and yet knew every note and rest of. The music poured from her soul into the violin and then into the clay. The runes began to glow, softly at first then growing brighter.

Harmony was a rarity among rarities. In fact, she had reason to believe she was the only one of her kind alive on the planet at the present time. Willworkers like herself were vanishingly rare to begin with, only a few thousand existed worldwide. And spellcasters were also quite rare, though not as rare as the Enlightened. She was one of the most rare beings in creation: A Willworker who could also cast more "ordinary" magical spells. Her research on the Dreamtime network led her to believe that the phenomenon had happened less than a dozen times total in the whole of recorded human history. This unique combination of talents allowed her to achieve effects unattainable by either magician or Dreamer.

Her Willworker's music mingled with the spellcraft of the runes and the glowing reached a crescendo as she finished her song. As the last note of the aria faded into the air, the glow of the runes likewise diminished. After a few tense moments, the clay figure's chest rose with a sharp intake of breath and the figure sat up.

The clay girl looked at her creator, confusion on her face.

"Welcome to life. My name is Harmony, but I guess you can just call me 'mom.'"

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