[A Fractured Song] - Chapter 10 - Fantasy, Isekai (Portal Fantasy), Adventure

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Somehow, Frances had managed to go back to sleep.

The problem was that she’d overslept. With no alarm clock, she’d been relying on good timing to get up early. So today, she staggered out of her room, right into the front of Edana. Leaping back, she bowed low, stammering, “Master! I’m so sorry! Good morning!”

Edana chuckled. “Good morning to you, my dear student. I was just coming to wake you up. Breakfast is ready.”

“It is? Oh no! I’m sorry!”

“For not making breakfast? Oh, it’s fine. I wanted to try doing that for a change,” said Edana, winking.

Frances nodded nervously, and after quickly brushing her teeth, she followed her master down.

Breakfast was delicious. Boiled eggs, toasted bread, and fruit. Frances had to force herself to eat it. She kept waiting for Edana to ask her. To drop the question. To say anything about the misplaced book. Or having touched the shelf. There was no way she hadn’t noticed.

But if Edana did notice the book had been moved, she didn’t say anything.

They’d finished cleaning up and put the dishes away, but she still hadn’t asked about the book.

Frances was about to breathe a sigh of relief, until Edana, instead of leading them outside, led them toward the library.

Her feet felt tied to the floor and it was all she could do to bite down on her lip and march after her Master. Surely it was now time.

However, instead of going into the room, though, they turned down a corridor and to a closed door Frances hadn’t noticed before.

When Edana finally opened the door, Frances gasped.

It was a music room. A small one, filled with several beautifully polished instruments. They included a lute and a harp in musical stands. The room was mostly dominated by something that looked like a piano but had two rows of keys.

“Master, is that a harpsichord?” Frances asked.

“Indeed. So, I was planning on something else, but you seemed rather tired today. Didn’t get a good night’s sleep?”

Frances’s very nearly fell over and her eyes snapped to Edana’s hands, but they were loose. She wasn’t going to hit her or grab her?

“I… Sorry master, I couldn’t sleep—”

“It’s alright, Frances. I didn’t make a rule about you not reading at night.” She leaned down frowning. “Did you have a nightmare?”

“No. I … I just couldn’t sleep,” Frances whispered. She watched Edana, waiting for her to surprise her. Yet, her mentor seemed only concerned.

“How… how could you tell?” Frances asked.

Edana grinned. “You left out your candle on the library table this morning. I’m not sure how you managed to get back up the stairs in the dark, but I do know you went up with it the last time I saw you.”

“Oh, sorry. I…” She blinked. What was she apologizing for? Aside from taking and reading a forbidden book that she was definitely not going to tell Edana about.

“That’s enough apologies for this morning, Frances. Let’s get singing. Tell me, you seem to enjoy singing, what training have you had?”

“A little,” she said.

As for enjoying singing? She loved to sing as much as reading. It was a different kind of escape. Books helped her ignore her own thoughts, helped her forget that she was a worthless waste-of-space. Singing made her feel as if she was flying and free. It helped her forget about the swollen bumps on her arms and back and the gnawing clench of her stomach.

It was the one thing she could control amidst the chaos and pain she’d lived in.

Her parents regarded singing as frivolous and pointless, but they needed her to do something for extracurriculars. So they’d let her join the school choir. The people there were very much focused on their singing and they left her alone. The choir teacher was also very nice.

Frances’s tired and stressed mind ground to a halt. Wait, if they were in a music room then—

“Anyway, today, I’m going to be teaching you how to sing better instead of practicing magic,” said Edana.

This can’t be happening. I’ve died and gone to heaven if there is a heaven.

“Uh, Frances?”

“You’re giving me… private lessons?” she whispered.

“Of course. If you’re going to be able to cast song magic, then you need to know how to—”

Warm arms thumped around Edana’s waist and she staggered a bit as her student buried herself into her waist. Blinking, and gasping for breath, the mage stared as her normally touch-a-phobic squeezed her in a tight hug.

“You’re welcome?”

Frances, quickly released her, stepping back, arms pinned to her side. “I’m sorry, I… I never had private lessons before.”

“Well, then let’s make this a good one,” said Edana. She took a seat on the harpsichord bench. “We’re going to start with…”

---

The singing lesson was amazing.

It was a bit embarrassing to learn that she wasn’t breathing the right way, the songs were all new, and the harpsichord was very different to sing with compared to a piano, (the concept of which Edana was enraptured by), but she had so much fun!

Edana had all these tips for how to pitch her voice higher, how to make notes sound more even, and had introduced her to how to create vibrato. She hadn’t learned so much about how singing worked in a single day in her life.

Frances wished the day hadn’t ended, even when her voice started to get dry. But they had to eat and she needed to pay Edana back by helping with dinner.

Her mentor seemed rather amused, and more than a bit taken aback, but let her help. They’d cooked steak with pan-fried potatoes, and a broccoli looking plant.

It was only after they’d finished dinner, cleaned up, and headed to the library that what she did last night came flooding back to Frances.

“Frances? Is everything alright?” Edana asked.

Frances forced herself to nod and after grabbing a book she hadn’t finished, one on an Erisdalian legend, she’d tucked herself into the corner.

Next to the forbidden shelf.

Where she could see the book that she’d read.

And Edana was getting up and walking to her.

Oh god, Edana is going to the forbidden shelf!

Frances froze, her eyes wide, tracking her mentor as she approached the shelf and scanned the spines of the books. She had an unreadable expression on her face, and she slowly started to lean down toward the exact shelf where Frances had stashed the book away.

“Ah, there it is,” said Edana. She picked a book, pulled it out and glanced at Frances, before frowning. “Frances? Everything alright?”

“Uh, yes, Master,” she stammered.

Edana continued to look at her, so Frances swallowed and asked, “I’m just wondering why is that shelf forbidden, master.”

“Oh, I was wondering when you would ask that.” Edana flipped the cover of her book and showed Frances the title: On The Summoning of Storms. “The books on this shelf contain knowledge that is too dangerous for you to learn at this very moment. Mostly they are spells that only a more advanced mage can learn.”

Frances nodded. That explained why the book on shield magic was there. Still…

“Why not shut these books away?”

“Mostly because I need them, and because the magic that they teach isn’t ethically wrong or anything, just too hard for an inexperienced mage to do safely without damaging the environment. They wouldn’t actually be able to hurt themselves due to the intricacy of the spells making it impossible for them to cast.”

That made sense, but Frances’s curiosity had one question she hadn’t quite satisfied.

“But Master, you’ve taught students in this house, right? What if one of them tried anyway and set the house on fire?”

Edana narrowed her eyes for a moment on the shelf, nodding. “You raise a good point. You see, I’ve never actually brought a student so young out here for training. Most of my students could actually perform these spells with enough control that it wasn’t dangerous. I probably should lock these away… if I decide to take on another student as young as you are.”

That made Frances blink. “Master? I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Well, I trust you enough that you won’t disobey me—” Edana giggled “—I think you’re self-aware enough to know you are rather obedient, Frances. Do you think you would even touch a book on that shelf unless I let you?”

With that, the mage tucked the book under her shoulder and walked back to the table. Humming softly to herself, she opened the book and began to read.

It was at that moment that Frances had several key realizations.

Edana had had no idea she had read from one of the books.

The books weren’t even that dangerous and she wasn’t cursed from having read from them.

And right at this moment, Frances felt like the most worthless waste-of-space in the entire world.

Despite everything, her master believed in her and trusted her. Fed her, taught her magic, given her private singing lessons, been the most amazing teacher in the world. And yet, she broke the only rule given to her. Yes, it was by accident, but she had hidden that mistake nonetheless. That thought turned her arms to lead, and that dropped her gaze to the carpet. Shutting her eyes, cold fear gave way to mud-warm misery and shame.

“Master, you’re wrong,” she croaked.

---

Author's Note: DUN DUN DUUUN. Sorry I'm a fan of the cliffhanger ending. That and I really like exploring how Frances reacts to well, making mistakes.

So I just want to ask you all, what is the thing you're most enjoying about the serial right now? Or not enjoying/would like to see less/more of?