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[hr][hr][center][h2]T H E   D A Y   T H E    M U S I C    D I E D[/h2][/center][hr][hr]
[color=FAFAFA]It was dark and the water sparkled with moonlight. Kaureerah rode out on a small boat - just her and Tku - and it all seemed so unreal, so unnecessary. She had run from her home, but it hadn't been cowardice. She'd tried - [i]gods[/i] how she'd tried - but they'd been determined to remain thralls and suffer in silence for someone else's sin. The options had been to remain there and live under her people's disdain and suspicion, or to risk running for the [i]kekars'[/i] world and living as an outsider, but at least one who might make a mark, who might be accepted in some way.[/color]

[color=F2F2F2][color=deb887][i]Is that why I'm here? So people might accept me?[/i][/color] The wind whipped her hair about and she spared a glimpse back at Tku, dismissing the thought for now. If she was not so very strong in the Gift, she was good with this particular aspect of it, and the boat moved quickly within the grasp of kinetic magic. Further she went from shore and she breathed in the tropical nighttime air, finally somewhat cooler, just for the breeze.[/color]

[color=e6e6e6]The waters below were not empty, however. She could feel, in their depths, how they churned with life. Some was the assortment of fish, corals, and molluscs one might expect, but most was something different: the writhing, gnashing [i]hunger[/i] of hundreds of boat-sized threshers. Most were preoccupied with a different sort of hunger, but they were aggressive, they were strong, and at least three were coming for their boat at present. [color=deb887]"Tkoo,"[/color] Kaureerah said, [color=deb887]"Eye need yoo too meynteyn aur speed."[/color][/color]

[color=D8D8D8]She reached out once more with her senses. She knew the beasts of the sea, even if these ones were less familiar. They used sound and magnetism to navigate, and she was a master of the first. Switching positions with Tku, she dipped her hand, trailing, into the water. She cupped it in a specific way, and then fed the current into it. The sound that emanated was scarcely audible to human ears, distinctly audible to hers, and outright alarming to those of the threshers. The response was immediate: wherever they were, they jerked and spasmed and shot away. The three closing in on the boat turned back. Concentrating for the next minute or so, she continued to send out that pulse and it continued to do its work.[/color]

[color=BDBDBD]And then, as a great, sharp-prowed Tarlonese thiis'elaaz neared, she and Tku were alone again with the wind and the waves and the moonlight, the occasional spray of water dappling the eeaiko's clothing. Certainly, they exchanged a few nervous words. She helped the artist rehearse a couple of his lines. The Tarlonese ship approached and, once more, Kaureerah cupped her hand and let out a pulse of sound to drive the threshers back with discomfort. Sometimes, animals could be allies and even friends. Sometimes, just like people, they would not.[/color]

[color=A4A4A4]She remained behind as he climbed aboard. These Tarlonese were not friends; they were representatives of a tyrannical empire, no different from the Virangish who extorted these islands because they could. Yet, both were 'allies' and, the more that Kaureerah sat in that boat, bobbing tethered to a warship, the more that she soured on it. Two years ago, as some inconsequential water girl trying to find her way in the inland world, singing little songs and selling her body for money, she had spoken with people who thought that they could change things, who were [i]trying[/i] to change things. She had agreed to help them, but what had she done? [i]Truly,[/i] what difference had she made?[/color]

[color=848484][color=deb887][i]Always,[/i][/color] she thought, [color=deb887][i]we sacrifice the future for the present, forgetting that today's present was yesterday's future. On,[/i][/color] she thought, [color=deb887][i]and on the cycle goes and we tell ourselves that we had to, that we're moving in the right direction, that next time will be better.[/i][/color] She had committed and would not try to change matters now. Against her growing disgust, she would hold her nose and watch her allies work with tyrants to help these people perpetuate their own oppression. This would be the last time, however. She swore it to herself, sitting on that bobbing boat, impotent and irrelevant. She loved life. She wished for peace, but [i]this[/i] was running: [i]this[/i] was what it looked like.[/color] 

[color=6E6E6E]There, on the tropical atoll of Moatu Suva, one warm dorrad night, something broke inside of Neki Kaureerah Wenhan and not all the glue nor magic in the world might fix it. Perhaps it was her idealism, or it might've been her silence, for she was a maker of songs that had always said nothing. But... maybe it was her consent - her willingness to dully accept things the way that they were and do nothing. Fighting for a better world sometimes requires one to punch up at the giant instead of down. She sat there in a boat and breathed unsteadily in and out. Her fingers curled into her palms and her hands turned into fists.[/color] 

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