Wrensthav saw the excitement in Polaris' eyes when they mentioned the open stage for performers.  Despite her melodic speaking voice, her singing voice made the howling of cats and the  squeaking of rusted hinges sound like a pleasant melody.  The last time she sang the entire public house deserted for the evening, staff and owner included.  This, however, did not curb her enjoyment one bit.

"Polaris, I know you want to go up there and sing, but I would like to keep Roselyn in business for the rest of our stay,"  Wrensthav warned.  Her composure slumped a little., but quickly returned a moment later.  

"Well, she said musicians and singers."  Polaris grinned broadly.

"And?"

"How about pretty-elf sings and we accompany with music?"

"Who said I could sing?" Said a mildly cross Evelyn, ear twitching at the sound of 'pretty elf'. "I may or may not have a talent for it, but we're here on business. No singing, dancing or music-making."

Mattien, having slugged back several mugs of ale, spoke with a slurred speech. "Ah, that sounds like no fun at all there, Evelyn. Where I come from, where... it's — when! When it's happy hour, it's happy hour~"

He sluggishly got up from his seat, swaying on his feet before stumbling to the stage. He clambered on, waving at the audience with a silly grin on his face. 

"Hi, everybody... Heh, I'd like to dedicate this one to the host for her excellent, uh, ale!" He said, before singing a song from his homeland about drinking, naked woman, and more ale. His voice wasn't bad, but the lyrics were atrocious.

Evelyn facepalmed. "Ugh, we have to stop him. He's too drunk." She gestured to Wrensthav and Polaris, and they walked up on stage together, tugging Mattien down. 

"Shut up and sit here," Evelyn said, making him sit in the first row. Mattien pouted, but happily accepted ale from Roselyn and sipped at his seat quietly. The audience breathed a sigh of relief.

Evelyn, Polaris and Wrensthav found themselves on stage. She looked at him, pausing before subtly rolling her eyes. "Okay, one song. But I'm not to blame for whatever happens. They've likely never been exposed to Elvish before."

She took a stool and sat it in the middle of the stage, lowering her hood and giving her silver hair a ruffle. The audience was quiet, curious. Her eyes turned to Wrensthav, sparkling with anticipation.

After making sure Mattien was good and settled in the front row Wrensthav and Polaris joined Evelyn on the stage.  It intrigued him as to why she hid her face from the world most of the time but he figured that something would eventually come about on their own. 

 He procured a long carved horn from the air.  This was one of the two weapons that his Dietic alter ego would actually use and it had one of the most mystifying notes out of all the instruments he ever came across.  "Summer Stormwind's Flute"  was the name it was rarely recorded as.  The only thing about the Venswrath persona that didn't have a negative connotation to it.

Polaris jumped on stage quite enthusiastically after going outside to build her instrument of choice.  A ceramic xylophone floated on stage.  she wrapped her hair into a high ponytail and stuck her second pair of felt hammers into it.

"Upbeat, or slow Miss Elf-lady?"  Polaris replied checking to see if she tuned the ceramic bricks right.

"Slow. I want them to feel." Evelyn said, noting their two instruments. A flute and a xylophone would make a lovely harmony to aetheric elvish. "Let's see what happens here." She whispered, winking.

"Thank you for your patience. We will begin now." Evelyn gazed across the audience, smiling before taking a deep breath. Her eyes closed, and her ears tuned to the musicians beside her. The melody would shift in time with their notes.

She lifted her hands as if caressing the air. She sang, but it was in such a foreign dialect, her words sounded nonsensical. Sounds, however, fit perfectly together, and it seemed the language wrote the melody. As Evelyn sang in a silvery soprano, the air grew thick with raw magic. It permeated the air with static and sparkles.

Some members of the audience jaw dropped. Some could feel the story being woven. Evelyn sang exclusively with truth, and she spoke of love and heartache.

It began out as a solo, but Wrensthav and Polaris got a feel for the song, and they began to play. The three tunes mixed together with astounding perfection despite there being no sheet music.

That's when the magic in the air set alight. The whole hall glittered with tangible emotion and energy. The audience was held captive, all, including Mattien, sitting with smiles on their faces. The notes changed, and they burst into tears.

The initial melody and chords set by Evelyn, Wrensthav joined in.  The flutes low and reverberating tones tuning even with the benches and chairs echoed and hummed with the song. Polaris joined in a measure behind Wrensthav.  the two instrument players trading forth the melody and harmonies between each other.  Sometimes harmonizing with each other or with  Evelyn.  the song ended with the two of them giving musical support the peak of Evelyn's story with Wrensthav cueing Polaris when to join in.

The whole inn and several people from around the building filled the seats and even stood to listen to the musical entertainment.  When Evelyn finished the crowd was shoulder to shoulder clapping enthusiastically and calling for an encore. Evelyn merely replaced her hood onto her head and politely walked off stage.  Wrensthav followed suit, vanishing the flute after his bow and leaving the stage.  Polaris, however, went into the crowd and gathered a few surprised guests to start a new song.

"That was a heartbreaking song you sang there, Miss Evelyn,"  Wrensthav said after they found an empty seat as the crowd was slowly thinning as the performances went on.

"Did you happen to choose to sing that knowing that most of those here tonight wouldn't know the subject of the song?"

The interesting part of the Elvish language was that an individual could never lie while speaking it. The words wouldn't come. So Evelyn couldn't speak of a lover's love, but she wanted them to feel. And they felt. Though none of them truly understood the emotions filling their hearts. At least, that's what she assumed.

As she left the stage and found a seat near the back, she watched Mattien silently nursing his ale as the hall cleared out of extra people. He seemed bothered, but it was probably due to the song. She did evoke very powerful emotion, after all.

Wrensthav followed quietly after her, sitting by her. He stared casually as a different song began to play on stage, mentioning to Evelyn if she sang because no one would understand the lyrics.

Her eyes widened. "I did. I mean, I — what?" She pinched the bridge of her nose in a flustered manner, shaking her head.

"Let's speak in private. Follow me." She said, carefully eyeing Wrensthav before stepping past him to walk up a staircase that led to doors upon doors. She opened her rented room and stepped in, greeted by orbs of magelight. They hovered in tiny containers in bookshelves and along the windowsill, lighting the small-sized room with a single bed and chair.

Evelyn sat on the bed, gesturing with a hand. A magelight fell into her grasp, which she fiddled with anxiously. "Can we keep this conversation between us, Wrensthav? I'm usually a very private person." She said, eyes down.

"I guess you know Elvish. Question is, how?" She looked up at him inquisitively. "It's a special language, full of old world magic. It was an unconscious part of me that yearned to sing of my late mother, and I obliged as I wanted to speak my truth. It was a very difficult part of my childhood, losing her the way I did. You never stop missing them. Never.

"I said earlier I didn't want to confuse work with personal matters. You're all here on a business venture with me, and that means there are certain barriers that have to remain to keep this professional. I'd rather keep my personal life out of this, but... Well." Evelyn trailed off. 

"I mean, it was a beautiful mix of music. Did you see the looks on their faces? Beautiful... Your instrument has some magical properties, no?"

"The Summerwind's Flute is considered a treasure where I am from.  and has had very few players."  Wrensthav mused with his hair a bit before speaking again.

[i]"As for how I know Elvish, I have a talent for picking up spoken languages.  I do not know how to read Elvish, though."[/i] He spoke to her in the dialect that she sang in though a bit of his accent still permeated through.

"I do not like speaking in the true languages though it's better in most cases to use the lower languages. You can hide more without directly lying."

Evelyn nodded, absent-mindedly tugging at the magelight in her hands. His 'talent' was likely more of an Omni-linguistic ability; no one just 'picked up' Elvish. However, she couldn't be sure. "Wrensthav... you're not really from here, are you?" She said slowly.

Evelyn almost chuckled. "I'd almost like it if you spoke exclusive Elvish with me. I'd learn a hell of a lot more about you. Your accent is a little strong and your words are choppy, but you understand the gist of it."

Bouncing the magelight in the centre of her palm, Evelyn paused before tossing it in an arc to Wrensthav. It was her inquisitive side again — if he didn't know how to 'catch and hold' the magic, it would slip from his fingers onto the floor. It was no easy feat as it required a mental discipline and magic aptitude.

It was also to catch him off guard, subtly so. "You've been in this area before," Evelyn began, eyes glinting from within her hood. "There was a certain gift you asked for, something very prized. Why did you want it?"

Wrensthav caught the ball and tossed it around a bit while gathering his thoughts for a response.

"I travel often and act as a middle man for powerful characters.  They usually need me as the last resort though and people have a tenancy to hold themselves up and get prickly when you try to take away their special trinkets."  

He set the ball to float in the air and gathered three more to rotate around the first one lazily.

"I don't have any interest in them at all really unless I am tasked with keeping them on my person for an extended period of time.  I gather items that are usually near a point of irreversible damage and get them to a proper craftsman who repairs them before that happens.  Depending on what the item was and its recovery time I either return it or find an abandoned dungeon and...."  he paused searching for a word the spheres of magelight almost dropping and colliding with each other.  "Renovate the obstructions."

The several magelights rotating in the air demonstrated Wrensthav could hold his awareness on several things at once. The speed, magic-holding, trajectories, and his ability to still speak. It was quite amazing to count. Evelyn couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in surprise.

"So, let me see if I understand this." She said, "You have contracts to find and fix certain objects, and you hide them away? While I understand if you would want to keep it out of the wrong hands, wouldn't it be better to have it, whatever it is, above soil so the world can enjoy and learn from it?"

She chewed her lip, watching the slightly wobbling magelights. "I can see we have a philosophical difference there. But I will say, you have quite the... Hm, intriguing profession."

A loud crash sounded downstairs. Mattien's distinctive slurred voice rose up from the hall. Evelyn sighed, giving Wrensthav a shrug. 

"Who knows what it is now. Could you check on that and bring Mattien to his room? I'm turning in for the night. We'll be up early tomorrow and on the road." said the Elf, moving the magelights from the centre of the room to their respective containers. 

"And... good chat." She said, a look of intrigue still evident on her face. "Goodnight, Wrensthav."

[i][sub]Written in collaboration with [@WrensthavAviovus][/sub][/i]