This score ends with a sordina

Adrian Hexe Grimm

As Félix flipped through her score, Adrian felt a sharp pang of unease as something in her silently said, Don't touch that. She couldn't help the troubled feeling; there were few things in the world as precious to her as her music was and it was simply unnatural for anybody to be touching those sheets. Her sister refrained from doing so out of disinterest, her father out of love, and Jeanne Marie out of what was perhaps a rare show of pride in her youngest daughter. That was what Adrian hoped in any case. Even if she didn't like to think about it often, she desperately did want her mother's approval.

Still, she held back the rebuke that was on her tongue. It's not that valuable, Adrian reasoned to herself. I shouldn't be bothered by such things -it's unseemly. Though she wasn't sure if those last words were her own. It sounded like something Aurélie or their mother would say. Well, no matter.

"Do you happen to know the piece by heart?" Félix asked her. He was still holding her score.

Adrian nodded slowly in response. "I do," she said. Put that down. Please. "And you?"

"I should be fine." And as he put the score back down, the German young lady held back a sigh of relief.

Félix played a few notes on the piano and Adrian was momentarily blindsided by pure longing. It's been a while, she thought to herself with a muted sigh. Too long, really. At that moment, Félix could have asked her to do anything and Adrian might have obeyed unquestioningly, just for the sake of a simple duet.

She made a quiet sound to tell him that she was ready and then Félix began. Near the end of the second meter, Adrian began in a smooth soprano. There were a few mistakes in her tone, all slight, just as there were some errors on the pianist's side. But that was...fine, actually. The perfectionist in her was strangely calm, even though the music they made together wasn't quite perfect. The point was that it was music and for the moment, it wasn't a solo anymore.

Ch'io mi scordi di te?
Che a lui mi doni puoi consigliarmi?
E puoi voler che in vita?
Ah no! Sarebbe il viver mio di morte assai peggior.
Venga la morte, intrepida l'attendo.
Ma, ch'io possa struggermi ad altra face,
ad altr'oggetto donar gl'affetti miei, come tentarlo?
Ah, di dolor morrei!

Non temer, amato bene,
per te sempre il cor sarà.
Più non reggo a tante pene,
l’alma mia mancando va.
Tu sospiri? O duol funesto!
Pensa almen, che istante è questo!
Non mi posso, oh Dio! spiegar.
Stelle barbare, stelle spietate,
perchè mai tanto rigor?
Alme belle, che vedete
le mie pene in tal momento,
dite voi, s’egual tormento
può soffrir un fido cor?

Adrian Hexe Grimm

There was a soft burst of warmth in her chest, the afterglow of feelings from a mostly successfully performance. It made Adrian gentle in a way that her sister would have most likely frowned on. It was not at all the same sort of sentiment that came about from faint-hearted situations such as their alliance with Miss Alice Mordrake but it was close enough to worry about. When Adrian was -as Aurélie would say- in her right mind, anyways. At this particular time, however, there was no older, gilded sister to pull her away into a more sensible state.

"How long?" Adrian thought about it, somewhat dreamily but not in an incredibly obvious way. Jeanne Marie had insisted on starting their education -in all proper things, not simply academics- at an early age. Often, Adrian had been expected to keep up with her sister -but not be her equal, no. There was the issue of seniority after all- despite the two year gap between them.

Musical studies had started for them in the single digits, age five for Aurélie and three for Adrian, on the piano and violin respectively. Oh, there had been some singing -some in Adrian's definition really translating over as far more organized practice than any three year-old had any business having- but not too much. The push for voice hadn't come in until Adrian turned five herself and even then, she wouldn't have called herself a singer. A careless imitator at the knees of her tutors, probably.

"I suppose it depends on what you consider singing," she answered after a time, frowning slightly. "Young, would be the most accurate answer to the general question." The dark haired girl mused over it a little longer. "Eight to sixteen years," she guessed. "That would be the range."

Adrian Hexe Grimm

Adrian frowned slightly at Félix's question. It was slightly rude to be asking that of her, but the lull of the aria was still over her so she did not bring it up as she might have normally. "I am nineteen years old," she told him. "Though I did have some training from the age of three, I am not certain that I would put that towards my time as a singer." As an afterthought, she added, "Nor any of the years before the age of eleven. I was appallingly unskilled." In her own opinion anyways.

She listened at the young man's report of his own musical experience and found it to be rather impressive and fitting of the talent he had displayed on the piano. Against her better judgment, Adrian found herself slightly warming up to him. It was always nice to be around fellow musicians. I must have missed this more than I thought, she mused.

"I have been rather limited in my genres," Adrian said to him, with a quiet hint of apology in her voice. "My sister is somewhat impatient when it comes to music. The classics are the safest choice." It was a rather careless remark that made her suddenly pause. "Our fields of interest are a little different from each other." She tried to amend her previous statement, with a varying degree of success.

Personally feeling like she might have already betrayed her sister in a way, Adrian had just opened her mouth again before her phone started to vibrate. That, she knew without looking, would be Aurélie. The golden haired young lady's timing was uncomfortably impeccable this time.

"Excuse me, please," Adrian said to Félix, facing away a little. "I need to take this."

Clearing her throat a little, she took the call. "Yes, Aurélie?"

Adrian Hexe Grimm

"I thought you should know," Aurélie began in a light tone. Though to many, it might have seemed as if she was speaking carelessly, Adrian knew well enough that the unusual quiet in her sister's voice heralded something potentially sinister. "Our friend-" Alice Mordrake, she must have meant "-has scheduled a certain event to occur sometime in the future." Immediately, Adrian's mind jumped to the worst possible scenarios, many of them bloody. All of them involving their so called ally's uncanny talent for mind magic.

"I see," the dark haired young lady said, voice calm but expression not so much. She couldn't help the frown of worry that crossed her face. Everything having to do with Miss Alice Mordrake was a nuisance to deal with. "Which one exactly are you speaking of?"

"I believe that there was some mention of archaeology," her sister replied with a hum of thought.

The one with the child, then, Adrian guessed. Dear God, they were actually going to do that...? Her breath hitched for a moment before she said again, "I see." She really didn't understand why they had chosen this boy either. He seemed like such a detour off the route of their goals. "Has there been a time set for that?"

Aurélie laughed softly. "Dear, Adrian." Her voice was warm on its surface but under it was pure steel. "Stay safe, sister. I do not believe that this event will occur while we are nearby but it is better to not be sorry, hm?"

"Yes, I understand, Aurélie," Adrian said, biting back a sigh. "Shall I come now?" It was after she said those words that she realized they were uncharacteristically impatient. The difference there was slight but surely noticeable.

Her sister took note. "Oh, are you busy at this time?" the golden young lady remarked casually. "Do tell, please. It was an order, of course.

Adrian cleared her throat. "Forgive me," she said. "You caught me at practice. Of course, if you wish..."

There was silence over the line for a few moments. "Adrian, are you with somebody?" Aurélie asked pleasantly.

She noticed! But then again, of course she did. Aurélie always could pick up on these things. "Yes, I am," the younger sister said smoothly, resisting the urge to hurry through the confession. That would have surely caught Aurélie's attention.

"Well," Aurélie said primly. "When you get the time, do introduce us sometime. Which meant that it was going to happen, and soon. "For now, tell me about this person.

Adrian bit her lip for a second before responding. "Ah, perhaps not at this time?" But that rejection sounded too heavy in her ears, even before her sister's disappointment became known. "A pianist," she explained. "It... has been some time."

"Oh yes," Aurélie said neutrally. "Of course." A few more moments passed by in an anxious silence. "Well, I would hardly want to interrupt, I suppose. When you are finished, return to the dorm.

"Yes, of course, thank you." As the call clicked off, Adrian finally let out a soft sigh.

Adrian Hexe Grimm

Adrian frowned to herself as she put away her phone, thinking to herself that it would have been better if they had never accepted Alice Mordrake's invitation that day a few weeks ago. But blood was blood and there was no going against her sister. If she could change Aurélie's mind, she would. Unfortunately, her bright, gilded sister rarely listened to her in major matters. As was her right as the elder.

"Yes, my apologies," Adrian said to Félix as she reclaimed her music. "It was rather nice being able sing in a duet again. You are quite talented on the piano." Which, coming from her, was a fair sized compliment.

For a moment, the dark haired young lady debated whether or not to give a slightly more detailed explanation for her exit. On one hand, she still really would rather not drag the pianist into their matters. After having heard what was being planned with that Breckenridge boy, Adrian was even more certain of that. Yet on the other hand, Aurélie already knew of Félix, maybe not his name yet, but she would find out eventually. Maybe it was best for him to know who he was facing beforehand.

She went around to the window panes, then, tapping the glass briefly in a rare gesture of anxiousness. "My sister Aurélie frequently calls for my assistance in matters," Adrian told him as she fed her score back into the glass. "She constantly is involved with some sort of business and as her junior, it is only right that I join her in her endeavors."

It might not have been especially clear, but that was a warning. She hoped that he picked up on at least part of it.

"My apologies," the young lady said to him again as she turned away from the window. Because if there was anything of interest in Félix, and if Aurélie perceived it, whatever transpired would be entirely Adrian's fault.