"Do you dance?" Nyssa asked, her thick accent accentuating the last syllable of every word.
"I know the basics." Anelle replied.
"What are the basics?" Nyssa looked back at her eyebrows raised in an amused expression.
"A-a traditional waltz," Anelle stammered, "I understand the beats and flow of music and… and how you dance to… them."
Nyssa kept her expression unreadable as she watched Anelle squirm under her questions. A long moment passed before Nyssa finally smirked.
"So you know how to dance around a ballroom stiff as a board. I'm sorry but we don't dance like that here. I will be interested to see if you can move to the beat as you claim. When we dance, we dance for our customers, not with them. It's a form of entertainment and advertising. Understand?"
Anelle nodded.
"Good. First watch, then follow."
Nyssa moved to the centre of the main hall and stood ready in position. Her left foot was turned out and her knee slightly bent. Her right foot was bent behind, with the bottom of her foot turned to the sky. Her back curved with her arms raised above her head.
Then she began to move.
Slow at first. One finger, her hand then her arm; energy slowly progressing through her body. Both hands moved, flowing away and back, her movements gaining in size. Her arms outstretched and her chest moved with the music only she could hear. One movement flowed into the next like she was swimming through air.
Her right arm reached behind her and an invisible thread pulled her leg around in time with her arm above. Her right toes crossed her body, her arm arced high, her left foot released from the ground, toes pointed skyward and her whole body spun. Her shift fluttered around her. She was a golden star burning in the sky.
Nyssa came to a stop where she had started in the centre of the room. A smile traced the edge of her parted lips. Her chest was rising and falling, pink blush settled on her caramel cheeks. She placed her hands on her hips.
"This time you follow."
Anelle's eyes and mouth were wide. "I…I don't know…" Anelle trailed off.
Nyssa laughed, a deep laugh that shook her entire body.
"It is alright. I will go very slow. Come, come." Nyssa beckoned her over and began by raising Anelle's hands into the starting position. Then she corrected Anelle's feet. Nyssa stood opposite and mirrored the dance to Anelle. She began with the first eight steps. Mostly arm movements but her entire body was somehow involved?
"Relax your shoulders, you can't move if they are stiff," Nyssa instructed, "keep your stomach muscles tense or you will crumble."
Anelle flinched as Nyssa poked her stomach. She poked until her finger felt resistance from Anelle.
Over and over Anelle repeated the steps. First her finger then her wrist moved in slight circles travelling down her right arm. Then the other side.
Onto the next eight. Her shoulders moved in circles together and opposite. Her arms cutting the air; a cheap imitation of Nyssa's grace.
"Move from your hips," Nyssa pushed Anelle's hips side to side, back and forth and round in circles. "Like that," she released Anelle, "And from the top one more time."
Anelle stood in position. Every part of her body felt foreign to her. Her arms and shoulders felt heavy; her wrists and shoulders stiff, as she moved to inaudible music.
"I think that is enough for today." Nyssa said. "Don't be discouraged but you will need a lot of practice before you perform in front of customers." Nyssa pointed to the far door at the end of the room.
"Through there, turn right and follow the corridor until you reach a set of stairs. Celno will be in the room on the left."
Anelle left the main hall and stopped just before the turn.
"I was helping Dame Luel yesterday and saw the house ledger." Whispered a voice Anelle didn't recognise.
"Ooh, who has the largest debt?"
"I don't know. I only got a quick glance but I saw that Moreal only has a few months left to pay off her contract."
"Who do you think will become the next Wyrish?"
"Maybe it will be one of us! But I know for certain it won't be that bitch Celno. Just because she can play a few instruments she thinks she's better than us."
"But Celno has a large debt and hasn't been able to keep any high paying regulars. She would be a natural fit."
"Dame Luel said Moreal has the final say. I trust in her judgment."
The voices trailed off away from where Anelle was listening. She let out a breath she hadn't realised she was holding and hurried down stairs to her next lesson. The corridor was dark. A slither of artificial light shone from the door up ahead. Anelle slowed as she approached, hearing voices.
"Just. Stop!" Celno exclaimed.
"Maybe if you were a better teacher I would find it easier to learn!" Vetha shot back.
"Why you insolent!" Celno exclaimed.
Anelle heard the sound of flesh connecting. She moved into the doorway and found Vetha on the ground with a pink mark across the side of her cheek getting redder by the second. Their breath came heavy, eyes fierce with rage and threatening to spill tears. Both sets of women turned to the doorway.
"Go on, Nyssa will be waiting." Celno said. She turned away wiping at her eyes.
Vetha stood, placed the violin and bow back in its case and walked to the door. Anelle caught her hand as she passed and squeezed it for a brief moment. Vetha managed to conjure up a weak smile. She turned away, wiping her eyes.
"Have you ever played an instrument before?" Celno called from inside.
"Yes, I have." Anelle piped up as she walked over the threshold.
The room was large and circular. A raised platform took up the centre of the room, where Celno stood. Two rows of sunken benches surrounded the stage like a mini amphitheatre, with a central walkway facing the door. A white stone shone a few inches above Celno's head, hanging on a cord, like the one in Moreal's room. The white light created a circle around the stage but gave way for thick shadows around the exterior of the room. The walls were covered in full length paintings of musicians and orchestras, obscured by the piles of different instruments, boxes and music stands, covered in black sheets.
"What do you play?" Celno asked.
"Pianoforte and a little bit of violin." Anelle responded.
Celno nodded and walked over to the edge of the room. She began lifting sheets and moved boxes to peer deeper into the piles. The precarious stacks started to shift. The dull beat of a drum sounded as Celno steadied the boxes on top of it. She moved around the room still not finding her prize.
"Are you going to help or just stand there?" Celno spat, her cheeks growing red in frustration.
"What are we looking for?" Anelle asked.
Celno signed. "A piano of course."
Anelle turned to her left and began searching. She moved boxes covered in dust and sheets covering old instruments in bad condition; a double base missing strings and a large drum with a cut through the skin.
"I found it!" Celno called.
Anelle made her way over and together they cleared a path. The grand piano was stuffed into the corner with boxes stacked on top of it. Celno lifted the key lid and a plume of dust filled the air. She stepped back covering her mouth as it settled. The keys themselves were slightly yellowed and chipped in places.
Celno pressed the very right key and a high pitched note filled the room. She continued testing all the keys as she went. Most sounded good but one or two were very out of tune.
"Alright, try playing something. If you're any good I'll tell Dame Luel to have someone tune the piano for you."
Anelle sat on the piano stool, a bit confused. "But if the piano is out of tune everything I play will sound bad." Anelle countered.
Celno signed again.
"All I need to know is if you can play more than a few notes. Full songs that you could perform for customers. The piano doesn't need to be in tune for that. Though be light with the keys for the sake of my ears."
Anelle placed her hands on the keys. She grimaced and shivered as her fingers stuck to the dirty keys. She found the centre 'C' and began with a few scales to warm up her fingers. She stopped as she hit a screeching 'A' that was out of tune, remembering to avoid the note in future.
Anelle recalled the hours that passed in moments as she played on the grand piano at home, feeling like she could play anything. The afternoons she spent playing to an invisible audience who adored her. The winter that had just gone. Playing with Klin, barely fitting on the stool, as he challenged her to make her own music. The surprise as he played one hand around her back, the pure joy and laughter that she may never have again.
Anelle closed her eyes and pushed her thoughts away, a sombre piece came to mind and she sat with her back straight and began to play.
The notes were long and slow echoing around the room. Her right hand continued to play slowly as her left moved on to slightly faster movement. A duet. Two lovers moving on through life at different paces; neither willing to let go as they drifted further from the other. She wished to leap and sore but he wished to keep her grounded. The notes contradict and clash over one another like an argument of crashing words, neither listening to the other.
A sharp note cut the sound short.
Anelle flinched away from the keys. That out of tune 'A' being the culprit.
Anelle turned to Celno. "Do you want me to continue?"
The woman had a peculiar expression on her face, lost in thought and wrenched back to the present. She shook her head slowly.
"Uh, no it's fine," she recovered back to her usual casual self, "Do you know more pieces by heart?"
"Yes, a good few and some I would need to practise."
Celno nodded. "I will tell the Dame to get the piano tuned and brought up. There's nothing else we can do today. Why don't you go help Yulin clean the kitchen."