As Egeria opened his eyes, he was met with nothing but darkness. Immediately panic took over his consciousness, he tried to move his arms or legs but he felt like they were tied into one place. When he tried to speak, he realized that he was gagged.
'What the hell..? Am I dead??'
But no, that was not the answer. If he was dead he would most likely not be able to feel his body, so he immediately cleared his mind out of unnecessary thoughts and started to analyze what he could feel.
He was clothed, most likely his own robes, he was familiar how they felt against his skin. The restraints on his wrists were some kind of ropes, but they felt much more strong than mundane ones. He was also blindfolded..
He decided to move, pulling his wrists towards himself and moving around wildly. Just a second later he heard footsteps approach him, the person reached out and tucked his blindfold down and then the cloth around his mouth.
Egeria did not speak immediately. Instead he analyzed the person first. The person in front of him was dressed in white robes, and a mask that was plain and had only one hole in it that revealed the person's eye, from there Egeria could see that they had blue irises. The masked person had long dark hair that was tied in a ponytail, and there was a scabbard tied to their belt.
The room was not well lit and it had no windows. The whole room was made out of cobblestones and it was in a square shape. There was no decorations other than a few torches.
Other than this weird situation, Egeria felt rather disturbed. As if something was whispering to him, he was hearing rather strange melodies even if there was no source of music around. He also felt tired, but that could be associated with his last match.
"Are you not going to ask anything?" The masked person spoke, from the tone of their voice, he could tell they are a woman.
"Well.. where am I..?" Egeria asked, his tone cold.
"You are in the underground chambers of the Lyriou family. By dawn, you will either awaken as a Harmonic... or I'll cut your throat myself."
'What a lovely person..'
Egeria looked around his body. As he thought, he was already infected with dissonance as several cracks had appeared across his body like spiderwebs. He let out a nervous sigh and let his body relax. But he couldn't really relax when the woman in front of him was drilling holes through him with her cold blue eyes.
Additionally she radiated a strange but a powerful melody. He had started to hear these strange noises around him due to dissonance illness most likely.
"What are you staring at me for..?" Egeria asked, rather irritated.
"You should not be leisurely laying around. I also have a few questions for you." The woman spoke in a firm tone, without waiting for a response she asked her first question.
"Name, and how old are you?"
"Shi Egeria, 17."
She hummed. "Most dissonance carriers under 18 die."
"You must be a fun person to be around with." Egeria said sarcastically, slight irritation seeping through his tone.
"What would you like us to do with your belongings if you die tonight?"
Egeria gave it a thought for a moment, then tilted his head and said:
"Just burn them."
The woman stared at him for a moment, then nodded.
"Got it." the masked woman nodded. "I got into your house and searched through your belongings. I have brought your flute and charm."
Egeria scoffed. It seemed that the woman had no sense of personal space. "Thanks?"
She ignored him and continued. "Play the flute. Playing an instrument while being struck with dissonance could increase your survival chances."
Egeria reached out with his tied arms to his flute that was to his left.
Egeria adjusted his grip on the familiar instrument, his fingers clumsily navigating over the holes due to the restraints on his wrists. He brought the flute to his lips, inhaled slowly, and let the first note drift into the silence.
The sound was soft—fragile at first—like a breeze weaving through autumn leaves. His breath shaped the tone, steady and unhurried, allowing each note to flow into the next with gentle intent. The melody began to settle into something slow and melancholic, almost like a lullaby forgotten by time. It was the kind of tune meant not to impress, but to soothe.
And for a few moments, in that dark stone chamber, the music was the only thing that felt human.
After Egeria was out of breath from playing the flute, he let it fall to the ground. The woman was leaning against the wall as she looked at him calmly.
"Impressive melody. Where did you learn it?"
"Ah.. I remember it when my mother played it to me when I was still in her womb."
The woman did not reply immediately. Egeria could see her one eye, however it had not even twitched.
"A rather weird condition." She crossed her arms. "But I suppose nothing about you is normal."
Egeria narrowed his eyes at the woman and then lowered his gaze to the floor.
'Does she have nothing good to say??'
***
"How much till dawn..?"
By this point, Egeria was feeling tired and his ears felt like they were about to burst from the loud melodies they kept on hearing. The cracks along his body had spread like spiderwebs, occasionally leaking blood.
"Who knows? Why ask me? You're the one with the watch."
'oh..'
He looked at the pocket watch that laid beside him. There was not much left until dawn. He needed to survive just a bit more. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he was fully awake after received a hard slap in the face that echoed through the room.
"ow... You did not need to do that.."
"You dare fall asleep in my presence?" She barked in a stern tone.
'What a weird reasoning..'
"Apologies ma'am.."
The woman cracked her knuckles, then backed away from him. "What is your goal?"
Egeria thought for a bit, not for much. Was the woman making him think so he doesn't succumb to dissonance? Well she was succeeding.
"I want to get out of here.. This town I mean."
The woman nodded, as if approving. "Invite me when you find a way."
Egeria tilted his head. Then simply nodded, the woman was most likely mocking him, even if she showed barely any emotions. "Who are you?"
"Rules forbid me from telling you who I am. But we are called 'Spirits.' A cleaner name than yours, at least." Egeria let out a scoff, but she ignored him and continued. "Every year a random person is chosen from different families to act as the executioner if the contestant falls into dissonance. Our identities must be kept a secret to the person we secure."
'Secure..? More like waiting to kill..'
"Why do you need to keep your identity a secret?"
The woman shrugged. "Don't ask me. I am not well-versed in tradition."
Egeria let out a sigh. Again with those weird traditions, followers of this Freedom Goddess are surely weird.. That said, the melodies that could be heard from the woman were calm. He had identified these melodies as Frequency Waves, and it seems to emit from previous places. Such as the pocket-watch near him and himself.
***
Some time had passed what felt like centuries. Egeria was breathing heavily, his body temperature was high and his ears were bleeding continuously. He felt like giving up, but the woman did not even let him consider it.
"Get ready." She said calmly. "You will receive your boon in a few moments."
Just as Egeria was going to ask her what she meant, his body started to feel like it was going to be crushed under heavy weight. He trashed around as he let out a stifled scream. This pain was too much to bear.
'What kind of boon.. damn it, what is this…?!'
The melodies suddenly started to turn into violent echoes that sounded like sirens, he screamed to muffle those echoes but he could not even hear his own voice. He pulled on the restraints, but they kept him in place. The cracks that were on his body shone in a bright light as if he was going to explode from the inside.
As Egeria lifted his head to look at the woman, she was simply standing there and looking down on him. If she was speaking under that mask, Egeria did not hear anything she said.
Once he trashed forward, suddenly the ropes teared and he fell forward into his face from the force he had put into that pull. When his face slammed into the floor, everything suddenly became silent.
For a moment, Egeria thought that he had died. But he was alive as his eyes stared at the wall. He, blinked was not in immense pain anymore. He actually felt refreshed and more powerful than ever and the cracks that were all over his body were now gone. The melodies that he was hearing in the beginning had dimmed, and they actually got louder if he concentrated on them, but dimmed when he did not.
"Congratulations, Egeria. You are now a harmonic."
Egeria lifted his body up as he sat on his knees and looked up at the masked woman. He had finally became a harmonic. He was not one step closer to reaching his goal..
"Now.. please take your belongings and I will put your blindfold back on. I shall take you to somewhere else where they will inform you about Harmonics."
Egeria nodded, he took the charm of his, and concentrated on his own frequency waves and the charms at the same moment. The charm disintegrated into yellow sparks as it was stored into his soul. He put his flute onto his belt.
"Where did you learn that?" The woman asked as she put the blindfold back on Egeria.
"I followed my instincts."
"Weird."
'Your the weird one.'
The masked woman gave a rope to Egeria, and told him to follow her by using this rope. They soon got out of the cell.
Egeria was slowly walking behind her, he was now a Do ranked harmonic and he was going to learn much more about harmonics today.
***
The two came to a stop. "I shall be leaving you alone now. Enter through this door. And good luck, Egeria." The woman spoke as she removed his blindfold and pointed to the door. They were in a narrow hall that was lit bit torches.
"Thank you." Egeria nodded and entered through the door.
The room was in a square shape, there were several pillows on the ground and some were occupied by familiar faces. On the end of the room, there was a slightly lifted platform as a bald man with closed eyes sat, his legs crossed. As Egeria focused on the frequency waves he emitted, by instinct he could tell that the man was a Mi ranked Harmonic.
Other than the baldy there were 10 people sitting on the pillows. The contestants of the tournament. Since no one was talking, Egeria decided to not talk either and took a seat next to Nymphia, he gave her a slight smile however did not receive one back as she simply nodded, causing Egeria to roll his eyes. Vex was there too, sitting in front of him.
And to his surprise Vex actually greeted him with a nod, so Egeria himself also decided to nod back. And then suddenly the Baldy spoke up,
"Welcome, youths. Firstly, congratulations on becoming a harmonic. 11 out of the 16 of you managed to survive this trial. I expect greater things from you all."
Egeria noticed that Aria was not around. Had the queen failed to survive..? Before he could ask, the baldy spoke up once again.
"If you are wondering about Princess Lyriou, she is not with us since the mayor did not want her to become a harmonic."
Nymphia next to him scoffed. It seemed she was still bitter that she had lost.
"Now.. lets get to the point. I will start with the basics. Harmonics can arm themselves with various equipment that are imbued with Frequency Waves. These are: Weapons, Armor, Charms and support items. The amount of equipment you can store into your soul is dependent on you rank. Since you all are Do ranks, you may only store 2 weapons and only one armor. Charms and support items can be stored up to 5 each. And remember, each equipment has their own rank and enchantment."
"How do we know what rank it is, or what enchantment it has?" A girl asked.
The baldy chuckled. "Patience. I am sure you all have experienced this, but you can concentrate on listening to Frequency Waves. By focusing on it, you may learn its rank and enchantment, you will either need to decode it, or you will know it immediately by instinct."
"Other than those, Harmonics receive a Frequency Wave Ability, your soul energy and pathway.
"Your FWA varies in 7 ranks, the higher the rank the more powerful and complicated it gets. You receive one ability every time you rank up. Like weapons you will need to concentrate on those concepts to decode or learn them by instinct."
"Soul energy is the source that your soul draws power from. A Harmonic cannot manipulate their soul energy very well on lower ranks unless their FWA supports it."
The man raised his hand and showed them as lightning sparkles along his fingers.
"As for your pathway, it determines what kind of abilities you shall get. If you have invested your FW into Striker pathway, you will most likely receive an offensive ability next time you rank up, but if you have chosen to invest on Tank pathway, you will either get a supportive or a defensive ability."
The people in the room nodded.
"But that is not where your arsenal ends. Frequency Wave Techniques. FWT could be learn from someone else, or created by yourself entirely. To learn or to create a technique you will need to have a very deep understanding on how to manipulate Frequency Waves. For example, Assassins usually create a technique that silences the frequency wave they emit, or the whole area they are in. The complexity of the technique can vary, our mayor had a transformation technique for example."
Seeing that no one was asking questions, the baldy decided to end the meeting.
"As I see that you have no questions, I will announce your dismissal. May you all live up to our expectations."
With that several masked people entered the room and politely tied everyone in blindfolds to take them out the room. Egeria was excited to check out his abilities and such to see what he have gotten!