Amentia

Chapter 54 - Playing

After breakfast the next day, Ruvyn drove the caravan —Zoe still being the copilot—, and Az stayed inside to relax until it was his turn again. In order to keep the caravan moving, one had to leave the hand steady on the magic sigil, so it was quite a straining activity to do for hours on end.

Nina was struggling with her drawing due to the movement of the caravan; she growled every time she lost control of the line she was tracing, but she seemed particularly determined to finish the piece. She also wasn't letting anyone see it until it was done. She sat against the wall, so no one could walk by and get a peek of the drawing behind her back. At one point, Birdie appeared and hovered about the page to give Nina pointers; apparently some shapes weren't right and the proportions were a bit off. Nina welcomed the critiques and worked hard to fix her mistakes. There was an unusual determination in her eyes.

While Nina had her sight glued to her sketchbook, the rest of the troupe ran some lines more to entertain themselves than to actually rehearse. They moved the big couch to the wall so they could have more space, and Omylia narrated a dramatic scene from the play of the God Caeli, which Adam and Almar performed.

Barring the situation going on upstairs, this was usually what their traveling was like. There was always a scene being played out just for fun, some music, some food simmering in the kitchen that filled the living room with a nice, homely smell. For some past members, this way of living had not been pleasant or fruitful; they saw no charm in spending whole days inside a house that had no windows and vibrated constantly below their feet. But for the current members, this was the closest thing they'd ever get to pure bliss. Not even being on stage in front of an audience felt as warm as spending the day playing around the house with their fellow troupers. There was no judgment and no rules to follow when it came to performing in here. They could improvise, change the story, create a whole new one, mix genres, add a battle in the middle of a kissing scene, sing a song from a different play that made absolutely no sense in that context. They could do whatever they wanted in there. Anything they felt in their heart, they did it. That was the way to a happy soul and a healthy environment. Az recalled his younger years in the troupe, where the leader at the time was against "defiling" their plays like this; it was sacrilege to alter a single word. He always thought it must have been boring inside that creature's heart, where there seemed to be no room for playing. He knew that when he became the leader —because he always knew he would—, playing like this was something he would encourage. It nurtured creativity and strengthened the bond between the troupers. He saw it very clearly as he watched these younglings completely destroy one of their most serious plays, filling it with profanity, slapstick comedy and a ridiculous plot that followed absolutely no logic. They laughed at themselves and at the play they were improvising, and Az felt his chest fill up with pride. He mentally apologized to the writers of these plays for encouraging making a mess of their work, but just look at those happy faces. This was art and expression in their purest form. He was grateful that he was still alive to see it shape the next generation of performers. No one can be a serious actor if they don't know how to play. Having fun is crucial to all forms of art. If there was anything he'd like to be remembered by, it was this.

Anna heard the melodies from downstairs being carried up by the wind. They were perhaps the happiest sounds she'd heard in days, and it was easy to get lost in them. She thought of her dad's laugh and how much she missed seeing it twirl around their kitchen. But the laughter going on downstairs now was a pretty damn good replacement. Anna had almost thought it impossible to hear such light sounds in this world at this point, since everywhere was so filled with this toxic dark air that poisoned people's minds into doing awful things. A happiness like this was a rare thing, so she took in every single note of those melodies as a lifeline and enjoyed it as much as she could while it lasted. And she leaned on that happiness to transmit it to Meiko while she worked; she needed it much more than her.

By now, Meiko had more or less identified the emotions that flowed inside Nati's mental box. The ones that Nati was haunted by the most moved in a loop just like Omylia's and they seemed to be triggered by specific events. This was where Meiko had to find cracks to infiltrate the box. It was where Nati's defenses were most vulnerable. It was also where she suffered the most, but that is why it was important to put the light there.