Red Roses

Chapter 10 (Fool's Gold Arc)

Ardit shut his eyes in fear of the impact from falling, Zolio began to hyperventilate and scream. However, the two of them eventually came to a halt. When Ardit opened his eyes he realized that he was suspended in the air, he felt some of the cold wires of the grand piano wrapped around his torso, arms, and legs. Zolio tried to calm her breathing, noticing the wires that caught her from falling. The two of them turn to the man playing the piano. He gave the two a side eye with a gentle smile as he continued his elegant melody. He muttered to them, "Please do not interrupt my performance."

As he continued playing, Ardit and Zolio traded glances. The audience was concerned. Mutters were exchanged between viewers. Based on the calm energy that the performer exuded, it seemed the audience assumed this was part of the performance. Eventually, the wires pulled the two close to him, sitting them on the piano bench. Zolio on his left, Ardit on his right. He mentioned, "Actually, you guys can help, I can use a few extra pairs of hands. On my left, play the great and small octaves. On my right, play the Two-Line and Three-Line octaves." As he gave instructions, he kept playing for the audience. Zolio began to panic. She exclaimed, "What do you mean?! I can't play piano!" Ardit shrugged as he couldn't either.

He took a deep breath, getting a response like that wasn't a surprise. He reassured the two, "Leave that to me!" As his hands pressed firmly on the keys, wires coiled around the wrists and fingers of the two humans. The two of them began playing as if they were professionals, Ardit was confused but went along with it. For Zolio, this was an exciting experience. The audience was interested in the performance. However, some were feeling discomfort that humans were playing alongside a trained professional. Ardit's eyes seemed to glance around as he noticed something. Looking at the performer's hands, he noticed that his fingernails had a black and white pattern. He also noticed the eighth note symbol on the ganyma's left hand. He muttered to him, "You're.. a bard? I've never seen bard magic like this.." the pianist responded, "Well, once you get to the level of a grandmaster, you learn to surpass basic bard magic like putting people to sleep or making it rain outside. Not that you two would know since you're just humans, no offense."

Once the performance finished and the audience left the auditorium, the performer sat down with Zolio and Ardit backstage to talk to them. The performer explained, "So, allow me to introduce myself, I am the Maestro. My real name is Keertan, but my friends call me Keer. What about you two?" The two seemed worried that they were caught at this point, but didn't try to run away since they weren't sure. Ardit responded, "It's Ardit." Zolio smiled and gave her response, "It's nice to meet you, I'm Zolio, Zolio Ankur! We're not in trouble or anything are we?" Keertan tilted his head in concern. He pondered, "Why would you guys be in trouble? You helped my performance! Even if I didn't really give you an option. What I wanna know is why did you crash into the stage?"

Ardit tried to explain, "we didn't fall on purpose! We really needed to see you to talk to you about something important, you're a grandmaster so we thought that you'd know something about what we're looking for." Zolio took a deep breath and continued the explanation, "We wanna know how to survive the extinction event, and we wanna know if you can help us..." Keertan fell silent. As he clenched his fists, he felt his heart sink being reminded. He replied, "Hiding probably won't do much, since you can't hide forever. I don't even know how humans like you found out about something like this.. I'm against the idea, but I alone can't do much. However, if helping a few people survive is all I can do, then so be it."

Zolio's eyes lit up, her state could only be described as euphoric. She exclaimed, "Thank you sir! We really appreciate the help, if there's anything we can do please let us know!" Ardit had his arms folded. With a determined look, he gave a nod to Keertan. Keertan rose from the collapsible chair he sat on, folding it and placing it against the wall. Noticing this, the two did the same with their chairs. Keertan turned to look at the two, "There's some people I know that might help, they're pretty religious so maybe their collective moral compass leads to some sort of empathy! They usually go to the church of the golden god, a place for people who believe in the sun as their god, it's full of illuminators."

As the three agreed on what to do, they walked offstage. They eventually left the theater. As Keertan looked up at the sky, he realized they couldn't just go. He mentioned, "It's getting late, we should go tomorrow when the three of us are well rested. Besides, people only go to the church when it's daytime anyways. It's the only time their god can watch them." Realizing something, Zolio corrected him, "Four of us! We have a friend that's also helping, she just didn't really fall with us.." Keertan gave a nod. He noted, "The more the merrier! Let's all meet up here tomorrow morning, then we'll head off!"

"You got it! I'll be here waiting!" Ardit sat on the floor, moving into a position in which he'd be lying on his back. He placed his arms behind his head and began resting his head on his arms. A deafening silence filled the already quiet night. Keertan eventually picked up on what was going on. He was silent as his feelers began to twitch. Keertan walked towards the car he was planning to leave in and unlocked it with his key. Reaching his head into the car, he pulled out a small but comfortable throw blanket that he had. Zolio peered over Keertan out of curiosity. Keertan approached Ardit and moved down to his knees. He placed the blanket onto him. Ardit gave a look to the musician, his eyebrows furrowed. Smiling, Keertan stood up on both feet. He explained to the two, "I keep that blanket in my car for emergencies, like if I wanna sleep on a long drive, you can give it back tomorrow when we leave in the car." Looking at the blanket, Ardit was hesitant. He muttered, "Uh, thanks.." Ardit wasn't exactly used to being given things so this was a bit confusing for him.

Keertan gave a wave before entering his car and driving off. Jade suddenly appeared, approaching and hugging Zolio. Ardit mentioned to Jade, "So you heard all that right? We're taking off tomorrow." Jade gave a nod of approval and held Zolio's hand. Zolio pointed out, "We're gonna be going on an actual trip in a car! I've been on public transportation before, but this is kinda rare. Well, we'll see you tomorrow alright Ardit?" Ardit took a deep breath as he looked up at the stars and gave a nod. Jade and Zolio left the area walking.

Ardit let the sounds of the night city fill his mind. He thought about what his goals were. Somehow in his mind, he couldn't think of any way that they'd be able to survive the execution event without eventually being killed. The only way he knew they could survive for certain is if they stopped the event from happening in general. However, this would be a difficult goal, he knew the government had eyes around the world and controlled everything in it. He decided to make that his goal. However, his eyes started to feel heavy. Each star in the sky became more and more blurry, his vision faded, and he eventually fell unconscious.