Four

Tunes and Tomes

Cloak floated close by it's Chosen, always quite curious about Stephen's wardrobe choices.

Stephen carefully surveyed his appearance in the giant mirror, feeling rather out of sorts wearing everyday street clothes. Checking his reflection, he barely recognized himself. Given, it was well tailored, expensive, casual attire, the style he had formerly felt very comfortable in, but since everything else that had happened in his life it just felt...weird. It had been some time since he'd gone out onto the streets of New York shopping, and he certainly didn't want to draw any attention to himself.

Noticing his companions' interest, he commented,

'Sorry, but you have to stay here, today. I need to pick up a few things, out in the world.'

Cloak gave a disappointed ruffle, resembling a sigh, and Stephen smiled, assured,

'I won't be long.'

Good to his word, Stephen returned shortly, carrying several bags. Cloak met him at the door like an excited child, followed to his study, watching carefully as he unpacked.

As he did so, Stephen chuckled,

'I didn't realize grooming products and groceries could be so enthralling. This, however,' he assured, with a dramatic flair,

'This may be,' and set a blue and silver bag up on the desk.

He pulled out a box, and Cloak noticed his expression was happier than usual. It zipped in closely, anxious to see what could make its' Chosen so cheerful.

'I've really missed music,' he admitted, quietly, turning the silver and black cylinder admiringly in his hands,

'Time to enjoy it, again,' and set the speaker on his desk.

Cloak gave a puzzled swish, not certain what the object was, or what it had to do with music.

Stephen pulled out his phone, turned on the speaker, and paired it via Bluetooth.

Music swelled into the room, and Stephen's smile spread even wider.

Cloak twitched its' collar, inquisitively.

With a satisfied pat on the speaker, Stephen put away the rest of his items, then gathered several large books, pulled the tall backed chair up to his desk, and settled in for some study.

He'd been rummaging around the library, whenever he found time, in the weeks that had passed since his bizarre encounter with Master Jade. Aside from the fact that the library held thousands of tomes, not even Wong had any idea what type of book, what kind of information, they were searching for.

The ones he'd returned to New York with had seemed, after a brief initial perusal, to be promising in his quest to unravel where, and or when, the missing Master was.

The background music smoothed away all other concerns, and he opened the first book.

Cloak hovered close by, giving the impression of being completely enthralled with the new addition to its' environment.

Stephen had been reading for some time when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, looked up at Cloak, curiously.

'Yes?'

Cloak reached over, tapped the speaker, then shrugged.

Confused, Stephen shook his head, asked,

'What about it? It's a Bluetooth speaker.'

Cloak shook NO, tapped it again, then swayed briefly to the beat.

Stephen scowled, struggling to comprehend exactly what his scarlet companion was attempting to communicate.

After a moment, it hit him.

'You want to know...what the name of the song is?'

Cloak gave an excited bob, drawing a laugh from Stephen.

'Canon in D. By Pachelbel.'

Then, in a few minutes, another tap.

'Eruption. Van Halen.'

Tap, tap, tap.

Finally, Stephen suggested, eyes sparkling with amusement,

'Ok, ok, how about I just give you the title and artist for every song?'

Cloak gave an excited bounce, drawing a chuckle from Stephen.

He shook his head, bemused, wondered how he had managed to end up with an overgarment that enjoyed music as much as he did.

Ok, given, that entire thought was completely insane, but, that was his life, now.

Completely insane.

Put to music.

He looked back down to his book, with a tiny grin, realizing how much fun this could be. He'd forgotten how much he missed the challenge of matching wits with people over his trivia knowledge. While this wasn't exactly matching wits, it was still a challenge to see how fast he could come up with the information at the same time as he was reading ancient Sanskrit.

And, honestly, fun wasn't a word he'd often use to describe his day.

Once he got into the mindset, he barely had to break concentration to provide Cloak with the information it wished.

Every now and then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cloak swaying to the rhythms, which caused a muffled chuckle.

Time passed, quickly, and Stephen suddenly noticed just how long he'd been sitting there. The suns rays had stretched into late afternoon, and he was getting hungry.

Disappointingly, nothing thus far appeared to be at all helpful. He sighed, with a small frown, laid the book aside, gave a stretch, commented,

'Moonlight Sonata, Beethoven,'

And, from behind him, Wongs' voice replied,

'Yes, I know,' nearly startling him out of his mind.

He jerked around, took a second to catch his breath, explained, chagrin,

'Sorry. Just thinking out loud.'

Wong narrowed his eyes at Cloak, floating nonchalantly close by, and Stephen thought he might have detected a small upward curve of his lips.

He came to his feet, not even going to try and explain the singularly unique relationship he had formed with his Cloak.

'Is something wrong?' he asked, brow furrowed with concern. Wong very seldom left Kamar-Taj, and almost never came without calling, first.

'I was cleaning and cataloging in the Masters section of the library, today,' Wong began, looking down at the decrepit books in his hands. The leather covers were peeled, the binding frayed. He pursed his lips, gripped the books tightly.

'I was in the top shelves of the farthest corner. I don't ever remember being there, before.'

He met Stephen's confused scowl, continued,

'I think these volumes hold information that may assist your search for Master Jade.'

Stephen's instant reaction was to look across the room, toward his portrait. He'd refused to return it to the Hall. Instead, he kept it here, as a reminder, of his self chosen duty to assist her.

He strode to Wong, carefully retrieving the battered books, with a sharp nod of thanks.

Wong returned the nod, and left, headed back to Kamar-Taj.

Stephen laid the books carefully on the desk, breath short with excitement.

He tossed a glance toward Cloak, said,

'I hope you're ready to pull an all-night study session.'

Cloak did a little shuffle, patted the speaker fondly, and moved to hover at the left arm of his chair. Clearly, as long as the tunes played, Cloak was in.

Stephen gave an intense grin, lifted the top book, and settled back with the ancient tome in his hands.

'Sound Of Silence. Remake, by Disturbed,' he whispered, and opened the cover.