Chord:
C sharp. Discordant from the middle C Artemis had finely tuned himself to recognise. Although absolute pitch was not one of his talents, he had a particularly flawless relative pitch. And all of it hinged on his aural memorisation of C.
C sharp is what he hears when he flips open his communicator – titinus of a pitch far too low for conventional diagnosis. Holly is the discordant note in his life.
Life is a dance of chords and notes – semi-quavers and fermatas – and Holly is the note that is ever so slightly off in his composition. The note that threatens to send the pianists fingertips from skimming gently over ivory into a leaden cacophony.
Artemis paused in his improvisation, hands poised and frozen. He could hear it again. With a heavy sigh, he closed the lid over the keys of the piano, knowing his focus was through. Rising slowly from his chair, he advanced across the hall and to the foot of the grand-staircase, ascending, resting his hand on the rail. Once he arrived at his room, he started over the view through the window that dominated his entire western wall.
Another few minutes, and a buzzing alerted him to Holly's call. He opened the communicator, perfecting his tone to be friendly but not overly enthused, interested but not obsessed …
And while he spoke, he heard behind every syllable, the note his heart sang in his chest reverberated to his ears.
Discordant C sharp.