I recently learned that magma cubes apparently don't take damage from water. One came through my Nether portal and was just jumping around in the pond next to it without looking distressed at all. I would not have guessed that.

Galleous returned to Ataraxia by the week's end, but the forge remained closed for several days after that. Ingressus took most of the chores on himself in that time; cleaning, preparing meals, basic repair of tools people brought in.

Ingressus hadn't told anyone why Galleous had left. Based on the gossip he'd heard, no one else had known for certain why his brother had come– though a large percentage of the rumors speculated that it'd had something to do with Ingressus. But despite his silence, the truth had clearly gotten out regardless. Maybe Galleous had shared the information himself, to stave off whatever assumptions the rest of town might've come up with. Ingressus knew that rumors spread like wildfire in the close-knit Ataraxian community– though, to be honest, his camp hadn't been much better. People from across the islands ventured to the forge to offer their condolences to Galleous, offering support or help should he need anything. Galleous was gracious in his responses, even as Ingressus could see how empty they felt to him.

Ingressus would often find Galleous on the balcony in those days, leaning on the fence or sitting against the wall and staring out at the drifting islands. Ingressus would sit with him, sometimes listening as Galleous spoke about his father, but more often simply sitting with him in silence, hoping his presence could stave off the darker specters of grief.

Ingressus wished he could do more. He wished there was some way to spare Galleous from this. He knew the weight that pressed down on Galleous, the invisible, smothering burden to your heart and mind and soul that felt like it would never lift. Galleous didn't deserve it, but Ingressus knew that death didn't care who deserved to be lost, or to suffer the pain of losing another.

It was on the fourth day that Ingressus returned to the market to hear the sound of clanging metal. Galleous stood at the anvil, a hunk of iron red with heat lying there as he brought the hammer down on it again. The sound of impact rang through the forge, echoing from the walls and driving away the silence that had hung over the cave in the days before. Ingressus caught Galleous's eye and gave him a small smile of sympathy.

Time alone could heal such wounds as these. But time was constant and ceaseless, a greater power in the long run than pain.

Time continued to pass. Ingressus's thirty-fifth birthday came and went. Galleous reopened the forge, hammering the metal he shaped as though each strike could drive his grief away. Ingressus continued to pore over the mystery of the resonances reading through his notes again and again. He consulted Voltar, holding the staff in his hands and asking it to show him what it knew. Surely his clan would've been the first to realize something was wrong.

But Voltar wasn't omniscient. The staff held memories all the way back to the dawn of the clan, but it only knew what it or its wielders had experienced. Though his predecessors' ignorance was proof enough for Ingressus of his clan's innocence, he had a feeling it wouldn't be enough for the three Masters who were still determined to see the Voltaris as the enemy. They would see his people as guilty until they had strong, tangible proof otherwise.

Ingressus sighed, leaning back and staring up at the wall. He'd always known this would never be easy, but that didn't stop it from being frustrating.

But something like this didn't just happen. There were reasons for the rain, for avalanches, for tides, for trees losing their leaves in winter and getting them back in spring. Even if the resonances had died because some deity had been angered, that was still a reason. There was an answer, somewhere out in the world. Ingressus just had to find it.

It was about a month after the funeral that Galleous agreed to train Kareinos with her Song. Ingressus heard Galleous talking to someone outside, and emerged from the cave to see Kareinos standing there, nervously passing the Protiseum Song from hand to hand. Saylor was sitting on the bench, tapping his fingers against the wood in a nervous habit. When Kareinos saw Ingressus she perked up, her gaze still nervous but some of the apprehension seeping away.

"Are you still coming?" she asked him.

Galleous glanced at Ingressus in confusion. "Coming?"

"I had to pull her little brother out of a Song-trance while you were gone," Ingressus said. "She's been worried it will happen to her, too."

Based on the look on Galleous's face, he didn't know what a Song-trance was, either. Ingressus was somewhat concerned for the four clans– what did they do if a kid got a hold of a Song and wanted to try it out? If they knew about disrupting the Songs, they would surely have used that skill on the raids, but his father had assured him that the four clans knew nothing of that ability.

"You'll have to tell me about it later," Galleous said. "Just a moment, please, I'll be right back."

He vanished into the forge, then reappeared a minute later. "All right, let's go."

The four walked through the town, heading ever upwards from island to island. The shrine was on the highest island in Ataraxia, its broken-arch outline visible from nearly everywhere in town. Ingressus had been there many times before, studying the shrine in the hopes that some of what he learned would apply to the resonances. He knew the pillars in the shrine corresponded to the orientation in which the Songs would have grown: Aggressium to the south, Protisium to the west, Supporium and Mobilium to the north and east. But he had only been there once when Galleous was training someone, many years before. He had snuck up to the shrine before Galleous and his student had arrived, a cranky Nestoris named Lorcan whom he'd had a mutual dislike for ever since.

Ingressus hadn't known that the four clans considered bonding with their Songs to be such a personal, borderline sacred affair. He hadn't known that that moment was only between the student and the Songmaster among the rest of the Ardoni. In the mountains the children had been encouraged to watch when one of the older Voltaris had gotten their first Song, so that they would know what to expect when their turn came– or so that they could have a chance at figuring it out for themselves if they were ever separated from their group. He had suspected he wouldn't be welcome at the Ataraxian shrine simply because of his clan, so he had hidden behind the pillar across from the bridge, hoping to listen in on Galleous's lesson. Lorcan had been outraged when he realized Ingressus was eavesdropping and Ingressus had responded in kind, until Galleous silenced both of them and took Ingressus aside to explain.

"I trust you've been doing your training?" Galleous asked Kareinos as they walked.

Kareinos nodded. "I'm ready. But… is it true I'm likely to pass out, when I claim the Song?"

Galleous arched a brow, glancing back at Saylor. "Your brother told you?"

Saylor rolled his eyes. "I was a little alarmed when I blacked out without warning. I know I would've preferred to be forewarned."

Galleous looked back at Kareinos. "Yes, you will almost certainly pass out. It's perfectly normal, and nothing to be worried about. Songs hold a lot of energy, and it's quite the shock to your system to take it in for the first time. You'll wake up again once the energy has settled into your body, and then we can get started on summoning the Song."

"You might pass out then, too," Saylor said wryly.

"Excuse me, who is the Songmaster here?"

Saylor glanced at Ingressus, just a second too slow for it to be anything but a conscious decision. Ingressus snorted, imagining what the council would think about that. The Voltaris they'd forbidden from even using Songs, ending up publicly recognized as the foremost Song expert in Ataraxia. He imagined Tiris's eye would twitch every time they spoke if that were to happen.

"But passing out after claiming a Song– that's not the same thing as a Song-trance, right?" Kareinos said, bringing the conversation back to where it had begun.

"Those are two different things," Ingressus confirmed. "You're old enough that the Song's tune won't overpower you. You'll be fine; I'm only here so you two can have peace of mind."

They had reached the bridge to the shrine island, and Galleous paused, turning to Kareinos. "You can back out, you know," he said. "If you don't feel ready, it would be better to wait until you are."

Kareinos hesitated, glancing up at the island. The shrine's arcing pillars rose high above the rest of the town, the gray stone stark against the cloud-dotted sky. She glanced at Saylor, then shook her head.

"No. Waiting won't help." She met Galleous's gaze. "Let's do it."

Galleous nodded, gesturing across the bridge. Kareinos walked across and Galleous followed, but paused to look back at Ingressus. "If anything strange happens, I'll call for you."

Ingressus nodded. Galleous followed his student, and Ingressus and Saylor waited.

There was no good vantage point of the shrine from the rest of the islands, as Ingressus had learned when he had tried to find somewhere else to listen in on the lessons from. The end of the bridge was the best eavesdropping site there was, but even on an extremely calm and quiet day, it would be a struggle to make out the words being said by those in the shrine.

Ingressus was sure the lack of knowledge was doing Saylor no favors. The Kaltaris was leaning on the fencepost at the edge of the bridge, probably to stop himself from pacing. Saylor fidgeted when he was nervous. Even now, Ingressus could see him digging at the dirt with his toes, a brown scar forming amidst the grass.

"She will be fine," Ingressus told him again. "My people have seen this many times. I know what I'm talking about with this."

Saylor sighed. "I don't doubt that. But…"

He dug his toes into the dirt, then frowned and pushed the dirt back into the hole. "You know that feeling, when you have to walk through a spiders' nest, and you know, logically, that they won't attack you because the sun is up and they can see that you're not a threat or prey, but your mind keeps warning you about what would happen if they did decide to attack?"

"Yes." Not in that exact context, but Ingressus knew the feeling of rational thought at odds with instinctive fear.

Saylor gestured up at the shrine. "Exactly."

Ingressus looked up at the shrine. The angle was too steep to see the Ardoni standing within the shrine's pillars, but if he pricked his ears he could just hear the sound of voices. Galleous was probably quizzing Kareinos, making sure she understood the Songs before letting her claim her own.

"Ingressus," Saylor said, digging at the dirt again with his foot. "The other day, you said that your clan started training you as early as possible, that… that you had to, so you'd be prepared for battle. Are things… really that bad for your clan? To justify training you with a sword when you were ten?"

Ingressus looked away. "Age makes no difference to the raiders."

Saylor flinched. Ingressus sighed.

He knew what the other clans tended to think the raids were about. They thought of the violence between the clans as an ongoing war, thought the raids were attacks on military outposts or training sites. Maybe they had even started out that way. He had been incredulous at how… ignorant so many Ardoni were of the true nature of the raids– the slaughter of the defenseless and the innocent, of the old and the young, the fear the Voltaris lived in day by day and year by year.

"When you got here, my parents told me that your clan would make kids my age go to battle," Saylor said. "I thought that was cruel at the time. Then I thought it must've just been a rumor, one that wasn't true. But now… it's desperation, isn't it? Not cruelty."

"You'd have been, what, twenty-six?" Ingressus said. "You wouldn't have been sent to battle. You'd have been trained to fight, yes, so you would be ready when the battle came to you. You might've been sent on border patrols if your group were desperate. But you wouldn't have been sent out to fight at that age."

Saylor said nothing for a long moment. Ingressus was silent as well, watching the distant mountain peaks. He imagined them topped with snow, imagined glaciers winding down from their peaks and dark spruce trees lining their slopes. For so long, such a barren landscape was all he had ever known, the one place his people could exist in. When he had wanted to flee Ataraxia, when he had dreamed of returning home, that home had always been the Barrier Mountains, the snowy lands that glowed under the northern lights and the jagged peaks that scraped the sky. His father had always said that their true home was in Voltaria, but that place had only ever been a distant dream to him, as unreachable as the End. How could he feel homesick for a place he had never been? The Barrier Mountains had been his place of safety back then, the one place he had ever been taught was safe. And it was where his clan was, the people he had been entrusted to lead and to protect. Surely that was where he should be now, wasn't it?

But he could no longer recall the Barrier Mountains and think of safety. He could no longer think of shivering as he walked through howling winds as just the way things were, could no longer view the strict rationing of supplies in the depths of winter as something inevitable. There was more to the world, better places and lives that his people had a right to. The sanctuary-prison of the Northwind mountains was not the only way. He was accepted in Ataraxia– sure, maybe it was a tentative acceptance, maybe he was only barely tolerated by some, but still– it was not impossible for a Voltaris to coexist with those from the other clans.

Ingressus thought of Voltar, remembered his father passing the staff to him in those last, desperate moments. Take Voltar and run! With this, you are now Master of the Voltaris clan.

He was their Master. For so long he had believed that that moment had been for naught, that his father's last wish had been doomed to remain unfulfilled. But it wasn't. He could feel Voltar's presence in his inventory, in that strange extradimensional space that was just a phase shift away from being at your fingertips. He was charged with the safety of his clan, but he didn't just want the scraps of safety the mountains provided. He wanted more for them, wanted better for them than what the last six centuries of exile had offered. He had seen better, had been granted it by the mercy of fate. He wanted that better for all those of his clan.

"You want to end all that," Saylor said, his voice breaking through Ingressus's ponderings. "That's why you're looking into the resonances."

He straightened, meeting Ingressus's gaze. "I don't know if this will help you, but that resonance we found in the mines– its aura was a lot stronger than the other one I'd seen. Maybe some are just naturally stronger than others, or maybe it's just because we're so close to the Heart of Ardonia here, but with the other one I'd been to, you had to be a lot closer to feel that emptiness, and it… was still bad, but it wasn't nearly as strong as the one in the mines."

Ingressus considered that. He had come across mentions of the resonances having auras that were stronger or weaker than each other, with the leading theory among researchers being that the more densely the resonances were clustered together, the more powerful they had once been and the stronger their death-aura was now. If the resonance in the mines was truly so powerful, then that would put a hole in that theory– there were very few resonances in the mountains around the Heart. Maybe the proximity to the Heart of Ardonia did give the resonance they had found a boost– it was certainly closer than any resonance Ingressus had found records of.

This information would definitely require more thought. But he felt a flare of Song energy from above and quickly filed the news away, looking up as a faint blue glow flashed from between the shrine pillars. Saylor tensed, ears flattening against his head in alarm, but the voice that called from above was calm and unconcerned.

"All right, you two can come up now," Galleous called.

Saylor hurried across the bridge, with Ingressus following behind him. He knew Galleous's worried voice, and this wasn't it. When he arrived on the island Kareinos was lying on the floor of the shrine, as peacefully as if she had simply decided to take a nap in the sun. There was no sign of any uncontrolled Protiseum energy; her markings were their usual emerald green, uncolored by the light of a Song.

"Ingressus, I assume all is well?" Galleous asked.

Ingressus nodded and Saylor relaxed, the last of his tension melting away.

"Can you take her home, Saylor?" Galleous asked. "I want to talk to Ingressus about what happened while I was gone."

Sure." Saylor knelt next to his sister and picked her up with a slight grunt of effort. He glanced at Ingressus. "Thanks. Even if it was just to give us peace of mind."

"You're welcome."

Saylor left, and Galleous turned to Ingressus. "So. A Song-trance?"

Ingressus explained. He described how the affliction happened and what it looked like and Galleous nodded along, a look of recognition falling over him.

"I think I've heard about a case of this," he said. "It didn't have that name, but it sounded very similar to what you described."

Ingressus cocked his head. "How did they free the child it happened to?"

Galleous's gaze lowered. "I don't know. I don't know if they've ever managed."

Ingressus winced in sympathy.

"So how did you free Aireus?" Galleous asked him. "Is it some kind of really complicated technique, or is it something so simple everyone has overlooked it?"

Ingressus answered slowly. His clan's secrets were their survival. He trusted Galleous; he wouldn't have told him about Voltar if he didn't. But the more people who knew, the greater the danger of word getting out.

"There is a method in my clan of temporarily disrupting a Song's tune," he said carefully. "That method can be used to counter its hold on a child's mind, and allow them to wake up and reject the Song."

Galleous looked at Ingressus expectantly, but Ingressus just shook his head. "I won't say more."

"The method can also be applied in combat, I take it?" Galleous said.

"Yes."

Galleous nodded in understanding. "Well, if this subject is over, I've got a surprise for you."

Ingressus looked at him curiously. Galleous gave him a small smirk. "Close your eyes and hold out your hand."

Ingressus gave Galleous a mildly suspicious look, but did so.

"There was a time you wouldn't have done that, you know," he heard Galleous say.

"After ten years, I think I can trust you at least this much," Ingressus returned.

There was humor in both their voices. There was a time when Ingressus would not have let his guard down an inch around Galleous, a time when he would have looked at him and seen only a murderer's markings, a time when his blade would constantly be the edge of his inventory if the need to draw blood arose. But those days were long past.

Ingressus knew what it was before he opened his eyes, before the "surprise" was even placed in his hand. He heard the pulsing of magic, felt the shimmering halos of energy, the sensation of motion held suspended, waiting to be used. He opened his eyes, gazing at the golden-yellow packet of magic he held.

"Consider this a late birthday gift," Galleous told him. "I wasn't sure when I'd have an excuse to get you up here."

Ingressus looked up at him. "The council hasn't approved this, have they?"

"No, but they're frankly idiots if they still think you're planning something nefarious with the Songs," Galleous said with a shrug, as though he were merely commenting on the weather and not disobeying a direct ruling from the town leaders. "Like you said, it's been ten years since they forbade you from touching a Song. They've had time to wise up."

Ingressus studied the Song, watching the rings of yellow as they circled the core. Soft lines of light glowed across the shell of the Song, arcing like the grain of wood or frozen ripples of water. The Song's core glowed like a bright star at the center, almost white against the yellow.

"I think I can safely assume you already know everything I'd normally tell my students about the Songs here," Galleous said. "So I'll skip all that."

He stepped back towards the edge of the shrine, gesturing invitingly. "Go ahead. If you want it, it's yours to claim."

Ingressus held the Song in his hands, watching the rings of light slowly circle the core. Mobilium: the order of motion. Outmaneuvering or outrunning your enemy. Teleportation, leaping, even flight— which had the universe decided to grant him?

There was only one way to find out. Ingressus turned to the east, towards the pillar that faced the sunrise. Some said the color of Mobilium was in reference to the sun, with its steady and unceasing motion across the sky. Perhaps they were right, or perhaps it was merely coincidence.

Ingressus placed the Song in the niche of the pillar, hearing its tune rise as if in anticipation. He stepped back to stand in the center of the shrine, listening. Songs did have a sound to them, but it wasn't loud; he shouldn't have been able to hear it with his ears from here. No, the tune was sounding inside his head and through his being, amplified by the shrine. The Song reached for him and he reached out in return, the two tunes synchronizing.

The Song's shell evaporated. The energy surged from the pillar and swirled around Ingressus like a whirlpool of golden energy, and then collapsed in on him. The world vanished and he felt himself running, flying, moving, falling even though he was sure he was standing still, felt the wild abandon of motion, the boundless energy to move and run and leap. The Song sank into his bones and he felt himself sinking, his vision fading as his mind shut down. The last thing he was aware of was a pair of arms catching him as he fell.

Ingressus woke to a chirping noise. He opened one eye to see a brown-and-white bird perched on a stone pillar above him. The bird hopped along the stone, then spread its wings and took off in a swirl of feathers.

Ingressus sat up, and something slid off his chest and landed with a thump on the floor of the shrine. He picked up the book, staring at it in confusion.

"That was faster than I expected," Galleous observed, closing a book of his own. "How are you feeling?"

"Strange…" Ingressus said. "I guess… like I'm tired, but I also want to run all the way home."

Galleous nodded. "Mobilium is strange like that."

Ingressus lifted the book. "What are these?"

Ingressus recognized them– they were some of his books on the resonances. But he was certain he hadn't brought them up to the shrine with him.

"Your alibi for being up here," Galleous answered, standing from where he had been leaning against one of the pillars and holding out a hand to Ingressus.

"Ah."

If someone had seen him unconscious at the shrine, it wouldn't have been a hard guess that his passed-out state was the result of claiming a Song for himself– and directly disobeying the council by doing so. Ingressus wondered how they would have reacted to such a thing. Tiris and Heralas had come to accept his research into the resonances– even if they weren't exactly pleased with it, they had given up trying to get him to stop. He didn't know what they thought he might do with a Song of his own– but then again, he remembered that even they hadn't had a concrete concern behind their paranoia when they had first forbidden him from accessing their species' magic. He doubted a lack of such a thing now would stop them from coming down on him.

Ingressus took Galleous's hand and let the Sendaris help him up. Mobilium really was strange. On the surface he was tired, as if he'd stayed up too late chasing monsters. Thoughts of his nice, comfortable bed tempted him, urging him to collapse onto the mattress and take a good, long nap. He knew that was normal after claiming a Song. But just underneath that, as though behind a layer of ice, was a new store of energy running through his bones, an energy with the boundless desire to walk and run and go that was the essence of the Mobilium order.

But that energy was still locked away from him, and Ingressus surrendered to the desire to sleep when they returned to the forge.

It was a few days before Ingressus was able to have his first lesson with his Song. The forge was slightly too small to be a decent training space, and the necessity of secrecy meant that he and Galleous needed to find ways to sneak away for a while without drawing attention. There were plenty of dense trees in the valley below that could hide Ingressus's training from prying eyes, but getting down there without being noticed was the greater challenge. Ingressus knew that if word got out that he had a Song, all of Ataraxia would know within a few days– including the council. He didn't have Selarin's gang to assign some of the blame to this time.

But the slow nature of the lessons didn't stop Ingressus from thinking about the Song he now held and what it might be. He listened to the magic humming inside him like a second pulse, thinking about the Songs of the Mobilium order and wondering which one he had. There was Mobilislide, like Saylor had– summoning a ribbon of light that you could surf along like a trail of smooth ice. Mobiliflash– local teleportation. Mobiliphase– warping through solid objects. Mobiliwings– flight. He remembered Alhena showing off her Mobiliwings Song, hovering above the snowy ground as the children ganged up on her in an epic snowball fight.

Ingressus dumped a pile of straw into a horse's feeding trough. The horse snorted, lowering its head into the hay and chewing on a mouthful of stalks. Ingressus closed the stall door, scratching at where the stalks had itched at his arms. He still had another couple months in his community service sentence from the council, but at least working in the stables left his mind free to think most of the time.

He made for the base of the ladder, then paused, looking up at the loft. There was no railing along its edge, leaving the space open for hay to be unloaded from the pulleys. Everin would sometimes just use her Supporium Song to lift smaller loads of whatever she needed into the loft, and having an open space was easier than trying to thread a needle between some railings. That open space also meant there was a clear landing site if you were to use… unconventional means to get up there.

Ingressus looked around. Everin was still outside, that was good. He knew Iris had taken the afternoon off that day, and the animals wouldn't be able to tell on him. He was alone in the barn, at least for the moment.

He eyed the edge of the loft. It was a bit harder to discover the use of a Mobilium Song than it was for Protiseum or Aggressium. You couldn't just stand there and wait for something to happen when you tuned into the magic: many Mobilium Songs depended on movement to be manifested in the first place. And even then, it was tricky to pin down exactly what kind of movements the Song applied to. You could run halfway across town, trying with all your might to channel the Song, but get nowhere because the Song was meant for leaping rather than running. Ingressus had managed to tune in to his Song a few times, the arcs of yellow forming around him but then fading away again without manifesting the Song's power. So maybe he had been going about it the wrong way.

Ingressus looked around one more time, listening hard for any indications that someone might be coming in. Maybe his Song was Mobilileap: a powerful jump that, if he recalled right, could easily catapult him up to the height of the loft.

To use a Song is to attune yourself to it, Ritanil had told the children in his camp. Let its tune and yours be in sync, and it will respond to your will.

It doesn't work to force it, Galleous had said. Just relax, and think of it like humming along to music. In time and with practice, once you and the Song become more attuned to each other, it will come more easily. But for now, just let it come as it will.

Ingressus listened to the Song, humming quietly to himself as he focused. He crouched, let his tune line up with the Song's, then leaped as high as he could– and landed anticlimactically back on the barn floor. A horse nickered from one of the stalls and Ingressus stood up with a sigh, brushing dust off his knees.

In the mountains, the Voltaris tended to know ahead of time what kind of Song they had. The Songs they used were often either passed directly down from an older clanmate, or taken from the body of an Ardoni that had either had the misfortune or made the poor choices to run afoul of a Voltaris patrol. And on the rare occasion that they hadn't known what the Song was, Ritanil knew how to distinguish the tunes of individual Songs from each other. Ingressus had had a little practice with that, listening to the tunes of Galleous's Aggressium Song and comparing it to the Songs confiscated from Selarin's gang. But he hadn't had a selection of Mobilium Songs to compare before now. So the only way to discover what power his Song held was through trial and error. At least now Mobilileap was mostly ruled out.

He was reasonably sure Mobiliflash and Mobiliburst were off the table as well. Those you could summon from a standing start, and he had lost track of the number of times he had stood there, shaping his inner song into a pattern that swirled together with the Song's magic, yellow sparks arcing around him, and not moving an inch. The magic was there, the magic was active, but it just didn't have the right outlet to be used.

When his work in the stables was done, Ingressus wandered down to the valley below. Galleous would probably be there already, on the excuse of going for a walk after his work in the forge was done. There was a large gully down in the valley, shielded by trees, that he and Galleous had turned into a kind of obstacle course: logs to leap over, rocks to jump between or potentially phase through, and ending with a flying leap off a boulder and into the inlet. Ritanil had used such a method to give her students practice with Mobilium Songs and Galleous, with a little thinking, had turned it into an attempt to discover what kind Ingressus had. Sooner or later, they both reasoned, the course would prompt the Song to fully manifest and they would know what its power was.

Ingressus found Galleous sitting on a boulder in the middle of the course, looking over the field of stones and gravel that littered the bottom of the gully. He jumped slightly as Ingressus climbed down the side of the ditch, but relaxed again as he saw who it was.

"How was your sentence?" Galleous asked him.

"The usual," Ingressus said with a shrug. "I tried to Mobilileap up to the loft. It didn't work."

"You'll figure your Song out," Galleous said. "Everyone does."

"Sooner or later."

Galleous slid off the boulder and made for the start of the course, Ingressus at his side.

"How long did it take you to figure out your Mobilium Song?" Ingressus asked.

Galleous thought for a moment. "A couple weeks? But I didn't have to sneak off to practice. You'll get it. You're already better at tuning in to it than most would be by now; you just need to find out what kind of Song it is."

"All the kids would learn the theory behind using Songs in the mountains, even before we could use them ourselves," Ingressus said. "It's just putting it into practice."

"An 'easier said than done' kind of thing," Galleous observed.

Ingressus nodded in agreement. Knowing how something worked didn't necessarily mean you would be able to make it work right away. Everything took practice.

They stopped at the start of the course. Ingressus turned back to face it, already charting his path in his head. He had run through this gully countless times before, never yet aided by his Song, but the day would come. He had muscle memory for the course already, letting him focus on bringing out the Song. The day would come.

"And, go."

Yellow light sparked around Ingressus as he took off, running for the boulders. Speed wasn't the point of this exercise, but there was nothing wrong with having a little fun. He took long, bounding steps over the tops of the boulders in his path, then skidded down the far side. Neither Mobilibounce nor Mobiliglide came forth but he didn't linger on the disappointment, just ran on and vaulted over a fallen log. He slammed his hand against a large boulder and pushed off from it, running for a few steps along the opposite wall. No Mobiliphase or Mobilistep but he just ran on, clambering over another stretch of boulders before the gully ended and he leaped off the tallest boulder in a swirl of yellow, landing with a large splash in the water below. He surfaced, spitting out the salty water as he swam for shore. No Song, but he had kept his tune in sync almost the entire time.

Ingressus kept running the course. His feet pounded over the rocks and the hard earth, yellow light flickered around him but refused to manifest into wings or solid light. He was close, he could feel it, but he wasn't quite there yet. So he kept trying, kept running through the gully over and over, kept leaping from the edge and into the water in the hopes his Song would appear and he would fly. Mobiliwings would be fun.

Ingressus trudged through the forest back to the start of the gully, wringing seawater out of his hair. He was getting tired, taking the walk back more slowly to catch his breath between each run. The sun was beginning to sink towards the distant mountaintops; he figured he'd have another half-hour or so to train that day before they would have to head back. Galleous had been waiting patiently as he ran the course over and over, watching each time as the magic sparked and fizzled out without manifesting itself.

Again Ingressus ran. He leaped from boulder to boulder, taking the same jumps he'd made dozens of times before. He ran half on muscle memory, focusing his attention on the Song, the orbiting rings of energy that ran through him, the ringing aura, the way the magic shimmered in his mind's eye. He knew this Song like the back of his hand, knew its tune and its glow and its desire to be released. He could figure this out.

Ingressus jumped and kicked off the log. But before he landed he felt something connect, felt something in him resonate like echoes off a mountainside. His feet came down on a sheet of yellow light that shone like embers and he leaped on instinct, barely stopping himself from face-planting against the far wall as the magic flung him across the gully. He clawed at the side and grabbed hold of a protruding root, half-dangling from the side as the realization struck him and he heard Galleous applauding from the gully rim. He had done it. He had manifested his Song.

As if in reminder to stay humble, the world swayed around him. Ingressus pressed his free hand against the wall, willing himself to stay conscious as his pulse pounded in his head. Right. Summoning a Song for the first time also had a backlash.

Ingressus let go of the root, sliding with a great lack of dignity down the side of the gully and then leaning against the wall at the base. His knees hurt where they pressed into the ground– were they bleeding, from scraping against the wall? He wasn't sure. The stone was cool against the side of his face, offering relief from the headache that was pressing at his temples. This was… surprisingly comfortable, actually, just leaning against the side.

He heard Galleous come up beside him. "How you feeling, kid?"

"Tired" was the answer. But Ingressus felt himself grinning despite it. "I did it."

He had used the Song. He knew what kind it was now, though the name wasn't coming to his mind.

"You sure did." Galleous took his hand, helping him to turn and sit with his back against the stone. "Mobilibounce. That's a good one."

Mobilibounce. That was the name. Who had he known who had it, Alnair? Yeah, he thought so.

Galleous placed a bottle of water in his hand. Ingressus lifted it to his mouth and drank, feeling some of it run down his neck. He must've missed a bit.

He leaned back against the wall, breathing deeply against the headache. Galleous sat down next to him, reclining against the wall as well.

"How long will this last?" Ingressus asked, gesturing vaguely at himself.

He wasn't sure Galleous would know what he meant, but the Sendaris answered anyway. "The worst of it will fade rather soon. But you'll probably be tired until morning."

Ingressus stared at the far wall, too low on energy to do more than agree. "Okay."

Galleous rubbed his shoulder in reassurance. "Don't worry, it won't be like this next time. The first time using a Song is always the hardest on an Ardoni."

Ingressus smiled again. He had used a Song of his own. He had thought for years that the day would never come– he couldn't get one openly in Ataraxia, and he couldn't leave to get one in the outside world. Any Ataraxian would've noticed the Song missing if he'd stolen theirs, and he'd had too much respect for Galleous to take one of his. Despite the pounding headache, despite the way the world was skewed strangely to the right and the pulse he could hear between his ears– it was worth it.

"When can we do this again?"

(6680 words)

I did a bit of accidental foreshadowing to the problem with the resonances here. Good luck figuring it out.

To LULANI059: Thank you so much! This is such a small fandom, I know the struggle of finding content for it. It has its own category on AO3 if you haven't been there yet, that might be worth a look for you.