Vhalar 20 722 (morning)
Another nightmare of fire and death haunted Eternity when she woke up. She’d watched her own home burn to the ground along with all of the people she cared about inside of it. A massive flaming sword protruded from the ground in front of the home and in the distance were clouds of ash that extended as far as the eye could see. Her back shivered when her eyes opened and she prayed that it would all just stop. It was becoming easier to handle the nightmares. Her hands only shook a little and the shaking stopped when she balled them into fists.
It took a few moments for the vividness of the dream to fade and for Eternity to remember what she even had planned for the trial. “Oh, that’s right, I’ve got singing lessons now,” she thought. She hoped that she would actually be able to commit to them. She had tried had lessons on about a dozen other things but she rarely kept going because she would lose interest or simply not improve enough. She went through phases where she would get really into something, realize it wasn’t for her, and then move onto the next thing. Most recently she’d given up on bodybuilding and was already starting to get bored of reevi. It was hard to find purpose in life when all she’d ever shown any prowess in was stealing and that was illegal.
Eternity somberly pulled on some clothes and headed out to her singing lessons. She had gone around the previous day and asked around to find someone who even gave those kinds of lessons and had come up empty. She had to visit some bars that evening and find a singer that was willing to spend some time on private lessons. It had been a very long tedious process to find a teacher which was why Eternity was determined to get there on time. The lessons were to be held in the singer’s home which was near the library so she planned on heading there sometime afterwards.
The teacher was named Nasir. She was a dark skinned woman who claimed to have entertained sailors and pirates in her youth. Now, in her mid forties she made a living going from travelling to various towns throughout the year. She leased property on a very short term basis so she had no permanent address and had very few possessions that she couldn’t carry with her if she chose to leave at a moment’s notice. She was not a particularly good singer but she had made a living thanks to her good looks and a keen eye for opportunity. When Eternity had approached her Nasir had simply seen an opportunity to make some money, so she took it.
Eternity rapped her knuckles on the door and was let in by a stranger who was on their way out. Nasir was sharing the home with her short term lover who didn’t want to stick around to hear a bunch of bad singing. Eternity looked around at the mostly empty home and took a seat on one of the only two chairs in the living space.
“Welcome, you come to learn to sing yes?” Nasir asked.
“Yes, of course,” Eternity said.
“Money now then. I’m not someone who waste time,” Nasir responded. When payment was squared away Nasir said, “sing for me. Let me hear.”
Eternity thought hard about one of the songs she knew and she started singing. Her notes were all over the place, she could not remember half the lyrics, but she tried. Nasir rushed over and put a hand over her student’s mouth. Her face had contorted to show that she thought the sound was very unpleasing.
“Now I see why you need lesson. You very bad you know. Very, very bad. Why you want to sing? Someone pretty like you can get rich husband, or many rich boyfriend if you learn other things. Not many singer look good. Pretty face can stay in kitchen and be quiet and live happy life, no need work. Tell me, your man tell you to sing for him?” Nasir spoke to Eternity as if she were her one of her many daughters. She thought, if she was being paid to help this young woman then at least she could be honest.
Eternity had trouble understanding Nasir’s common. There seemed to be words missing from every sentence and the heavy accent only made it harder. She got the general point that she was bad and should probably try doing something else with her time. Nasir didn’t know that Eternity had failed at just about everything she’d tried to get good at so she was used to it.
Eternity said, “I want to get better. I don’t have a long term man in my life, I’m doing this for me. I want to be able to sing and not be laughed at.”
Nasir let out an exasperated sigh, “no man? I know dozen men who would take you in heartbeat. You never have to work. No need sing.”
Eternity, “it’s okay. Look, can we just get to the lesson? I already paid you.”
Nasir shrugged, “you pay me I help you. Best help for you is no sing. But, okay. Yes, okay I teach you to sing. Let me hear low note. Then go to high note.” She demonstrated by going through a range of the notes she could sing.
Eternity tried to sing a low note but Nasir just told her to go lower. Eternity contorted her neck and face and made a lower note and she tried to follow Nasir as she led her to higher notes. She was impressed with how accurately Nasir seemed to be hitting the notes since there was a melodic tune that she produced. Then they got to the higher notes and Eternity surprisingly was able to sing at high tones. At a certain point tough Eternity felt like she was more screaming than singing.
When Nasir was satisfied she put a hand over Eterntiy’s mouth again. She said, “now we go again. You know what you can sing, you must be comfortable going from low to high. You sing very bad probably because you don’t know what you can even do.” She led Eternity once more through the notes a few more times until she was confident that Eternity got the point. “You do this and one day you go even lower and even higher.” Nasir had no idea if her advice was actually good, but she knew that the last thing Eternity ought to be doing is singing songs when she couldn’t even copy notes properly.
The lesson went on for about half a break before Nasir ending things by saying that they’d done enough for the day. She felt bad for the girl who showed absolutely no promise but if she was going to keep paying then she would keep giving lessons until the season ended. Eternity felt like she’d learned a lot about her own vocal range. She hummed to herself all the way up until she got to the library.
“Gardening, gardening, where is it?” Eternity thought as she walked around looking for the right book. She pulled out a book that looked to be about farming crops and guessed that it would have to do. She brought it over to a desk and started flipping through it earnestly. She was there only to learn what tools she needed to buy in order to start growing her own reevi. She read that she needed seeds, which kind of felt obvious but she wrote it down on a piece of paper she pulled from her pocket. She used the library often enough to warrant buying membership in order to check out books, but she always felt like she could capture everything she needed with some notes.
Her readings were interrupted when the junior librarian came over to check on her. She asked in a whisper, “you okay over here? You look frantic and you were flipping those pages awfully loudly.”
Eternity whispered back, “I’m looking for things I need for gardening. I’m in a rush because I want to buy everything today and I’m sure it’ll take me a long time to find the right merchants.”
“Hmm, just a moment. I think there’s a better book for you.” She left and brought back another one which was specific to gardening. “enjoy your reading.”
Eternity thanked the woman and started flipping through the new book. She read that she ought to get pots because they helped with weeds. She didn’t really get why until she read that being elevated and away from grass prevented weeds from getting inside the pot to begin with. There were other useful tools mentioned but Eternity didn’t see any reason why she would need anything else than seeds and a pot for the time being. She made sure to return the books to their proper places and then hurried on over the market to get her supplies.
[Template credit to Pyrre]
But I appreciate you're willing to let your character work from a position of having little natural talent. It's refreshing.