The Creepy, Slightly More Abandoned Than Last Week Mansion, Wednesday Evening

[deathsmajesty]

So, yesterday at the diner, Ignis had confided his love of music and immediately her head had been filled with images: Ignis enjoying an opera at Silverquill's Rose Stage. The annual Prismari elemental concert. Comedic musicals in Ravnica's Tenth District and dinner up on the Millennial Platform while the most elite Rakdosian musicians played for the crowds below. Evenings of music in Gavony estates. So many different options for musical entertainment that she had drifted through over her lifetime, options she could now share. A wildly impractical and impulsive invitation had sprung to her lips, though she'd been able to bite it back in time.

She was in no shape to planeswalk anywhere right now. Nor had she verified anything about these planar portals for herself. Nor had she set up any kind of logistics...nor was she sure that this was the best idea anyway. For...reasons. Reasons she wasn't looking at too closely because hey shut up is why.

But that didn't leave her completely empty-handed. "I can only imagine...the wide breadth of melodies you've had the chance to experience over the years..." he'd said and she'd nearly replied, 'You don't have to imagine it' and she'd realized it was true. He didn't. And, more importantly, she could give him some of his own music back.

And when she'd realized that, any selfish reluctance she'd had about her second idea had fallen away and all that had remained was the details about how to make it happen. Which was why she was pulling him into her kitchen, all bubbling excitement and bright anticipation. She might not be able to give him his perfect day, but music? Music she could do.

[For he who is to be surprised, and has been modded with permission]

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[chef_chocobro]

The thrum of excitement radiating off of Liliana all day had been practically palpable, and Ignis, amused, bemused, perhaps even c-mused, was savoring every moment of it. Especially in light of everything she'd been through over the weekend, the lightness around her these past two days was exceptionally welcome. Not that he minded the moments where all he could do was offer a little comfort and support in lifting the heavy weight of her ordeal off her shoulders, of course, but he liked being able to feel her smile there in every movement, every word, almost every breath infinitely better.

And so, of course, he let himself be willingly led into the kitchen, a soft breath of a laugh of his own at the immediate thought that he was only just being duped into being presented with a cadre of ingredients (fine and high quality, no doubt, at the very least!) to whip up something for her, considering where he was being led to, but, well, since he already had pretty much agreed to let her lead him into the very depths of hell if need be, then a little forced cooking (for his pleasure, though, obviously) wouldn't be too bad.

He was tempted to say something, to prompt something out of her, but held back, allowing her to take full control of whatever it was she clearly was so excited to reveal.

[deathsmajesty]

Look, even in light of all of the rest of it, Liliana had killed Kothophed. One of her demonic creditors was dead and her soul was the much closer to being free. Honestly, she should be on a grand victory tour of the Multiverse, though right now, this seemed a perfectly acceptable alternative.

She led him by the hand until he was situated exactly where she wanted him to be, in the most open part of her kitchen, where they had the most room to move about - the space she had danced him through before, when he'd asked her what she'd learned over her lifetime. This would be better in her ballroom, but as that was in shambles, she either had to compromise on the kitchen, or wait.

And lo, here they were in the kitchen.

"I have a gift for you, my darling," she said, taking out the small silver box that, despite its unassuming exterior, was both an artifact of potent magic and a part of Dominarian history that scholars would murder over.

Sucks to be them, it was Liliana's now. Or, well. Had been.

"But first," she said, setting it on the table and opening up the lid. A soft tune began to play as she turned back to Ignis and took his hands, "Dance with me?"

[chef_chocobro]

Mental maps of places were often built just as much on experiences as they were on important obstacles and objects by which to avoid, and so by the time Ignis was brought to the open space where they'd danced before, his head was already swirling from trying to parse out what it could be that she was attempting to weave together here. And while he was intently attempting to examine every single angle, every little detail, there was also a part of him that just wanted to shut that all down and be led, truly blindly, into whatever it was going to be.

Needless to say, that compulsion grew even stronger the moment she took his hands into hers, and he dropped one, to step closer, and slide it around to her waist. "Always."

[deathsmajesty]

It was simplified, of course. For all that this was a powerfully magical music box, it was still only a music box, playing a simple version of a tune on chimes, missing the true depth and power and complexity of the original piece. But that was part of the charm, the fluting music playing a song that Liliana had danced to for the first time at the Magister's Masquerade in her third year at Strixhaven, a blending of new and old, memory and current experience. She couldn't remember the words, but she could hum, softly, as they swayed through her kitchen. That sound was followed by another and then another and yet a fourth, moving from one song into the next with barely a pause.

"Once upon a time," she murmured softly, "there was a very brilliant, powerful, and pigheaded mage named Urza whose war with his twin brother, Mishra, nearly brought parts of Dominaria - and the Multiverse at large - to the brink of ruin. But he also saved us from horrors from a plane that fused meat and metal and looked to swarm through Dominaria in a blight of glistening oil."

Don't worry, Ignis, this was a story that would almost certainly never be relevant again.

"Urza was a flawed man and a complicated one and caused nearly as much horror as he prevented, but he is Dominaria's most important figure. We set our calendar by him, in fact. He was a master artificer and, the stories go, he made his wife, Kayla, what appeared to be simple music box but that could play any song that her heart desired."

The music shifted again, this time to a song that he recognized.

"You said yesterday that you couldn't imagine all the music that I've heard." She laughed, a soft breath. "I thought that perhaps you might rather not need to imagine it at all."

[chef_chocobro]

There was, briefly, a moment once they started to move and let even that simplified melody move them, where Ignis felt a burst of concern, for Liliana overexerting herself, that fussing pecking little hen inside of him that started to wonder if she shouldn't be engaging in even the lightest, subtlest steps in her condition. Enough to distract him, slightly, with the newfound debate of whether or not to say so, but by the time he managed to feel like some sort of conclusion might be reached, she was speaking, so of course his attention was shifting to hanging onto her ever word.

And, my, didn't a few parts of that sound familiar, certainly enough to settle the hen's feathers from ruffling too much, and by the end of it....

Well.

By the end of it, his mind was about as far away from hen-pecking as it could be. The music so far had, at first, been an accompaniment to their movements and that growing concern for what effect they may have on her, and then it was really just some background melody to the natural music of her voice, pretty, interesting, but secondary and unfamiliar. Until, seemingly out of nowhere, all of a sudden, he realized that it wasn't and his soft laugh matched hers.

"Oh," he said, chin lifting slightly as his head turned his ear toward the music as he felt the tingle of recognition sweep through him, as if pulling that memory of their first dance out from his skin, "I think I know this one..."

[deathsmajesty]

"I should hope so," she said, leaning up to kiss him, soft and thorough, carefully dancing them closer and closer to where she'd put the music box down.

This time, when the song ended, the box fell silent. Breaking their kiss, Liliana slid one of his hands free and reached for the box, placing the delicate thing into his palm. "But you misunderstand me," she murmured, a soft smile hovering over her mouth, but her voice surprisingly serious. "I'm not just giving you my music, Ignis. I'm giving you back yours."

She cupped her hands around his. "Think of a song, Ignis. Any song. A song from home, one that lives in your heart."

[chef_chocobro]

With the immediate sensation of loss at Liliana's fleeing hand remedies with the sudden delicate weight of the music box itself, Ignis' fingers curled around it slightly, thumb brushing against it to start getting a feel for its design, its materials, to start painting an image in his mind of what was spilling forth all this music for them.

And then...her question, and the music box knew even before he did, those first few notes almost passing by completely unnoticed before the song that played hit those notes that, even in this tinny, simplified form, immediately brought to mind the sweeping vistas of Lucis, cutting through the fogs of the Nebulawood, following the ribbon of the Wennath River, dusk settling around some fishing spot in Duscae with that thrum of dread about the distance from there to the nearest Haven...

"Oh," Ignis said, and it was much, much softer this time, and there was nothing else that followed it, there were no words after that, only the music.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana didn't push. Not for words, not for dancing. She knew that there were three things that could immediately transport her back to a specific place and a specific time: a scent, a flavor, and a strain of music. And she wasn't going to interrupt Ignis taking the time he needed for this, to make his way through his own memories and the unutterable longing to return to a place that had been lost to him.

It was, for Liliana, a familiar feeling. And one even she wouldn't dare rush. Well, at least, not here and not now.

[chef_chocobro]

And that was a good thing, then, because Ignis was absolutely going to take all the time he could for this, and being transported, even if briefly, to somewhere he hadn't been in a very, very long time, well beyond the Eos he'd come from recently, stretching past the Long Night and into those impossibly innocent days before the Treaty, and any chance to linger in those days again, well, he was going to seize that opportunity with everything he had.

Though, as the song started to wind down toward its natural conclusion and his mind started to turn a little away from bittersweet memories and more toward the amazing power of not only the tiny device in his hand, but also to just the incredible magic of music itself, he found himself wanting to test and probe its abilities, just a little, and shifted his thoughts very firmly elsewhere.

And, sure enough, as the last song faded, another one began, and he laughed, a short little burst of one, that accomapnied a mystified and amused shake of his head.

He still couldn't find many words, but he did at least find one more, this time an actual word and not just merely a soft and enchanted sound.

"Incredible."

Well, a few more, as his focus shifted away from the box and back to Liliana, with a furrow to his brow, an attempt to pour more into his words and expression to make up for what his gaze couldn't convey nearly as well.

"Thank you.:

[deathsmajesty]

Even she couldn't say where the whim had come from or why she'd listened to it. This was, after all, a very powerful and culturally relevant artifact and Liliana Vess did not give up prized possessions lightly. Perhaps it was just the euphoria of killing Kothophed or discovering planar portals or even being off-balance from all of the emotions and memories that she'd been navigating this past week.

Either way, she resolved not to think about it overly much. She'd wanted to and therefore she had, the Liliana Vess story. Looking deeper didn't seem particularly relevant.

"You're very welcome, darling," she said softly, her cool hand resting gently his face.

[chef_chocobro]

With that now familiar, cool, cherished touch, Ignis carefully set down the music box. He needed both his hands free, one to gently fold over hers at his cheek before following the line of her arm to her own cheek, where his other hand joined it on the other side to hold her face perfectly as he leaned in to kiss her.

And his mind did not actively think of the next song that played; something else was very clearly at its forefront at the moment. But it didn't need to be, pulled up from somewhere else deep, deep within, barely even aware of it, where it thrummed, where it resonated, where it already lingered.

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana's free hand rested against his chest, right over his heart, as he kissed her, curling into his shirt with exactly no regard to the quality of the fabric or neatness of his overall appearance. She was exhausted by this point and more than; while she enjoyed pretending that it was the kiss that made her knees weak (and, you know, it certainly wasn't helping her maintain her balance), she was forced to admit that the dancing and standing had taken their toll, even with as much of her weight as she'd shifted onto him to support.

"I hope you enjoy this music box as much as Kayla did," she whispered once their kiss ended, her smile wan but violet eyes alight.