He looks like he swallowed a bug and is holding his mouth open for it, waiting for it to climb back up.
Her best friends Aya and Iloya were pretty amazed too, if judged by the fact they seemed to have stopped breathing. Even people from other houses were outside or in their windows and balconies, listening in, because her voice was as powerful as it was beautiful. It carried her first song everywhere and they were all entranced.
And her, her in the middle of it all, twirling and smiling like always. So that’s what it had been. Leiya had always wondered why moving to some tune came so naturally to her. She had simply been pushing herself on, like her hands spreading wide were helping her voice take flight.
Oh, the last note is going to be a high one, Leiya realized. I must go higher.
Only there was nowhere to go, because she was already at the end of her vocal capabilities. So she simply pushed her voice over the last note until she heard the familiar sound of breaking glass and realized it had been her. Leiya’s mother was very upset with her later; she’d broken her favorite set. She’d also broken her own voice, it seemed. Only wheezing seemed to come out of her as she climbed down from the edge to accept the congratulations and praise everyone was pouring on her suddenly.
Worth it, she thought, smiling widely to her adoring audience. Totally worth it. I want to do it again.
“That was quite something,” someone said behind her.
Oh, damn. The new High Senator. Father said I have to be nice. Yes. I am nice. But I can’t talk – help!
“Mhmh,” was all Leiya could manage, desperately trying to smile at least.
Senator Primen didn’t seem offended though. He was the youngest senator to sit in the chair of the High Senator – a position that rotated every year – and was a rarity of sorts by that feat alone. They said he was going to bring forth a bright future for the Brions. She didn’t know what most of it meant, but Leiya was relieved. She realized he must be an important man, and that her father wanted her to put on a great impression for him.
“You have a bright future ahead of you,” he said. “Rest your voice now, little one.”
At least someone realized how badly her throat was aching, Leiya thought. The rest of the party didn’t seem to catch on to that and kept asking her for another song.
Afterward, she heard from her father that the new High Senator had been very impressed with her talent. It made Leiya glad to have done well.
She still didn’t understand why her father was so upset, though. It was clear everyone thought she was going to be a great singer. Aya explained to her when she finally escaped all the guests torturing her wrecked voice.
“It’s not you, it’s all of us,” Aya said.
“How so?” Leiya tried to say, but it came out more like a croak.
Luckily, with her friends, they could understand her broken voice quite well.
“We have to have singers, right?” Aya asked. “We like listening to them, and it’s all good, but parents still want to have warriors, and healers, and senators for children. I don’t know why. But I know your father doesn’t have anything against singers. He just didn’t want one for a daughter, I think.”#p#分页标题#e#
Leiya had to contemplate that. It sounded about right. That much she’d gathered herself.
When she was leaving for her studies at a distant school like all Brion children, she tried to comfort her father.
“Don’t worry,” she said, beaming. “I’ll make you proud.”
Senator Tawren smiled at his baby girl whom he loved more than anything in the world.
“I am,” he said.
But Leiya could already see big audiences before her eyes and songs that just kept going.
“I’ll climb higher than you ever thought I could.”
Her father seemed to age years with that promise-threat alone. As she skipped away, Leiya heard him call to her, “I hope you meant that as a metaphor, little spark. Don’t climb high places, please!”
Leiya smiled and waved back, bringing a smile to the senator’s lips as well. Just like that, she always seemed to make people around her happy.
And then she went to singing school and was told it was perfectly fine if she voiced everything she thought.
Leiya beamed. Oh, this is the best, she thought. It amused her later when her teachers confessed they’d meant singing, not saying everything that popped into her head. By then, of course, it was too late.
--
While she may not have been the most normal Brion, Leiya still seemed to walk the path all Brions did.
Most singers became famous when they emerged from school, but stories of Leiya’s voice and her songs made her a star long before that. The practice concerts where she sang were always sold out, and many demanded to see more of her. They said she might be the next Ebanaya or even Relya. Leiya’s heart skipped a beat every time she heard those names mentioned alongside hers. They’d been on the stages longer than she had lived. Being compared to them was a compliment unlike any other.
And while she rose to stardom, Leiya began to love life more and more. In her own way, she was quickly becoming the symbol of all “weird” Brions. Those who didn’t consider seeing someone die in the arena a form of entertainment. And her songs became a symbol of that, a drug the Brions didn't seem to get enough of.
Right from the start, Leiya knew she was as hated as she was loved by the other artists. While she would have never expressed it out loud, she thought the criticism justified. They all sounded the same. Their voices were beautiful, but boring. The songs pretty, but predictable. It was another example of the way Brions liked things to remain the same.
Leiya changed that and her audiences adored it. No one called the others boring before she came along, but they did then. She was pushing music out of the ways it had been in for as long as anyone could remember.
She was so unique, they said, it was as if she wasn't a real Brion.
Leiya became famous enough that when she finished her studies, she had a phrase named after her. When someone was bubbly and never truly stood still for a moment, they called it being “Leiya-like”.
Leiya was smart enough to know not everyone meant that as a compliment. In school everyone had loved her, but when she got home it became more obvious. To her credit, she didn’t care. Not in the sort of dark “so what, I don’t care anyway” kind of way. More like “if they got to know me, they wouldn’t think so, and I hope one day they do” way. The Leiya way.
Her father made the mistake of asking, “How was it?” when she got home. He was clearly not prepared for Leiya actually answering.
“It was the most amazing thing,” she said, smiling so widely her lips hurt.
“We learned everything. I know you’ll say you find that hard to believe, but we really did learn everything we could, about singing at least. Do you remember how I broke all the glasses when I sang on the balcony? I know now what I did wrong, I won’t do it again. I can make them just vibrate now, it’s really pretty when they do that…”
She went on for several minutes before her father finally stopped her with a gentle smile and a sweep of his hand.
Leiya felt a bit embarrassed.
“And how have you and mother been?” she asked quickly. “How’s the new High Senator?”
There was a crease on his father’s brow that had definitely not been there before.
“This whole Rhea mess has taken a toll on all of us,” he said simply. “With Eren gone, it’s better. But the generals won’t forget.”
Leiya nodded slowly. It didn’t need to be guessed what she thought of the generals. She felt uncomfortable even around warriors, but the generals were the most vicious of them. So much blood on their way up, so much death… She shuddered. Of course she’d heard of the whole Rhea dispute, even in school. High Senator Eren, whom she’d never met, had almost destroyed all of them. Only the intervention of Diego Grothan and his supporters saved them from a full-blown war with the Galactic union . Leiya was grateful for that, but of course it hadn’t been a bloodless coup. Generals Diego and Faren had executed the traitors without mercy.#p#分页标题#e#
She’d also heard of the rift within the senator ranks. The High Senator she’d met, Primen, had been among Eren’s most loyal supporters. It seemed he’d known when to switch sides so he hadn’t gotten caught in the brutal killing. The aftermath had reduced the number of senators to half for sure. Her father had taken the side of peace, although Leiya didn’t doubt it cost him a lot to do that.
It had been one of her proudest days when she heard that her father had been right in the eyes of the Elders. Never one to be silent, she told him that.
For a long moment, her father just looked at her.
“Little spark, you’ve grown,” he said at last. There was such kindness in his voice that for a moment, even Leiya was robbed of all words.
“I have,” she admitted. “I’m Leiya now.”
CHAPTER THREE
Faren
His life had always been drenched in blood.
The blood was very rarely his own, but for all their skill, the twins weren’t immortal or invulnerable. Diego seemed to be heading that way, though.