The Aged General heard it first. When he was a boy, there had been stories told of such a thing, the kind of stories one whispers in the dark. Never in his long and illustrious career had he ever experienced one, but he was smart and quick to understand. From the first note, he knew what was happening, and he jumped up to shout a warning and cover his ears. But his hands moved slowly, as if they were under water, and his voice lodged in his throat and came out as more of a strangled cry. “It’s a si-“ was all he was able to manage – before the sound overwhelmed him. Afterwards, no one was able to describe the exact melody. A female voice, mournful, all could agree on that, a single voice sounding like multitudes of simultaneous voices. The melody was unlike anything they had ever heard, with overlapping harmonic tones. The key was minor. No, not minor, said the music theory experts, some sort of a variation on the A...
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