What was the first song that meant something to you? Was it something on the radio, when you were driving late at night? Was it a lullaby your parents sang while you were still in your crib? Or was it something you had listened to a dozen times before, but never truly understood until you lost someone near to you?

Think about that song. Think about it and cherish it.

This is Nimue's Bar.

It's a normal night at Nimue's. The Bleeders are in their corner, muttering to one another. A rowdy group of shifters is having a boisterous conversation about the most recent football game that took place outside the Grotto. Dirk is somehow simultaneously soothingly talking down a belligerent drunk and flirting with a man with no head.

Kaia is cleaning the toilets. In all the time Kaia has worked here, Nimue has not asked her to clean the toilets, but then again Nimue has never asked anyone to clean the toilets, a fact which Kaia finds slightly disturbing.

Kaia is almost finished when she feels it. A tugging, deep inside her chest to the right of where her heart is. She carefully puts down the marker she was using to scrawl “Kaia Sommers was here,” on the stall door, and opens the driftwood door leading out of the bathroom. Everybody has put down their drinks and stopped their conversation, and is staring blankly at the ceiling or clutching at their chests. The Bleeders have stopped whispering and are frozen like fanged statues. The painted eyes on the walls are glowing faintly, and the air seems to have turned to pudding. The T.V. In the corner, previously showing reruns of a game show, now displays nothing but static. Kaia manages to make it over to the bar before collapsing in the stool next to Dirk, who has his hands on the bar and is breathing heavily. He offers her his hand and she wordlessly takes it.

Then the singing begins.

Everyone hears the voice of Lorelai differently. For Kaia, it sounds like the voice of an opera singer she heard when she was only five, and her foster mother had forced her to go and listen. Even though she had hated every minute of it, she had sat through the entire thing, ensnared by the voice of the female lead. Here, the voice cuts right through her, leaving her raw and gasping. It carries the same weight that the voice of the opera singer did: You must stay. You must stay. You must stay.

Unlike those born in the Grotto, Kaia had not grown up with Lorelai's voice. Like all of those who were once human, the first time she heard it was just before she entered the Grotto, and she vividly remembers her first time.

#

She remembers shivering in a parking lot, desperately searching for her heartbeat and trying to find the source of the blood covering her dress. Then she hears the Voice. It was so much stronger, then, and she curls up into a ball, mewling and sobbing with no control over her own muscles. The next thing she knows, she is lying in the middle of a deserted street, surrounded by strange, unfamiliar buildings.

“Hello there, child,” a voice sounds, and it is the Voice. “Are you lost?” Kaia looks up into the face of a slender woman in a pale green dress. Her eyes are emerald candle flames, dancing rather kindly in an ageless face. Kaia opens her mouth, but it is as if she cannot remember how to put words together.

“Welcome to Gaea, Kaia Sommers,” the woman says, not so much offering Kaia a hand as lifting her to her feet. “I am Lorelai, third member of the Circle. We are the governors and caretakers of this place.”

Kaia finds herself only able to nod weakly. The woman's voice fills her ears, and suffuses her entire body. She doubts she could do anything without this woman's direct permission.

Lorelai smiles. “Gaea, or the Grotto, as some affectionately know it, is the garden in which those of extranormal persuasion can flourish, away from the world of mortals. Here, you can be accepted for what you are. You would like that, wouldn't you?”

Kaia nods again. Nothing else exists for her outside of Lorelai's voice.

Lorelai smils widely. “Excellent! Now, there are only two rules here. The first is that the word of the Circle is absolute law, and no transgressions are tolerated. Not that you would ever disobey us.”

Kaia shakes her head. The very idea is absurd.

“The second is that you must never leave. Gaea exists for the protection of mortals, as well as for the protection of our various species. In order for both to survive, we must remain separate. Do you understand?”

Never leave? That couldn't be right. Kaia opens her mouth to protest, but then she remembers her life before. What does she have to go back to, anyway? She nods a final time.

Lorelai's forehead wrinkles. “Odd, most people are a little resistant to that one.” Her eyes narrow, then widen a moment later when she looks at the area around Kaia's feet. “Oh, you're a shade. My condolences.”

“Shade?” Kaia says, finally managing to find her voice.

“Oh sweetie,” Lorelai says sadly. “You're going to have a tough time of things. A shade is... well, have you tried talking to anyone you used to know?”

“None of them remember me,” Kaia says. Even in this odd brain fog, this thought gives her pause.

Lorelai nods. “A shade is formed when someone dies and... actually, it doesn't matter. You'll find out soon enough. Despite dying, you return stronger than you were, but it's a cursed life. Nearly everyone will forget you exist as soon as you leave their presence, and the touch of daylight spells painful death.” She pauses, then nods as if coming to a decision. “I normally wouldn't do this, but you remind me of an old friend. Head over to Eversion Row, and find a bar owner named Nimue. She'll get you set up here, and might even give you a job.” Lorelai kisses her on the forehead and vanishes, leaving Kaia alone again.

#

Back in the present, Lorelai's voice finally dies, and everyone snaps into focus. Conversations start up like nothing has happened, and people pick up their drinks and start playing cards again. The Bleeders stay stock still for several long moments before returning to their whispered conversation.

“It's been a while since we've heard her,” Dirk says, rubbing his forehead. “But I guess even with things being what they are, she's still gotta bring in the newborns. Well, and keep anyone from leaving.”

“Hey Dirk, what do you hear when she sings?” Kaia asks, hopping down from the stool.

Dirk scratches his head in embarrassment. “The old nursery rhymes my Dad used to sing me to get me to fall asleep. It's like being a kid again. Hey Nimue, what do you hear when Lady Lor does her thing?” Nimue has just entered the bar, tonight in the form of an imposing woman with four arms and far too many eyes. It's not her true form, but it's closer than usual. A pendant depicting the eye of providence hangs from her neck.

Nimue glares at the two of them and squeezes her way past Kaia to the back of the bar. “Absolutely nothing,” she says darkly, and begins fixing herself a drink.