Devi was inspired. With her mind rushing from the adrenaline, she decided to do something completely out of character for her. She was going to try and talk to someone. Furthermore, she would be confident and hopefully by default convincing.

She continued to have access to some of her old power, except that magic in her singing. That didn’t matter too much anyway, half the time she had access to it, she was unable to use it properly. Today she would rely on her natural singing talents, which were pretty good on their own… or so she thought anyway.

Devi strode into the establishment, walked straight up to the person at the bar, and asked for Benji.

“You’re looking at him.” He looked friendly enough, standing there, wiping off the counter. “What can I do for you, miss? Did you lose something last night?” 

Devi hadn’t ordered anything besides her water the night prior, so she hadn’t expected him to remember her. There weren’t that many patrons left on the second floor by the time she left though.

She played it cool, or at least attempted to. “Oh no, I… I want to open for that band that played here yesterday.”

The man was surprised, it read clearly on his face. He didn’t give off the impression that he was put off by the statement, and seemed to consider the proposition. 

“By The Coast doesn’t have that big of a following for them to have an opener. Not to mention that I can barely afford to keep them around. If I didn’t owe young Koda’s father a favor, I would have let them go when Paul left. As much as I would love to help you out, I can’t afford it, young lady.”

“You don’t have to pay me,” Devi cursed mentally for making that sound so desperate. “I only want the practice… one or two songs.”

The man sighed, truly wishing he could be of more help. “You understand that if I let you play make believe here, everyone else is going to think that they can do that too.”

“I’m not everyone else sir, I can sing.” A light in her eyes persuaded him to at least hear her out.

“Do you have anything prepared?”

No. “Yes.”

“Alright, let’s hear it.”

Devi glanced at the person cleaning the table in the corner, and her confidence wavered.

“If you have a problem performing in front of her, then a full house will definitely be a problem.”

She got the hint and gave him a forced smile, “Oh no, she’s fine.”

Naturally, she had nothing prepared, so she borrowed an older folk song for the time being.

“Lean into the horizon,

That’s what your creators told you.

And when the stars are rising,

Keep sights of what the birds do.

Without them we are nothing,

The seas we consume...”

Not the longest bit, just enough to get the point across. Singing came easier to her than she believed it would. A couple hundred years of practice would keep the jitters away. The idea of having a normal conversation gave her greater anxiety than singing in front of others.

The man on the other side of the bar smiled, “That’s an old song,” he noted. “The words are different, but the tune is the same. I believe the original lyrics were ‘Keep flight with the birds blue.’”

Something about being centuries old made Devi doubt that she had the wrong version of the song. She wasn’t about to question the man’s authority by correcting him however. 

“You have a really good voice, you weren’t bluffing. I think our regular patrons would enjoy you. The highschoolers? Maybe not so much, but I’ve always wanted to have something for the regulars too.” He folded his arms over his chest, “Do you play any instruments?”

Not usually. It couldn’t be that difficult, could it? Devi had been curious after seeing the guitar the night before. She didn’t have a guitar or any instrument to her name.

“Do you have any here that I can borrow?” she arched a brow.

Odd question, he thought. 

“We have the old upright downstairs. Do you think you’d be able to test out a couple of songs tonight? Or do you want to wait to start next weekend? Hell, I’d be open to you trying out a slow Tuesday if you were more comfortable with it. Like I said, our normal patrons would love you.”

Devi had no idea what an upright was. She pretended to and gave the man a confident nod. “If you let me play around with that upright this morning, I can have a couple songs ready by tonight.”

“Didn’t catch your name lass, do you have one?”

Interesting phrasing, a joke perhaps? Devi thought about lying, but she had nothing to lose by giving him her real name. “Yes, my name is Devi.”

He nodded and chuckled to himself about her odd sense of humor. He then waved for the server’s attention. “Clara, please show Devi to the piano downstairs.”

Devi, for one reason or another, felt compelled to bow. She resisted on the chance that it made herself look more ridiculous. 

She followed the girl who took her downstairs and behind the stage. While the people at the bar would be able to hear her, at least they couldn’t see her.

The server dimmed the lights on and pointed to a white upright piano in the corner. Devi thanked her, and she shuffled away.

The fashion of the instrument made Devi think that it was older. The fact that it was clean and well taken care of made her think otherwise. She lifted the case to reveal the ivory keys underneath, then recalled that she had seen a couple of these over the years, only never quite as close.

She pressed down on some of the keys, elated to see that essentially it was a large scale that repeated. The force in which the keys were pressed down controlled the depth of the note. 

I can work with this, she thought. 

When she figured out which notes were which, she played her favorite melody. Stopping to contemplate what she was going to do that night.

She couldn’t play any of her siren songs. Not because they would work on the audience—without her magic they wouldn’t—but because the text was sacred. No one heard those words and lived to tell it. 

Besides, she wanted to sing a song of her own creation. The night prior, the young man had put his soul in every song. Devi wanted to sing a part of her own soul.

Devi was going to write a song.