Ryullusion played on. His deep resonant voice was calm as he asked, "The merchant had us buy all that food and those potions, but I cannot lift my hands far from the harp, despite being able to lift them completely from it as the music requires. How can I use the items from my inventory without using my hands? And if I could, do you think it would reduce the harp's consumption of the dancer's energy?"
Danika replied uncertainly as she circled him, "I don't know how to pull something from your inventory without using your hands, but I think I could form the liquid of the potions I have into balls and throw them into your mouth maybe?"
Ryullusion chuckled. "Then let's try that and see if it reduces the harp's drain upon your character?" he suggested.
Danika asked, "Have you played many other fantasy games? You seem really good at roleplaying your bard's character, and surprisingly familiar with how the game functions?" Compared to Kit when she'd met her, Aishin's father seemed to show much less of the usual newbie's disorientation. She pulled another energy potion out of her pocket.
Ryullusion gave a rich laugh, and told her cheerfully, "No, I've hardly played any games since I was a child. Music took over my life early, I guess. Fortunately some of the applications I've used as tools counted as game accounts so that I could customize my character as I pleased." His fingers danced across the harp as he added with a grin, "I owe any apparent familiarity with the game to watching my son play," there was an odd emphasis to the words 'my son' but she didn't have time to dwell on it as he continued, "and listening to him talk about it. And thanks for the compliment, but I haven't been trying to roleplay a character?"
Danika shrugged and said, "I'm ready to throw potion balls at you."
Ryullusion quickly opened his mouth and held it open. Using the cantrip and the throwing skill to fling the little balls of liquid into his mouth drained her energy even faster, but the tactic worked.
Ryullusion asked, "Can you do that with a healing potion too?"
Danika blinked and looked at him more carefully. His fingers were raw looking, and his health, while not very noticeably low yet, was very very slowly dropping.
She replied simply, "Yeah." And then she popped a piece of candy into her mouth to help her own energy replenish faster and formed a single ball out of part of one of her health potions and tossed that into his mouth too. His lips closed over the potion and he swallowed, and she saw that her guess was correct, just a partial dose was enough to restore his health and heal his fingers.
Over the next few hours they proved that feeding Ryullusion energy did reduce the strain on the dancers. And Danika also managed to individually feed many of the bees that lived in her garden fragments of candy to boost their health and energy too. Ryullusion also showed an amazing amount of control over the harp's music. Sometimes it forced him into more lively sections, but other times it allowed him to slow the music again and reduce the strain on those under its enchantment that way too.
Aishin joined them later in the day, and Ryullusion was still playing. Aishin circled the harp and harpist, matching his pace to ZipZing's as he deftly navigated around the large stone dragon prints. "You've been doing this the entire time?" he questioned.
Danika and Ryullusion nodded. Aishin held out his hands and Danika managed to land on them. The harp's pull on her eased as Aishin carried them around the circle again. She sighed and snuggled into the warmth of his palms. All of a sudden she realized that his father was still watching them, and sat upright quickly.
She glanced at Ryullusion, but he showed no reaction to her embarrassing public display of affection. Aishin grinned at her though and suggested, "Take a break and eat something? You've both been connected for a really long time now."
Ryullusion groaned, and Danika turned to stare at him with a startled and worried expression. He told his son, "Don't remind me, but I can't log out or I'll fail the test."
"What if it takes days?" Danika asked worriedly.
Ryullusion straightened and replied with determination, "I really want to finish it and see the result if I can. I intend to hold out for as long as possible."
Aishin rolled his eyes at the dark haired elf. Danika eyed the harp and said suddenly, "The harp has never spoken again. Can you try asking it how long is left?"
Ryullusion gave her a disbelieving look and asked, "You can't hear it's voice anymore?"
"I have only ever heard the sound of its strings," Aishin volunteered.
"It's singing," Ryullusion informed them. "Not with every song, but many of them seem to have words, and I gained a new skill called 'Remembered Song'. I suspect it may show me songs my character has heard? But I can't look at it yet."
"That sounds really cool," Aishin replied. Danika nodded.
Ryullusion spoke to the harp this time as the song he played changed again, and asked, "Can you estimate how much longer it may take for me to master your skills, or can you grant me a break to attend to the bodily necessities that the living must still endure?"
Danika and Aishin heard nothing but the sound of the strings, but after a moment Ryullusion nodded and replied, "Fair enough. It is most generous of you."
"I may take one bell at the end of this song," he informed them, "but if I return late I will have failed the test. How long is one bell?"
"It's only 15 minutes," Danika replied worriedly. "And there's the connection and login time to consider too."
Aishin said comfortingly, "We have a good connection at home, I think he should be able to get reconnected to the VR set and back into the game within five minutes easily enough. And in case he can't, I'll start installing the app on his phone right now. That will allow his character to return if it looks like the VR connections are taking too long." He paused and reminded her, "You should take a break too." And then he vanished as he logged out first.
Danika waited until the current song came to an end, just in case, but Ryullusion did not waste even a second of his allowed break and vanished even as the last note still hummed on the air. After a moment she went ahead and logged off too.