Behind the curtain, a sole small object is placed on a small stool. Not understanding what it is, she asks Edward.
"That is a Rriil. It is made specifically for performances. As long as you will it, it can transform into any instrument you wish for. It can also serve as background music if you register the sounds in it in advance."
At the new information, Marguerite's eyes start to sparkle excitedly. With this, what she has been worried about for so long is completely solved. All she has to do is take out a jukebox and sing in various pitches in the 'recorder' of sorts. Then she only needs a violin and voilà! She can sing her favourite songs on a big stage! How exciting! Of course, without enough time to register all the sounds she needs, her choices are limited. But this doesn't phase her as she prepares excitedly behind the soundproof door.
"Don't forget, you can't perform too well."
"yeah yeah, of course, I'm not stupid."
Marguerite brushes off the warning as her inner artist takes full control of her.
The 'public' outside gets impatient as they wait for the foolish girl to appear. Not expecting anything sightly, they just want to get it over with already so they can wrap this up and go back to their respective courtyard. After all, Marguerite is only a small unfavoured concubine that stems from a commoner background with a little bit of money and never received a proper education. Most people like her decide to dance shabby steps that they learned the year prior or sing old lullabies acapella. During that time, the concubines would one after the other feign stomach pain and desert the place under the resentful gazes of the various teachers that have to sit through it until the end.
Knowing that the foolish mute concubine is the last one to appear on stage before the bedroom servants, many have already started leaving. In the first place, they only stayed to look at the opponents in the competition for his majesty, but what is there to look at? A country bumpkin who can't even walk properly? What a joke.
But before they can leave, the foolish girl finally emerges from the curtains.
The public doesn't even have time to brace themselves before a strange and unheard-of melody starts to fill their ears. The lady before them doesn't seem to hold any instruments, but various sounds come out of the Riill next to her. It makes one wonder how she could record so many sounds in such a short amount of time.
Marguerite starts to open her mouth as the low melody fills the entire space. She decided after much deliberation to sing: City of the dead by Eurielle.
The lyrics flow out of her mouth while the teachers and women listening widen their eyes in disbelief.
I'm scared of what's inside my head
What's inside my soul
I feel like I'm running
But getting nowhere
Fear is suffocating me
I can't breathe
I feel like I'm drowning
I'm sinking deeper
White light fades to red
As I enter the City of the Dead
The ethereal voice, as if coming from the mouth of a mermaid, surprises even Marguerite. Even though she has sung her whole life, she was always restrained by the limitations of her vocal cords. However, it seems that this body was blessed with perfect vocal cords as her voice would put any of the singers from her world to shame.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
As she reaches the refrain, the background voices that she recorded in various pitches start to flow out of the recorder. Singing in chorus, it sounds like various angels have come down onto the world to take back with them the souls of pitiful and dying people from the mundane tragedies of the earth.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
I feel it burning through my veins
It's driving me insane
The fever is rising
I'm going under
Memories flash before my eyes
I'm losing time
The poison is killing me
Taking over
White light fades to red
As I enter the City of the Dead
Marguerite continues to sing as the public is stunned beyond words. Never in their lives have they seen this technique of recording multiple voices to reach this ethereal effect. The words may be foreign and weird, but it makes the song even more mysterious and beautiful. As if a fairy from another world was singing about her stories and telling them what she has seen.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
The refrain gets more and more intense as Marguerite forgets herself completely in her music. Not knowing when, she has started moving along with the rhythm; stretching and swirling as she slow dances. Like when she is alone in her bedroom and is feeling in a mood. Her flexible muscles that must have been used to dancing from a young age curl and twist according to the melody. The feeling she is experiencing right now is incredible. She feels happier than she has ever felt in her life. In her world, she had to give up music because of a man that didn't love her. But here she is, on a stage, singing.
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando Judex est venturus
Quantus tremor est futurus
Quando Judex est venturus
The melody abruptly becomes stripped as her voice rings out slowly in the silent room. All eyes are on her as she jumps to sing out passionately the climax along with the recorded voices:
Damnata, invisus, ubique
Ab omnibus, ad infinitum
Her eyes are closed and she stops seeing herself on this stage.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
She thinks of her family back at home, probably waiting for her to be found by the police, crying, maybe holding a funeral.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
She thinks of the bastard that she loved for so long, that she still loves to this day, but that thoroughly threw her away as soon as she became useless to him.
Rex tremendae majestatis
Qui salvandos salvas gratis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Salve me, Fons Pietatis
Then she thinks of how she might be stuck in this weird place where she can't even communicate except with a stupid cat that only sees her as a tool. She remembers the stares, the sneers, the snickers and mocking laughter. She remembers in shame the eyes of the emperor that looked at her as if she were an animal in a zoo.
Then she stills. Her dance steps stop, her voice fades. The recorder that was shiny and lively moments ago goes back to being a block of wood. The surroundings are quiet, actually, the surroundings are too quiet.
She becomes extremely scared as she remembers that the music taste of this world might be completely different than hers. There is also the fact that she sang in a completely different language. Oh no! Will they drag her and behead her under the suspicion of her being a spy? Or maybe they will laugh at her for singing and dancing so uglily. Oh God! Why has she done this.
She glances at Edward perched on her shoulder for comfort, but on seeing his clearly displeased face, she only starts to fret even more. This is a terrible situation!