Some people have lives. Some people have music.

-John Green & David Levithan

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Taurus didn't say anything when we woke up, nor did he say anything over breakfast. In fact he remained quiet through most of the time we spent breaking camp and packing up -- only speaking up when asked a direct question. We had only known him the one day, but already, silence felt unusual around him and the presence of his silence made us feel as if something terrible had happened.

There was something sacred about his lack of words in addition to its unfamiliarity. Aldyth and I found ourselves speaking less and moving faster with anticipation. We were unsure for what exactly we were waiting, but nervousness plagued the air like fumes. The weight of my pack on my shoulders burdened me in ways that it hadn't the in previous two days, as if the silence was heavier than stone.

The sun was already well past the horizon before Taurus spoke. "You know I'm avoiding speaking of this, right?"

"It has come to our attention," I replied in a voice so meek and low that it was almost drowned out by the crunch of underbrush beneath our boots.

Taurus, who had been hiding under his hood from the moment we woke, pulled the fabric away from his face and shook his head sharply like how a dog would shake after a swim. He ran his fingers over his face to push his dark hair out of his eyes before casting us a weak, closed lipped smile. "There is so much to tell. I haven't the faintest idea where to begin."

"Then start with last night," I answered while Aldyth nodded eagerly.

The three of us paused at a hollow in the forest where the trees swooped up to meet the sky, and the sunlight above filtered white between the thick interlocking branches -- that in some places were so woven together, that they let pass no light. The elf threw his head back with his eyes tightly shut and snapped a steady beat with the fingers of his left hand. Almost unnoticeably, he drew a deep breath of air in through his nose for six clicks and on the turn of the seventh click, he released the air slowly out through his mouth. Another six clicks. Taurus opened his eyes. "Do you hear that?"

I strained my ears, but heard nothing. Not even the forest had an answer to his question. "Hear what?" Asked Aldyth.

"There is one thing that many cardinals fail to understand," the elf said as he continued walking, though at a slower pace than that we had been traveling the previous day. "And it is the value of silence -- the power it holds."

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard to explain, especially to one who already understands."

"Talk sense, Mr. Elf," I closed my eyes slowly. If all his explanations were going to be in riddles, I wasn't sure that I want to know what he was going to tell.

"Alright, so last night," Taurus looked at us to make sure we were listening. "I was drumming on the air to, which was silent to Aldyth, yes?"

She nodded. "I heard nothing."

"But you heard something," he turned to me. "Drums, you say, of all sorts. I am going to take a guess and say that you didn't physically hear. it, that it was all in your head?"

I took a moment to consider that before nodding. "I suppose that could be said, but it wasn't just something I was thinking of. It sounded so real, so clear. For those moments drums filled my entire being with warmth and sound. If someone had tried to speak to me, I wouldn't have heard them, nor would I have cared to."

"Yes, now that," Taurus chuckled to himself. "Is an heir mark of three of the four Cardinal Nations." I could have been mistaken, but there looked to be something of pride lingering under his tone. "Elias, if you were only born a hundred years earlier, ha, you would have scouted by the time you reached your seventh summer."

"Scouted? Scouted for what?" I demanded.

"See! Eli, you're special! I always knew it was true!" Aldyth laughed loudly and poked my cheek.

"Lay off me," I rolled my eyes at them both. "Come now, what would I've been scouted for?"

"To leave the Confederacy and become a cardinal," Taurus's eyes twinkled brightly -- which was rather disturbing given the slits for pupils.

"Keep talking, Taurus. You haven't started making sense yet."

"Alright, alright. The Cardinal Nations is a separated empire of musicians who came to power long before anyone can remember."

"Magicians?" Aldyth repeated skeptically.

"Musicians," Taurus corrected.

"But magicians would make more logical sense," she argued. "You simply cannot be telling us that four of the five most powerful countries in the land are run by street peddlers."

"On the contrary, it's the music that makes them powerful," Taurus smiled slyly. "If the four Cardinals were to come together onto one field, they would make a sound so powerful, it would stop the world."

"Taurus, did you hit your head when we ran from those atrixes?"

"This is why I refused to tell you anything earlier," he sighed. "They have become so foreign to you that even the power of music has become a myth."

"Then why do you see fit to tell us now?" Aldyth asked quietly as she wrapped her arms around herself. "What changed last night that makes you so willing to tolerate our disbelief when before you wouldn't."

Taurus nodded at me like I was object he'd rather not touch. "Your friend is a brajé."

"Say that again."

"A brajé. A listener. He can hear the true sounds of silence when others hear nothing. It is a gift, something that takes many years of practice to master," Taurus turned away slowly as if he didn't want to look me in the eyes. "Yet to him it comes naturally. The Cardinals used to search far and wide for ones such as him, but many years ago, when the first whispers of turmoil drifted out on the wind, they started to disappear. No one knew if they were just hiding or if they just stopped being born, but for the last half centennial, no new brajé has entered the Cardinals since Garrett of the North, Demeta of the West, and Hildriden and Fullep of the East." He slid his eyes slowly in my direction as he walked. "At least...until you."

A/N

Aww Eli you're special.
Mostly unedited