Jade Riff's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Jade Riff played the last chord of her anthem to an empty tavern and knew, right then, that one guitar was not enough to save anyone. She had been writing the song for months. It was meant to be the rallying cry her generation could carry into the Silence — the quiet thing eating the kingdom village by village, the thing she had heard once mid-show and would hear again in her sleep every night after. A single guitar could not push it back. Her drummer had told her that plain. It took a whole band, roaring together, or nothing. The problem was that Jade did not have a whole band. Not anymore. The Ember Strings had scattered after the last town went quiet, and the anthem sat inside her guitar like a fire with no air. She needed players. She had a week, maybe less, before the Silence reached the valley road. The tavern door banged open. A red-haired woman walked in already talking. "Heard a guitar. Thought it was you." Luna Meridian. Jade had shared a stage with her once, years back, before Luna started chasing the king's court. Luna crossed the room and set her palms flat on Jade's table. "Play it again. The bridge." Jade played the bridge. Luna sang over it without asking. Her voice hit the low beams and stayed there. When Jade stopped, Luna said, "That's the one. I'm in." "I don't have a rhythm section," Jade said. "You do now." A blonde girl stood in the doorway with a bass slung across her back. Riley Thorne. She stepped inside like the room already belonged to her. "Word travels. You need low end." "I can't pay you," Jade said. "Didn't ask." Riley unclipped the bass. "My old band's chasing a relic. I'd rather chase something that matters." That was three. Jade needed four. She looked at the door and waited. No one came. Then something small moved on the windowsill — a gray rabbit in a beaded tunic, tall as a child, holding a hide drum under one arm. Behind her drifted a thin figure with torn wings and a hollow stare. Tsuki Usagiri set the drum on the table. Melody Resonance leaned against the wall and said nothing. "You are missing a beat," Tsuki said. "I brought one." "I brought what's left of my hearing," Melody said. "Use it before the quiet takes the rest." Jade looked at the four of them. A singer with no court. A bassist with no relic. A spirit drum that remembered how to survive. A fairy who had already lost a forest to silence. Every one of them had been circling the same problem from a different side. She counted the beat aloud. Four faces watched her hand. The anthem, for the first time, had a band under it. Outside, far down the valley road, the quiet was still coming.