Music Tier 3: Restoration

“Miss Juniper! Miss Juniper! I found another damaged sheet music piece!”

The call came from a curious Paralogos, a dark gray shell covered in various instrument paraphernalia. Their lights, glowing out from holes like a clarinet’s rings, blazed in agitation. 

As the Paralogos rushed around the corner, they almost smacked straight into their target — Miss Juniper, an older black woman who ran this particular music school in Sermos. Her clothing was immaculate; skirt fabric smoothed down over basic pantyhose, blouse freshly ironed and with the pink threads showing no sign of wear. Only her pinched dark brown eyes and trembling, knobbly hands betrayed her worry over the news.

“Ah, thank you Music. But that’s the fourth piece this week — and it’s only Wednesday! I hope there aren’t too many more damaged originals. We can’t afford to replace those, and there’s only so much knowledge to go around.”

Music briefly look dismayed, but tried to adjust their expression before Miss Juniper noticed. However, perceptive as always, the old woman noticed in an instant that her charge was already blaming themself for the ripped music. Not the mistake in which a prior caretaker had made and not noted down…

“Music, honey, it’s not your fault. These things happen, especially with real and old paper. There’s not much we can do about it besides hope that the rest of it turns up during your search.”

They didn’t look too cheered by this, but did nod in determination. Surely the rest of the music would be around here somewhere? The storage room was big to a Paralogos, yes, but it wasn’t THAT big. Maybe the other half would even be found this afternoon, if they hurried!

Music carefully flipped the half-sheet in their hands, thinking. This was the bottom half of the piece, no title — but by using the magic ability they had learned from listening to the radio, they were able to discover that the piece was most likely “String of Pearls” by Glenn Miller. This shouldn’t be too difficult after all!

“Thank you, Miss Juniper!” Music almost thought-shouted those words, but carefully restrained themselves from their excitement. Miss Juniper loved music — and Music, of course — but sometimes a Para’s excited crowing could be too much for even the most devoted supporter of the little dinosaurs. Regardless, they quickly nuzzle against Miss Juniper’s outstretched hand, and then dashed back down the hallway towards the storage room.

Miss Juniper smiled and watched them go. Music would always have so much energy and ability, no matter the form it took.

——

Carefully, ever so carefully, Music rifled through the box of free-floating music. These were music pieces that either were the only one left from the score, too faded to make out the titles of, or otherwise damaged or missing vital parts in some way. Luckily it was much smaller, ever since Music had joined the school and wanted to lend a helping hand. Most of this bin had been searched thoroughly and seemingly endlessly by the little Paralogos, but there were still some issues and mysteries they hadn’t been able to solve yet.

This one, though, they were determined to repair if — no, when they could. After all, this was a classic jazz standard piece. They suspected Miss Juniper would love to have the music back, since it was one of her favorite genres and eras of music history!

A familiar-seeming piece of actual, real paper — with honest-to-goodness ink! — caught their eye after what seemed to be forever. It was the exact same shade of lightly yellowed, aged, paper as the one in their other hand, and curled lightly at the edges. Music gently grabbed it between their claws in a reverent manner, not wanting to damage the old music even further.

Now they were puzzled. How would they reattach the two pieces? Unlike some other repair jobs, this would require much more finesse — the paper was so old compared to other ones, and the ink was so faded in spots it was hard to make out the notes. But restoring this “simple” piece of paper would provide valuable insight into times before Linguans used hard plastic and screens to record their songs. Tape and glue just wouldn’t cut it, and especially not over a gash that went horizontally across the page. 

They were stumped, but weren’t giving up yet. While they pondered, they hummed the notes from the page out loud, idly and without focus.

With a flash, the two pieces of paper jumped from their hands, floating above them in a spiral of rainbow magic — the magic itself looked like a pair of staves, colored brilliantly and brightly. “String of Pearls” floated above their head, in the middle of the staff, and it was like they could hear the music itself, as though a live band were performing right in front of them!  After a few seconds, the paper began to dance around the two pieces, faster and faster, until—

There was a great burst of light, and then darkness and silence.

Hesitantly, Music reached up a slightly shaking hand.

“String of Pearls” was restored to its former glory, held within their grasp. The paper was bound as though it had never been ripped; the paper stark white and ink darkest of blacks, as if it had never aged in the first place. It even smelled of Music’s favorite scent, that of newly-opened and freshly-printed sheet music…

Finally, the realization hit that they had discovered their third tier of magic, all by seeking to repair a part of history. 

Air filled their body, and with a loud, mental, trumpeting crow, they burst out of the storage room again. The sheet music was held gently — but firmly — within their clasped hands.

“Miss Juniper! Miss Juniper! You won’t BELIEVE what just happened-“