A New Dawn Sounds

The morning after their little flower growing session, Annie was awoken quite abruptly by a louder-than-usual knocking at her door.
"Wake up, Ten!"

Annie groaned as she sat up, looking out the window only to realize the sun wasn't up quite yet. This was earlier than usual.
"Mh... Dear, why are you waking me up so early?"

"Because, I have something to show you."

Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Annie managed to get herself out of bed. She winced as her legs jolted with pain, not completely rested from the previous day's work. Her body was just about as youthful as ever, but work had been getting harder for a while. This week in particular was proving to be incredibly strenuous. They couldn't find any time other than their evening meal to check on the flowers. Still, she couldn't ignore a summons from Lilin, so she got herself up and dressed. Then, she promptly opened her door.

"Good morning, dear," she said with a bow.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Follow me."

Lilin led Ten towards her room with a big grin. If Ten wasn't going to accept proper payment like a normal person, she had a plan to get her back anyways. She had a little something that no village girl would ever dream of, and she was going to make sure Ten couldn't say no. That way, there wasn't some stupid debt hanging over her head. It wasn't long before they made it to Lilin's room. She let in Ten before shutting the door behind her.

"Oh, my, they've already sprouted!" Annie remarked, looking at the flowerpot atop the windowsill.

"Oh! Uh, yeah. That bone stuff really worked."
Lilin hadn't actually checked on the flowers, and was shocked to see little bits of green started to poke out from the dirt. It must be all of the mana she was pumping into it. Ugh, why did she have to waste her Core on that stupid stuff? Whatever, it better be worth it.

"Anyways, don't mind that. I wanted to show you something else!"
As Lilin spoke, she reached into a dresser and pulled out a small box. She opened the lid and produced several smooth, round stones.

"Oh, my, is this a rock collection?" Annie said, smiling as she deliberately ignored the obvious mana emanating off of them.

"W-Wha- No! Obviously it's cooler than a stupid rock collection. Here, look. Lift this one to your ear," Lilin said as she handed Annie one of the darker stones.

Annie did as she was told, taking the rock and moving it to her ear. 

"Wait, not that close you id-"

Annie yelped, Lilin's warning coming a moment too late. The rock she had put right up against her ear let out a sudden, shocking hit on an orchestra of stringed instruments. It was a powerful start to a tense song, emanating entirely from a rock. Annie couldn't help but smile as she listened. The sound flowed so well, and in such a high quality. She had lived through a great deal of technological progression, so she had seen it all. Record players, VHS tapes, DVDs, MP3 players, mobile phones, all sorts of things. That technology had been one of the things she kept up with most eagerly, because music was something that never grew old to her. Even so, a rock playing such beautiful music... It made her grin uncontrollably.

"This... This is incredible," she said, her breath taken away.

"Isn't it?" Lilin said, grinning from ear to ear. "This is how I listen to my favorite songs! They're called 'Sound Stones'! And now, finally, you can stop humming the trash you've listened to!"

Annie couldn't be bothered to listen to the insult, the music from this stone filling both of her ears. She swayed from side to side as she listened. This sound was somewhere in between heavy metal and orchestral beauty, several sounds from it feeling more like movie effects than simple instruments. Warbling metal like thunder leading into a massive percussive crash that signaled the climax of the song, strings screaming and wailing as they feverishly imitated sounds like a metal scream. It was indescribable.

"Anyways, you should keep that one!" Lilin said, closing up the box and putting it away in a hurry.

"Wha- hey!" Annie protested, trying to grab the box.

"Nope, too late! You've already taken it, now I've paid you off for the stupid bone trick for the flowers!"

Annie paused, then laughed. This was Lilin trying to get even?
"Oh, dear... That's adorable."

"Adorable?!" Lilin shouted. "Shut up! I'm just trying to make sure I'm not in your debt, okay? Don't think this is some... Thing! Stop reading into it. Now hurry up, you know how busy it's been these past few days."

Annie nodded. As much as she loved to push Lilin's buttons, her words rang very true. If they were up this early, they should take advantage of it and get started. With that mutual understanding, they both stood and walked out of the room- only for Lilin to realize that the sound stone was still playing.

"Fuck, right! Need to turn that off!"
She reached over and grabbed the sound stone from Annie, giving it a gentle pulse of Mana. It quickly stopped its music, and she glanced at Ten to make sure she looked sufficiently impressed. Instead of seeing a look of wonder, she saw a somewhat glum and disappointed look.

Lilin spoke pre-emptively. "Oh, don't whine! We'll listen to the song in full during our break. Now, let's get on with it."

Lilin and Annie made their way to the main room where they found the list of duties posted. They quickly made their way to their list, taking it and seeing a very strange sight.

"It... Just says to clean the main room," Annie said, puzzled.

"Yeah, huh.... Well, let's clean this damn room. I'll start dusting, you sweep. We have to get the floors before everybody wakes up." 

"Sure thing, dear!"

Annie got to work and began to hum. Lilin tuned it out as usual, but after little bit, she realized that the tune was familiar. Was it... No, there's no way. She started to listen, no longer trying to tune out the sound, and the truth hit her.

"Wait, are you humming the song I just showed you?!"

Annie looked up. "Why, yes, dear! I was worried I would be getting the notes wrong, would you say I got them right?"

"What the hell?! How did you do that, Ten?! How did you memorize the song that quickly?"

Annie giggled. "Well, I've always had quite a sharp ear, you see. I would try to memorize songs after only hearing them once, and I got quite good at it!"

Lilin couldn't help but feel inferior again. Annie- no, TEN, had only heard that song once! And she hadn't even finished it! How could she already be humming it like that! But... She couldn't be that mad, either. Ten's humming was always this annoying drivel, and this was really good. Not to mention, Ten was admittedly not the worst at actually humming. For as good as Six was at many of her duties, Six was not musically inclined. Lilin recalled when all of the maids were trained to sing, and how painful it was to hear everybody else. Six was especially bad, because nobody thought she would be so terrible. Lilin remembered that time fondly only because the King had told her that she was the only person with a singing voice worth anything.

Screw it, Lilin couldn't be mad at Ten for humming this song. It was better than anything else Ten had been humming, so Lilin let it go.
"Alright, well, keep at it. Eventually, you'll sound good, so... Whatever."

Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She realized partway through what she was saying that she had no idea how much music a commoner here would have heard. Her response fit well enough with what was probably happening in this world, with commoners only hearing songs once or twice unless they were lullabies or folk tunes, but she could never quite be certain. She didn't know if there was anything that would happen if somebody found out she was from a different world, but... She didn't want to take that risk. She didn't know if she would be struck down suddenly by a heart attack, or if she would be executed like a witch. A more dangerous thought then occurred to Annie: What if the Demon King could find the power to travel to her world, and only hasn't tried because he was unaware of its existence? Just as the thought occurred to her, something happened.

"Ten, Lilim."

Annie clutched at her head, the sound feeling as if it were echoing through her skull. This was different than when she had first arrived. It was deeply horrifying, and she felt helpless. She looked at Lilin and saw that even she was a little unsteady after the sudden voice. They looked at one another.

"When you are finished, report to me."

Then, silence. Several seconds passed as both of them tried to regain their composure.

Annie broke the silence "Wh-What on Earth?..."

"That was the King," Lilin said, stating the obvious. "And that probably felt different because... Well, that was directly to us. Nobody else heard it."

"N-Nobody else heard- but that was just as loud as the last time!"

"Yeah, don't think about it too hard. Anyways, we'd best hurry with this room. I don't want to keep him waiting."