Whehree teens got up the m, they ate quickly before turning their attention back to the instrument.

  With the soundboard ready enough, Derek's ask was to collect the string posts and such from some of the scrapped stringed instruments, but to do no more thahem up if needed ahem aside for ter.

  While he was doing that, Shizoku was using one of the better instruments in the shop to make sure that Fuyuko had a solid cept of scales and octaves. During this, the luponi couldn't help but ask "Ya should be able ta hear as well as me, why are ya tryin' ta have me figure this out?"

  "Well," the kitsune replied, "there's a few things involved. First, I have paid a lot more attention to my magical sehan my physical ones, so while my ears might be able to physically hear as well as yours, my mind isn't as attu with that information. You have beeo pushing yourself to make the most of every sound." She hesitated a moment before adding, "There's something else involved with that, but I think it's best if someone more experieeaches you, which Mordecai is probably going to do, so I am not going to even tell you what it's about. I just don't want you to think I hid something from you ter."

  After Fuyuko gave a slightly fused nod, Shizoku tinued. "I am also giving you just enough information for you to get certain key cepts down. Once I do that, we hunt for a fresh set of notes without the bias of the rest of my training. You'll uand when we are done."

  Once she was satisfied with the taller girl's uanding, Shizoku began the stage of the process. "Okay, now this instrument over here has some adjustable positioning with its tuning knobs, and we have some other pieces that were also still being prototyped. Fuyuko, what I want you to do is find a new note. We have a bunch of strings of different types, so you py with it with different sounds. So you hunt down a hat you like, no, love. Deep h or somewhere iween, it doesn't matter. Once we have a sie to work with, we scale up or down as o get the matg ohe only limitation is that it has to be a note Derek hear. The notes I showed you are the notes I know, but teically a scale be based on the harmonies of any frequency. Since you don't know all the systems that already exist, and you have really good hearing, you should be able to pick out a frequency to start with."

  After Fuyuko got a hang of tuning strings, Shizoku had Derek follow her out of the workroom. "I don't want to disturb her tration, and I don't want our reas to influence her. I'm sure she's heard plenty of music before, but I doubt she's heard as much well-performed music as you have, so she won't know what sounds are supposedly wrong."

  While Fuyuko was occupied, the pair explored the witch's isnd more, poking their noses into any unlocked buildings other than the main house. Some of them were ste, and some were other types of workshops. Shizoku wasn't certain if the wreck of an alchemy b was the result of visitors or of Carmil's own experiments, and decided it was best to not ask. But there were a lot of notes and a few books, so she decided to start browsing them and copying any new information she found. She also wrote on a couple of them to correything she saw that was clearly wrong.

  Ohe fox girl got distracted by her studies, Derek decided to practice eling his elemental abilities more. The s was a fasating mix of different types of elements and different ways elements could be seen. The cept of 'mud' was plicated enough that he was beginning to see it as its own thing, distinct from earth and water.

  And then there was the way in which 'air' could be trapped in the muck, and even the more liquid stuff could prove difficult for air bubbles to escape readily. None of that was good quality air, at least, not if you o breathe, but it was air. Sort of.

  He walked along the wooden walkways that wound around the isnd, probing as far as he could with his senses. Holding on to this state was tiring, but it was easier to keep doing this exercise when there was something new and iing to puzzle out. He wasn't trying to manipute or adjust anything right now, that seemed like a bad idea to mess with Carmil's isnd, but there was enough here that was simply different from what he'd seen before to keep him occupied for a while.

  So when Fuyuko had found the note she wao work with, she had to spend more time fetg her friends before they could tinue. "So, as I yin' with the notes, I kinda remembered some old songs my ma used ta sing ta me. They didn't sound the same as the songs people liked, and they ain't in on, so I ain't sung them in a long time, but I tried ta remember them as best I , and then I figured out some strings that sounded like I remembered. I think these work as part of a scale."

  Shizoku was satisfied with the results. "It's not on any of the scales I know. Very good Fuyuko. Um, and maybe when we are done here, we hear those songs. Now for the hard part. We have to find the harmonies. More specifically, we have to find the harmonies and how to create them with the avaible strings. This is going to be a lot of work, and most of it is still going to be based on Fuyuko's hearing, so our part is to make sure she has as many avaible strings and ways of adjusting them as possible."

  It took several days in fact, including markiions orings that could be used to ge to a different harmoniote. Part of this was to create a lot of options, which they were going to need. Shizoku took a lot of notes during this, and Derek eventually had to go back to town to barter for some more strings. They had a lot more than they were going to use in the final product, but there were so many more possible han Derek had realized. And the tiny fanizing their efforts was being perfeist about having every possible option avaible. She'd also added "precise distance measuring tools" to his shopping list.

  In the end, Derek had what she wanted, but he retty certain that he'd overpaid in at least one barter. At least he'd been able to get some more food supplies. The meals Udup got for them were fine, but a little repetitive and b, so it was o get a ge of pace. He also made sure to collect the items they had been st in their room so that they didn't have to lug them around the s, as they had a pce to stay och's isnd.

  And during all this Bip was amusing itself by learning to vibrate in tuh the various notes, and even showed off by making waves on its surface that matched the sound. Shizoku looked a little fused when she passed on what her familiar said, but to Derek that felt like an insight he o work on with his air attu.

  Wheaskmistress was satisfied with their options, it was time to create the yout for their instrument. "We need a piece of wood the same size and shape as our instrument. We're going to figure out the best string order for what we want. This is going to involve a lot of moving things around, so we want to do the work here, and then copy that to the actual instrument when we are done."

  This part went a lot faster but it still took most of a day to design their yout, and the m was used for their final assembly.

  The instrument had a total of twenty-six strings, two octaves of thirteen notes each, with more notes avaible based on which of the raised ridges one pressed down on while plug the string. Even with the tools that Derek had bought, measuring with enough precision was hard, but thankfully the tuning posts were all made to be used in experimental instruments so were easy to adjust.

  After they had lunch, they got Carmil to examiheir work. "Huh," she murmured as she plucked each string, "yeah, that is a new sound. And this thing is cool, I o find a name for it. Alright, you guys pass this stage, and with flying colors." She giggled, "Miss Kazoo says you did that the way hard way. It was thh, but you should have been able to do it with about a third the work or less."

  Shizoku scowled and said, "Well, she may have had a lot of music training, but I have had only so much, so I wao be sure I didn't miss anything." And then she blinked, "Wait, 'Kazoo'?"

  Carmil coughed. "Oops. I'm getting a scolding now from Mordecai. Um, maybe don't use that? Anyway, you guys did a great job and put a lot of creative and physical effort into this. That adds up, you know? So with this and all the other stuff you guys did before ing here, I only get to ask you for one more task. I want you to put on a performane. And I want it to include that instrument. You practice with this one, Kazue will make a copy that is a bit more stable for the performand for me to keep."

  That elicited groans from the entire group, but Shizoku rebounded quickly. "Wait, I have an idea. Um, I think we need a couple of days of practice, and we need a drum as well."

  The pn retty straightforward. Fuyuko was going to sing the songs she could remember, and teach them to Shizoku and Derek while also doing her best to py the notes on their new instrument. She wasn't really going to be very profit at it in only a couple of days, but they were able to work out the simplest arrahat would go with her songs.

  Derek's job was to maintain a steady beat on the drum and sing along with the chorus of the song. Not knowing the nguage that Fuyuko was singing in made this part harder.

  Shizoku's job was to adjust one of the dances she ko the timing of Fuyuko's song. She even dug into one of her expanded space bags t out a very fancy looking kimono and a pair of fans that could be used to create a sharp snapping sound, which could be used to trast the low sound of the drum that Derek ying.

  The resulting performance was far from professional. Fuyuko only had a small pattern of notes she could reliably reproduce while singing, and they were someread out as she couldn't py fast at all. Shizoku's fan dance also didn't really match the feel of the soe the adjustments she tried to make, and Derek's reprodu of the chorus was far from perfect.

  But they put sincere effort into it, and Carmil was satisfied. "Oh, that will be a great start, and I think I am going to like pying this. Thank you, I think you three have put more real effort into this than most of the adults have. Oh, they have a special gift for you Fuyuko, they say you should have it now." A small book appeared in her hands, which she handed over to Fuyuko. "Part of the dungeon magic means they learhat nguage when you sang it. This is a copy of every song you sang and a transtion. The writing for the inal is sounded out using the on alphabet, they don't have a writing sample to learn the inal script from. Um, they also think you should wait to read it until you guys are settled in for the night. I'll let you three through the s tomorrow, and you collect y prizes when you get to the end."

  The reason for waiting became clear to Fuyuko when she did start readihat night, and she began g. "I remembered the words and the sounds, but it's been so long that I didn't really remember the meaning. They were lulbies. They were my 's lulbies."

  Shizoku and Derek did their best to fort their friend, but her tears were both of pain and of joy. She was very happy to have this small bit of her past restored to her, even if the transtions showed she'd fotten a verse or two. She was going to do her best to remember them all and make sure they were written down.

  She was much calmer by m, and the three collected themselves a off to make their way to the briar wall that blocked off the exit to the level. The passage through went fine, but the corridor after was not the straight path Fuyuko had expected. It was blocked off, and there was a siair litting off from the corridor. "Um, guys. That's supposed ta be the way we go, it goes ta a big room ta watch the arena from. That's, um, one of the stairs down to the arena."

  They didn't know what to make of this and made their way down very cautiously.

  Mordecai was waiting for them, along with several bunkins and kobolds. "So, who is up for an optional bonus challenge?" He asked them with a grin.

  Zagaroth