A Sky Full of Tropes [Reincarnated Psychic Child LitRPG]

The final person on the list of Gleams available for a party in Amroth is in that old apartment building where Jade used to live, so we head out into town.

"So, Hemlock," Jade says conversationally. "If Halkyn told you to kill a kid, would you?"

Hemlock makes a face. "I would have assumed that my core wouldn't tell me to do something without good reason. And right now, its liege Hearth has made it clear that that sort of quest will not be tolerated."

"Fine, if Halkyn had told you to kill a kid before, would you?" Jade presses. "Are you a good little minion, or do you have one shred of defiance in you of your own?"

"I don't know," Hemlock finally admits. "The things my Hearthmates were doing had been going on since long before I was born. I was told that the people who had been captured would be returned once their debts had been paid. Maybe I didn't question things as much as I should have. But I can't do anything about it now except try to be a good crew member."

"What's the next name on the list?" Anise asks, forestalling the argument.

"Well…" I say, looking at the piece of paper the guild clerk gave me. "This one's either going to be on the 'side of chaos' as that Loon back there was saying, or cores just sometimes give incredibly ironic names. We're looking for Melody Westminster."

"Must have moved in after I left," Jade says. "I don't recognize the name." She peers over to look at the page. "Oh. And she moved into my old room, too. Guess someone had to."

We head inside and knock on the door to the room. A nasally voice reminiscent of a cartoon burger mom yells back from inside, "Just a moment!" so I just read the aura through the door.

Oh boy. I find myself both eager to meet her and preemptively exhausted by her presence. I scan her quest log and find no offensive orders.

I have to smile when I read that and share the text with my companions. Yes, this is the new party member we're looking for, alright. We're on a musical quest, and we will obviously need a bard. I'll play this game. It sounds fun. It could do with a bit less child assassination, though.

Her aura is bright and shiny and wild and chaotic, like a mass of butterflies and flowers. She's not a reincarnator, but her soul is practically singing.

The door finally opens to reveal a gorgeous bard. Her silver hair flows elegantly… no, wait, that's just her Charisma, I never describe things as 'elegant', do I? Anyway, she's got the same white hair as the other Gleams I've met and with features conventionally considered beautiful. Except she's about fifteen and her face is pale and pimply, and her excessive number of leather belts have seen a good deal of wear.

The room is cluttered with books and loose sheet music. Several musical instruments sit about the room, some of them broken, and one bizarre instrument has a rusty turn crank.

"Hello, hello! An adventuring party? I'm Melody Westminster, [Apprentice Bard], at your service! What can I do for you?"

"The Adventurers' Guild clerk said you were available for quest swaps," Anise says.

"Yes!" Melody exclaims. "I hope you know about the local dungeons. I'm looking for music-related puzzles to advance my skills. But I assure you I know a few simple songs already and have other skills that would make me useful to a party. I'm Elite and I've done several dungeons in the City already."

"When did you get to Amroth?" Jade wonders. "And did you happen to find a little pink pouch when you moved in? Uh… this used to be my room and I couldn't find it when I moved out."

"Last month," Melody says. "No, sorry. This room belonged to at least one other person between us. I only even left home less than a year ago, but I haven't been in one place for more than a few weeks ever since."

"Why did you leave?" Rowan asks.

"I left Westminster the day after the Ringing," Melody says. "I was there when the boy rang the bell. I couldn't get the sound out of my head. I had to hear more. I traveled and looked for whatever information I could. There's no music on the topside of Gleam, you see. That might sound strange to you, to people who have lived their whole lives among it. The cook here hums constantly! It's incredible!"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"So you decided to become a Bard?" Basalt asks.

Melody nods. "I traveled all over Gleam, and left the order of the Topside for the chaos of the Underside. Only there could I get an answer to the question, what is music? Even to Flux and Rust, learning what I could about music. I got my hurdy-gurdy in Flux, you see. They've got such amazing stuff there!"

"How is there no music?" Anise wonders. "Hush has fog that makes things quieter but you can still play music there. Is it illegal? Do they arrest you for humming off-key?"

"It's not just illegal. It's unthinkable. Very few outsiders come to the area I grew up in. I had to research what my own name meant from forbidden archives."

I don't really have strong opinions on monarchies and parliaments or whatever, but I'm a big fan of music, which apparently puts me on the side of 'chaos' around there. I don't really have bardic aspiration, but this hurdy-gurdy, on the other hand… I bet I could build her a better one. Once I figure out how they work, anyway. Making cool instruments for my party's Bard would be a fun side project.

"Did you know there's two others from Gleam here who had quests to kill Bucky Harrow?" I ask.

Shock bursts through her aura like a million butterflies all fluttering at once. "Oh no! I hope they don't find him. I don't know where he wound up after the Ringing. He was such a nice boy."

"Don't worry," I say. "He's safe."

"You know where he is!?" Melody practically squeals.

"Yes, we can take you to him later," I say. "Before we go anywhere or do any dungeon runs, we're going to stop in at Hebron and introduce you to some friends, and give you a chance to talk to an Epic Teacher. There's a metalworker there who can do you some upgrades or repairs, too."

"That's fantastic!" Melody says. "I need to start packing right away!"

While being able to hack her day planner makes me confident that her core doesn't want Bucky dead, I don't have much measure for Melody yet beyond what [Empathy] has picked up in her aura. So far as I can tell, she's genuine, though.

It takes another bit of paperwork to officially register Melody with the party, and we don't even have a cool badge to give her or anything. Maybe I should design a logo. Make some enchanted copper pins for people to wear. That would be cool.

I draw up a quick logo of an eye in the middle of a lightning bolt, then go to check the logo registration listings to find that one's already taken along with every conceivable variation on it I can think of. So I go with a duck in a lightning bolt instead and submit it with my paperwork.

As I lay awake an unfamiliar bed at the Adventurers' Guild, my mind drifts and I decide I'm not getting any sleeping done like this. I slip out of the guildhall and into town, and make my way to one of the overlooks with a good view off the edge of Tempest. I have [Ghost Eyes] keeping an eye out for muggers, but no one bothers me.

Off to the left, the skymote's aether core Tiganna shines like a small violet sun, with the three domains of the City floating in the sky below it. On the one hand, while some part of me misses the sun, the part of me that's a little boy has never seen the sun and finds the skymotes spectacular. The part of me that's an ancient ghost also thinks they're pretty cool.

With [Celestial Inspiration] refilling my meter as fast as I can spend it, I turn my attention to my own quest log, not that I have it labeled as such. It's much lighter than most people's, since Corwen doesn't give me quests itself, but there are still a few entries. I pass over Tiganna's exploration challenge and the timer that will give me a new class when I turn 14, and set my attention on one that's been sitting here annoying me for… well, ever since I unlocked [Witness] and noticed it was here. I'm not sure when it was given to me, aside from that it had to be after I turned 7 as it wasn't there then.

I'm guessing it appeared when the goblin war broke out. I sent a high level party to subjugate Muckburrow when they were causing trouble in the Hedge Maze, but otherwise made no move against the goblins. And some of them are my friends!

I don't want this. I will never want this. No reward would be enough for me to even consider it. So I make it go away.

I watch the shattered motes of experience vanish to try to see where they go. Some of them pour into my own Sorcery (Defiance) skill, as expected, but that doesn't account for all of them.

The clump of frozen experience is gone for only a few seconds before another one joins it in a flash.

Oh. Far from being annoyed about my [Defiance]-with-a-capital-D-and-brackets, Tempest seems to have decided to skip ahead with a quest I'd be more inclined to actually do.

The cores don't get anything if we reject a quest, so it's to their benefit that they give us ones we'd actually do. But I don't understand why Tempest would think I'd ever go wipe out the goblins. And would it have followed that up with the orcs, too? Sometimes it has just felt like a cheerleader hoping for violence, really. Well, maybe if I ever reach its core room, I will be able to ask it some questions and actually get some answers. Though that's no guarantee, when dealing with enigmatic crystalline ghost aliens or whatever these things actually are.

In any case, this quest is inoffensive and one I don't need to worry about anytime soon. The only way I'll be able to actually make use of it before I turn 21 is if I make Heroic before I turn 14, and then I'd be able to spend the remaining time at Novice tier as a [Tempest Child], for whatever bonuses that would provide.

... could I really make Heroic before I turn 14? Do I feel like that much of a daredevil overachiever?

We'll see. I have a lot of skills to grind in the meantime, and I take advantage of the Inspiration boost from Tiganna's light to work on a few briefly before I return to bed. I summon a [Ghostly Watcher] and send the floating pair of eyes down to locate Hebron's ledge, but don't wait around for him to return. He's the lucky one that doesn't need to sleep.