"Fair enough," she says, digging into the bag for some candy to munch. "I'd offer to keep your stuff in my pockets but that only works as long as I don't die, and that's much less of a guarantee than I'd like."

As she turns away, her clothes shift and a mask melts into place over her face. It's slightly unsettling to watch, but it's over in a moment, and she's back to being blonde with a mask and a hood. "I'll try pushing farther on the path. Maybe I'll find something out there that can help."

"Is there anything it would help to bring along with you?" Nelen asks.

She pauses. "—huh, maybe. Like what?"

"I can't make anything too terribly complicated," says Cassiel, "but if - the next harpy might be happy with some meat to bring to her nestlings, or something, I could make some for that."

"They all have computers that only work for them but mine's different, if you wanted to borrow it and have it play a magic song as you walked or something," Nelen says. "Cassiel can't replace it if it gets lost but there's nothing that needs me-specifically to have a computer here besides my having something to read."

"I'll try a sack of meat for the harpies if you can make that happen quick," she says. "Might try a magic song later. You can tell me all about 'em when I come back from this walk, how about."

Cassiel makes a sack of meat out of her cloudfluff and hands it over.

"Thanks," she says, slinging it over her shoulder. It's pretty hefty but the weight doesn't seem to bother her. "See you in a while."

And off she goes, looking much more chipper than she did when she arrived.

Tarwë sings. Natsuko attempts to be a research wizard. Zanro and Nelen play cards. Cassiel makes stuff.

A handful of villagers come by to express their appreciation for the existence of meat. Otherwise it's mostly quiet until the Hero shows up again.

"Giving a big sack of meat to the harpies did not work," she announces. "Also I met an awful man with dogs made of stars. Tell me about magic songs."

"Dogs made of stars?" murmurs Natsuko, and then she taps all her belongings and goes back to frowning at scroll notation on her computer.

"There are songs for healing, crop growth, weather control, slowing all or some things down in an area, constructing buildings, traveling faster on water or in air, creating illusions..." says Tarwë.

"Mostly doesn't sound that useful. Healing maybe. I don't have a boat, or... actually how do you 'travel faster in air'..."

"If you can fly," says Nelen. "If it would help anything I could turn you into a bird but it's easier to learn to fly with telepathic help and we don't have any to hand."

"...turning into a bird can be an experiment for another time. For now... I don't wanna take your fancy artifact out there yet, I just died and I'm likely to do it again the next time a piece of the night sky bites my face off, but maybe when I'm being less ambitious."

"If you can sing well, you can learn the songs without needing them recorded," says Tarwë.

"Huh. ...can I hear the healing one? I don't know that I've ever sung but maybe it's time to learn."

"The recordings are mostly too fast to make out and have accompaniment," Tarwë says, "I'll sing it for you -" He does.

The Hero very quietly hums along once she thinks she's got the idea. Her voice isn't bad but it's clear she's unpracticed.

"I'd need to hear it a few more times to have much hope of singing it myself but I'll try it on my next walk anyway, why not. Thanks."

Off she trots, humming under her breath. Persons with excellent hearing might note a very strange sudden-fadeout effect as she steps out of the village into the void.

Half an hour (and one brief visit from a candy-seeking child) later, she's back.

"Got my face bitten off by the star dogs again," she reports. "Nasty business. Can I hear that song another couple times? I couldn't tell if I was getting it right enough to matter but I'm pretty sure I wasn't."

Tarwë will sing it as many times as she likes, with the caution that most humans can't sing well enough to make it work without a lot of practice.

She listens to it a few times through, paying close attention.

"Still doesn't hurt to try," she says.

She's singing as she walks away, this time, and she's not there yet but she's not half bad.

Most of the village settles down to sleep. The Hero stays out there for nearly a full hour this time. When she gets back she's pretty grumpy.

"Maybe I should try another face or something. Can I hear the song again?"

She can hear the song again.

She paces back and forth as she listens, impatient and restless; then she settles down and actually sits down, for the first time since they met her, to listen through it a few more times.

On the fourth repetition she gets up again and sings along, and while her voice is definitely still an untrained human's, for an untrained human it's remarkably close. Singing seems to brighten up her surroundings even more than her voice and presence do by themselves, too.

"- that's much better," says Tarwë.

"The healing song isn't ideal for combat use, it's slow even when sung sped up on a recording," says Nelen. "If that's what you have in mind."

"I'm thinking between combats; it's never fun when I get beat up and then start the next fight already half dead. In-combat would be nice too but it figures I'm not that lucky."

"- in principle," says Nelen, "you could take my necklace, and learn the spells I have. The healing is much faster. But it takes days to learn one by reading it."

"Days," she says, unsettled. "I'd hate to stay still that long. I always worry that if I go to sleep I'll wake up to find somebody's died. But for healing that works fast enough to keep me on my feet..." She shakes her head worriedly. "What's the trouble with giving me the necklace? What's it do exactly?"