Adding the fourth string was even better than she could have hoped for, as the pair would learn the next day. Plucking the new chord would release a shower of sparks out into the air. These sparks would fizzle and die as the string wavered in the harp''s frame, its sound dying in the breeze. However, she soon found that if she continued the melody, continued to pluck at her harp''s existing strings she could maintain this shower of sparks.


    Breath life into them as they flared midair and joined together in a raging inferno that danced and soared in the sky, shimmering and swaying side to side. It was a shocking sight to behold the first time she’d managed it. The two had landed in a field of dense shrubbery that felt soft to stroll or lie upon. She also learned the first time she accidentally managed this trick of sparking flame suspended in the sky, that the greenery surrounding them burned rather easily.


    She’d nearly burned herself, distracted by the shaking flame above as a raging inferno roared out all around her. It was only thanks to Jake’s quick action to stamp the flames out, trapping and controlling them as they quickly ate through their limited fuel, that she survived. The burned patch of shrub in front of her couldn’t say the same. Still, despite the sudden wildfire that nearly devoured the two, they were in awe of what they’d seen.


    They’d never been particularly worried about starting fire, the sparking stones the two coveted took care of the problem well enough that it wasn’t a survival concern. This, though, was something different. Not a simple method to start a campfire, no, it was more complex. Almost seemed alive.


    Dancing and waving through the air the patches of fire wiggled about, cast directly overhead in hopes to prevent the ground underfoot from catching flame. Common sense told them to wait but they couldn’t ignore the splendor of the flame, it seemed to call to them. Even Jake, who couldn’t feel the vibrations of the string or understand the complexities of what went into controlling the curse, was drawn to the beauty of the flames above.


    Through their continuous experimentation, the two slowly began to learn about the harp’s new gift. For one, it was incredibly hard to control. It required continuous and calculated playing of the harp to achieve the desired effect. Alice found she could just spark and enlarge a flame overhead or spark a flame and send it drifting lazily in one direction, but these outcomes were often not ideal. No, for the best outcome, she needed to constantly be playing, thinking ahead about what she should do next as she maintained the sparkling fire overhead.


    This was not made any easier by the fact that she continued to play with one hand. By now, if she wanted to, she could loosely hold the weight of the harp in her arm as it rested in her sling. Rely on what strings she’d so far managed to rebraid in her arms to support the weight while she played. She didn’t do this, though, worried about the added stress to her arm being so close to the source of the vibrations affecting her strings.


    She still wasn’t sure how the strings within her worked or why they reacted to the harp. She didn’t know if being closer or further from the source of the vibrations mattered. On the off chance it did, she didn’t want to risk damaging her arm further. She wanted to play enough so that her arm felt encouraged to heal faster, stressed about the ripples of power reaching it. Not overwhelm her arm and potentially cause more strings to fracture apart.


    At first, she tried to play the same as ever, lying back with the harp against her frame so she’d still be able to use her hand to pluck the strings. This proved rather ineffective, however, as often she tried to move across the strings so quickly or violently that the harp would slip away, and all progress on the fire currently burning above would be lost. In the end, she found that having Jake hold the harp for her worked the best.


    It felt a bit awkward for both of them, having him try to stand there motionlessly while she strummed along on the harp, ignoring his slight fidgets and sways. Still, though, neither really cared, far too fascinated by the beauty of the dancing flame above to worry about how they went about producing the spectacle. Besides, it wasn’t like it mattered. She never managed to play the harp long enough for either to get too uncomfortable, always having to collapse down to rest.


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    She quickly learned that the beautiful spector of flame was not only hard to produce, but it was also equally hard to maintain. It had nothing to burn, floating aloft in the air. No wood or leaves to burn, and it didn’t seem like it was eating the air around it either. That meant somehow, whatever Alice was doing, she was feeding it. Keeping it alive and happy as it swayed with the breeze, obeying its exhausted maestro.


    She could somewhat feel it pull of power leave her body, feel the twangs in her strings as bundles of power built up quickly and left, following the flow of the vibrating music to gather around her in the air, coalescing into the flame. It felt hard to describe. It was sort of a ghost of a sensation, something she could only just barely begin to almost feel but wasn’t quite able to comprehend. Still, whatever she was doing to keep the flame alive, it left her drained. Within a few minutes of beginning to play, strumming along the strings feverishly, she would nearly collapse to the ground exhausted as the strings within her hummed and shook, releasing any stored power not yet used.


    The exhaustion she felt was odd. Her body wasn’t so much getting tired, though her hands were starting to get sore after playing so passionately for so long, but rather it felt almost like the blockage in her arm. Her whole body vibrated and hummed with power, unable to withstand it anymore. So, she’d collapse and allow the backlog to reverberate along her internal web, allow it to carve and bind and strengthen as she lay back panting, waiting for when she could next play.


    She’d have to wait a while, though usually she was distracted talking to Jake or admiring the mossy world around her to notice. Though distracted by the spectacle of the sudden flame, she was glad now to have time to admire this verdant green paradise the two reclined in. Save for the burned patch they had accidentally carved into the flesh of the earth, the whole planet looked fluffy and fuzzy, covered in green, a green stubble of moss. It was funny to look at, making the very surface of the earth would be comforting place to relax upon.


    Sat back now after her latest attempt, her breaths escaped her heavily, her lungs working overtime to make up for the odd sense of exertion she felt crash upon her. She wasn’t too worried. Like every other time, this sense of fatigue would quickly fade away and pass into nothing, leaving only the buzzing of the strings. Laid back, she glanced at Jake, who was also falling to the ground, still clutching her harp.


    “…So…” she started after a moment, feeling her breath begin to return to her, “You ever play music before?”


    “Never,” Jake said, shaking his head, before pausing a moment, a thoughtful look crossing his face. “Actually, I learned the recorder in elementary school. Kind of like this.” He took the clay flute out of his bag and held it up, pinched in his fingers, “But I wasn’t any good at it, so never really bothered with anything else.”


    “Trust me…” She said, snickering a bit as she pointed toward the flute, “If it really was like that thing, you made the right call.”


    “Hey! You’re the one who asked me to keep this thing, I never said I’d be any good with the flute.”


    “My bad, my bad!” She replied, a smirk clear on her face as she reclined back into the mossy overgrowth. “Not like I’m much better anyway.”


    “Not sure about that. When I blow this thing, fireworks don’t start shooting up into the sky.”


    “Jealous?” she asked, rolling over to face him with a slight grin clear on her face.


    “Again, I never wanted the flute. All your idea. You can have it back if you want it.” She sat for a moment, staring at him, her expression hard to understand. Suddenly, she shrugged and lay back flat before saying, “Nah, you keep it. Duets are more fun anyway.”


    “Uh-huh,” Jake said, voice sounding unconvinced, yet an odd expression crossed his face.


    “Still. Don’t feel too bad about how amazing my harp is. Would still just be a cool campfire trick if you didn’t fix it yesterday!”


    “I didn’t fix anything. I just stuck some rope through it. You’d have done it eventually without me.”


    “I don’t know…” She said, sounding unconvinced as she turned back to gaze at him. “Never even thought to try making a rope. Hell was sitting there wishing I had another string on the damn thing and forgot we had a whole spool of it sitting in your bag.”


    “They''re too thin, too brittle…”


    “See, my point is I never even thought to try it.”


    “You’d have figured it out eventually.”


    “…Not so sure,” Alice said with a slight shrug. “Still, though, you thought of it first. We make a pretty decent team, though, right?”


    “…sure.” Jake’s voice darkened a bit, and though she couldn’t just see its passing glimmers, a look of inner conflict crossed Jake’s face before he composed himself.


    “Want me to tie another string for the harp, see what that does?” He suddenly asked, leaning forward a bit as he changed the subject.


    “No point” Alice replied with a slight yawn noting the sudden shift in subject, “Still need to get used to using the fourth one first.”


    So, they continued, subjects branching out and ever-changing, yet never again circling back to the initial talk they had. A fact Alice didn’t fail to note.