One of the pleasures of being a loreseeker was seeing the way people could light up when someone just listened to them, and gave them the respect and focus of an interested audience. Maea seemed to shed a weight of worries as she related the events to come, cheering them both up with the promise of springtime renewal after the ravages of Long Night. They weren't there yet... but it helped to know that it was coming, in a way Jigano hadn't really appreciated before. All during Deepfrost all the worry had been over Long Night preparations, as if the world ended then. Not one person had mentioned what came after, and Maea's tales of feasting and dancing and joy was a balm the bard hadn't even realized he'd needed until she had him smiling along with her.
"Do you know if they mind being accompanied?" he asked, smile still hovering at the corners of his lips. "On, say, a flute?" What a fascinating opportunity that would be! Perhaps they could teach him a few new songs while they were at it!
The pale girl's question earned a chuckle, and he reached up to tickle Isuma. "Music can stir people's emotions - or calm them," he explained. "But quite a few songs are teaching songs - from the nursery rhymes you learn as a child to recitations of herbal remedies your grandparents might have recited to you, even if they focused more on meter and rhyme than notes. And when you come to a new place, their songs can help to guide you on what things are acceptable and what are not - love songs can reveal how courtships go, historical ballads can teach you of, well, the local history. Even comic ditties can give insight to behaviors with are greeted with scorn or embarrassment." He chuckled, nodding in the direction of the Atheneum. "When I was growing up my town was better off than most, but we didn't have a true library, open to everyone. I studied at the temple of Brigh with the other village children, but much of the initial lore I sought out came from learning songs and speaking to people wiser than I - oral, rather than written knowledge."
"Do you know if they mind being accompanied?" he asked, smile still hovering at the corners of his lips. "On, say, a flute?" What a fascinating opportunity that would be! Perhaps they could teach him a few new songs while they were at it!
The pale girl's question earned a chuckle, and he reached up to tickle Isuma. "Music can stir people's emotions - or calm them," he explained. "But quite a few songs are teaching songs - from the nursery rhymes you learn as a child to recitations of herbal remedies your grandparents might have recited to you, even if they focused more on meter and rhyme than notes. And when you come to a new place, their songs can help to guide you on what things are acceptable and what are not - love songs can reveal how courtships go, historical ballads can teach you of, well, the local history. Even comic ditties can give insight to behaviors with are greeted with scorn or embarrassment." He chuckled, nodding in the direction of the Atheneum. "When I was growing up my town was better off than most, but we didn't have a true library, open to everyone. I studied at the temple of Brigh with the other village children, but much of the initial lore I sought out came from learning songs and speaking to people wiser than I - oral, rather than written knowledge."
