Llhaesa’s graduation speech was given a fair amount of coverage in and on local media. It was also covered through a brief spot on network news broadcasts.

At this point, those in government responsible for monitoring such things were paying attention to the young musician, but were doing nothing – there was really nothing to worry on. Their immediate task would be to keep a close eye on llhaesa t’yaeli, and she would make it through 8 concerts before they finally banned her from government facilities.

The first concert was in a renowned music hall in Jredvarha City, in and of itself sort of a world famous cultural meeting place. This first concert would be traditional, and llhaesa would play alone. She had chosen this mode of performing in honour of the week long History and Traditions Week in Jredvarha.

Llhaesa arrived in the city a full week in advance of her performance. Along with her came M’traliel. Her mum and dad would arrive the day before she played, accompanied by assorted relatives. Llhaesa was relieved the familial entourage would arrive later rather than earlier, as this would gain her precious time to practice and acclimate to the city and the music hall.

The music hall had stood for centuries, for the most part architecturally intact. Work had been done over time to modernise the infrastructure and to shore up the building foundation. In actual fact, it had stood for more than a millennium, and the changes were more of convenience and playing it safe than actual need. Inside the hall, the acoustics were astounding; standing upon the stage and quietly speaking gave notice there was no need of amplification in this place.

On the first practice day, llhaesa was off kilter, thrown off balance by the superb acoustics. Not even the superb facilities at N’rellia compared to this. She started and stopped on several pieces, and after 5 hours had enough. Best to turn to some alone time and Aailhra.

M’traliel knew llhaesa was trying to focus, and backed off to allow her friend room to readjust and adapt.

For her part, llhaesa spent a full hour in silent practice of Aailhra, first in self-healing, then sending healing energy to those she loved or sensed in need. This cleansing left her ready for nothing more than bed in the moment, but by the next morning she was raring to go.

Back in the hall for the second day of practice, she shut down the electronic sheet music, looked inward, and just began to play. Relying on years of practice, relying on her memory, relying on her instinct she played flawlessly. She played with her own unique style and in such a way as to draw even the most detached listener into the music. On this day, there were various workers tending to regular maintenance, along with the occasional guided tour group. Every single person stopped and watched in awe for at least some part of her practice.

By the end of the day, llhaesa was happy with the effort, now feeling comfortable in the hall and with the venerable old grand piano.

Saehressa and Mrevan arrived the day before the show, leading the expected family entourage. Llhaesa spent the evening with her family.

On show day, she ran through snippets of each piece, doing so in an hour. She then returned to her temporary quarters, and once again turned to Aailhra, followed by a nap. By two hours before the concert, she was at the music hall.

Ten minutes before she was to begin, she peeked out to see a full hall, 4,000 patrons not quite sure of what they were paying to see.

As the lights dimmed, she casually strolled out to the stage. Llhaesa had asked for one special accommodation: she wished for an old-style prop fan to be onstage, blowing towards her at the piano. She liked the feel of moving air, even though the hall itself was quite comfortable.

As the stage lights adjusted their focus to the newly occupied piano and bench, the crowd noticed and quietly chattered on how the combination of lighting and lightly blowing hair extending out behind her created sort of a wave and flicker behind her head.

And then Llhaesa began to play. And play.

90 minutes later, the crowd was on its feet wildly cheering, calling for the artist to reappear. Llhaesa came back out on stage, this time walking to a microphone.

Upon arrival in Jredvarha, llhaesa heard that women working in the accommodations industry were staging a sick out. These hard working women had not received an increase in wages in 5 years; their work hours had increased 10% over that time.

And so it was llhaesa had something to say on this subject, words to the very people the underpaid and ill treated women gave their best efforts to see to it  the visitors enjoyed a pleasant experience in their city, in their hotel or inn.

Llhaesa did not call for donations, she called for action. Quietly speaking, taking full advantage of the superior acoustics, she invited the crowd to “Join with me tomorrow, we will all gather with the workers in front of this hall.”

When 25,000 people were standing in the street with her the next morning, llhaesa now had the full attention of those government watchdogs.