Practice was getting to llhaesa. Earlier in the year she had taken time to write music at E’sphara’s. Prior to that time had been extended studio time, almost a full year of recording, discarding, recording again. This was followed by arrangement tweaks, selection of which songs would be released, and then finally the release itself. Unlike most new releases, llhaesa did not wish to travel and promote, for she hated the hype.

All in all, llhaesa was pleased with the result, and despite government efforts to prevent her from playing at government owned facilities and property, they could not stop the sale of her music.

Sales of her first release topped 15 million units, so a lot of people were showing interest in her music. Llhaesa and Jahrae were already set for life monetarily just from this one release, despite her donating half of all net revenue to EREGS.

At this point, every cell in her body was itching to play live, to entertain in front of a crowd, to make use of the benefits of all the practice and writing time. In 10 days, llhaesa would have her wish at Nenseru. Given the anticipated crowd size – the largest llhaesa would play for to date – she really had to be at the peak of her skill and training, physically and musically.

Jahrae wood sometimes be bored with practice, and would go about other things of interest, including studying for her final year at Arrhazon College (which she occasionally liked to blow off, much to the chagrin of llhaesa.) At other times, Jahrae would set with eyes wide, watching llhaesa try some new move. Sometimes they worked – most times they worked – but sometimes they failed pretty spectacularly, and those were often the most entertaining times.

On this day, llhaesa was playing a floor level electronic keyboard using her right toes, and while she played much slower than with her hands, still played well. When she tried her left foot, everything went awry as the keyboard squirted out from under her foot, which in turn knocked llhaesa off balance, and ended with her sliding off the piano bench, her butt creating a loud thud as she hit the floor. Llhaesa laughed harder than Jahrae in that moment.

There were never such incidents when it came to playing keyboards with her hands, and most certainly not when llhaesa sang. New is where the fun was to be found.

With all of the practice time making her batty, llhaesa approached Jahrae with an idea that had been kicking around her mind the last two days. “I’d like to do an impromptu mini-concert in the park, Jahrae. I’d use the LF-1000 Xnedze keyboard, as well as bring the 6 string acoustic. That is it. There is power available in the park. For amplification, we could have a couple of units sent over from the studio at N’rellia – I still have plenty of connections there, even with Aalon no longer curator. If possible, I’d play for 2 hours, run through some things and see how it plays out of doors.”

Jahrae initially thought llhaesa was crazy to try this, given the park is government property, and well…

As llhaesa shared her proposed plan, Jahrae’s mind shifted to questions rather than disapproval. “What if the government enforces the ban on your playing in their space?” The questions now began to verbalise. “What if you are arrested? Who will see you play?”

“I’m pretty sure people will hear music and out of curiosity will come into the park to check it out, check on who is playing. And given we have a lot of support amongst people, given we are less than 2 kilometres from the southeast quadrant; I doubt the government would dare stop me from playing. They may act later, but so what?” llhaesa was defiant, and Jahrae had never before heard llhaesa challenge the government on the restrictions placed upon llhaesa playing.

Then again, 2 nights before, both M’traliel and Jahrae had challenged llhaesa to stand up and be counted right on into a new government.

“I’m somewhat worried, llhaesa… but you have my support as always, and I will do my part to help.” Jahrae was in on the plan.

In turn, a few others volunteered to help, and it was agreed the following day would find llhaesa setting up to play in early afternoon.

Apprehension gave way to excitement, and by the time the night came to a close, everyone was looking forward to seeing the reaction of people as llhaesa played the park.