It arrives at the Dawn Aegis HQ and is left upon the front desk in plain view. Given previous gifts - this one is clearly labeled ‘From Rome, to Koke,’ and the package in and of itself is fairly obvious: A leather instrument case buckled and sealed at the sides with a sharp upside down ‘L’ bending the fret and a distinct bowl shape at the body that would lead the practiced eye to the conclusion of a lute.
Indeed the interior held the very instrument in a carefully lined interior of amethyst velvet. The lute itself an intricate feat of craftsmanship full of painstaking care and detail. The nut, neck, and bridge were all made of an ebony wood, deep and resonant with the tuning pegs a distinct bone ivory. He had used the old pine felled in the woods to construct the ribs and the body was constructed of spruce.
There was not one sound hole, but three, each holding its own unique and floral patterns to better distribute the sound gifted when one plucked the gut string. The finishing touch was a polished pick guard that circled out from all three, with a decorative set of grapevines and leaves that flowed down the tear shaped body of the lute, and like their real life counterparts seemed on the verge of overgrowing across the wooden board which had in the end, been stained to give the instrument a more worn and vintage look.
The instrument’s melody is a warm one, the vibrations from the strings when plucked conjuring to one’s mind the bright beams of sunlight as they pierce a canopy net of leaves and shine down on dew soaked grass. Crisp, distinct, and effervescent of sound.
@songbirds-and-bows