The table in the corner of the room had been empty a second ago. At least that would be what anyone looking over it would swear. One moment it was vacant but for a single candle sending a flickering light over the shining dark wood of the surroundings, and the next, a black-clad figure was there, hands folded and pale eyes fixed on the stage.
The music was entrancing, speaking of sadness and sweetness than no human or Vampire could ever understand. Even Lord Carrick's cold and ancient heart was moved, the melancholy chords and soaring sweetness wrapping gentle fingers around him like a sculptor tracing the veins of a marble block before taking up tools to reveal the beauty inside it.
In that moment, he understood completely how music and love itself could have garnered mercy from the King of the dead himself - how Hades' love for Persephone had persuaded him to allow Orpheus to free his wife from the Underworld. But Orpheus had failed in the end, hadn't he? No love, however strong, could stand against death.