You are the Words and I am the Tune

In the elevator, Vanessa felt surges of an excitement she had never felt as the uncertainty and fear of the unknown spread through her body. She stood shoulder to shoulder with Quest. The electricity seemed to flow between them. He hummed a few bars of a song she had never heard. Was she dreaming, was this really happening, could she really be doing this? She wondered if she had the nerve to pinch herself and continued to debate it as Quest sang:

                “You are the sun, I am the moon, you are the words- I am the tune. Play me.”

She turned to him in surprise but then the doors of the elevator opened and Quest stopped singing.  Then they were walking out into the sunlight and into a long black sedan. She hardly noticed the driver as Quest spoke some words to him and the car pulled away from the curb.

                Quest took her hand and held it as they rode in silence then Quest sang another song, but she knew it was the same song as before. He sang:

                “Eíste o í̱lios , eímai to fengári , pou eínai oi léxeis kai eímai o tónos . Paíxte me.”

                “What is that- you are singing.” She asked feeling the heat in their clasped hands.

                “An ancient incantation I once taught to a singer.” Quest looked over at her and smiled slyly “Or a song by this guy Neil Diamond. I just sang it in Greek- almost Akadian- my native tongue.”

                “Play me?”

                “It was a worthy incantation from the creator. Something worth remembering when things become dark and you find you need me- remember that you are the words and that I am the tune.”

                “Right.”

                “When the time comes you will know what I mean.” He said and gently squeezed her hand a bit tighter and then she knew something she had always known.

                “The way my mother knew when the time had come?”

                “Yes. I loved your mother and when she asked I answered her. It is the way things with us.”

                “Us?”

                “Us.” Quest looked old then, too old to fit in those clothes, this car, too old to be the handsome man that sat beside her. “The Asserrii have always been the guardians of things. I am Asserrii and I am a “iroas kataskevastis.”

                “A Iro is what?”

                “A hero maker.” Quest said. “It’s Akaddian for the English word hero-maker.”

                “Oh. I guess I am the hero then.”

                “You are the words, I am the tune.”

                “Fitting.” Vanessa said and knew that she was blushing, but she didn’t care she was with him whatever he was. Sometimes it is enough to ride the wind she thought and wondered if it were another song. She glanced at Quest half expecting him to start sing the song but he just winked at her.