9th Spring, 513, midnight
Alea had awoken in the middle of the night to the sensation of her cat walking on her face. When she had sufficiently woken up, the cat pounced onto the sill of one of the round windows next to Alea's bed. It took a few moments of blinking the sleep out of her eyes, but it became apparent that Tom wanted to be let out. She could not imagine why he did not just go downstairs and go out through the open doorway, but since he had already irrevocably woken her up, she sighed and pulled the glass covering out off the window. As Tom scampered through, she set the window aside, leaving it open in case the cat wanted to come back.
She could tell it was Spring when the breeze coming through the window didn't automatically freeze her nose off. She sighed, knowing she would never be able to get back to sleep now, even with her fluffy crystal spider curled up on her bed. She decided to go for a walk, realizing that she hadn't gone chasing after Tom in the middle of the night since Avanthal. Spurning her furs in favor of an old wool cloak, she got dressed quickly and strolled downstairs and out of her house.
The Spires was quiet at this hour, ever quieter than usual. It felt almost relaxingly private. Almost safe. Of course, here and there, there was a Jamoura guard, making sure everything was safe, but this was the Spires, possibly the safest place she had ever been.
Her wandering feet took her to the outer petals, and she eventually wound up on a path to... she couldn't remember its name, but it was the one with all the musical instruments. She found her way to the amphitheater, a big open space designed, as far as she knew, for performing. The meandered up to the stage and sat, to sleepy to think very hard, but unable to fall asleep. Somehow, her mind wandered to a Vani song she had learned a few seasons ago. She hadn't thought about it for almost as long, and the words were almost completely faded from her memory, but she thought she remembered the tune.
She began humming, somewhere in the middle, because for some reason she could never remember how songs began. Every so often, she remembered a word or phrase, and her clumsy tongue tripped over the lyrical language. She repeated the parts of the song she could remember, her mind recalling more bits and pieces as the song went on. Unbeknownst to Alea, several of the notes were wrong, having gone flat over too many lazy repetitions. She shifted keys several times without realizing. Her singing was also soft and breathy, and she often had to interrupt a phrase to pull more air into her lungs. Still, she was enjoying herself, especially since there was no one around to judge.