Forever, My Love

The famous, final piece of music composed by Viera D’Arras. Viera finished composing Forever, My Love shortly before her untimely death in 613 AL. Though the exact date upon which the piece was finished is unknown, most scholars and music connoisseurs agree that it was completed during the month of the Hunters Moon. This is corroborated by a number of letters written to Viera towards the end of the Hunters Moon in 613 AL, each of which have been preserved by the Moonglow Archivists.

Viera was scheduled to play the piece later that year at the Festival of Snowfall in Rennarsie.

To honour her untimely death at the hands of an assassin, the sheet music was locked away in a vault underneath Castle Dune. Rennarsie’s reigning monarch at the time was a huge supporter of Viera’s work and sought to preserve her final piece. Though many musicians begged for the chance to play the piece, the monarch refused. When the people rioted against their monarch just 4 years later, the sheet music was lost.

Over time there were many sightings. Most of these were unconfirmed, though that didn’t stop any and every musician from trying to claim that they had memorised the piece, or that they had played it. It is extremely likely that all of these are false, though scholars note that there may be some truth to a couple of the claims - particularly the claim made by the Vost twins in 856 AL.

Eventually, the sheet music was found in the home of a separatist living in the quaint mountainside village of Rockbridge in Yondar. The separatist was involved in an attempt on the Queen of Yondar’s life 988 AL. After the attack, his home was ransacked. The guards were looking to find evidence in an effort to incriminate any other separatists in the area. Instead they found the long lost sheet music of Forever, My Love hidden in a locked chest.

“Viera?” a voice asks. Soft. A distant whisper.

“Yes, my love?” Viera replies, turning towards the doorway. There, a figure stands, barely lit by the candlelight flickering on Viera’s desk. The figure smiles and steps forward, but still Viera struggles to make out any distinctive features.

“Oh Viera,” the voice says, changing. Tone harsher. Flat. Deep.

Viera gasps in surprise as the figure itself shifts, becoming taller. In an instant an arm flashes out. Silver glints in the candlelight. Scarlet flashes across the wall, the floor, the edges of the desk. Viera’s gasp blossoms into a gurgle.

The shadow leaves, grinning. Viera falls to her knees. Forever, she thinks, holding her hand to her neck as another figure appears in the doorway.

Familiar. Warm.

Together… For…

The guards brought the piece to Queen Raelle. As a connoisseur of music, she recognised the piece to be written in the same style frequently used by Viera. She confirmed this with a few fellow musicians, both inside and outside of her court, before finally deducing that the sheet music she had in her possession was none other than Forever, My Love.

Queen Raelle chose to display the sheet music in an area of Castle Tirav open to the public, although it would remain locked within a glass case out of fear that the already weathered pages would not survive constant handling by the public. The only instances where it was ever removed from the case was when a reigning monarch attempted to have the piece restored.

Restoration efforts have had varying levels of success to the point where most of the piece can now be played. Unfortunately, the first three pages of Forever, My Love are far too worn away and most music conservators admit that restoring these pages is extremely unlikely.

Creator

Viera D'Arras

Item type

Book / Document

Current Location

Tiraven

Rarity

Unique - only one copy exists in Ma'rune, despite attempts to make duplicates

The Vost twins - Frederick and Bernadette - were a well known musical duet active between 851 AL and 863 AL. They were known for hunting down lost musical pieces and had managed to find several other pieces of sheet music by famous composers.

The difference between those pieces and their claim of finding the sheet music for Forever, My Love is that neither of them were actually able to produce the sheet music. They would frequently blame this on the quality of the sheet music, apparently wanting to avoid wearing away the paper anymore than it already was.