“A demon!” cried Mel. “A noble kithara such as myself, recorder of legends since the First Age after Time’s Dawn, a demon? I never thought the day would come, but an insult worse than ‘liar’ has been thrust upon me! Lady Eibhlin, I insist you rescind the accusation and formally request an apology!”

“I didn’t accuse you of being a demon!” said Eibhlin, her face flushed. “I had been worrying about if the thing in this tower might be a demon.”

“Teeheeheeheehee! Silly, silly Sunstrands! Thinks demons live with such pretty bells! Teeheehee!”

Eibhlin stiffened at the new voice. Slowly turning, she scanned the room. Nothing. Without quite knowing why she did, perhaps a slight movement barely noticed by her eyes, she locked onto one of the bell ropes and followed it up. Around halfway up she saw… something.

The creature seemed to be a shadow and almost as unformed as smoke. A clear shape could not be made of it. It was small, and two glowing sparks Eibhlin figured were its eyes shined above a thin, white crescent, like a small moon, that was probably its mouth.

Gripping her knife, Eibhlin asked, “You, are you a demon?”

The creature’s crescent turned to a half moon, and it shook so much from its laughter that Eibhlin wondered how it didn’t fall from the bell rope. The creature said, “Silly Sunstrands! Silly Sunstrands thinks Vi is demon? Silly! Silly! Too silly! If Vi was demon, Baldtops could have sent him away. But Vi is not demon, so Vi lives with pretty bells.”

After Vi had laughed a bit longer, Mel’s tenor voice thrummed out, “Are you the only resident of this tower?”

“Baldtops visit. Ring bells. But Baldtops haven’t come recently. Vi waits, but they never come. Sunstrands comes, and so Vi waits for her to ring bells, but she doesn’t ring bells, so Vi comes down to tell Sunstrands to ring pretty bells,” said the shadowy creature.

Eibhlin said, “You mean you waited all afternoon, even when I called for you to come out?”

“Vi was waiting for bells.”

“Well why didn’t you just ring them?” she demanded.

“Can’t. Too heavy,” came the answer.

Pointing out the window, Eibhlin asked, “Well, what about those other bells that rang?”

The creature’s voice sharpened. “No! No good! Those bells are no good! Not as pretty. These bells are pretty, made with better hands, better hearts. Sound is better. Vi hears it. Vi knows. These bells are better!”

Although she felt the urge to keep arguing, a quick sound from Mel refocused her thoughts. She said, “Um… Vi? That’s your name, right? Well, Vi, I didn’t come here to ring the bells but to ask you a question. Have you seen or heard anything about a fairy key around here? And not a normal one but one made by a fairy named Mealla. I really need it, so if you know anything then-”

“Sunstrands ring pretty bells now?”

“N-no. I already said I—”

“Ring bells.”

“But I—”

“Ring bells.”

“I—”

“Bells.”

Eibhlin looked over at the kithara leaning against the wall, but it didn’t say anything. She said to Vi, “I’m only one person, so I can only ring one of them. Is that good enough?”

“Ring bell,” replied the creature.

With a sigh, Eibhlin slid her knife into her bag and grabbed a rope. Bracing herself as she had when she and the town children had rung in the new year that spring, she yanked hard and deep. The rope sank. Then, like a fish on a line, it pulled back, nearly taking Eibhlin’s feet from the ground.

Boooong! Boooong!

The sound shook the air. For several rings, Eibhlin let the momentum of the rope dictate her movements. Even when she stopped, the clear, pure sound of the bell echoed in her from forehead to heart, from sole of foot to tips of fingers. In the rafters above, Vi danced about, his laughter rising even above the bell.

“Pretty bell! Pretty, pretty bell!” he exclaimed.

Eibhlin took the chance. “Yes,” she said, “the bell is very pretty. Well, Vi, now that I’ve rung the bell, would you perhaps answer my question? Vi?”

But the strange creature just hurried over a rafter to the bell and hung himself beside it by either hind feet or a tail- Eibhlin couldn’t tell which. The creature said, “Pretty bell! Yes, Sunstrands rings pretty bell! Now Vi! Now Vi ring bell!”

“I thought you said you ca—” Eibhlin began, before her voice died in her throat with a gasp.