"Vas ist das?" The forsaken noticed something odd after fiddling with some unimportant knobs that were completely tertiary to the experiments he was performing. They were simply for adjusting the volume and tone of the record player that was blasting classical Lordaeronian music into his lab. As he turned to one particular frequency the Night elf, who had seemed to be in distaste of his choice in music suddenly relaxed herself and her ears, as if it had stopped. But, the sound had not stopped, it had merely shifted to a very peculiar frequency that only his audiophiliac tweaking allowed. He shifted closer, hunched over and rubbing his bony hands together.
"You hear zis?" The crescendo was coming through unmistakably.
The elf spat through her cage. "Hear what?" he nimbly moved to catch the saliva in his palm, almost as a second thought. He turned and let it slide off into a separate container as he turned back to the machine.
"Vunderbar! Vunderbar..."
Weeks later, a tour was being given by the apothecary. He was excitedly showing off the findings he had made through days of non-stop experimentation. The simple record player had become an entire forest of tubes and wires, and many more players joined it around the room in varying states.
"At first, I had thought zat zere frequency zat elves could not hear! Zis was later shown to be wrong. Completely wrong. Instead, vat ve found vas the frequency-" He rushed open to his test subject. The elf that had been spirited weeks ago was drooling a bit, exhausted. Her ears twitched as he took on long one and pointed down the length.
"It could not be heard, but it could be FELT! Ze vibrations, zey resonate with ze eardrum and vibrate directly into ze brain. Essentially, it bypasses conscious thought by presenting a frequency zat zey do not know zey are listening to!"
The pair of orc commanders taking the tour exchanged a placid look and a shrug. One said to the other.
"Could be used for communication, I guess."
"Oh." The other orc nodded.
'Yeah. Good one."
"No! No no no... Ze sinking ist correct, but narrow! Zis subject was implanted with knowledge that she is NOT aware of."
"Eh?" The first orc lifted a brow.
The scientist tapped the cage. "First chorus!" As he demanded that, she began humming a tune that meant nothing to them, but the Apothecary could tell that it was perfect.
"Eight!" He moved his hands like a concert director as she switched to one tune, then another and another.
"Zese songs are sings zat she did not ever even know she is listening to. She merely 'absorbed' ze information."
"Oooh." The first orc finally seemed impressed.
"We're not doing that great against these gals on any front."
"Think this could help? How would we even use it?" The other asked.
"Imagine zis... If zis elf can be instilled with CULTURE zis vay, imagine vat culture can be imparted!"
Repetition, sound that was not sound. The principle was simple. Just as one elf was imparted with the exact tune of several songs without even knowing she had, so too could others be fed more specific information or sounds.
One Year Later
Maura had become jumpy due to her captivity. A full year of being held as a prisoner of war only to be released due to a fortuitous mistake by her captors. She was brought back, set up with a nice home and allowed to retire for the ordeal that she went through. The woman, an accomplished Sentinel in her own time, was lauded by her society for returning in one piece and espousing the need for harsher stances against the Horde in addition to her other commercial ventures.
"Where did you get the inspiration for your music? Your singing has an almost... otherworldly quality to it, one might say." One Kaldorei socialite suggested. Maura clutched her wine glass tightly. The shaking of her hand swirled the liquid without her needing to try. She nodded to the question.
"It just came to me... I was tortured by music. To stay sane I... I started to come up with my own songs in my head. They just came to me and singing was like much needed therapy in a place where no humanity existed at all." She gulped.
"I- I am glad people like them, I suppose."
"Of course. You story is an inspiration. Honestly... for this humble garden get-together I was hoping you'd sing for us." The host asked,
"W-well-" Maura continued looking down.
"Don't pressure the girl." Another guest scolded in good humour.
"My dear, they say that you can hit notes that others would find impossible."
Maura's moonsilver eye twitched. "What?"
"I noticed when you sing in person you have pauses. There are moments where your lips move and there is no sound. It's honestly incredible. It's like there is a whole other-" Maura froze in the middle of the woman's sentence. She began shaking more than usual. The word 'layer' began to play over and over again in her head as the sounds of the party faded away. She felt herself beginning to sweat, her heart beating quickly.
"-la"
"What?" She shook her head.
"-ra"
"No..." She shook her head.
"-ra"
"I don't know. I don't know about anything like that, I just-"
