A/N: Collection is titled after a line in the poem "The Dying Swan" by Tennyson. Part of what comes up in the Wikipedia entry on "swan song". :D

Written for:

Diversity Writing Challenge, i1 - a ficlet collection consisting of ficlets under 1000 words
Symphogear bingo, the non-flash version, #025 – moving ever forward

shawms and cymbals and harps of gold
1. quiet beforesong

It's quiet on the set. Too quiet. The echo of Kanade's restlessness has long since faded into the gloom and there is only Tsubasa, wrapped in a cloak of darkness and watching the shadows sway to and fro.

Kanade would have been dancing to those shadows and pulling her in as well, but Kanade isn't here and Tsubasa can't dance by herself. By her standards, she can't dance at all. There is no fluid grace in her steps unless she has a sword in hand…and maybe that made Kanade her sword as well, once upon a time, or maybe that was just Kanade who could make anyone dance.

She could even made the Noise dance to their deaths while Tsubasa just cut them down with her sword.

But now the Noise came onto her battlefield alone, and she was the lone hero to strike them all down and wait for the final enemy that may never come. And she would bleed from every crevice and thensome in that final battle and fall like the sacrificial maiden of revolution, because she was incomplete, un-whole. Would there be anyone who could sing their swan song more than once, she wondered? Or would they bleed on the battlefield and take their little pickings until they found themselves outnumbered and outmatched, and then detonate like a suicide bomber to take out a wide radius and themselves as well.

That's the sort of life they lead, the sort of life they've chosen to lead but that's not really true either, is it? Kanade wouldn't have had to choose such a life if the Noise hadn't reached her and her family on an otherwise quiet and peaceful day… Tsubasa would have probably found herself there anyway, things being as they are, but not Kanade. Kanade whose bright eyes go bloodshot every time she needs a booster, and yet she endures it all anyway because it means she can sing and she can fight.

But Kanade's not enduring anymore. Or maybe her swan song is the only way she could have endured that battle with Tsubasa too far away.

Either way, it is now Kanade who's too far away. And shadows weren't good painting tools. Kanade was bright, fiery: she could pretend to see her in a flame but not the shadows. And backstage was quiet. Dim. Waiting for the dazzling lights of the stage that would blind her like Kanade had swept into her life and blinded her.

And then they'd sing together, on that stage while she stood alone.

They still sung together, even when she stood on the stage alone.

The curtains crept up. The shadows slip back. Tsubasa takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. There are shadows there too. Shadows in the heart, in the soul, in the mind… Shadows Kanade could have breezed through with a grin and a poke to her side.

Instead, it's just the shadow of her voice in the name the audience screams as the curtains lift all the way and cast the spotlight on Tsubasa.

She's a one-winged lone angel now, but that's the song they came to hear…and when she begins to sing, the faint wisp of Kanade's swan song will join her.

Their song goes on.