It couldn't have been comfortable, living as an automaton.  But somehow, he managed it with a grace that seemed to surpass any I'd seen before, smooth wooden fingers gliding across the piano keys as the beautiful melody drifted upwards.  The notes seemed to braid into the oxygen and I breathed them in, absorbing them before letting out the used air.

Just so you know, you don't have to read chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7. They're just updates from the author(s).