A number of bells chimed merrily as someone opened the door to the shop of Jonas the instrument maker. Jonas, who was busy stringing a harp at a table across the room, looked up and grinned.

"Loopi! Let me finish tightening this, and I'll be right with you," Jonas called out.

Loopi nodded cheerfully and wandered about the room examining instruments as he waited. After a few minutes Jonas stood up. "So, what brings you back here? You've already bought every song I have. Decided to try a new instrument to add variety to your guitar work?"

"Yes! A new guitar! And I hope it will!" Loopi grinned back. "I hear you've been saying that you've outdone yourself on your most recent guitar, and I thought I'd stop by to take a look."

"My apprentice talks too much," said Jonas, sounding slightly annoyed. "It's not finished yet, I'm afraid, so there's really nothing to show."

"Yes, yes, he does, and he even told me that it isn't finished yet, and I was truly hoping to see it as it is. He said even unfinished, you knew it was going to be one of your best."

"Aye, I've done a good job. I haven't even stringed it yet, but after so many years, you just know when one's going to be special. I just hate people to see my work before it's done. It's assembled, but not even varnished yet, much less adorned, and the knob covers aren't attached." Jonas eyed Loopi for a moment. "You can't rush art, I'm sure you know that. Besides, I heard you'd taken to making them yourself, and you'd made something the likes of which hadn't been heard in my shop before, which makes me wonder why you're here. Here to steal my secrets?"

Loopi laughed, then started dancing in place, spinning, once, twice, and then stopping, a guitar suddenly in his hands where there hadn't been one before. "I don't sell guitars, Jonas, so I'm not going into competition with you and I'm not here to steal your secrets. You can steal mine, though, if you like. I didn't do badly, but it's not like yours. As you can see, the strings have started to bite into the grooves at the top of the neck, and you can see the shine on one gear where I had to polish out a fleck of rust when I didn't grease it well enough." Loopi paused, examining the guitar with slight smile, then handed it to Jonas. "You've been doing this for your entire life, Jonas," he continued gently. "The instrument is only better than yours because I sang magic into it as I finished it. My mistake was not finding you in the first place to have you do the hard part for me. So I want to fix that. I want to try this again, but this time, better. Better magic, and a better guitar to start from. I'll pay you full price for it, unfinished, exactly as it is."

Jonas turned the guitar over in his hands, looking from it to the smiling elven bard across from him, but said nothing.

"It's going to be beautiful, you know," the elf continued. "There might not be any other guitars in the entire Spire to match it. And I'll happily tell anyone who asks about it that you were the man that made it possible. And I'll be happy to come back and play it for you, with a song on the one you're holding today by way of apology for not having done this the last time."

Jonas looked up into emerald eyes and an intense, almost feverish smile, gently ran his fingers over the strings of the guitar, and then handed it back. "A song on this one now, and you'll stop by now and then with the other once it's finished, not just one song?"

Loopi nodded. "Make this possible. I'll make sure you hear it."

Jonas turned and went into a side room, returning after a minute with a large padded case. "I'll hold you to it," he said, simply.

Loopi closed his eyes once, smiled broadly, and began to play.