The First Sonata [Interstellar]

Whenever the old harbor's bell rings its thirteenth note, Elias remembers the performance that was never finished.

A gifted piano restorer, he can awaken dormant soundboards with his hands, but he cannot mend the cracks in his memories. Ten years ago, his mentor mysteriously vanished on the eve of the premiere of First Sonata, and the score was burned. On the only surviving fragment, a subtitle is stained with coffee: “Dedicated to the souls lost in the cracks of time.”

Then, one rainy night, a dying mechanical-doll maid curls up outside his workshop. Inside her chest, meshing gears produce a broken melody that perfectly matches the mode that keeps appearing in Elias's dreams. After naming her Cassia, he realizes that each beat of her heart corresponds to the sonata's rhythm, and that the tuning forks her fingertips touch reveal ancient notes that vanished long ago.

While investigating, Elias is drawn into the hunt led by the “Crescent Moon Society.” These powerful elites, who command steam technology, are frantically searching for the “fragments of sheet music” scattered among mechanical lifeforms. It is said that collecting them all will allow them to restart the sonata and open a space-time gate to the “Eternal Rest.”

When the mainspring at Cassia's core begins turning backward, Elias finally understands the truth behind the fragment: this cursed sonata is not a work of art, but a cage that seals time. His mentor once tried to destroy it, only to be devoured by its melody and become a wandering ghost note. Now the Society's conspiracy, the doll's fate, and the original score sunk beneath the sea all converge in the final movement.