The Open-Door Cadenza

When Vienna breaks him, conductor Kaspar Linhardt swears off the podium-until he meets Mina Corvin, a sound researcher proving that music can retune the body without stealing the soul. Together they design underground concerts that heal: fifths for steadiness, seconds for shared memory, and runic "seatbelts" that make consent part of the score. Then a powerful patron demands a command performance to "purge" a political crowd.
To stop the weaponization of wonder, Kaspar and Mina rewrite the music itself-cadences that only close when the audience breathes yes, lights that listen for refusal, and stages that won't turn a room into a machine. When sabotage strikes a premiere, they lead those who choose to follow into a hidden crypt-temple and finish the symphony where stones remember how to tell the truth. Symphony of Four is a music-core romantasy with moral stakes-a story about rooms that heal, the courage to refuse the baton, and the braver harmony that happens when people carry the ending themselves.