High school freshman Rakhshona Tulkinov leaned forward in her chair, listening as the room turned a fiery orange around her. On all sides, conversations fell to a hush. In front of a window that glowed yellow, Ash Fure stepped onto an elevated platform, and began a sonic conjuring. As she lowered a sheet of polycarbonate to a table, the sound clicked and undulated, part electricity and part human.
Tulkinov could feel herself listening with her whole body. She’s played the flute for seven years—but she’d never heard a sound like this.