Item from The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
More than an instrument — a lifeline, an identity, a piece of his murdered family. Kvothe has owned several lutes, and each one has been the most important thing he possesses until it breaks or is taken from him.
Kvothe's relationship with his lute borders on the sacred. His father Arliden was Edema Ruh, and music was the first language Kvothe learned — before sympathy, before naming, before clever words and dangerous knowledge. When Ambrose broke his lute at the University, Kvothe nearly killed him, and the grief he felt was indistinguishable from the grief of losing a person. The lute is how Kvothe earned his talent pipes at the Eolian, how he won crowds and patrons, and how he kept himself sane during the worst stretches of his life. That there is no lute in the Waystone Inn — that Kote does not play — may be the most telling detail about what he has lost.
A seven-stringed lute of wood and gut, sized to be cradled against the body. The specific instrument has changed over the years — from his father's lute to ones purchased or gifted — but Kvothe's hands know the shape of a lute the way they know his own face.
Also known as: Kvothe's lute, the lute