Side A – Nia
It wasn’t that Nia didn’t have any options open to her. There were many different choices she could make in response to Osdora’s departure. Some were mature. Some were remorseful. Some were petty.
In a sense, sitting still and doing nothing was a choice as well, but it didn’t feel like one. With each passing breath, the necessity of telling Osdora crumbled away, falling like leaves fleeing a tree in autumn, leaving Nia naked with her fears becoming more exposed every second.
But telling Osdora had been the right thing to do! It was her mother’s voice she heard saying that. Naosha would be disappointed to learn that her daughter had ever failed to see the moral necessity of sharing the truth with Osdora.
Not that being a disappointment to Naosha M’Kellin would be new.
Nia struggled to cast that thought aside. She didn’t need to rebel against her mother anymore.
And it wasn’t Naosha who was scolding her. It was Naosha’s voice in Nia’s head but the words were all her own.
Margrada wrapped an arm around Nia’s shoulders and quietly pulled her close.
It felt so good.
It felt like more than she deserved.
She didn’t pull away though. Unworthy or not, Nia wasn’t going to give Margrada even the slightest hint that she wanted them to be apart.
Even if that was how things would turn out.
If Osdora kicked Nia out of the band.
She couldn’t destroy Margrada’s life. Even assuming Margrada would offer to go with her. Nia couldn’t tell which would be worse, but her thoughts were happy to spiral around both awful futures that were drawing her in.
“She’s in here,” Osdora said, and Nia jerked stiff thinking Osdora had brought the roadies to cart her away.
Dr. Prash entered just after Osdora though and offered Nia a kind and unthreatening smile.
“You’re looking a bit better than the last times I saw you,” Dr Prash said.
“Uh, that’s good right?” Nia said, scrambling to catch a glimpse of what Prash might know. Had Osdora told him she wasn’t really Yasgrid?
“Generally speaking I am in favor of patients being on the mend, yes,” Dr. Prash said as he walked over and knelt down to be on Nia’s level.
Margrada released Nia and scooted away a little bit, not so far as to leave Nia feeling abandoned but enough to allow Dr. Prash the room he needed to work.
“Does anything still hurt?” Dr. Prash asked. He pulled small magnifying glass in the shape of a monocle out, fitted it to his left eye and began inspecting her face.
“Not as bad is it did before,” Nia said.
“That’s good,” Dr. Prash said. “I’d like to do a few tests then. Since you’re conscious now we can get a much better sense of your overall condition than we could before.”
“Okay?” Nia said and glanced over at Osdora who was wearing an unreadable expression.
She wasn’t mad – which she had every right to be. She wasn’t worried – or if she was, she was hiding it well. If anything she looked curious.
Curious could be good. Curious could mean she didn’t hate Nia. Curious might even mean Osdora could accept Nia.
Nia’s eyes drifted downwards, unable to meet Osdora’s gaze just yet.
That was when she noticed what Osdora was holding.
It was a small Shatter Drum but it was still big enough to work the kind of magic that could unmake her.
Side B – Yasgrid
The woman waiting for them when Yasgrid and Kyra stepped into the Darkwood was an enemy. Yasgrid didn’t need to question that. Ending recognized her.
And Kyra apparently did too.
“It’s not going to come to a fight,” the woman said and spread her arms out, palms forward.
She was an elf.
Or she had been.
Her long black hair waved in a breeze that didn’t touch the rest of the Darkwood, and her eyes were moon touched black depths without end. Her oversized hands ended in long, delicate fingers, each tipped with a gleaming metal blade. None of that drew Yasgrid’s attention as much as the liquid grace of the woman’s steps as she descended slowly from the tree limb she’d been sitting on.
“Why not?” Kyra asked. Her hands ended in metal as well, though that was due to the knives which had materialized there faster than Yasgrid had been able to follow.
“Because I have what I want.”
“Denar,” Yasgrid said.
Pieces fell into place. Kyra wasn’t any happier with this situation than Yasgrid was. She hadn’t intentionally led them into a trap. She’d brought them to where Denar was, or at least where he’d last been. They’d reached him before the Fate Dancers, but they hadn’t reached him first.
“What makes you think we let you keep him?” Kyra asked.
“Because I want to stay with Ilia.” Denar said, stepping from the shadow the woman was casting. “It’s where I belong now.”
Denar didn’t look like the boy Yasgrid had first seen anymore. Silver and red sparkling scars of light crisscrossed his arms and face, but it was the haunted, hunted look in his eyes the was the most unnatural change.
“You belong with your people,” Kyra said, circling ever so slowly away from Yasgrid.
“Would those be the ones who will kill him the next they get with striking distance?” Ilia asked, flowing to the side to keep herself between Denar and Kyra.
“The Fate Dancers aren’t going to kill you,” Yasgrid said. She didn’t move towards or away from anyone, but she did allow her shoulders to relax as she made eye contact with Denar.
“I know you,” he said, his voice dropping to a whisper.
“It’s good to see you again,” Yasgrid said, offering him a gentle smile.
“You too,” Denar said, the words tumbling out of numb lips.
Endings wasn’t happy with the response. Denar wasn’t a Trouble, but standing in Ilia’s shadow, he was in the penumbra of something that should never be and the longer he was there, the more his elven nature became…Yasgrid wasn’t sure. Endings wasn’t able to convey the idea beyond the most elemental sense of “enemy”.
Being with Ilia was dangerous. She was…Endings couldn’t explain that either. Anathema. Abomination. Abhorrent.
But not a Trouble.
And she was protecting Denar?
Yasgrid was missing something critical.
And then Ilia did the last thing Yasgrid expected.
“Do you wish to go with the Bearer Denar? I believe she will protect you and I am never more than a whisper of away,” Ilia said and stepped aside to allow Denar to pass if he wished to.