Side A – Yasgrid
With the last beat on the Shatter Drum echoing into the silence, Yasgrid was left with the Darkwood surrounding her and no hint of the Stoneling lands of her birth.
The twinge of homesickness which followed wasn’t as strong as Yasgrid had imagined it might be. She couldn’t deny it was there. Breathing the cool, crisp air, being physically present on the road away from Shale Shard, feeling her mother’s arms around her shoulders, those all touched old memories and emotions that lay sunken down in the depths of her past.
The call of the northlands though only echoed in her as a pleasant invitation, not a compulsion, a desire, or a fancy, not a need.
She could go back. Her claim to be able to visit there once more wasn’t an idle one, or meant only to placate her mother’s longing. Once her work was done with Endings, it did seem proper that she’d have more work to do. Work that only someone with an outsider’s perspective could even consider doing.
Kayelle wanted to leave the Darkwood, or claimed she did. Yasgrid suspected the truth was rather different than that, but reaching that would require completing the trial they’d taken up in becoming the Bearer.
Yasgrid doubted that Kayelle would want to join her in venturing to Frost Harbor when all was said and done, but wasn’t willing to wager anything of significance on that point. The future was hard enough to predict and she saw an uncountable number of paths it might proceed down.
Much like the Darkwood around her.
“Getting back to Blue Falls is not going to be trivial is it,” she mused to break the silence. Kyra had led them along a path that had no analog with the real landscape Yasgrid had to traverse to get back, and Nia’s had never been to wherever Yasgrid had managed to find herself.
“A Trouble is hunting us now,” Endings said. “It’s near.”
Yasgrid drew in a breath, becoming more aware of her surroundings. Whatever malevolence the Trouble held, it was such a faint whisper in comparison to the unrelenting enmity of the Lost Roads that she couldn’t begin to feel it.
“Can you show me?” she asked, not calling Endings forth but letting its essence fill her eyes.
“It’s moving. Hiding itself. It is not coming closer though. It’s waiting. Watching.”
Yasgrid felt small tugs from Endings, trying to draw her attention to where the Trouble was but with each step it took it shift across leaps of space without passing through the points between.
“How old do you think this one is?” she asked.
“Old enough to know caution,” Endings said. “It’s scent is familiar. The Bearer has hunted this one before.”
“Without any luck obviously,” Yasgrid said before a worse thought occurred to her. “Has it slain any of the past Bearers?”
“Not directly,” Endings said, which was not a particularly reassuring answer.
Side B – Nia
Nia didn’t feel any particular emptiness after Yasgrid faded away. It wasn’t as though Yasgrid was any more distant from her after all. Osdora, however sighed into a sag.
“I’m sorry for all this,” Nia said, knowing she’d already apologized and that no apology could fix things from Osdora’s perspective.
“You girls should probably get back to your tent,” Osdora said. “We’ll talk more about this in the later. I need some time to think.”
“Can we meet you for dinner?” Nia asked, an instinct telling her that leaving Osdora alone wasn’t the best of ideas. She couldn’t find any support for it though, or any pretexts where staying would seem natural, so she settled for trying to arrange something relatively soon.
“Maybe,” Osdora said. “I’m going to go talk to Pelegar for a while. If we’re done, I’ll come get you.”
“I’ll make sure Nia gets some rest,” Margrada said. “She’s been sleeping for days but after what we just saw there’s no telling how drained she’s going to be.”
“That’s a good idea,” Osdora said. “Oh, and we’ll call you Nia from now on, if that’s what you’d like? Between the coma and the fugue state, deciding to take on a new identity shouldn’t surprise anyone all that much.”
“I’d like that,” Nia said. “I don’t know that anyone would believe the real story, but at least they won’t be giving me credit for the good things Yasgrid did for them.”
Osdora blinked once, a ripple of surprise washing over her face, before she offered Nia a wan smile.
“We can wait till she’s here to give people the whole story,” she said.
“Thanks,” Nia said.
“Off with you now,” Osdora said and shooed them out of her tent.
They were a good distance away before Margrada broken the odd silence.
“That was not how I think any of us expected that to go,” she said.
“Yeah, things got a bit unplanned there,” Nia said. “I’m glad we went though. And I’m glad you were with me.”
“Afraid I was going to run for hills when I found out you were really a tiny little doll of a thing elf-girl?” Margrada asked.
Nia gaped at the teasing.
Yes! She had been worried about that!
Which was apparently stupid.
“The thought had occurred to me,” she said, wary of trusting the complete acceptance Margrada seemed to be giving her.
“I’m not going anywhere Nia,” Margrada said and Nia felt a shiver of delight race up and down her spine at the sound of her own name on Margrada’s lips.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Nia said, a rather feral hunger blossoming within her.
“No, you really are going to rest,” Margrada said. “I’ve spent more than a week without you. I am not putting you back into a coma so soon.”
“Hey I’m feeling okay. I’ve got plenty of strength left,” Nia grumbled.
“You won’t when I’m done with you,” Margrada said plainly.
Nia’s desire for rest was entirely nonexistent in the face of such a threat? Promise? Could be either Nia supposed given the worry she’d put Margrada through.
Margrada seemed to be entirely serious about enforcing the rest mandate though.
“It’s been a week for me too,” Nia protested in a small voice.
“You’ve been unconscious,” Margrada said. “Also you didn’t watch the woman you love nearly burn herself to ash, so you have to listen to me.”
“I don’t know that’s how that works…” Nia started to say before Margrada interrupted her.
“Then I can make it up to you once we’re sure you’re okay.”
Which was a promise Nia was going to be all too delighted to hold her to.