Side A – Nia
The truth is supposed to set you free, but as far as Nia could tell it just aggravated Yasgrid.
“Do you think there’s any chance you can catch up with her?” Yasgrid asked, massaging the her forehead as though she could squeeze the aggravation out if she just pressed hard enough.
“Maybe?” Nia said. “Margrada’s helping me get to the tavern your Mom was last seen at. If she left on foot we might be able to get a couple of horses and catch up to her.”
“Unless she went directly off road and started just climbing over the mountaintops.” Yasgrid sighed before continuing. “What is she thinking? She has no idea how to get here and no the first clue how long the trip could take. And that’s leaving aside all of the things in between here and there that are going to want to eat her.”
“Could she be planning to use the drum magic you spoke of to get here again?” Kayelle asked.
Nia hadn’t explained much about Shatter Drumming, but Kayelle was quick enough to see that it needed to be considered as a significant factor in Osdora’s plans.
“She won’t try to get here on her own by drumming like we did last night,” Yasgrid said. “She knows how drumming works too well to make that mistake.”
Nia had to agree. If Osdora could have returned to the Darkwood on her own through drumming, she would have vanished from the tent directly rather than taking off and stopping at a tavern before heading onwards.
“Could she be planning to shorten the route with some other technique?” Nia asked.
It seemed implausible that Osdora meant to hike the entire distance on her own. That would have been more comforting if her situation with Yasgrid was by any measure a plausible thing.
“I know we don’t have anything that would transport us to the Darkwood,” Yasgrid said. “Our traders complain about the sea so much they’d be selling body parts for anything that let them hop over it.”
“You don’t think she’ll attempt to cross solely via a land route?” Kayelle asked.
“I’m praying she’s not so possessed by whatever idea’s grabbed ahold of her that she’ll pass on trying to cover some of the distance by boat,” Yasgrid said, but didn’t look convinced that would be the case.
“I guess the real question is how possessed do you think she could get?” Nia asked. “Is it possible that she spends a day or so hellbent on getting to you but eventually the reality of the trip sinks in and she comes to her senses?”
Yasgrid laughed at that, a short bitter chuckle that stopped as quickly as it began. “My Mom has good ideas and bad ones and she’s always claimed it as a virtue that she’ll see all of them through to the end ‘because how else can you tell which is which’?”
“Okay then,” Nia said. “That leaves us with one other option. It might require that I sort of ‘borrow’ a Shatter Drum, but if we can’t catch her on foot, we could try to play ourselves to her.”
Side B – Yasgrid
Yasgrid knew the consequences of what Nia was offering and in a moment where she felt herself almost as one with her mother, Yasgrid found herself tempted to agree.
“We can’t,” she said after a long moment’s consideration.
“I’m pretty sure we can,” Nia said. “She’s a part of who you are, and I’m connected to her through your blood. We have a strong link with her. And it would only be us going. Just to talk to her. I don’t think we’d be able to bring her back with the drumming, unless she knows some trick to it.”
“Knowing Mom? She might,” Yasgrid said. “And you’re probably right. If we play together we might be able to manifest in front of her, even if she was running. But I don’t think we should.”
“It might be our only chance to stop her though,” Nia said.
“It won’t be,” Yasgrid said. “There’ll be other options, other ideas we come up with if we give it time. You might even find that you can catch her on horseback.”
“But you’re not betting on that,” Nia said. “I can tell.”
Yasgrid deflated a bit.
“I’m not,” she said. “But I also not willing to let you ruin the life you’re building there.”
“If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have a life here to build,” Nia said. “And you’re Mom’s been good to me. Better than she should have been given what I wasn’t telling her.”
“No!” Yasgrid said. “You do not need to feel guilty about this. Not telling her was as much my idea as yours and, trust me, I know my Mom, waiting to tell her until you did was absolutely the right idea.”
“I told her and less than half a day later she abandoned a Battle of Bands trip to race off across the world to a place that, if I can grossly understate this, is not going to be friendly to her. That seems a bit less than optimal,” Nia said.
“For Osdora? That’s practically the best case scenario,” Yasgrid said. “She’s not mad at you, or hurt, or any of those things. She’s focused entirely outward. That’s so much better than how she handles things when she’s really upset.”
“What is your mother like when she’s truly angry?” Kayelle asked.
“Oh, when she’s angry, she fights. It’s really simple. Well, simple with people her own age. With me, she was only truly angry a few times and that just resulted in screaming matches,” Yasgrid said. “When she’s upset though, she turns inward usually. Sometimes she just goes into her music, sometimes into silence. I always hated that more than the shouting.”
“Let me ask something else then,” Nia said. “Do you think she can make the trip? There are a lot of dangers but she has a Shatter Drum.”
“I know. That’s what worries me,” Yasgrid said. “I don’t know if there is anything that can stop her, and the gods only know what’s going to be left in her wake if something tries.”