Two Hearts One Beat – Chapter 205

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Side A – Nia

With a promise that she’d keep Yasgrid up to date on anything they discovered about Osdora’s whereabouts, Nia returned her attention to the body she was wearing.

“Oh, we’re almost there?” she said without pulling away from Margrada. She was a little distracted, but that didn’t mean she’d lost her mind after all.

Margrada had cut them across country, taking them up and over a sharp stone rise that was overgrown with knee high scrubby weeds. The short cut wasn’t an easy path but it was the fastest path to the main road and the tavern which sat beside it, overlooking the valley they’d ridden up from the day before.

The sight of the Stoneling lands stretching out before her still took Nia’s breath away and left her feeling terrifyingly naked before the impossibly vast sky.

For a child of the Darkwood, the sky was usually a comfortably close canopy which admitted just enough light to allow for the ground flora to survive as well. In clearings and around ponds and lake, the vast blue dome of the world was more noticeable but apart from some pining-filled afternoons with Marianne laying beside a body of water which couldn’t hope to match Marianne’s beauty, Nia hadn’t paid the world above her that much mind.

Had she been waiting for the vista that lay before her, she wondered?

Or maybe one who stood beside her, framed against that gloriously lovely backdrop?

After her heartfelt conversation with her sister, and the concerning one with Yasgrid, Nia’s emotions were dancing in tight circles within her. There was so much she wanted to say to Margrada and so few words that could encompass her feelings properly.

“How did your talk go?” Margrada asked, glancing away shyly when she stole a glance in Nia’s direction and noticed the joy gleaming in Nia’s eyes. “Does Yasgrid think Osdora’s really run off?”

“She does,” Nia said, relaxing her adoration a notch and settling for simply enjoying the warmth of Margrada’s hand in her own. “She’s afraid Osdora is going to try to make the whole trip overland rather than taking an boat ride to cut off some of the distance.”

“Why? That would take even longer wouldn’t it?” Margrada picked the path down the rocky hill towards the road and Nia followed a half step beside her, trusting that none of the rocks under their feet would come loose unexpectedly. Margrada moved them forward with good speed but was always half turned to guard against Nia taking a tumble.

“She thinks Osdora’s basically possessed,” Nia said. “Not by a ghost or anything, but by an idea. I guess she’s gotta like that before?”

“With her music,” Margrada said, nodding in understanding. “Among her many accomplishments, your adopted Mom is pretty renowned for the new songs she’s developed.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Nia said, pleased at the idea of Osdora being an adopted-Mom. Could adoptions work the other way round? Could you adopt a parent instead of a parent adopting you? With her father gone, she did have an opening for an another parent in her life.

“It will when you hear the bands we’re battling playing Osdora’s music back at us,” Margrada said. “Her songs are really popular.”

Nia smelled smoke as they approached the tavern. 

That wasn’t terribly unusual given that the roadside taverns they’d passed so far kept their fire going more or less continually. The volume of smoke was a bit unusual though.

As they approached the taverns doors, the reason became unfortunately clear thanks to the sign which hung between the locked doors.

“Closed due to madwoman!” it read, and Nia had a sinking feeling she knew exactly who that had been.

Side B – Yasgrid

With Nia’s departure, Kayelle and Yasgrid left Ending’s psychic palace and allowed the shield around themselves to drop away.

“Will you be okay?” Kayelle asked as they began walking into the city.

“I’ll be aggravated, and worried, but I know my mother, she’s capable of almost anything she sets her mind to,” Yasgrid said. “I trust Nia and Margrada too. If Mom’s not tearing off to get here at maximum possible speed, they’ll probably be able to find her.”

“Who is this Margrada?” Kayelle asked. “She sounded like someone important?”

“I didn’t know her well,” Yasgrid said. “Nia however has grown rather attached to her.”

“Oh no,” Kayelle said. “Does Margrada share those feelings?”

“She spent a week caring for Nia while Nia was in coma,” Yasgrid said.

“Nia was in a what?” Kayelle asked.

“Technically, I suppose it was a mystically enhanced healing sleep, given that she seems in massively better shape now than when she went into it,” Yasgrid said.

Kayelle chuckled gently.

“There it is again,” she said.

“What?”

“I’m feeling competitive. Over Nia being in hurt,” Kayelle said. “It’s so ridiculous. My first thought was that I was supposed to be the one who was having important and momentous events happening to her and yet my little sister was still somehow managing to upstage me. I am not going to be like that though. It’s foolish. So not anymore. Tell me, how did she get hurt? And is she really okay now? She seemed fine inside Endings.”

“I think she’s much better now,” Yasgrid said. “The care she received and the time she spent healing seem to have done wonders for her body and spirit. As to how she was hurt, there’s a lot to explain there. The short form is that she was fighting to defend Margrada and used some very unusual magic which resulted in the coma and the healing sleep. Most importantly though? Your feelings aren’t foolish, especially since you can recognize them and choose how you’ll act on them.”

“I’ve always thought I had excellent control over my emotions,” Kayelle said. “I’m starting to understand that when it came to Nia, I was simply able to rationalize indulging some unpleasant ones a little too easily. And, I suppose that’s likely true with much of the rest of the rest of my life too.”

“It sounds like you might take to Shatter Drumming as well as Nia did,” Yasgrid said. “If my mother does manage to reach the Darkwood, we’ll have to see if she can give you a lesson or two.”

“Oh no. That’s an endless competition pitfall if ever there was one,” Kayelle said. “I’m much better off staying focused on the work we have to do.”

“Yeah, it’s been long enough,” Yasgrid said. “Time for us to talk with your mother again.”

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