Side A – Nia
Shatter Drumming was a hungry endeavor, a fact which Nia remembered when her stomach growled loud enough to create an echo.
“Should we get going?” she asked, unsure of which direction it was they would be moving in.
“Not before you have a meal,” Gossma’s mother said.
“We really shouldn’t impose,” Pelegar said.
“Nonsense. Consider it the rental price on that drum,” Gossma’s father said.
Further arguments proved to be similarly fruitless and before long Nia was sitting down on a real bench, at a real table, eating a simple but surprisingly delicious stew.
“So how dangerous is the nonsense Osdora’s dragged Gossma into this time?” Paxdar, Gossma’s father asked.
“Depends how far they travel together,” Pelegar said.
“Gossma wouldn’t cross the ocean with Osdora, would she?” Nia asked.
“The ocean? I don’t know,” Madwin, Gossma’s mother, said. “She might throw Osdora in. Or swim across it with her. Other both.”
“Those two were always mad with each other,” Paxdar said.
“It’s why we didn’t both trying to stop them,” Madwin said. “Fought that battle a bunch of times and lost every one of them. The two are half mad when they get together, but the other half is clever enough. Most of the time.”
“Mad enough to try to make it to the Darkwood?” Nia asked.
“Where’s that?” Paxdar asked.
“Beyond the farther western horizon from the tallest peak a Stoneling can climb,” Pelegar said. “The trip would be faster if they caught a boat. Safer too. I’m pretty sure Osdora’s got an eye out for speed but safety’s never been a big concern for her.”
“Gossma neither,” Madwin said. “I’m amazed either of them lived long enough to make it out of diapers.”
“They both have Shatter Dru`ms with them, don’t they?” Margrada asked.
“That’s a certainty,” Paxdar said. “We heard them playing as they went down the river.”
“Calling the current,” Pelegar said, shaking her head. “It figures.”
It didn’t sound like Pelegar approved of that, but any trace of shock or surprise was entirely absent from her voice.
“Would having two of them help with that?” Nia asked.
“Normally? No. One person trying to shape a river is ridiculous. Two people trying to do it should just add to the chaos,” Pelegar said.
“Osdora and Gossma are an exception though, aren’t they?” Margrada said and Nia could see the wheels turning in her mind.
Or maybe it wasn’t wheels turning.
Maybe it was drums beating.
“That’s Osdora,” Pelegar said. “Always the exception. Gossma too now that I think about it. No offense meant.”
“None taken,” Paxdar said. “We always knew Gossma was a special kid. Can’t say it’s been a surprise to see grow up like she has. Seems like these two might be following in their wake?”
“Sleeping gods not if I have anything to say about it,” Pelegar said. “In fact I’m starting to see how much of folly following in Osdora’s wake has been. Catching up to her alone wasn’t very practical and now that there’s two of them together?” She shook her head in resignation.
“About that…” Margrada said.
Side B – Yasgrid
Kyra was in danger. Yasgrid felt the urge to leap up out of her chair and race off with the warning.
But what was the point?
Fate Dancers were always in danger. It was the life they’d accepted for themselves.
Or been forced to accept. Denar’s circumstances still made Yasgrid grind her teeth.
The unfairness of Fate Dancer society wasn’t relevant though. Yasgrid knew she would never talk Kyra out of being a Fate Dancer, and she wasn’t sure she’d even want to try to remove something that was so fundamental a part of Kyra’s self image.
Without that though, what could she say that would convince Kyra, or any Fate Dancer, that Elshira was a special level of threat? And what could she ask Kyra to do about it, even if she could convince her that the danger was real?
“Ugh, it’s not hopeless you dolt,” Marianne said.
Yasgrid was pretty sure Marianne couldn’t read her mind and was just good at reading context from her expressions. Probably.
“Maybe not,” Yasgrid agreed, more out of habit than because she had anything specific to pin those hopes on.
“Elshira wants to recruit you,” Marianne said. “That gives some leverage over her.”
“It seemed more like she thought I would recruit myself,” Yasgrid said. “From how she spoke, she seemed convinced that once I’d arrived at whatever great and terrible revelation she discovered, I would want nothing more than to join her cause.”
“But she gave no hints as to what the revelation might be?”
“I got the sense that for it to have the proper impact, it’s one I need to arrive at on my own,” Yasgrid said.
“That seems like a poor gamble,” Marianne said. “Even presuming the secret she’s hoping you’ll discover is that profound, she can’t be certain that you’ll manage to unearth it.”
“She must have seen something in how I’ve used Ending so far that suggests I’m working towards what she wants me to know.” Yasgrid had a bone deep suspicion what that was.
The remnants of the Troubles sleeping in her heart were peaceful despite Yasgrid’s worry for Kyra though. Ostensibly, they were the closest tie that Yasgrid had to Elshira, but her experience with them had been so different from Elshira’s that she had to wonder if there wasn’t some other connection that they shared.
Or had Elshira seen something deep in the remnants than Yasgrid yet had?
She hadn’t interrogated them at all. Had left them to their slumber, buried down in the safety of her soul. Could they be hiding something there?
Yasgrid thought of Nia calling one of the remnants forth.
Incredible destruction had been wrought by their combined hands…and yet, it hadn’t been uncalled for.
The Trouble remnant Nia had called on had gone willing. It had fought as one with her, and it had done no more damage than was needed to save someone Nia’s heart refused to lose.
And in the end? In the end the Trouble hadn’t return to Yasgrid, and it hadn’t stayed with Nia. It hadn’t been a Trouble anymore at all, or even a remnant of one.
Yasgrid didn’t know if that was something she could ever manage, or if Nia could repeat the trick, but it did leave her with one very important question:
Did Elshira know more about the heart of the Troubles, or had Yasgrid discovered something even beyond the understanding of a monster who couldn’t be slain by Endings and had cheated death itself.