Side A – Nia
From the first beat Nia knew she was in for the ride of her life.
Okay, this is gonna work, she told herself, letting the rippling magic of the beat fill her hands and her image of Osdora guide them in shaping it.
The magic flowed with more depth and subtlety than the earlier songs she’d played. Margada’s approach to the Shatter drums was not at all the same as Nia’s and for several of the beats that followed, as they wound through the intro of the overall song, Nia felt like she was going to snap. With all the skill she could muster, Nia twisted herself around to follow Margrada’s sharp inflections and complex timing. In the end she could only twist herself so far though.
Panic crashed over her as she missed a doubled beat and the song wobbled and lost direction. Her doubts bit into her hands, draining the life from them and leaving only a tremble.
That was okay though. She could abandon the song still. Let it come crashing down. They weren’t far enough into it that either she or Margrada would would experience anything but mild discomfort for the song ending badly.
It was safe to quit.
She didn’t even need to talk to Osdora. Osdora was an adult with a lot more experience than Nia had. If anyone could make the journey it was definitely one of the Stoneling’s premier drummers. Especially since she had Gossma at her side.
So it was okay.
This was something she could fail at.
She was so new, no one would blame her. They all knew it was too hard for her. That they were asking for something she just couldn’t do.
Except…
No.
She didn’t know that.
And neither did they.
Pelegar though they might fail, but she wasn’t sure, and Margrada?
Margrada believed in her.
Nia sank down into the magic, let her body vanish, let her mind be swept outwards to unending eternity where it could hang in the timeless moment of one single beat.
She wasn’t herself in that moment.
She was the cosmos observing a tiny part of itself. A part that held the whole of it and was so small that it could contain everything that ever was, is, and could be.
Breathe, she said.
And so she did.
Feel, she said.
And so she did.
Listen, she said.
And so she understood.
Her next beat was hard and loud, not at all the clean and precise note Margrada had struck to bring the song back from the abyss it was toppling towards.
And yet it worked.
The tremble in her hands was gone, joy racing down her nerves to fill her hands with life and passion.
She didn’t have to play like Margrada.
Or rather, she couldn’t play like Margrada!
And that wasn’t what was needed. The song would only work between them if they were united in it, but to be truly united meant they had to be themselves.
Margrada brought skill and clarity, sharp rules and brilliant depths to the music. Nia couldn’t refine those or play sharper or clearer than Margrada. What she could do though was bring the gifts that were uniquely hers to offer. Vibrancy, volume, and unyielding joy.
Margrada had the reins of the spell they were weaving. She was the one who steered them outwards, racing across the leagues that Osdora had put between them, but it was Nia who propelled them and, compass-like, pointed the direction in which Osdora lay.
As their shadows flew across the miles, Nia caught a glimpse of Margrada who was gazing at her in wonder and knew that this hadn’t been a mistake.
This was what she was supposed to be doing and who she was supposed to be.
Side B – Yasgrid
Yasgrid was deeply glad that Marianne had brewed Naosha’s special scrying blocking tea. If there’d been any chance that Elshira had been able to overhear them, then Yasgrid was sure Elshira would have adopted Marianne’s plans in a heartbeat. As it was Yasgrid settled for being deeply grateful that Elshira was her enemy and not Marianne. Elshira could be beaten. Despite the power she’d shown, Yasgrid firmly believed that.
Marianne however she wasn’t quite so sure of.
“Elshira’s machinations raise a rather vital question,” Yasgrid said. “How can we protect you?”
“Me?” Marianne asked, caught off guard. “Why would I need protection?”
“If Elshira intends to turn Kayelle upon those closest to me, you would be in a fair degree of peril wouldn’t you?” Yasgrid asked, confused by Marianne’s confusion.
Marianne just laughed at the notion though.
“You would never kill your sister for me,” Marianne said. “Even if Kayelle was intent on murder, you know I would stab you for harming her for my sake.”
Yasgrid raised her hand to object to that, but a moment’s thought had her lowering her hand again.
Elshira might try to strike at Marianne. She might make the mistake of assuming that Marianne’s beauty was the sign of a shallow mind and that her accomplishments were indulgences bestowed in the hopes of currying favor. If so that would likely be the last mistake Elshira would make and the problem she posed would become as past tense as it should have been when she first ‘died’.
“I doubt she would move against Naosha,” Yasgrid said. “I can’t imagine anything that would turn Kayelle against Naosha in the first place and harming Kayelle would be received quite poorly there too. It’s not Naosha’s preferred method of addressing problems, but harming Kayelle might draw the same stabbing response from her as it would from you.”
“Elshira is doubtless aware of that too,” Marianne said. “Naosha likely has more plans and contingencies in place than either of us could guess.”
“Turning Kayelle against those I care about seems like a daunting task then,” Yasgrid said. It still seemed like the most plausible course of action Elshira would take, and the one with the highest chance of getting her uncontested possession of Endings again. It seemed to lack leverage as far as Yasgrid could see and would fail without it, but was that a flaw in Elshira’s plan or in Yasgrid’s understanding of the situation?
As it turned out, it was the latter.
“Really? Has Kayelle spoke of any fondness for the Fate Dancers?” Marianne asked and the pieces of the puzzle she’d put together fell into place for Yasgrid as well.