Side A – Yasgrid
Being able to foresee someone’s plans is frequently a prerequisite to foiling their agenda. Yasgrid wished her situation was as simple as that.
“This is not a good idea,” Marianne said. Despite that claim, she was walking right beside Yasgrid when both of them should have long since retired for the evening.
In her hands, Yasgrid held a freshly poured cup of Naosha’s special tea, being careful not to spill it as they marched through Blue Falls. The tea’s mystical effect wasn’t going to be as potent in an open air environment but according to Naosha it would still prevent scrying in a roughly ten foot radius around her.
“I’m aware,” Yasgrid said, mentally rehearsing what she was going to say when they reached their destination.
There were many terrible options to choose from, several of which were entirely self-defeating, while others stood a fantastic chance of getting her stabbed repeatedly. It bothered Yasgrid that the stab-inducing tacts were among the best ones she could think of in terms of accomplishing her immediate objective.
Long term, provoking the Fate Dancers to stab her, might cost both her and the Darkwood overall more than either could afford to pay.
“It won’t work,” Marianne said.
Yasgrid wasn’t certain how many knives Marianne was carrying, in part because she wasn’t brandishing them, and in part because every time Yasgrid did catch a glimpse of steel in Marianne’s hands it was definitely not any of the knives she’d seen Marianne carrying before.
“I don’t expect it to,” Yasgrid said. She discarded a few more conversational gambit and recentered herself on the core mission she was trying to accomplish.
Kyra needed to be warned that she was in danger, and more specifically that the danger would take the form of a setup that would make her appear guilty of something horrible enough to drive a reasonable person to murder.
Yasgrid didn’t want to mention that it would be Kayelle who would be motivated to murder. Kyra probably wouldn’t try to resolve the situation via a pre-emptive killing spree, but Yasgrid wasn’t sure the same would be true of the rest of the Fate Dancers.
“This could have been done with a letter,” Marianna said, tucking yet another pair of knives into her sleeves.
“You know that’s not true,” Yasgrid said as the rounded a corner and came within sight of the Fate Dancer’s encampment. “A letter would never have reached her and she would never have heard of it.”
“And you think this will be any different?” Marianne asked.
“I have several options to ensure it will be different,” Yasgrid said.
“Are any of them ones which I will be happy with?”
“Of course not.”
“So I should stop you here and now?”
“If you thought that, you wouldn’t have let me leave the apartment. Our window for action is of uncertain size. The only thing we know for certain is that its still open. Hence the need to act now.”
“I can think of a variety of other options, including the far simpler one of speaking with Kayelle directly.”
“And you know that won’t work either,” Yasgrid said. “If Elshira’s plot was one Kayelle could be talked out of, it would fall apart the moment we were put against each other. Whatever Elshira’s planning, it has to be something that places Kayelle in a position where she has no viable choice except to attack Kyra with deadly intent.”
“And you’re going to prevent this how?” Marianne asked, pitching her voice low as they approached the main gates of the camp.”
“I’m going to give the Fate Dancers what they want,” she said, deciding on what was almost certainly the least advisable course of action possible.
“What do you want?” one of the Fate Dancer guards said, stepping forward to block Yasgrid’s path even though the gates were closed behind him.
“This,” Yasgrid said and hauled back before laying the hardest Stoneling punch into the guards face that she’d ever thrown.
Side B – Nia
The music wasn’t pulling her physically across the leagues that separated Nia from Osdora but Nia still felt the wind roaring past her and her strides touching down miles apart from each other as the music raced before her and surged within her.
When they arrived, it wasn’t as gentle as the transition to the Darkwood had been. Nia and Margrada landed like lightning bolts, thunder crashing in their wake and a cloud of dust momentarily obscuring their landing site.
From the echoes in drumming that followed them though, Nia knew she’d reached Osdora.
“What in the Sleeping Gods hell was that?” Osdora asked, becoming visible as she fanned the dust away.
“You’ve got visitors,” the woman beside her said. Gossma was Osdora’s age but had softer, less weathered features. Her eyes were not soft however. Concern had hardened them into ice as she gazed on the spectral forms of Nia and Margrada, wary for the sort of treachery and havoc that could be wrought with Shatter Drums.
“Visitors?” Osdora asked, clearing her eyes. Her reaction when she saw who stood before her was one of pure shock and wonder though. “Wait. How? What are you doing?”
“Catching up to you,” Nia said.
“Where did you get a second drum?” Osdora asked.
Because focusing on the technical aspect of what was before her meant Osdora didn’t have to process the deeper, emotional content of it, Nia saw.
“Her parents,” Margrada said, nodding over towards Gossma as she continued to guide and shape the song their were creating.
With their arrival the pattern of the song was easier to follow and maintain. Nia knew they couldn’t keep it up forever though, it was surprisingly taxing to play, noticeably more so than when she and Yasgrid played.
“Ask them why they’re here Rockhead,” Gossma said.
“I know why they’re here,” Osdora said. “Pelegar put them up to this. She’s worried the Band will fall apart without me. I should box her ears in for making you two do something this dangerous.”
“It wasn’t her idea,” Nia said. “It was ours, and we’re not here to bring you back to the band, we’re here to stop you from getting yourself killed.”