Side A – Nia
Picking up her drum again was the easiest thing in the world for Nia to do. Picking up the song that she heard playing beyond most distant edges of her perception though? That was a different story.
“I’m only catching every third beat cleanly,” she said, her hands hovering over her drum as she searched for a spot to join in on the song.
“Not bad,” Gossma said. “That’s better than I’m doing.”
“I’ll help you out there,” Osdora said and began playing again.
The music wrapped around Nia and filled her with a wild joy. Held in its grip, she felt transported outside herself, lifted up on a rising thermal of exhilaration.
She closed her eyes to drink in the sensation and when she opened them, she was staring at Margrada once again.
“You’re back!” Margrada dropped notes left and right in surprise but she didn’t stop playing.
“Uh, am I?” Nia wondered, the soaring sensation still ringing through her bones.
“Nope, not yet,” Osdora said. “But we’ll get to that.”
“You turned the song around?” A look of dawning comprehension filled Margrada’s face.
“You two showed me what it needed to be,” Osdora said. “This is just a simple variation of what you put together.”
“I’m kind of ringing here, which is a bit distracting,” Nia said. “What exactly happened? What is this song doing?”
“She pulled you away,” Margrada said. “This is her putting you back.”
“Why doesn’t this feel like when I teleported to you?” Nia asked, turning to Osdora for an explanation.
Osdora who was sitting there, playing her own drum, with Pelegar and Gossma’s parent’s behind her.
“This is where the music took you from,” Osdora said. “Putting you back is easier than pulling you out to me. The world likes having you in the spot you were in before magic got involved.”
“Likes it so much that my bones are buzzing?” Nia asked.
“The song’s not done,” Margrada said. “She hasn’t fully sent you back yet. You’re still there, not here. I think this is just a projection, right?”
“Honestly I’m not sure what we count as at the moment,” Osdora said. “We’re not an illusion, we have some substance, but at the moment we’re still sitting on the ground near Gossma.”
“But you’re going to change that. Right?” Margrada said.
“Don’t think I can,” Osdora said. “I think that’s up to Nia here.”
“Me?” Nia felt like her hands were light as feathers, wonderfully free but quite incapable of striking a drum to any effect.”
“We’ve set up the connection, but if you’re going to move back, you need to be the one who plays that part of it, like you did when you came to me,” Osdora said.
“But I don’t remember what I did then. It just kind of happened.”
“I guess you’re doomed to stay with me then.”
“That’s not funny.”
“Kind of is. Trust me, you’ll laugh about it later.”
“Try joining the song,” Margrada said, more helpfully. “You managed it before and we hadn’t practiced it at all.”
Looking into Margrada’s eyes, Nia saw a belief in her she’d never managed to see in the mirror. Raising her hands over the drum was the easiest thing in the world from there.
Side B – Yasgrid
Yasgrid hoped what she saw in Marianne and Kayelle’s eyes was a look of understanding. It was going to have to be. She’d run out of obfuscating words.
Without waiting, she turned on her heels and started marching towards the nearest gate out of Blue Falls. She thought her ploy had worked and that she’d be able to draw Elshira’s attention away cleanly until she felt a hand grab her arm.
She turned to try put up the fight Elshira would expect to see, but Marianne wasn’t looking for a fight.
“Take this at least,” she said, offering Yasgrid a serrated dagger that looked like it was forged of silver moonlight. “If you won’t have Endings you’ll need at least this.”
Yasgrid took the beautiful blade by the hilt and felt a charge of energy humming within it.
“It’s my favorite,” Marianne said. “If you lose it, or don’t bring it back you know what the price will be.”
Yasgrid choked back a laugh.
“You will definitely stab me,” she said.
“No. Stab implies a singular event,” Marianne said.
“Then I will definitely bring it back to you,” Yasgrid said.
“Yes, and bear in mind that I do own several blessed spirit blades. I can stab ghosts if that is required.” Marianne did not look happy, but Yasgrid couldn’t tell if she was simply a good actress or if she was channeling real emotions.
“I will bring it back,” Yasgrid assured her.
Kayelle, thankfully, made no attempt to stop her. Yasgrid hoped that Marianne would be able to fill Kayelle in on the parts of Elshira’s plans that they’d reasoned out. It was possible that the entire affair might be defeated by five minutes of private conversation, but even if Elshira’s plans were ruined, Kyra was still in danger and would be in even more if Elshira was forced to desperate actions.
The thought of Kyra stirred the Troubles sleeping Yasgrid’s heart. She hadn’t spent much time examining the feelings that had grown there, and hadn’t even been consciously aware that they were growing for what felt like an unreasonably long time.
Nia had managed to win a blossoming love life with an amazingly talented partner all while pretending to be Yasgrid. Comparing herself to Nia though was not going to bring her any sort of peace.
Nor was whatever she felt for Kyra.
All she saw when she looked into her future with Kyra were paths that led into darkness. Kyra had lost so much, her whole world had been turned upside down, and there was no rescuing her from that.
It would be perfectly reasonable for her to blame Yasgrid for some of what befell her. Or be unable to bear the presence of someone who reminded her of those losses.
Not to mention the fact that they’d parted with Kyra holding back a simmering rage for what Endings had shown her.
For what Yasgrid had forced her to see.
Even if Elshira infliced no further suffering on Kyra, Yasgrid wasn’t sure if the Ex-Fate Dance would be able to bring herself to forgive Yasgrid for shattering her world and leaving her with so little of who she’d been to cling to.
And even if she could, even if Kyra could see past all that, she hadn’t spoken any words to suggest that her feelings mirrored the ones growing within Yasgrid.