Side A – Nia
It was uncharacteristic of Margrada to bounce on her toes in happiness but Nia couldn’t help but smile in response.
“That feels like it took me a lot longer to figure out than it should have,” Nia said, wiping the sweat from her brow.
“Heh, told ya,” Grash said as Horgi passed him a gold coin.
“You were betting on whether I’d figure out how to Battle properly?” Nia asked, neither surprised nor dismayed, only regretful that she hadn’t been able to get in on the action.
“Nope,” Horgi said. “We knew you’d get it. We just had a difference of opinion on what your reaction would be once you did.”
“How could you know I would figure it out?” Nia asked. “Is that something everyone gets after a few falls?”
“Nope,” Grash said.
“Oh, because I’m related to Osdora?” Nia asked, aware that she hadn’t actually inherited any of her drumming from Yasgrid’s mother.
“Nope,” Horgi said.
Margrada slid her arms around Nia’s shoulders.
“They’ve heard you play you doofus,” she said and gave a Nia a warm hug which more than made up from the various bruises her pride had sustained.
Nia let herself enjoy that for a long moment before voicing the question which was dancing around in her mind.
“Why hadn’t Pelegar or Osdora showed me that before? I was supposed to be playing with you in Shale Shard.”
“We didn’t know that you didn’t know back then, remember?” Margrada said. “Osdora still thought you were Yasgrid with some temporary memory problems. And, later, well I asked Pelegar about it and she said she wanted to make sure you had the basics down before trying something that advanced.”
“I kinda feel like I’m still missing a whole lot of the basics,” Nia said.
“Of course you are. So am I. So is Pelegar. Even Osdora’s still working on the basics.”
“But I had enough of them for an actual Battle?”
“Eh, probably not? I’m sure our Drum Master is going to be unhappy with me, but she won’t be able to deny the results.”
“Wait, if I don’t have the basics down, how did you know I’d be able to handle this?” Nia asked.
“I didn’t,” Margrada said. “The only thing that says you can handle a Shatter Drum battle is to actually battle it out. In your case though, I had a pretty good idea that you’d work it out.”
“How? Why? I messed up so many times there!”
“Join the club,” Horgi said. “Every new drummer I’ve seen did exactly what you did.”
“That’s not true,” Grash said. “Most of them kept falling on their asses for another two or three days. Then half of them would give up.”
“How did you know I’d be any different?” Nia asked, terrified at the thought that people routinely failed the test so badly that it broke their drumming spirit.
“You made Shatter Drum magic in your dreams,” Margrada said. “This was never a test for you, I just needed to show you what was inside you already.”
Side B – Yasgrid
The time for rest had passed. Yasgrid knew that not because anxiety drove her to her feet like it had on so many other occasions but because energy and purpose did.
“You are moving?” King asked, rousing from the agreeable slumber which blanketed him. He yawned and stretched and looked for all the world to be a normal black cat, save for the part where the black of his fur was deeper than the deepest night and seemed to draw the eye into its eternal expanse.
“It’s time,” Yasgrid said, testing the restorative effects sleep had gifted her with. Her body felt light and her mind was clear. The memories of her aches and pain lingered in her bones and muscles and skin but they were as much reminders that she had survived as they were of what she’d suffered to earn them.
Though those memories were easily pushed aside, other shadows lurked in her mind which were not so effortlessly cast away. A cavalcade of worries gathered outside the firelight of her chosen thoughts. Rather than struggle to hold them off, she invited them in and let them pass through her and off into the shadows beyond.
Yes, Elshira was growing more powerful. That was okay. Yasgrid was working to undermine that power and turn it back against the former-Bearer.
Yes, Elshira had Kyra prisoner. That was okay. Yasgrid would free Kyra and allow the Fate Dancer to extract the revenge she even now was crafting.
Yes, Yasgrid’ friends and family were in danger. That was okay. They were clever and powerful and quite capable of posing Elshira as much danger as she posed them.
Her worries all spoke to real concerns but that wasn’t where they grew their roots. Each one had tunneled down past the problems they cloaked themselves in and drew sustenance from the simple fact that Yasgrid was scared of losing. Losing though she cared for. Losing herself. Losing any of the elements of her life she’d come to love.
Elshira could hurt her, Elshira could hurt the people she cared for, and that was terrifying. Against that reality she placed another though; she wasn’t ignoring what was happening, and she wasn’t running away. She was moving forward and all the warnings her worries were raising could be allowed to fall away behind her. They’d done their job. It was time they let her do hers.
“Where will you travel next?” King asked.
“The Darkwood holds more allies,” Yasgrid said. “I need them.”
“The next is not far, but it will not wish to ally with you,” King said. “If you meet it, you will bleed.”
“That sounds like exactly the sort of ally I need.”
“Your mother will be concerned that you are pursuing a path as dark as this one,” King said, which was doubtlessly true of Osdora, and probably true of Naosha, so Yasgrid wasn’t certain which woman he was referring to.
“There’s a trick to walking a dark path,” Yasgrid said.
“Yes, you can close your eyes and see with your other senses,” King said.
“Or,” Yasgrid said, conjuring a handful of rainbow light into her hands, “You can bring your own light.”