Side A – Yasgrid
Yasgrid rose from the clutches of a nightmare and dusted herself off, a smile on her lips and a song in her heart.
“You are bleeding. Again,” King said. It was dangerously close to sounding like an admonition – dangerous in the sense that it could have been mistaken as a sign of affection and/or concern for her well being.
“This one was particularly hungry,” Yasgrid said, wiping the blood away from the long slashes which ran down her left arm.
“That seems to be a growing theme as you waken more and more of them,” King said. “Do you plan to recruit any others?
“This was only the thirteenth, and the Solstice is still over a month away,” Yasgrid said with a shrug.
“The thirteenth which you have allowed to persist beyond the bounds of your meeting,” King said.
“I would have allowed them all to continued existing,” Yasgrid said. “Had I done so though, the ones who are no more would have fled immediately to Elshira’s side.”
“And they foolishly said as much to you,” King said. “One wonders what defect of insight led them to think that was the wisest course of action?”
“I’m not a threat to them,” Yasgrid said. “And some of them desire nothing more than to hurt those who cannot hurt them back.”
“They could choose to do otherwise,” King said.
“Yes. They arose through many different means, but all of them have become people after their own fashions.”
“People who seem overly fond of drawing your blood.”
“We all hurt each other from time to time, the Nightmare of Claws in the Dark was quite apologetic about their lapse in decorum before I woke.”
“And the one before? The Killing Cold I believe it was?” King asked, rising and bowing into a deep stretch of his front legs.
“His hunger wasn’t for blood, and he wasn’t apologetic for seeking my heart’s warmth.”
“You negotiated with him for a rather long time for someone who showed no sign of remorse for what he was doing,” King said.
“I don’t think he could. He was so invested in his role and so convinced of his own righteousness I don’t think he could have envisioned that he was wrong no matter what evidence I gave him,” Yasgrid said.
“And that is why he’s no more?”
“No. It’s the nature of nightmares to be monsters. I’m not asking any of them to change that.”
“And yet he is gone.”
“I showed him what’s inside me,” Yasgrid said. “I’d hope to inspire him to change. Instead I gave his appetite a new target.”
“So you will allow the Nightmares to devour you but should they threaten the Troubled Hearts you carry…”
“Then they are done, yes,” Yasgrid said. “I promised the Hearts within me that they would find safety there. I have every right to risk myself for the things I believe in, I have to be free to do that to find the allies we need. I do not have the right to risk them though.”
“But what else is fuel meant for beside burning?” Elshira whispered.
Side B – Nia
Beating Margrada was not a trivial endeavor. Nia hadn’t expected it to be, but she had hoped that her break through in competitive Shatter Drumming would have placed her on a more even footing with her girlfriend.
It had not.
“You doubled back in time,” Nia said. “I don’t know how you did it but you bent your beats back around to reinforce ones that had already been struck.”
“You noticed that?” Margrada said, blinking in surprise.
“No. Not at the time. I’m playing our song back in my head though and that’s the only thing that makes sense of what I heard.”
“Wouldn’t that just suggest that you’re not remembering it right?”
“Maybe from another drummer. Not from you.”
“Why? What’s wrong my drumming?” Margrada asked, the echo of old frustrations ringing from the distant pasts of her soul.
“From what I can hear? Literally nothing. I mean I know intellectually that you’re not perfect, but I am definitely not good enough yet to offer any valid critics of how you play.”
“Then…I don’t get it? How can you remember our song that well?”
“Because it’s you! What part of I am hopelessly, head over heels for you have I not made clear yet?” Nia asked.
“Oh. Uh. Really?” Margrada asked.
“How is this news to you?” Nia asked with a laugh. It was delightful seeing Margrada blush, even if it was for a silly reason.
“It’s not. I just, well, I forget sometimes,” Margrada said.
Nia stepped away from her drum and strolled behind Margradam wrapping her in a hug.
“I know you’re not forgetting me,” Nia said as she leaned back and ran her hands up Margrada’s arms, along her shoulders and into her hair starting at the base of her scalp.
“Never,” Margrada said with a contented sigh.
“I really like listening to you play,” Nia said. “Even when you’re out drumming me by a mile.”
Margrada laughed, but it had a quiver of self-recrimination to it.
“That’s what I forget,” she said. “I just…there haven’t been a lot of people who liked my playing that much.”
Nia leaned over so Margrada could see the utter bewilderment her statement had provoked.
“Everyone always complimented me on my skill,” Margrada said. “And I always knew I was good. Drumming just comes naturally I guess.”
“Sure, and you’ve put in roughly a billion hours of practice on it, which, you know, might help just a bit.”
“That’s just it though. I practiced a lot, and figured out a lot of things but you know what I never had? An audience.”
“What? How? That’s not possible?”
“Of course it is. Why would anyone want to listen to me? I was just a kid who hadn’t even made it into the Shatter Band yet.”
“You were good enough to be in the Band ten years ago,” Nia said. “I know it, you know, even Pelegar knows it.”
“Maybe, but I wasn’t and people don’t have time for kids who want to show off the cool new stuff they learned all the time. I was too bored to play the songs they knew and they were too busy to listen to the stuff I wanted to do.”
“That sucks. You deserve to be heard. You’ve always deserved it.”
“You do too you know,” Margrada said. “I know this isn’t the life you expected to lead, but you deserve to be heard too.”
Nia dropped her arms down into another hug.
“I suppose we’ll see if that’s true tonight then won’t we?” she said, smothering her tingling nerves with hopefully excitement.
It was six hours until her first performance in a Battle of the Bands, and though she hadn’t managed to actually beat Margrada once in their practice sessions, she knew that, tonight, she was going to win.