Side A – Yasgrid
Holding Endings shouldn’t have been surprising. Yasgrid had always had it in the back of her head that if she could manage to get into a situation where she could bring it to bear against Elshira, or one of Elshira’s Prime Troubles, that it would be a simple matter to call Endings to her hand and use it as a surprise strike.
Except…except that wouldn’t have worked.
The same impulse which had convinced her to walk away from Blue Falls without Endings would have kept her from every feeling as though the time was ‘truly right’. Excuses would have been easy to come by even. She could see it clearly as she reflected on her choices.
Attacking Elshira with Endings? It wasn’t that Elshira had pulled off some special trick when she caught Endings in flight. Elshira’s was Endings Bearer still. Endings couldn’t hurt her. Not until that stopped being true, and Elshira had never willing set Endings down, nor was that a choice she was ever likely to make.
The Troubles would have been viable targets. Reasonable ones. Sensible ones. If her unspoken plans were truly reflective of her feelings though, why hadn’t she called for Endings when faced with the three Troubles in the village?
Because she’d other plans for them?
Because she hadn’t needed Endings then and saving it for later was tactically sensible?
Both of those were true, but neither reason was the truth.
“I was afraid of being torn in two,” she said, feeling the pull of rushing to Kyra’s rescue and standing fast against Elshira’s minions pulling at her still.
“I worked that out eventually,” Kayelle said. “Mother and Marianne got there before me though.”
“They must think I’m an idiot,” Yasgrid said.
“Not at all. Marianne thinks you’re a genius, and Mother was in favor of allowing you to pursue this course of action as long as you needed.”
“We could have made more progress working together though,” Yasgrid said but Kayelle looked at her askance for that.
“Could we? I feel like you’ve accomplished more towards fulfilling my vow while trying to leave yours behind than I have by working on it full time. Or do you think you could have somehow done even more to disrupt Elshira’s plan than you already have?”
“I haven’t had much luck hunting her,” Yasgrid said, feeling determined to cast herself in a failing light for reasons she couldn’t quite fathom.
“You’ve kept her on the move so well that we know almost all of her strongholds and minions,” Kayelle said. “Mother and Marianne have foiled two of her plots against the Fate Dancers, and three of their ill conceived plans which would have sent a small army of them tumbling in Elshira’s traps. If you hadn’t been keeping Elshira distracted they would have had a much harder time of that. And worse, Elshira might know who they are.”
“How do we know that she doesn’t already?” Yasgrid asked, thinking back to how long Elshira could have been spying on them before they were aware that she even still existed.
“Oh, because they’re her prisoner now, and if she knew what they were up to, they would definitely be dead already.”
Side B – Nia
The Elf wasn’t dead. Nia knew that the moment she laid her hand on him. The song that played through the drum was playing through him as well, with one important addition; he was singing along with it.
“You…!” Pelegar had begin to say but paused as Nia turned to her. “Okay, apparently that’s safe for you to do.”
“You were afraid anyone who touched him might turn to stone too?” Margrada asked.
“We had no idea what would happen,” Pelegar said. “We weren’t even sure if that was a person or just a clever statue the drum decided to create all on its own.”
“Drums don’t do anything on their own though?” Nia said. That was obvious to anyone who’d ever played one. The magic came from, as was part of, the drummer. The Shatter Drum only called it forth.
“They also don’t have songs that keep playing in them after the Drummer leaves,” Pelegar said. “Oh, and there’s all of this!” She made a broad sweeping gesture to indicate the transformed building and the new plant life which was thriving within it. “And of course him.”
“What made you decide he wasn’t a statue if you didn’t touch him?” Nia asked, wondering if they’d tried some other form of magic she was unfamiliar with, or if someone had dared to try drumming in the area yet.
“He moved,” Margrada said. “When you touched him.”
Nia turned back to the Elf to find him staring directly at her.
Stonelings can’t leap to the same prodigious heights as the Darkwood Elves can, but Nia made an impressive attempt at it.
“What the!” Her heart was beating louder than the drum had but as she watched the Elf, he remained frozen where he was, both hands still on the drum.
And a smile on his face?
“He’s here because he wants to be?” Nia knew it was true. She even knew his name.
Palwin.
He’d lived in a small, inconsequential village to which three Troubles had come.
And they’d killed him.
Which was a bit sloppy on their part because, despite presently being solid stone, he was quite alive.
“So I know I was arguing for caution all of three minutes ago but…” Nia said.
“But now you’re going to argue that the two of us should try playing that drum right there to find out what’s going on?” Margrada said sweetly.
That was not what Nia had been planning to suggest since keeping Margrada safe had been Nia’s instinctive impulse and would remain so for as long as she drew breath.
Nia however was also quite a bit smarter than most gave her credit for being.
For example, she could see how keeping her safe was Margrada’s first impulse as well, and, more importantly, she could see how excluding Margrada from dangerous things would mean excluding her from some of the most important parts of Nia’s life and that was the very last thing she ever wished to do.
“Together,” she said, and gestured for Margrada to join her at the drum.