Side A – Yasgrid
Kayelle had gone mad. That was the only conclusion Yasgrid could draw from how calmly Kayelle had announced that two of the people most dear to them had been captured by their worst enemy.
Or…
Yasgrid pondered the scenario for a moment.
“That was Marianne’s idea wasn’t it?” she said, the spike of terror fading as rapidly as it had arrived.
“Mother’s actually. I think,” Kayelle said. “Nia would be unhappy to hear Marianne described as our sister, but after watching the two of them scheme, they seem more closely matched as mother and daughter than either Nia or I are with her.”
Yasgrid chuckled at that, imagining how none of the people involved in that comparison would agree to it, yet seeing the truth in Kayelle’s words.
“Does Elshira know who she has captive?” Yasgrid asked, trying to divine the shape of Naosha’s plan as best she could.
“Yes and no,” Kayelle said. “She knows who they are in the sense of being aware that they are important people to us. To be fair of course, the rest of Blue Falls’ population is also rather important, but I don’t think it’s within the scope of her imagination to grasp that people in general are worth notice or attention.”
“They knew Elshira would use them against us.” It wasn’t a question. “But they don’t want us to rescue them?”
“Of course not,” Kayelle said. “It took rather a lot of work to convince Elshira to try capturing Blue Falls again.”
“And Blue Falls wasn’t evacuated first?” It seemed like an odd and unkind element for one of Naosha’s plans.
“That depends on which part of Blue Falls you refer to,” Kayelle said. “The children and the elderly, well, some of the elderly? They’ve been gone for weeks, vacationing or visiting other family.”
“But Elshira still thought that town was full?” Yasgrid knew that because she knew Elshira wouldn’t fall into such an obvious trap unless it was very cleverly baited.
“It is full,” Kayelle said. “The Fate Dancer convocation was convinced to relocate most of their people to Blue Falls as being the most defensible spot for a final stand against the assembled totality of the Darkwood’s Troubles.”
“But, Elshira isn’t assembling all of the Darkwood’s Troubles. Most of them are too small and unsophisticated for her use.”
“That did make it particularly hard to convince the Fate Dancer Elders,” Kayelle said. “As I said, I’ve been somewhat busy since you left.”
“You tricked the Fate Dancers?”
“That wasn’t the challenging part of the assignment,” Kayelle said. “Show them a few small Troubles who are far outside of their natural hunting grounds and they were eager to jump on the idea that it was the end of the world. The real trick was getting Elshira to believe something in Blue Falls was drawing the Troubles in, and that I was fighting to stem the tide.”
“Why though? Why go to all that work for a ruse?”
“To buy you time, and more importantly, to buy Kyra time.”
Side B – Nia
Playing the same Shatter Drum as another person was risky. Playing the same Shatter Drum with someone you loved was extremely risky, if Osdora and Gossma’s story was anything to go by. Before they touched on the drum therefor, Nia took Margrada’s hands in her own.
“Anything you see about me is okay, but let’s be careful, I don’t want to lose you over this. Nothing is worth that.”
Margrada smiled, seemingly both touched and amused.
“We’ll be fine,” she said. “Play the off beats and our magics shouldn’t be much more connected than they are when we play side-by-side.”
“Don’t be so sure of that,” Pelegar said. “There are reasons we only put one drummer on each drum.”
“Reasons that don’t apply here?” Nia asked.
“Oh they do,” Pelegar said. “But this is so far outside of anything I’ve seen before that I’m game to try anything at this point.”
Because the alternative was losing all of the Shatter Drums in the vicinity of Gray Rift.
“We’ve got one other advantage,” Margrada said. “Unlike your mother and Gossma, we’re not trying to blend our brains together. As long as we’re not hellbent on peeking into each other’s souls, we shouldn’t get hit with the backlash they did.”
Nia took a deep breath to calm and reassure herself, only to find that the desire to peek into Margrada’s memories was there, and was a lot stronger than she’d expected it to be.
“Come on,” Margrada said. “Let’s fix this.”
Nia exhaled, and felt the calm she’d been looking for settle over her.
She wanted to know more about Margrada, about the scars she carried from her past, about the hopes that lit the path to her future, about what she was feeling when she looked at Nia. She wanted to know all that, but it was only going to be meaningful if it was Margrada who shared that information.
Nia breathed in and out again and knew she was safe. The desire for a true and open connection with the woman she loved was far stronger than her curiosity and unspoken fears put together.
“If you can play around the song that’s still echoing in there, I can try to reach out to the Elf,” Nia said.
“I was thinking the Elf would be my job,” Margrada said. “Whatever drew him here had to be related to an affinity for the mountains or Stonelings or something unique to this place. I’m pretty certain I can draw on that to forge a connection to him.”
“I’m familiar enough with the song still that I’m sure I can connect with that, though I won’t be able to change it much,” Nia said.
“We don’t need to change it, in fact, I’m sure we don’t want to. Not until we understand why its echoing. That said though, I think you’re right. You need to be the one to reach out to the Elf.”
“Why’s that?”
“You’re the only one they’ll understand. I don’t speak Elvish.”