Side A – Nia
Nia heard the concern in Margrada’s voice and could guess what had happened from Margrada’s comment but what the two things suggested didn’t line up with her experience at all.
“I was turned to stone?” she asked, not clear on when or how that might have happened.
“Yeah, lovely bit of fine marble,” Pelegar said while Margrada collected her wits.
Not that the shock of seeing Nia turn to stone and back to flesh had been enough to jar her away from playing. In one sense that wasn’t the most flattering of things, but Nia didn’t take it as a slight on her or their relationship. All she felt was a tingle of second hand pride in how professional her girlfriend was.
How it had ever been a question that Margrada wouldn’t make the Shatter Band tryouts seemed like a question from another age. Perhaps one before the first ounce of musical appreciation was invented.
“Was I still moving?” Nia asked. “And how long was I like that?”
“One hundred and twenty two beats,” Margrada said.
So just about as long as Nia felt she’d been talking to the Elf. That was interesting.
“You weren’t moving anymore than he was,” Pelegar said, gesturing towards the still inanimate statue of the Elf.
“But you were still playing,” Margrada said. “You didn’t miss a beat.”
Nia’s mouth opened and closed a few times on its own.
“I’m sorry, what? Where was my part of the beat coming from? Were my hands on the drum?” She tried to remember if she’d let her hand linger for a moment after the beat that let her begin talking to the Elf.
“No. You had both hands lifted high enough I could be sure you weren’t going to strike the drum when I went to play.” Margrada said.
“What was hitting the drum when I was playing my beats then?” Nia asked. If she’d been kicking the drum, she was fairly sure the Roadies would be lining up to kick her.
“You were,” Pelegar said. “Just not with your body.”
“What else is there to hit things with?” Nia asked.
“We were hoping you could tell us,” Margrada said. “What happened to you?”
“I talked with the Elf. Or he talked at me and I listened for a little while,” Nia said. “He’s fine, though lost and a bit confused. Hasn’t started panicking yet though.”
“That’s good. If he starts hitting the drum from the inside like you were, pretty much anything could happen, and not a lot of it will be good for him or us,” Pelegar said.
“We need to break his connection to the drum,” Margrada said.
“I think if we do that we’ll break the drum,” Nia said.
“If it’s that or the rest of the drums here get blown up, I think the Roadies will forgive us,” Pelegar said.
“No they won’t,” Margrada said.
“Okay, probably not, but it’d still be the right thing to do,” Pelagar said.
“Not if we have a better option,” Nia said. “I think I know what to do, but I’m going to need both of you to play with me to pull it off.”
Side B – Yasgrid
Yasgrid watched a storm of angry hues course along Ending’s narrowed blade. They were a warning sign. A Divine signpost which bore the unspoken words “Go No Further” and “Delve Not Into This” in the shades of blood and bruises.
A smile, one of Nia’s perhaps, played along Yasgrid’s lips as the temptation to not just ignore the sign but knock it down tickled the back of her mind.
Yasgrid wasn’t Nia though. She’d learned more from Nia than she could ever have expected to, but she hadn’t lost the common sense she’d spent most of her life nurturing (her present circumstances being the odd exception).
“I won’t ask you to speak of anything you do not wish to,” she said, running her hand along the flat of Ending’s blade. She could have run it along the edge and Endings wouldn’t have hurt her, but she didn’t need to make a gesture of comfort into a test of their connection to each other.
“It is not what I wish,” Endings said. “It is what I can, and what I cannot.”
“You said you cannot pass judgment on your Bearers,” Yasgrid said. “Are you barred from offering them counsel?”
“I may not set the path of their destinies,” Endings said. “And there are many things which tread too close to that dictum for me to do as well.”
Which said quite a bit about the Elven gods and the tool they’d left behind. Things Yasgrid was reasonably sure she was going to be unhappy about if she could confirm them.
What was strange to her was that she’d somehow known of that limitation on Endings from the beginning. When she and Kayelle had been floundering around on the first day, neither one of them had thought to ask Endings to tell them what they needed to do. Endings who’d need countless Bearers on their first, clumsy days. Endings who would know all the Bearers who failed and how, as well as those who succeeded and what had been required of them to do so.
“What we do with you is not a secret though, is it?” Yasgrid asked. “We could leave a record of our deeds and thoughts, as could anyone who observes us.”
“This is true,” Endings said.
“And you’ve observed us, all of us,” Yasgrid said. “Your vantage point is unique, but does it fall under the prohibition against directing us, if we request facts you possess and build our own path from there?”
“It would not,” Endings said. “Nor would it be unprecedented. Each Bearer is their own person however, and each vow is unique. What another Bearer did or experienced may bear no relation to the challenges you face, and may even mislead you.”
“I already know where my questions will lead,” Yasgrid said. “I simply wish to understand the path which leads there, so let us talk about Elshira and the time she spent as your Bearer.”