Side A – Yasgrid
The Darkwood was usually subtle. As a forest it didn’t exactly move quickly or speak in clear words. Yasgrid had spent months dwelling within it and hadn’t really noticed that it was an entity in its own right.
The bed of spider silk and mushrooms it presented to her was as subtle as breaking a Shatter Drum over her head would have been.
“You’re feeling tired I take it?” Ilia asked, inspecting the bower that stood were a shrub had been a moment earlier.
“Not especially,” Yasgrid said, a small army of concerns storming the battlements of her composure.
That her Common Sense had joined the army of worries didn’t make things any easier but with a sigh she pushed all of that aside.
“I guess we’re staying here for the night though,” she said. “Could you let the others know they’re free to do whatever.”
“And this would be different than any other day we’ve been traveling?” Ilia asked.
“Well, I’m going to take a nap,” Yasgrid said. “It’s possible that I’ll wake up again, and it’s possible that it will be sometime in this age of the world when I do. On the chance that I sleep for the next few millenia though, please feel find something to keep yourselves busy in the meantime.”
“I’m pretty sure the Darkwood isn’t intent on taking you out of action for that long,” Ilia said. “But, not a god anymore, so what do I know?”
“That this is a bad idea, the same as I do,” Yasgrid said, easing herself down into the bower.
“The important thing is that you know that and have a plan for it,” Ilia said.
“We’ve been walking in circles for literal days,” Yasgrid said. “I’m no closer to finding where Elshira is keeping the people she’s taken than I was weeks ago, I’ve recruited everyone I can think of, and most of them would like me to have dealt with this before the spring equinox, not the summer solstice which is rapidly approaching. So, no, I do not have plan for what comes next. Which is why despite being a horrible idea, this is also the best one I have at the moment.”
Ilia looked Yasgrid up and down.
“Pleasant dreams then,” she said and turned to head back to where others were setting up camp for the day.
Yasgrid was certain she wasn’t going to be experiencing any dreams at all any time soon. With the sunlight filtering down through the canopy above and the rustle of the wind, she couldn’t see herself falling asleep for a dozen or so hours.
She tried resting her eyes anyways, despite the lack of sleepiness only to give up a moment later as being a wasted effort. She simply wasn’t ready to drift off that far before her normal bedtime.
She opened her eyes to discover that the afternoon sun had vanished, replaced by a night sky that was shot through with every conceivable color.
Welcome. The voice spoke with no words expressing itself within the dream through the russel of the wind and the swaying of the branches around her.
Side B – Nia
Adopting a pet Trouble hadn’t been on Nia’s agenda for the day, but the connection between them felt inexplicably right somehow.
I’m…what am I? the Trouble asked, its voice echoing in her mind like a waterfall.
Don’t know, Nia replied, trying to keep up the song she and Margrada had woven.
Where am I? the Trouble asked, its breath chill with the thin mountain air around them.
Somewhere better, Nia said her fingers numb from the effort of tearing the Trouble away from the Darkwood.
In her song, she felt the swell of terror from the Trouble’s former master. Its absence from the Darkwood wasn’t possible. Not in the master’s understanding.
Layer upon layer of shadow came crashing down, trying desperately to muffle the song which resounded through the roots and branches of Nia’s far away birthplace.
An absence of light isn’t the right tool to smother a drum beat, but the shadows cast against Nia had a weight and texture to them. With layer upon layer they dimmed the song that her exhausted hands were faltering to hold together as it was.
Nia sounded one last beat, knowing that she was at the end of her skill.
Margrada however was not.
As Nia’s beats faded away, a new thunder burst through the song and in a moment more was answered by a new beat.
No.
Not one new beat.
Two.
In the faintest distance, Nia heard Osdora and Gossma’s drums picking up the beat that she was struggling to maintain.
You are hurt? the Trouble asked.
Except there was no excitement, no glee at Nia’s exhaustion.
Because it wasn’t a Trouble anymore.
It was still wrapped in divine magics, but the holy wording on the spells had been wiped away, lost in the translation between the Trouble it had been in the Darkwood and the creature which the Stoneling mountains had no name for yet.
Can I help?
Nia’s first instinct was to say no. She was enough on her own after all. She’d just proven that by beating the damn Darkwood gods herself. She could do it!
But who was that going to help?
Did she need to prove herself over and over?
It was certainly validating.
It felt incredible.
But this, she sensed, didn’t have to be about her.
She didn’t need it.
But her new companion did.
It’s first impulse when freed from the Darkwood was to ask if it could be someone who supported someone else.
Absolutely, Nia said, able to think of nothing she would want to encourage in her companion more.
How? It was a simple question with as far from a simple answer as possible.
Could she have it carry the beats for her while her hands recovered?
No. That would require it to know the song. To channel the magic of the drum. That could hurt it so, so much.
And, she didn’t need it to drum for her.
She just needed to feel again.
Can you warm my hands up?
Nia felt her companion nod, and then her hands were bathed in flame.
But she didn’t burn.
Or even hurt.
She just felt alive!