Side A – Yasgrid
Yasgrid had really meant to survive her schemes. She knew she was a stranger to the Darkwood, and she knew that Elshira and the Fate Dancers wielded magics she had never even heard of. Opposing them with little more than her own cleverness and the stubborn nature of a daughter of the mountains was, in hindsight, perhaps a bit foolish but she’s made it so far that she’d been sure she’d make it to the end.
Which, in a sense, she supposed she had.
Breaking Endings had been an inspired gambit. A plan drafted as much in the moment as one she’d spent the last several months working towards.
On the upside, it was a plan that couldn’t fail to deny Elshira her ultimate prize. With the crystal blade broken by forcing the soul within Endings to confront the cruelty it had been bound by, Elshira would never be able to lay claim to it, and never be able to subjugate the Darkwood with its power.
The downside was that while Yasgrid had worked out how to survive Endings attempt to terminate her doing so had required turning away Endings power. She’d been able to do that because it was still Endings power, and still bound by the rules the Elven gods had set on it.
The storm which raged around her had lost its soul and was bound by nothing save its nature of pure destruction. Together, she and the Darkwood and the Freed Soul were able to form an eye of calm within the storm, but the dream they shared was as gossamer threads before a bonfire, and once the storm broke through into the waking world, nothing would hold it back from bringing an end to the Darkwood and everyone in it.
Which left Yasgrid with one truth and one hope to draw on; even the storm of endings itself had to have an end.
And that’s where her mortality could be the greatest power she had.
Rather than pushing the storm away, she could draw it in. Embrace the end and show the divine force how it could end too. When she passed beyond, Yasgrid believed and hoped she could carry the storm with her.
And so she touched it and called it to herself.
It was dark, and cold, and burning, and completely silent.
It was peaceful, and soaked in grief, and unfair, and a long sought relief.
It was a triumph and the greatest of failures.
Weakness overwhelming and strength proven and vindicated.
In her veins ice water ran, and in her ears rang a glorious chorus.
The storm was vast, so much greater than she’d ever imagined. It drowned her in the depths of time, and crushed her with the weight the world.
Alone she couldn’t go on for a moment longer.
Except, of course, she wasn’t alone.
From the far reaches of the world, the beat of a heart rang in the absolute silence of the screaming storm.
Side B – Nia
Far away in the Stoneling mountains, Nia was knew projections of Osdora and Gossma were busy explaining the issue that lay before them.
Or issues really. It turned out that Naosha was correct and Osdora was able to explain what was happening with a great deal more clarity than Nia had managed.
All of that was therefor Osdora’s problem. Nia had something much more important than the fate of her old and new homes to deal with.
“Hey,” she said, appearing in a storm of crystal shards to grasp Yasgrid’s hand a moment before it flickered away entirely. “You’re not getting into trouble without me are you?”
Yasgrid tried to speak, but flickered in a wash of rainbow colors before she could.
“Oh, that’s not good,” Nia said and reached for the song which she was still playing.
Others were already joining in.
Osdora was apparently just that persuasive.
Or Osdora and Naosha working together were.
Far away, Margrada was wreathed in fire like Nia had been, the Companion Heart which had been helping Nia supporting the song’s true architect at Nia’s request. Together the two of them were building a structure of sound and magic the likes of which Nia had never even conceived.
And that was why she didn’t dare try to bend it to her needs again.
She couldn’t drum a path out of this.
So she simply held on.
“I’ve got you,” she said, wrapping Yasgrid in the tightest hug she could, using all of her Stoneling strength. “We’re in this together.”
“This is the end,” Yasgrid said.
“Then we’ll find out what comes after the end together,” Nia said. “Except, this feels so familiar?”
“It does?” Yasgrid asked, still flickering, but Nia was flickering too which seemed to keep them in sync.
“Yes. Yes, I’ve felt like this so much I’ve almost forgotten it!” Nia said feeling the color moving through her. It was trying to scatter her to the farthest ends of the cosmos. “This is what the Shatter Drums do to me!”
Yasgrid was silent, not from an inability to speak, but because she was listening.
“There’s no drumming here though?” she said.
“I know, but this feels so similar, and we’ve come back from that so we have to be able to come back from this!” Nia said.
“I can’t,” Yasgrid said. “I need to see this through. I need to carry this power away before it destroys the Darkwood, and maybe even the world.”
“Nope,” Nia said. “There’s another answer. A better answer.”
“Maybe. But we don’t have the time to find it,” Yasgrid said.
“Then we make time,” Nia said.
“I wish we could,” Yasgrid said. “If the dream we’re standing in gives way though, the Darkwood will be gone.”
“Then we’ll take this somewhere else,” Nia said.
“No! I don’t want my mistake to be your end too!” Yasgrid said.
“Good,” Nia said, and reached out a free hand to grasp the power of Endings as well. “That means we can each be focused on keeping the other alive.”