Side A – Nia
It occurred to Nia that everyone involved in the song she was playing could hear her conversation with Margrada if they were bothering to listen.
It also occurred to Nia that she didn’t care.
So, just out of curiosity, what were the reasons my mothers gave for destroying the seals on the volcanoes? Nia asked, knowing time was both short and essentially endless within the infinite moments of the mystical beats.
The Darkwood and the Skyreach mountains are merging, have merged, Margrada played. We were thinking that we needed to undo that, but it turns out that together the two realms will be stronger than either could be apart.
That sounds good, but also we’ve seen problems with that already. Gray Rift is turning into a crystal forest and Elgi got turned into a statue.
Yep. It’s work in progress. Hence the need for everyone to be a part of this song.
I feel like freeing the dormant gods is going to make the work just a bit harder, no?
A bit. If this works though, when this works, the bindings on the gods won’t need to be constantly reinforced and drummers won’t occasionally get vaporized during a difficult Calling.
Nia saw a sweep of that future in the music and followed the beat to a vision of a time when the living melody of the Darkwood had joined with the beat of the Skyreach Mountains to form a magic with both vibrancy and natural regeneration as well as durability and unyielding strength.
Oh, was all she could play as she finally understood what had sent Osdora racing a continent away from her home to listen to the Darkwood in person.
She’d been right. The Darkwood really did have Shatter Drumming’s missing element.
Naosha’s supported Osdora’s argument by pointing out that the Calling we were at showed that the god’s constraints are already failing and that the bindings are largely a scheme on their part at this point.
For a moment, Nia could not fathom how her mother could have known that. Then she remembered how Naosha had done extensive research on all sorts of forbidden lore after the loss of her husband to ensure no one could trouble his eternal rest. That she would likely have continued to research subjects both within and outside the Darkwood was terribly in-character for someone who always seemed well versed on everything, all the time.
That’s a tiny bit disturbing, Nia played to Margrada, does she think they were setting us up for all of this? Because that sounds where a godly scheme could lead.
She and your old girlfriend Marianne debated that. The consensus was, if this is a plan of our gods, then they’re pretty stupid and putting them back in the volcanoes shouldn’t be too hard. Which I’m inclined to agree with them on at this point.
Nia pushed the terrifying thought of Margrada talking to Marianne aside so she could have a panic attack over it later and asked the more immediately pressing question.
They tried to attack us already?
Nope, Margrada played, and if they knew what we were doing, they really, really should have.
Side B – Yasgrid
Yasgrid saw the curious, far away expression Nia wore as she spoke with Margrada in the Shatter Drumming song and forced down a chuckle despite the precarious situation they were in.
If the though had ever crossed her mind that relying on neophyte drummer might be a bad idea, watching Nia calmly hae a discussion with someone via Shatter Drumming, in the middle of drumming another song and while she was projecting most of her awareness into a dream world would have banished it forever.
Nia wasn’t just a Shatter Drummer. She was a damn good one.
“So how will we do this?” Kayelle asked.
“I think we’ll need to feel a path through it,” Yasgrid said. “Everyone’s experiences with Resonant states are different. The few times I’ve stumbled into one, I managed to get myself out of it pretty quickly. Nia’s lingered in them for a lot longer.”
“Yeah, it felt like an eternity sometimes,” Nia said, her conversation with Margrada apparently ended with something that left her deeply concerned.
“How did you get back from that?” Kayelle asked.
“I had Yasgrid, but it was also about understanding our place in things,” Nia said. “We’re really, unfathomably tiny bits of the cosmos, but we’re also bigger than it, if that makes any sense.”
“Because we can hold it within our imaginations,” Kayelle said, nodding along with Nia’s explanation.
“You see why I never thought I could catch up to her?” Nia said to Yasgrid, gesturing at Kayelle as though her sister where a brilliant piece of art.
“I suspect the experience will be rather more challenging than the words can capture,” Kayelle said.
“It is.” Yasgrid knew better than to offer false reassurances in the face of what awaited them. “But we’ll be there for you.”
“All of us for each other,” Nia said, “and for all the people who are depending on us.”
“The world won’t be the same if we succeed,” Kayelle said.
“It won’t be the same if we fail either,” Nia said. “That’s the core of the Darkwood though isn’t it? The core of us. We’re always changing. It’s who we are. It’s what we are.”
“And that’s why I’ve always been chasing to catch up to you,” Kayelle said.
“Me? When did you ever come in second to me?” Nia asked.
“I would have said never, up until I realized that we’ve never been running the same race,” Kayelle said. “I thought we were both trying to be the best M’Kellin daughter.”
“We were, you’re just a billion times better at it than me,” Nia said.
“That’s because you’ve been racing to become the best you, and look how far that’s brought you,” Kayelle said with an approving smile.
Nia laughed at that too.
“I’m kind of surprised you recognize me even a little, I barely feel like the girl I used to be at all,” Nia said.
“You’re not, but you’re more my sister than you ever have been,” Kayelle said and gestured for both Nia and Kayelle to join her in a hug.