Side A – Yasgrid
In place of a scream, there was only a whimper.
Elshira understood at last that she had failed.
“Y..you…no one can do this!” she croaked out as her ephemeral form began to waver. “I…Eternity is mine!”
“Of course it is,” Yasgrid said, releasing th crystal blade she bore and letting it return to the living world where it belong. “But you have to move on. Your life, or the remnants of it, they’ve become a trap. There is more out there for you, embrace the challenges that await, not the ones which you failed to overcome.”
“No…I haven’t failed!” Sheer rage brought force back into her fading form. “I never failed!”
“You’re whole life has been a failure,” Kyra said, binding the knots on the thread tying Elshira’s life to her death tight enough to strangle the spirit. “You thought your schemes led you here? You think you’re divine? Look at a true Bearer! This woman is everything you couldn’t be.”
“She…you are both nothing!” Elshira strained against unseen cords which were dragging her backwards towards some unseen horizon.
“You were right about one thing,” Yasgrid said. “We are the same in many ways, and the path I walked runs alongside the one that you did.”
“Then you…you cannot condemn me!” It was a plea disguised as a curse.
“She’s not,” Kyra said. “I am.”
“Oh, don’t give her the wrong impression,” Yasgrid said. “I went into this knowing she wasn’t going to be walking out it.”
“Good. Good!” Elshira said. “In your hate, I will rise again!”
Yasgrid laughed, a clean, freeing laugh that left Elshira’s dwindling shade bewildered.
“I absolutely do hate you,” Yasgrid said. “And I sorrow for you. And I appreciate the genius you’ve shown. I will miss you, you’ve been a guiding star in my skies for so much of my new life. But you hurt Kyra. That can be forgiven, but I will never forgive you of it, so it is time for you go and let this life wash away. Become someone new. Someone better,” Yasgrid’s voice shifted, her magic filling each word with a curse of deadly power, “Become someone kinder or my wrath will hunt you down and show you what eternity truly is.”
Something rose in that moment.
Something not bound to life or death.
Something watchful.
“What have you done?” Elshira asked, her voice thin and quavering.
“Acknowledged the bond between us,” Yasgrid said. “You sought to make me into a reflection of your malice. Did it never occur to you wonder what would happen if you succeeded?”
“You can’t do this,” Elshira’s voice was the barest of whispers.
“Be grateful,” Kyra said. “If not for her, I would have done far worse to you.”
Only silence answered her words.
Elshira’s last thread was tied off.
Her story was done.
“Thank you,” Yasgrid said. “If you hadn’t been here, I would have done far worse too.”
“We have a lot to talk about,” Kyra said. “But here is no place for the woman I’d like to start living with.”
Side B – Nia
Nia’s hands had left her drum far before she’d been aware of it. That she’d continued playing as part of the song wasn’t something anyone had thought to comment on, largely because the song had more or less consumed the entirety of every drummer, Roadie, and civilians perceptions.
No song had ever been performed like it.
But more would be again.
Within her heart, Nia felt the magics of the Shatter Drums echoing with every beat, and in her breath the magics of the Darkwood swirled.
“I always knew you would grow up to be someone amazing,” Naosha said, her eyes strangely glassy. “I must confess I didn’t expect quite this much growing though.”
Nia glanced down from the stars, and found an impossibly small woman staring up at her.
That couldn’t be Naosha though.
Naosha was always larger than her. Larger than life.
Perfectly put together. Perfectly in control. Just basically perfect.
The small, precious woman though wasn’t put together. Tears that she was trying to hide were sneaking past the corners of her eyes though.
“Mom?” Nia said, seeing her through new eyes.
It wasn’t a magic spell, but the word hit with the force of the song she’d been a part of.
Naosha’s perfect defenses which could resist any social pressures turned out to have a fragile spot in them after all.
“Nia!” Naosha said and more tears than she could hold back poured from her.
Nia didn’t have to think. She was down on her knees and had her arms wrapped around her mother before any thought of decorum could restrain her.
That Naosha hugged her back with strength that would have done Horgi or Grash proud was absolutely unexpected and just as absolutely welcome.
“I thought we could get you back at the end of this, but this is really you,” Naosha said.
Nia felt the pang of loss in every syllable of Naosha’s words. The hope that if only a clever enough plan could be enacted, Nia could be returned to the girl she’d once been.
“I’m sorry,” Nia whispered, though no one in the crowd around them could hear or care about the small drama playing out in their midst.
“No. No!” Naosha said. “Never be sorry for being yourself! You are…Osdora told me…I knew what we might accomplish, but I didn’t understand. You are glorious. And I never saw that.”
“I never showed you,” Nia said. “I didn’t know about any of this. And so much of it, it’s not me. All of that song? That was the drummers, and you, and the singers from home, and…”
“And none of them could have played your part,” Naosha said, quiet comfort returning to her voice. “You were the fulcrum. I heard it in the song. I heard your voice and your hands.”
She was silent for a moment, and Nia drank in the closeness and openness which she discovered she’d been desperately hungry for her entire life.
“I heard you,” Naosha said at last, the joy in her voice unmistakable.