Side A – Nia
While it was terribly tempting to shirk making yet another request to the Roadies onto someone else’s shoulders, Nia knew those shoulders couldn’t be Yasgrid’s.
For one thing, Yasgrid didn’t know the Roadies like Nia did. Sure, Yasgrid had grown up around Shatter Drums and the Roadies would know who she was by virtue of Osdora’s fame, but Nia had spent time with them. Gotten drunk with them. Fought with them.
Also, Yasgrid was currently an Elf, so it was ever so possible the Roadies might not recognize her.
“I think we need Yasgrid where she is,” Nia said. “We’d had the idea to perform together so that we could prove we really were who we thought we were.”
“How could you not be who you think you are?” Belhelen asked.
“They independently went a little nuts last night,” Margrada said. “Yasgrid’s girlfriend helped sort them out though.”
“YASGRID HAS A GIRLFRIEND!” Belhelen’s exuberance only failed to attract the interest of the entire dining hall because there were a lot of still quite exuberant people making quite a lot of their own noise. “ABOUT DAMN TIME!”
Nia couldn’t help but laugh at that. She’d been worried originally that Yasgrid and Belhelen had feelings for each other but, if they ever had, Belhelen’s enthusiasm for her friend made it clear that the love between them was not on a romantic variety.
“I gather her girlfriend feels the same,” Marianne said. “Apparently they spent the last few months pining for each other.”
“That doesn’t sound like Yasgrid? Or, well, maybe it does, still, why didn’t you say anything?” Belhelen mock-glared at Nia for holding out on her.
“I gather neither was sure how the other felt and there was the slight issue that Kyra was imprisoned for the entire time,” Marianne said, deflating Belhelen’s objection to being left out of the loop.
“Kyra? Oh, of course, Yas has been in the Darkwood. Who would she fall for but an elf? Imprisoned though? I didn’t know that you folks had prisons?”
“Oh, we do. We’re no better than anyone else I suspect,” Marianne said. “Ours tend to utilize more enchantments than most other places I would guess, but ten years of Waking Slumber is likely as miserable as ten years of being stuffed into a jail cell anywhere else. It’s just more convenient for the jailers.”
“Is that what happened with Yasgrid’s girlfriend?”
“Oh. No, she wasn’t in jail. Elshira captured her.”
“Ah. Yeah, I’m, uh, not surprised Elshira’s no longer among the living. Yasgrid can be a little…let’s call it ‘passionate’ sometimes.”
“To be fair, Elshira was dead well before Yasgrid showed up. Yasgrid just made sure Elshira had to accept that.” Nia didn’t need to defend Yasgrid’s honor, but she still wanted to make sure the record was correct. Yasgrid wasn’t a murderer. Nia would have been in need be in a similar circumstance, but even towards the end, Yasgrid was still looking for the kindest resolution she could find.
“So what’s this Kyra like?” Belhelen asked.
“Well she started off trying to kill Yasgrid,” Marianne said. “Then she led her to a land where life cannot persist.”
Side B – Yasgrid
One of the customs common to both Stoneling and Elven courting was meeting each other’s family. Kyra suggested that, perhaps, meeting the Fate Dancers was something they didn’t need to do with any alacrity, give the potentially disastrous reception Yasgrid was likely to receive. That Yasgrid had already met Kyra’s mother was considered ‘good enough for now’.
Technically the same was true for Kyra as well, since she’d spoken with Osdora, Naosha, and Kayell, but since none of them officially knew that Yasgrid and Kyra were courting it would be appropriate for them to present themselves together.
“I think Naosha and Osdora are both over in Gray Rift,” Yasgrid said. “I’m guessing we could go there?”
“We could, will that be strange for you though?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it will. I mean, this is strange but wonderful,” Yasgrid glanced down to where Kyra was holding her hand. “Going back to the mountains though? I wasn’t sure I would ever do that again. And it’s going to be odd to see everything as so much bigger than I remember it being.”
“What about telling your mother about us?” Kyra asked.
“Mom’s going to tease me endlessly, which is fine. I did the same to her with her boyfriends and girlfriends once I was old enough to figure out how to,” Yasgrid said. “Since I’m part of, or would like to be part of, the M’kellin household though, we should probably talk to Naosha too. I think she’ll be fine, but she did have some significant connections to the Fate Dancers, didn’t she?”
“As far as I can tell Naosha M’Kellin has significant connections to everyone and everything in the Darkwood,” Kyra said. “I’d never noticed it, in fact I think the Fate Dancers as a whole were blind to it, but once I had some time on my hands and nothing to do but observe the weave of fates I was wrapped in, hers turned out to be very interesting.”
“I’m surprised she wasn’t the M’Kellin to become a sorceress,” Yasgrid joked.
“I’m not entirely sure she isn’t one,” Kyra said. “Oh, not like you perhaps. You had Endings and the Troubled Hearts and a unique perspective, not to mention me meddling with your fate and risking your life. Naosha though has a level of person influence that I think must border on the magical even if it was all crafted through mundane words and actions.”
“That’s…Most of the things I’ve done, and I suspect most of the things I can do in general, work best through mundane words and actions,” Yasgrid said, considering the implications of there being another sorceress in the Darkwood.
“Yes, but you’ve turned back death, and merged space together, among other things. That may have begun with a mundane gesture but the effect extends well into the supernatural, even by an Elven definition of the term.”
“The Stoneling definition probably has some overlap with the Elven one since we consider a far bit of what can be done with Shatter Drums to be natural phenomena.”
“I would guess that Naosha’s talents lie much farther within the common understanding of natural events than yours do, but it might still be interesting to question her about it. Maybe she could offer guidance you wouldn’t find elsewhere?”
Having Naosha as a sorcery mentor sounded like both the best and worst idea Yasgrid had ever heard.
“Let’s go find her!”