Side A – Yasgrid
The idea that she could bewitched people’s minds was one Yasgrid found deeply terrifying. The people around her however did not share her apprehension.
“So is there anything in sorcery that pulls people towards bad decisions? Seems like that’s what Yasgrid here is worried about, right?” Gossma asked.
Which wasn’t entirely incorrect, though it was secondary to Yasgrid’s concern about whether there was anything in her that might pull her in that direction.
“Not specifically, at least from the research I have undertaken,” Naosha said. “That said, power opens possibilities by its very nature, which presents its own pitfalls.”
“Pitfalls which a lack of consequences can exacerbate,” Osdora said, weary familiarity gracing her tone.
Yasgrid gave her a questioning glance but it was Gossma who answered.
“We see it with young drummers from time to time. Too much talent and too little sense. Let someone like that get their hands on a drummer and they’ll work all sorts of mischief. Some of it fairly hard to notice at first.”
“That is not surprising,” Naosha said. “The wisdom to refrain from indulging our desires is often hardwon.”
“I suppose we have a little easier than you Elves have,” Gossma said. “There’s plenty of drummers to keep the rowdy and the stupid under control, and patch up their mistakes. It sounds like your supply of Sorcerers is a bit more limited.”
“It is. I know of only a handful who presently reside in the Darkwood,” Naosha said. “There are doubtless more as there’s no reason to presume sorcery and a desire for introspection cannot coexist.”
“I think if you’d asked her teachers, they might have offered Yasgrid as proof of that,” Osdora said. “But they were never really paying attention where they?”
“You didn’t find Yasgrid to be exceptionally quiet for a Stoneling?” Kyra asked.
“Not after the first time she woke me up to change her diaper,” Osdora said.
Yasgrid groaned at that, but had to admit that Osdora had never been the one urging her to ‘be bolder’, which had really meant ‘much louder’, like her Shatter Drumming teachers had.
“You were not the one who instructed her?” Naosha asked.
“I did. A little bit,” Osdora said.
“I wasn’t good enough to follow her,” Yasgrid said, only to be met with Osdora’s frown.
“You know that’s not true,” Osdora said.
Yasgrid rolled her eyes.
“My expression wasn’t like hers, and if I’d trained with her I would have lost my own unique voice,” Yasgrid said, reciting the reason she’d heard so often she was sure she has Osdora’s inflection and tone perfectly mimicked. “My unique voice which was clumsy and feeble and could only have been improved if I’d tried mimicking a stronger and flat out better voice.”
Osdora went to object, but Naosha beat her to it.
“I believe you are quite fortunate for your mother’s wisdom,” Naosha said. “Your voice, whether spoken through a drum or through the magics you’ve discovered is precious because it reflects you. Had you tried to fashion yourself into a copy of your mother…”
She trailed off, though Yasgrid could have sworn she heard an unvoiced name whispered.
“Kayelle.”
Side B – Nia
As threats went, Nia hadn’t appreciated how much impact the idea of her finding “interesting things to do in her free time” would have. That it stopped their conversation dead and left her companions contemplating the idea with disconcerted looks on their faces seemed a little mean, but if it meant she was going to have Belhelen and Margrada’s help with her Elf-teaching scheme it was worth it.
“So, when can you all start?” Grash asked with an air of resignation that suggested he’d known he’d been inviting madness into his life and therefor had no one to blame but himself for the fact that he was surrounded by it.
“Might as well be right away,” Belhelen said. “Wouldn’t want to give this one idle time so close to a drum.”
“We could take them away for a bit,” Horgi suggested.
“I think she means close as in ‘on this mountain range’,” Marianne said.
“Hey!” Nia objected. “I haven’t even asked to touch a drums since I stopped playing.”
A memory floated back into her mind as she said.
“Oh right, uh, I need to borrow a drum?” she added, trying her best to look innocent and trustworthy.
It wasn’t abject horror. Horgi and Grash’s expressions were more muted that that. Perhaps existential horror? Or dread disquiet.
“Come on! I did you a favor, right?” Nia asked.
“Technically that is true,” Margrada said. “And this one isn’t a terrible idea.”
“Oh right, you wanted to play something with Yasgrid?” Belhelen said.
“Yasgrid who’s an Elf now?” Grash asked.
“Sort of?” Nia said. “I mean, Yasgrid’s Yasgrid. She doesn’t look like you remember but talk with her for like a minute and you’ll see she’s who you thought I was. Also, she won’t be playing precisely. I mean, not on the drum with me.”
“How does someone ‘not precisely’ play a drum? Is she going to be touching it or not?” Grash asked.
“Not,” Nia said. “She will not be touching the drum. But she will be with me.”
When she saw that didn’t alleviate the Roadies confusion she added, “We have a bond. It’s…it’s not exactly magic, not like Shatter Drumming, but it let’s us be with each other. It’s how I learned to play the drums in the Calling. I was there and Yasgrid was back in the Darkwood but she showed me how to play, beat for beat.”
“Right up until your drum broke and you kept playing anyways,” Margrada said. “Trust me, that was not Yasgrid’s doing. Even the Senior Drummers weren’t able to manage that.”
“What,” Horgi asked.
“She did what,” Grash echoed.
“When things went to hell in the Calling, us newbies had kind of a bad time of it,” Nia said. “Margradfa held on the best, and so I followed her drumming when I couldn’t hear the Senior drummers well enough.”
“On a broken drum.”
“So, you’re dead then, and we’ve been talking to a ghost.”