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Side A – Yasgrid

Yasgrid felt like a past she’d never known was slipping away from her just as she discovered all the questions it carried the answers to.

“It’s not that bad,” Unzola said. “The road I walked to understand my magics and myself had a lot of stumbling stones in it, but I wouldn’t trade even one step of it, and I think when you’re looking back it from the spot I’m in now, you’ll say the same.”

“I think there are a lot of things I could have handled a lot better,” Yasgrid said, thinking of the fate she’d inflicted on Denar. “And I’m betting I’ll make a mistake or two more as well.”

“Skies above I should hope so,” Unzola said. “I made hundreds, thousands even. Big ones too. Take those away though and you know what happens?”

“Your life would have been boring?” Yasgrid guessed.

Unzola laughed at that.

“Oh boring is never going to be a problem for you. Not any more than it was for me. No, if I could wish away my mistakes, then all I’d be doing is setting myself up to make them again.”

“My mistakes can hurt other people though,” Yasgrid said.

“Yes, that’s how mistakes work dear,” Grandma Lokona said. “It’s what helps us learn not to make them again.”

“That doesn’t seem terrible fair to the other people though,” Yasgrid said, wondering how Denar was going to regard her after he’d had a chance to settle into his new life as a…as a what? He was still a young boy. What he could eventually become was limited by a whole different set of constraints than it had been. Maybe better ones though? He wasn’t stuck being a Fate Dancer anymore at least.

“It’s not fair at all,” Unzola said. “Nothing in life is.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Lokona said. “Life isn’t inherently fair. That’s why we need to be. We create fairness, and goodness, and kindness, and everything else we value.”

“If we choose to,” Unzola said. “That’s up to you though.”

“Should it be?” Yasgrid asked, flexing her hand and feeling her magics waiting to be called on for whatever mayhem she had in mind.

“You’d prefer someone else take responsibility for how you live your life?” Grandma Lokona asked. “We do that for children because they need time to grow and understand the world. Some people want to see everyone remain like that forever with only a few ‘adults’ empowered to tell them what to do.”

“It would make life much easier, to let someone else live it for you,” Unzola said.

“But even that would be a lie. At some point your life has to become your own, and even if you listen to someone else and do only what they say, those are still your choices,” Grandma Lokona said.

“Which is not say you can’t turn to others for their wisdom,” Unzola said. “If I were still on your side of this veil, I would be delighted to share everything I learned, and all the mistakes I made. The first thing I would tell you though, is what I’ll tell you now; be honest with yourself. Acknowledge what you’re feeling and don’t be afraid to admit to yourself that even the ‘horrible’ things are a part of you, but also know that even if you don’t feel it, you can be what and who you want to be. Your feelings matter, but it’s your choices that make you who you are.”

Side B – Nia

Nia had paused her tapping as her soul considered very carefully the choice she had been about to make.

“What do you mean ‘upend the cosmos’?” she asked, borrowing a little of her mother’s caution from the lessons she’d learned in the Darkwood.

“Dearest child, from your mother you have inherited the wisdom and restraint I lacked, from me, I am afraid, you inherited the subtlety of a brick,” Ayas said. “You would have woven together the worlds of the departed and the living without a care or concern wouldn’t you?”

“I mean, I might have had some concern.” Nia wasn’t sure how her father had guessed her intentions, though it wasn’t too hard to work out that her tapping had probably held a few hints as to the temptation which had slithered into her.

“I am glad,” Ayas said. “Both that you have your mother’s wisdom and my foolishness. I…it’s hard to see the legacies we leave behind, or to appreciate how good they can be sometimes.”

“Me being foolish is a good legacy?” Nia wasn’t sure if she should be offended but  her father’s happiness warmed her regardless.

“Yes. It means I live on in you. And it’s so much more than foolishness. It’s a refusal to bow to the world as it is. It’s a belief you’ve forged that you can make the world better. Those are yours, wholly and completely, but they are also the gifts I would wished to leave you. I am so glad the world has you in it.”

“But you should be here too!” Nia screamed out words she’d been holding inside for far longer than she’d ever been aware.

And they were true.

And it wasn’t fair.

And she could fix it!

All she had to do was…

“I could do it,” she said, her body growing still as she let go of the desperation that had gripped her.

“You could. I’d never have imagined that or believed it, but you could,” Ayas said.

“But I won’t. I won’t call you back. You deserve to be able to keep going forward,” Nia said.

“Thank you,” Ayas said. “It’s a long and unbelievable journey, and we’re not ever so far apart as you might think, but the promise that we’ll pass onto the next part of it is the one thing that is granted to all of us.”

“I think I’ll linger on this part of the journey for just a wee little while longer,” Nia said, a bit of cheer creeping back into her voice as her foot started tapping in time with the song around her.

“I’m glad. Tomorrow and tomorrow hold wonders we can rarely guess at.”

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