Side A – Yasgrid
The song moved on, and with a cheerful smile and a wave, Lokona and Unzola moved on with it, leaving Yasgrid far from alone, but somehow dwelling in a calm moment of solitude nonetheless.
“Did you have a nice visit?” Kyra asked, her voice audible over the ever-growing roar of the song only because she was so close to Yasgrid’s side. “With your grandmother that is.”
Yasgrid shouldn’t have been surprised. Kyra had been more aware of the supernatural elements of the world around them than Yasgrid since the day they’d met. The space where Lokona and Unzola had been had felt so deeply personal though that Yasgrid couldn’t help but whirl to the side to make sure it really was Kyra sitting beside her. Walking in worlds of magic opened so many possibilities and not a few of them were dreadful, but it wasn’t a creature of dread who sat beside Yasgrid. Far from it.
“It was new, you and her getting to talk,” Kyra offered as an explanation. “And you were very loud.” Which gave the explanation several shades of ‘excuse’, almost as though someone had been listening in on a private conversation and had only just realized she’d given herself away.
Yasgrid cast a disbelieving look at Kyra.
“This music is still pretty quiet!” Kyra’s claim wasn’t speaking to the physical volume of the drumming, Yasgrid knew that. She was still dubious though so Kyra elaborated further, “The song hasn’t started changing anything yet. It’s called the ghosts in but that’s mostly on them.”
“Yes,” Yasgrid said, enjoying a moment of accusation before softening and answering Kyra’s original question, “Yes, it was a nice visit. I learned something important as well.”
“About this song?”
“About me.”
That drew a look of surprise from Kyra.
“You’re not going to…” Kyra started to ask, but cut herself off before she could give voice to the idea of ‘bring them back’.
“No. Never that. They need to be where they are. Calling them back for my sake is greedier than even I’m capable of being.”
“That’s good,” Kyra shouted over the song. “We need you here, not torn apart between the worlds.”
“There’s that too,” Yasgrid agreed. While her visit with her Grandmother and Great Aunt had been fulfilling in ways she was still trying to understand, , Yasgrid’s intuition told her that using her magic to change something as fundamental as calling them back to life would bring perils beyond any she was able to imagine.
So she didn’t.
Instead she turned to living woman beside her.
The one she’d been certain she’d never see again. The one she’d sought for days and weeks and months. The one she’d, in a sense, broken the world for.
“I’ll need to join the song soon,” Yasgrid said, hearing Osdora and Naosha’s recounting approaching the present faster and faster with each beat and breath. “Spare a kiss for good luck?”
“You don’t need any luck,” Kyra said. “And I have no kisses to spare since they are all yours already.”
Yasgrid felt the electric touch of Kyra’s lips on her own a moment before she felt Kyra’s arms curl around her and draw her in close.
Lokona and Unzola might have passed on to the afterlife, but Yasgrid knew she was the one who’d found heaven as she melted into Kyra’s embrace.
Side B – Nia
The song parted Nia and Ayas, calling them both onwards along their own paths. In place of the sting of sadness she’d expected though, the parting left her with only a sense of peace and contentment.
Her father was still with her.
She’d never known him, only the shadow he’d left behind, but with this second meeting she’d felt the love he’d had for her and could all but see the bonds that tied them together which absence or even death was far too flimsy a thing to damage.
“This is a bit more than you’d expected isn’t it?” Margrada shouted, her voice only barely audible over the song that had drawn in dozens of drummers and even more singers.
Nia needed a second to bring her thoughts back to where she was, but only second since the music lead her with the force of a storm surged river and the excitement of the crowd was too infectious to not be swept away by too.
“I don’t know if they’re going to be able to hear me at all,” Nia said, wondering once more what she’d gotten herself into.
“They definitely will,” Margrada said. “They’re waiting for you.”
And Nia could hear it in the music.
Her time had arrived.
Their time, as she and Yasgrid rose together and took their places beside their mothers.
Nia had imagined that there’d be a speech she or Yasgrid would need to make, an introduction to who they were and the message they had to share, but nothing of the sort of was needed.
The crowd didn’t know their names. The crowd didn’t know their story. What the crowd knew was what the music was telling them, and where Nia would have stumbled with words, under her hands the Shatter drum came to life and spoke volumes for her.
Osdora gave her a pat on the shoulders and then followed it up with a hug.
“They’re all yours kid,” Osdora said, tears glistening in her eyes.
Opposite them, Naosha placed a kiss on the top of Yasgrid’s head and squeezed Yasgrid’s hand in reassurance. Nia couldn’t hear the words Naosha offered to Yasgrid but through their bond she felt Yasgrid’s warmth and relief which accompanied Naosha’s sentiment.
You ready for this? Nia asked, her drumming nothing more than an extension of the beats Osdora had established.
Probably not, Yasgrid said, but we haven’t let that stop us up till now have we?
And I hope we never will, Nia said. Do you want to start? I’m not sure I know where to begin.
Start with me, Yagrid said, and I’ll start with you.
And so they began to tell their story.