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Side A – Nia

Nia wasn’t the last person to stop playing, and the song didn’t end with her. There were other voices, other answers, and far more nuance to it than she alone could have been responsible for creating. With the last beat of her hand on the drum though, she found herself held in a moment of silence.

The fall wave of the last beat stretched out, thinned down below audibility, like last air of a breath being exhaled to bring her a moment of solitude in the crowd and peace despite the electricity in the air around her.

“Will you be taking a nap now?” King asked. How his voice was audible over the denouement of the song as it wound down was something which occurred to Nia and which she just as rapidly chose not to worry about. It was King. If he wanted to be heard, then nothing like silly physical limitations or ambient volume was going to interfere with that.

“That would probably be a good idea,” Nia said.

“Which means you certainly won’t.” King seemed neither surprised nor disappointed, but rather content that his evaluation of the foibles of his pets had been, as ever, correct.

“I hadn’t meant to do this,” Nia said. “I think it worked out well though.”

“At least some of the consequences do seem agreeable,” King said.

Because of course everything had consequences.

Nia could feel herself holding onto the moment of silence, perhaps out of concern about the consequences which might be less agreeable, but she didn’t think so.

A moment of peace, after everything she’d been through in the last few days felt richly warranted, even if she had to cheat a little to enjoy it.

“Will you be creating any more divinities today?” King asked sounding at best mildly curious.

“Creating?” Nia asked. She’d felt…she wasn’t even sure what it had been, but the idea of making a god seemed far fetched even in light of the things she done so far.

“Yes.” King’s choice not to elaborate further was perfectly in character for him and helped Nia accept the idea not at all, which was also perfectly in character for him.

“We weren’t trying to create anything except for understanding,” Nia said. “I wasn’t even trying to play…”

She was about to say ‘anything special’ but she caught the unintentional lie before it escaped her lips.

She had been intent on playing out an explanation of what she and Yasgrid had discovered, and what they’d discovered, what they’d become was inarguably special.

It hadn’t only been her playing or Yasgrid’s magic though. Their mothers had been a part of it, and all the singers and drummers who’d joined in had too. Even if Nia hadn’t intended to make anything magical out of the performance the combined sentiment of those who’d chosen to become a part of her message would have made it magical whether Nia had been playing a Shatter Drum or not.

Which left her with one question dancing around in her mind.

“What am I now?”

Side B – Yasgrid

The silence of the finished song stretched out in a timeless moment for Yasgrid and her guests largely because she wasn’t willing to let their discussion be tramped by the hustle and bustle of the day which awaited her.

“I should go,” her reflection said, but Yasgrid could tell it was a rather different sort of ‘going’ than Lunacy had suggested.

“Do you want to?” Yasgrid asked, not letting go over her reflections hands.

“I should,” her reflection said, tugging with a force that would have easily overcome Yagrid’s grip had the divine will behind it had any real desire to.

“What you should do can be a very different from what you want to do,” Lunacy said. “Understanding both is good, but starting with what you honestly want would have saved so many people from my clutches over the years.”

Yasgrid felt a tiny shudder go through her reflection and had to smile a bit.

Lunacy wasn’t lying. She had been terrible as a Trouble. Intent only on the subtle destruction of those who crossed her path. With how long she’d existed, she’d become very talented at her job too. Talented, deadly, and, ultimately, terribly, terribly drained by it.

The Trouble Yasgrid had met had been prepared for her own destruction only slightly because Endings bearer had caught her. Moreso her resignation had come from the fatigue of years and gaining so much awareness and cunning that she finally saw the trap she was bound in. 

“I’d like to stay here, but you said I can’t. I would hurt you,” the reflection said.

“We’d hurt each other,” Yasgrid said. “Which something people do. If this was your only choice, or even your best one, we would make that work. We’d find our limits, find the words and deeds to make amends when we could, and learn to accept the times when we couldn’t.”

“Then…” her reflection started to say but Lunacy had anticipated the objection and cut her off.

“The important thing she said was ‘if this was your only choice’. You are not trapped here. You could be trapped with me instead!”

Yasgrid rolled her eyes.

“She’s teasing you because she intends to laugh about this later,” Yasgrid explained to her reflection.

“I think that’s fair,” Lunacy said. “I’m being very good about not laughing now. I think I’m owed a laugh later.”

“I don’t like you,” the reflection said.

“You don’t have to. In fact you probably shouldn’t, I might still be a terrible monster,” Lunacy said.

“She’s not,” Yasgrid corrected. “What she is, however, is someone who knows what it means to grow beyond what you think you are.”

“Why would I do that?” the reflection asked.

“Because there is a person you are going to become. No matter what you do, you’ll learn and grow and change,” Lunacy said. “And Yasgrid is right. I might be terrible, but I’ve seen what being terrible to other people does and that’s what I want to leave behind, and I can do that by helping you see who you are today and imagine who you can be tomorrow.”

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