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Side A – Nia

There was one noticeable problem with being something new that ‘the world needed’.

“If we were needed to be this, shouldn’t there be some sort of instruction manual on what we’re supposed to do?” Nia grumbled. “I mean, we kind of got dropped into it without the most complete lack of guidance possible.”

“That sounds like life in a nutshell doesn’t it?” Yasgrid said. “I’m not suggesting that it was a spirit of the world like the Darkwood that put us together, more that there was something shaped like us, together, that the world was missing.”

“Are we that unique though?” Nia asked.

“Of course. Everyone is. I don’t think we were uniquely suited to becoming a Sorceress and…whatever you’d like to call your gift, but we’re not the definition of ‘normal’ either. I’m the daughter of, and don’t tell her I said this, the best Shatter drummer alive, and you’re Naosha M’Kellin’s daughter, and neither of us chose to capitalize on that. I could have had an easy career as a Shatter drummer, even if my drumming was mediocre. And you could have been the closest thing the Elves have to royalty. If either of us had leaned into the those easy roles, I am beyond certain that we wouldn’t be here today.”

“That’s fair,” Nia said, nodding her head as she considered the paths she hadn’t taken. “Both of us were pushing against the lives we’d been appointed from birth, even though we didn’t really know we were.”

“Exactly. If someone had asked me the night before we switched what I was going to do with my life, I would have have looked at them like they taken a serious blow to head. Of course I was going to follow my mother. I was prepping for the test to join the Shatter Band after all, and I’d been focuses on that for years. What did it look like I was going to do?”

“I wonder what it did look like?” Nia said. “For me too. Next time you’re with Marianne, ask her about that okay? Could she tell I was desperate to find my own life?” Nia winced at the next thought she had but she said it anyways. “Or did I just seem desperate?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” Yasgrid said with a mischievous smile lighting on her lips.

“No. I’ve made her uncomfortable enough there. The last thing I need to do is put her in a position where she has to lie to spare my feelings. Again.”

“I don’t think you’d have to worry about her lying, or sparing your feelings,” Yasgrid said, “but I do see what you mean. It’s possibly, maybe even likely, that what we couldn’t see in ourselves, other people could. Margrada saw me for what I was for example.”

“Heh, yeah, that was fun. She was so horribly confused by me. I think that’s what gave me a shot with her.”

Side B – Yasgrid

Yasgrid wasn’t sure where their conversation was leading them but Nia’s claim struck a cord that seemed to illuminate things further for her.

“Maybe that’s the important part of it,” Yasgrid said. “That’s why we didn’t bounce back to being old ourselves that first night, or even that first morning.”

“Because we were confusing?” Nia asked.

“More or less. We were confusing, but we weren’t confused. You dove right into Shatter drumming and kept at it even when you hit a Resonance state on your first beat. And I…I become Ending’s Bearer the moment the choice was offered to me. We didn’t fit into our new roles but if we had, I don’t think either of us could have done the things we did.”

“Yeah. If we hadn’t switched then the volcano gods either would have stayed silent because I wasn’t there to pique their curiosity, or they would have rattled their cage for some amusement and the other ones holding out against them would have been Margrada and your Mom.”

“And probably Pelegar too. And maybe some of the other senior drummers. Mom may be the best, but the others are no slouch either.”

“That’s true. When we played in Gray Rift, they held up against some seriously fierce competition. But we beat the volcano gods at the Calling, and I wasn’t the one who did it but I think I can say I played better than any of the other first timers, except Margrada. And as for you? The Darkwood doesn’t have any Troubles left in it and my sister is still alive. I think we know exactly how that would have turned out if I’d been there instead of you.”

“It’s possibly Endings would have picked someone else to be the Bearer entirely and it would have been a completely average year.” Yasgrid wasn’t sure how much her presence had influenced Endings choice but she didn’t like imagining Kayelle attempting the pledge of ridding the Darkwood of Troubles on her own. It was too easy to see that Kayelle wouldn’t have given up and too easy to imagine the various ends that would have led to.

“What does that tell us though?” Nia asked.

“I’m not sure,” Yasgrid said, her thoughts scattering around to find for where her intuition was leading her. “Maybe just this though – if we have fallen into filling a gap, into something the world was missing, maybe we need to be careful how much we lean into that?”

“You were definitely born to be an Elf,” Nia said with a smile of appreciation. “Being careful is like every even numbered step in a typical elven plan.”

“In this case I’m remembering a bit of Stoneling wisdom though,” Yasgrid said. “You know how Frost Harbor is on the ocean? That means we have ocean myths, or not myths exactly, but stories that were handed down to remind us of the dangers that can befall us. One of them that always struck me is to fear the water when the ocean goes away.”

“When the ocean goes away? What water would there be to fear then?” Nia asked.

“Apparently when there are calamities, big calamities in the world, the ocean can pull back, drawing far away from the beaches and docks. If we ever see that happen, the stories say to run like hell up. Get into the mountains as high as possible and pray.”

“Stonelings don’t pray though?” Nia said.

“For this? For this we’re supposed to because when the ocean goes away it leaves behind a void and a new ocean will return to fill it, but it doesn’t return slowly. What fills the void comes as a crashing wave that can shatter the mountains.”

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