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Side A – Nia

In Nia’s mind calamities were always associated with fire since it wasn’t like the Darkwood’s streams and ponds presented the same existential dangers to a community as an wildfire did. From her memories of being in a tiny little boat on the unending, impossibly mobile surface of the ocean though it wasn’t exactly a challenge to imagine how water could be a problem as well.

“I’m not sure any of this is something we can flee to the high ground to get away from,” Nia said, noticing that they had, notably, gravitated to the top of a small peak which was as high up as they could reasonably get under the circumstances.

“In this case, I don’t think flight will help us,” Yasgrid said before growing contemplative. “Though it would make getting back to town a bit easier, wouldn’t it? No! That exactly what I’m talking about.” 

“It is tempting isn’t it?” Nia said. The familiar itch in her fingers to play a song was there but Yasgrid’s warning had her questioning her urge to indulge it. The warnings the Roadies had given were more of guidelines she could try to sneak around, and Drum Master Pelegar’s lessons were really a tax she paid to gain the skill she need to play like she really wanted too. Both of those were negotiable though. If she could outwit the Roadies and if Pelegar didn’t have anything else to teach her, then certainly she could just play all day right?

But she hadn’t.

She’d held herself back from gorging on the drumming her fingers, and her soul, so desperately wanted to do.

Why?

Because it was tempting and Naosha had demonstrated at every turn that mastering temptation was the key to mastering the world? That might have been how it started. The more Nia examined her knee-jerk reactions to things, the more she could see the lessons she’d absorbed from her mother. That they were often good lessons made it all the harder to fight against them, but her time in the mountains had shown her that finding her own path, even when it was ‘wrong’, could be as or even more fulfilling too.

So why was she still holding back? If she could drum on anything, she didn’t need to sneak around the Roadies, and she could practice her craft always and everywhere, even when Pelegar didn’t have drills for her to run.

“Is the temptation because our true natures are calling to us and resisting the temptation means we’re resisting ourselves?” Yasgrid wasn’t asking a question. She was posing a challenge, and Nia could feel the other side of it echoing within her.

“Or is it because we’re being pulled into more than we can handle?”

“Can we even say that we’ve handled what’s come to us so far?” Yasgrid gestured down to Gray Rift and Gray Falls with the weird crystal growths and the newly cosmopolitan bustle in their streets.

“Not alone certainly. We’ve had a lot of help so far. And maybe that’s what we should be focusing on.”

Side B – Yasgrid

Focusing on the people who’d been supporting them sounded delightful to Yasgrid. In particular, say, Kyra, would be wonderful to focus on, just to pick a random person from her life.

So why wasn’t she doing that?

She’d gone out in search of Nia early in the morning rather than making sure a stunning breakfast was awaiting Kyra the moment she woke up?

“I wonder if they need that?” she asked more to herself than to Nia.

“Yeah, I wanted to make sure to give Mar some time away from me so that people could celebrate her properly. I think it’s easy to get wrapped up in the weird drummer with even weirder ideas, but Margrada’s had to deal with being overlooked her whole life and I…I do not want to be a part of that.”

“Things are different with Kyra. She spent her life with all sort of expectations…oh…”

“Oh what?”

“I just noticed how we fit with our lady loves. I think I felt a kinship with Kyra because I could see the expectations that her people had dropped on her. They weren’t the same as the ones the other drummers hit me with, but they were familiar nonetheless.”

“Huh, yeah, and I wouldn’t overlook Mar because I know exactly what that’s like.”

“But they’re both different now, aren’t they?”

“I can’t speak for Kyra, but people are definitely aware of what an amazing drummer Margrada is. I think being recognized by Pelegar helped there but she’s been instrumental in so many of the songs we’ve played, plus she did a ridiculously good job at the Battle of the Bands we’ve fought.”

“Kyra’s a lot freer than she was. I don’t want to say that her captivity was good for her, but she definitely used the time away from the other Fate Dancers to work through a lot of things.”

“But we still love them.”

“I don’t think we could call what we feel love if we didn’t.”

“Hmm, you know, maybe that’s the thing,” Nia said, chewing on her lip as an idea turned over and over behind her eyes. “Focusing only on them feels weird. They’re not with us because of what we can do for them. They don’t want us waiting on them hand and foot, or wrapping our lives around theirs. What they would like, I’m imagining, is that we’re around to have a life with them.”

“We’ve changed a lot in just six months. There’s not much chance we won’t keep changing, especially if I’m right and there’s some kind of void we’ve been pulled into filling in the world.”

“So we bring them with us. If we’re going to change, let’s let it be their choice to change with us. Or walk away. I mean I hate that idea, but the thought of Margrada being stuck with me as I turned into someone she doesn’t love anymore is too horrible to contemplate.”

“Agreed, but that needs to be their decision. We only get to decide to keep loving them, not how they feel in return.”

“That said, perhaps taking things slowly, even if that’s hard, might be the right answer. Turning into a Stoneling has been great, if I turn into stone next that might be less awesome.”

“So what would taking things slowly look like do you think?”

“Well, probably walking back to town and finding out what’s up with that without drumming or sorcery,” Nia said, pointing to a spot Gray Falls where pillars of smoke were rising from a ring of crystals.

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