Bonesong Part Two: Creation Sings, and I am... in Counterpoint

Contributor: Erin the Red

Submission: In-Game writing from Rowan MacMaith and Chance, two musical players from the same game

LARP system: Accelerant
Your Location: Connecticut, USA
Character name: Rowan MacMaith
Years LARPing: 7

Chance and Rowan are two longtime players-- they are both of the Bayastri race, a cat-like animal race. Cat-races are popular in many LARPs, among many players. Many players use extravagant make-up and costuming. How players play their cat-people depends on the game. Erin writes that Rowan and Chance are "Cat sisters" and "longtime friends." The following is a dialogue between the two female-identifying characters. (Both players are talented and creative musicians.)

Read Part One!

Rowan - "Lucius draws me into a conversation about how to take Grum the Mad from this horrid farce of a social affair. I need someone to listen to me... everyone is needed here, to draw power from the Lord of Pyres, but I need people, trusted people, to go with us. Lucius is focused on the task at hand, cutting me off as I try and speak. I want to scream and rage at him... dammit, Lucius, listen to me!

'Lucius, I can't be here. I am going to the Dragonspire with Valen, Khalder, Trelaine, and Sam to do my duty. Corbalaak will be here with you, because he will need to leave...' I can't talk any more, it hurts with all the tears I am trying to hold back. The pressure on my throat eases as the tears start. Dammit.

Lucius takes one look at the tears, and puts both arms around me. 'It's going to be O.K., Rowan.' Oh, dear Green Man, no it's not.... we are all in this darkness, and the Bonesong is going to win, and my sister is nowhere around, and Corbalaak can't go with us, and I can't do this...

Chance speaks from my right, "Lucius, the Pride and I are going with Rowan." I look up from Lucius' shoulder, and there she is. Our eyes meet, and I could cry all over again. There is the calm resolve I need, right there in her eyes. Resisting the urge to throw my arms around her, I give her a quick outline of what we are doing, and she leaves to get her family."

 

Chance - "I collect Averyl and send her back to the cabin to warn the Pride of what I’ve just volunteered us to do. Other than Ghent , Averyl and I, there is little enough we could do to convince someone with words to do or not do anything. Callie and Khenket have their own kind of elegant eloquence, but Callie would have to be interested in what she was doing, and Khenket…. Well. He is his father’s son.

 

I pause for a moment to find out what else is going on, watch Serenity’s dissolving sanity and Elleshar’s worried face as he watches her… nothing I can do there, Elleshar can handle it . My mind speaks logic, but my heart supplies the song….  This little bird that somebody sends…
she flies so high up in the sky… Out of reach of human eye…. And the only time that she touches the ground….

 

In the cabin, my family are getting ready, girding themselves for the wild weather and the fight to come. We’ve been told we should disguise ourselves, and we do our best. The Pride is not meant for covert work unless it is outside with the possibility of not being seen at all. I hear one of the girls give a soft cry of disgust and then suddenly Lord Cath is in my cabin, in my home, and pushing aside the curtain that separates the sleeping quarters I share with Sobec from the rest of the hall. He touches me before I can even respond, and as he does I realize he is just a nightmare. Lucius woke me hours ago, and I shrug off his attempt to collect me as he has done my family.

 

When they are gone, I storm out into the night. I involve myself in the fight with Morose and the demon Murrimuc, losing my anger in healing the fallen, fighting fear that washes over all of us in waves.

 

When I hear the Bell and see Valen, I go screaming into the tavern for Rowan. We scream in perfect unison for Jahanata, and he appears, immediately, as if we have worked a piece of magic. We sing. And sing. And sing..."

 

Rowan - "The waiting grinds on. I pick the rest of a group. The whole group gets dragged out to fight. Sobec storms in... his family has been taken... how is this possible? Trelaine drifts in as a spirit, takes a physical form, and collapses on the floor, drained and without strength... why is this happening now? I prop him in the corner as more spirits drift in and take mortal form. Sam comes in with both arms broken, and I fix one and send him back out... wait, was that even Sam? Great, I just sent a nightmare out to kill other people. Death's Bell tolls, and we run for the Gate... it's Valen. One Song for Death later, and he is among us again, but now there are more at the Gate. Morose prowls past in the darkness, making my skin crawl. Finally, no more Spirits. We go back to the Tavern. Corbalaak is in a heated discussion with Asper, giving him the information he needs to take my husband's place in the Pumpkin swap. The room begins to fill as Nightmares are drawn to the Lord of Pyres gruesome party. I pace the room with a hood up, trying desperately to not listen to what is being said.

'... I have listened to it all, for when the Gate was closed you did not close it all the way. I have had to listen to it for 12 years, the horror and the pain...'

He's a Nightmare... remember he's a Nightmare...

The Banshee Queen is also a Nightmare... deep breath... she's a Nightmare...

'Hello, Rowan.' I stop and look. The Priestess of Arcalia that I remember from Diardha smiles at me, and the light glints off of her fangs... sweet Green Man, she's a vampire. 'Have you completed your task yet?'

It's all lost... I'm going to die in the Dragonspire... the Bone Song will ring... and everything I love will be lost to Darkness... if I throw myself at her feet and offer her my neck, will she take me into the Darkness?

Ciona's voice cracks like a whip in my head: Don't you dare.

My voice is curt as I brush past her, 'Not yet.'

Finally, Father Merrick appears. We gather the group, cloaking faces and heads so we are less recognizable. Father Merrick leads us to the Gate, through the pounding rain. The Gate opens, and we step through to Mhurkiel. The Dragonspire rises in the darkness, a sinister needle against the sky. We find the entrance that Father Merrick told us about. I am so frightened I can't speak, and I can't feel Corbalaak's hand in mine... I don't want to die in this place, far away from the trees and the White Spring and my Grove. Halfway up the first curving staircase I have a wild random thought of Zephyr: I'm glad he's not with us, these enclosed stairs would have terrified him. The stairs open into the hall... and that is where my mind quit being able to process. Thoughts can't stay in my mind long enough for me to catch them... heal Nakoth, he's down... Terrance knows where my will is... I'm so proud of this group, I haven't been touched... Valen's down, wait Chance has him... watch Sam, he kicks when he fights... I'll miss the White Spring..."

 

Chance - "It isn’t until the fight is actually engaged that I’m really sure that Rowan isn’t going to faint.

Not that she has ever for an instant been unreliable, but I am scared enough=2 0for her emotional state that I nearly shove her husband aside to grasp her hand. Steady, steady, steady…. I think it to her through the link of our hands, wondering at the man she has married, so full of rage and frustration that he can’t be comfort to her when she needs him, which is now, as never before, and Oberon willing, never again. It is not my place to judge, he is doing what he can, and my eyes turn to my own husband, tall and graceful and deadly, catching his blue gaze briefly before he disappears around a bend in the Spire. If I were in the state the Rowan is in, Sobec would be wrapped around me like the world’s most lethal cloak, hard pressed to keep from killing anything that came within feet of me, friend or foe. Not, perhaps, the ideal reaction for a situation like this…. I am distantly amazed to find myself smiling. Right. Your husband has his own… issues… woman. Focus."  
Rowan - "We make it across the first floor, up another flight of stairs, tightly turning in the darkness. Across another floor of the hall, fighting all the way. The Spirits of the Paladins see us as those who murdered that which they were tasked to protect, and they fight valiantly. It hurts my heart to do this to them, but it must be done. I find myself telling the fallen Spirits that I am sorry... so very very sorry...."

 

Chance - "There is a genuine duel of Paladins going on at the front line. Lucius and Valen and Sam are practically glowing with their own unique light. Lucius is bright gold, too bright to look at directly, and that’s just as well because there are tiny veins of black working their way through that light. Valen’s shadow is ominous, but there are flashes of green and gold at the edges, like the lining of a coat hem flipped up by the wind. Sam is white, pure, glowing.

 

I can practically feel Rowan’s heart racing, but all I feel is peace, totally alive in battle, surrounded by my family. We are best together, and fearless when we know we will live or die as one. My son and his Pride are perfection, working smoothly and effortlessly as if connected by a single mind, and I know that it is nearly so; they are connected by my son’s indomitable will. Sam and Trelaine, Khalder and Valen, Lucius and Sobec have fought together so often…. I feel a great wash of love for them all. My fondest wish is to be able to impress that love upon them in times like these, to give them the strength I draw from them, the warmth that they make me feel.

And then we are through the room, and faced by the last stairs, at the top of which will lie the Spire’s peak."   

Rowan - "Up one more flight of stairs, this time to the balcony. The Oracle will be here in this place, in this silent abandoned place. My own song weaves it's way through my mind: In this place where silence has reigned...

Valen's voice drifts down the stairs, 'This has to happen fast... push quickly.'

One last glance back to Chance, one last clasp of her hand...

The group charges in. Weapons clash. The Oracle reads on, filling my mind and heart with despair, wracking my heart and body with pain. Trelaine explodes into a ball of flame, directing bolts of fire at the Spirits. A flash of blue light... their magical shields are gone in an instant of fiery evocation. Before anyone can land another blow, a crack of lightning blasts through a Spirit... Corbalaak is calling down the Storm's Anger, letting his rage at everything we have been through find an outlet at last. A hole in the line in front of us, and Valen and I slip through. There she is, reading on... Valen calls on his divine power, and she slows her reading and stops, a calm look on her face. Trembling all over, waiting for a sword t hrough my body, I sing the Song of Creation, letting it ring out in this ancient place. Valen then steps to the Oracle.

'You know it has to end this way.' He shoves her, and her body sails over the railing. She falls without a sound... maybe she did know what was happening."

 

Chance - "I lose track of what I am doing when I hear Rowan’s song. It doesn’t matter in the slightest that we’ve sung it hundreds of times, in rehearsal, for the banshees, for the reaper. It doesn’t matter that I know the notes, that the melody hums along to the beat of my heart. It doesn’t matter that I know her voice well enough to anticipate where she will draw breath. The goose-bumps still lift on my arms as the ancient stones tremble under her voice. My heart sings with her, though my teeth are tightly clamped on my bottom lip. No confusion, no mistakes. We are fighting, we are here, and this is the moment. Rowan’s moment. Creation sings, and I am.

 

I’m still shivering with the Song of Creation when the gate appears. I have no idea what it is at first, and then Rowan and Valen are in front of me, before it. She is swaying on her feet; I will not let her stand alone, and the Spire can keep any fool God of Death who wants me to step aside. One little hint of a buckling knee and I hook my hands into her bodice. I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even feel it, but that’s not at all the point. I prop her up, and wait."

Rowan - "The hall is silent. We all wait... one heartbeat.... two... three...

Nielus' Gate blooms in front of me, glowing with the all too familiar blood red color.

'Who calls me here?' My throat is so dry I can't get words out. 'Rowan?'

'I am here, my Lord.'

'Have you completed your task? Hand it to me through the Gate.'

Valen shrugs that hated burden off his back. He reaches out, and the Gate envelops the Book in blackness, pulling it to the other side.

'By Your Name, Valen, I remove the taint of Malediction. By your name, Valen, I remove the taint of Shadow.

By Your Name, Rowan... I remove you from Under the Tower.'

I stand there, swaying on the spot...

A year of my life, cloaked in the blackness of being one step away from Death... gone...

No more fear... no more Bone Song...

It's done."

 

Chance - "The room sighs in a single voice as one by one the curses are lifted from our friends. How long since this place has heard such a sound? Oberon, let it linger. We all stand still for a moment, and then I feel the hitch in Rowan’s breathing under my hands and know that it’s hit her. For all that I want to fold her into my arms, I am married too, and this is, without a doubt, husband time. I turn her gently around to Corbalaak who is standing, rocklike, just behind us. I give her the little shove she needs to get her going, and then Sobec takes my hand." 
Rowan - "A year's worth held back emotion crashes over my heart, and the sobbing starts. Chance's warm hands turn me around, soothing and steadying as they guide me to the only place that had felt safe throughout this whole thing...

'You did it, Ro... it's O.K...' Corbalaak's warmth, his lips on my hair and his arms tight around me as I cry like a child.

'It's all right, love...It's all over."