Oil and Water

Writers: Clancey, Heather
Date Posted: 16th March 2015

Characters: Renette, Aydin
Description: Renette meets a man who may just be her arch-nemesis, his family calls him Aydin.
Location: Green Valley Hold
Date: month 11, day 6 of Turn 7

It had not been a super long trip from Emerald Falls to Green Valley,
but he was tired. As he stepped down off his runner in the courtyard,
he glanced around the well-kept Hold and smiled faintly. This looked
like a good place. He was here for a short rotation while the
journeyman that had been visiting was sick.

It would not be bad to stay here for a time.

A stablehand came and took his runner away and he went to report his
arrival.

(sometime later)

Bags over his shoulder, he headed first for the Harper work room. He
expected to be spending most of his time here, and needed to check it
out for himself. As he tossed his gear down, he noticed he wasn't the
only person in the room.

Assuming the woman in there - he could tell she was female for sure -
was a drudge cleaning up for him, he said lightly, "Hello,
and thank you. I can come back later when you are finished cleaning
if that would be better."

He was as tall as his brother, J'darin, with the same mop of black
hair. His build was slighter, though, given his chosen craft of
Harper, and his eyes were hazel instead of the deep, dark blue of his
more famous sibling. But Arin and Jaydar had nothing but attractive
children and he was as handsome, in a more innocent way, as J'darin.
The worry lines the bronzerider sported were not present on this
generally happy young man, though he had inherited some of his
father's ....more traditional.... opinions about women, with less
softening than the Weyr had given.

Renette's strawberry blonde head was bent over a gitar that she had
laying flat on her work table. The instrument had some serious
intonation problems and the owner of it had come to her earlier in the
week asking for help. Well, the owner hadn't really come to _her_ but
seeing as she was the only harper at Green Valley working towards a
specialization in instrument construction and repair, she was honestly
the only qualified crafter at the moment to work on it.

It had been three months since Renette arrived back at Green Valley.
At the time she had only intended on passing through just long enough
to visit Reven and see how he was recuperating after the horrific
kidnapping and torture that he had survived. One day had passed, then
a sevenday, and before she knew it two months had gone by.

**Family has a way of sucking you in like that.** She thought with
amusement as she took a folded piece of sanding paper and began
meticulously filing on the nut that kept the strings in the correct
places. Before Reven had taken over as Holder of Green Valley, Renette
would never have had the opportunity to actually work as a harper
there sinces previous Holders had not been as accepting of female
crafters. **Shells, most of the South isn't accepting of it except for
the Weyrs.**

Fortunately for Renette, being the sister of the Holder came with its
advantages and had secured her a place at Green Valley that would have
previously been impossible. Of course, she and Reven had not exactly
broadcasted this new position for her either, there were still plenty
of families in the South that believed a woman's place was barefoot
and pregnant.

The sound of the door opening to the workshop made Renette pause.
There were only one or two other crafters around Green Valley at the
current time, both elderly and tasked with educating the Hold
children. Renette glanced up to the time piece on the wall and noted
that neither of the two "old gits", as she called them, she be back so
early.

"... I can come back later when you are finished cleaning...." The
words echoed in Renette's brain and for a moment she stared at the man
with a furrowed brow. A quick assessment of his shoulders and the
harper blue he wore clued her in to his position and rank.

"I am not cleaning." She said simply, and then turned back around to
continue her work on the gitar.

Aydin's eyebrows rose at her response. "If you are not a drudge,
what are you doing in Harper's workrooms, because you cannot be a
Harper. You're a ...girl..." His normally happy countenance was
puzzled more than it was arrogant. That was another trait his
brother had inherited in a higher level than him. But he _did_ have
the entirely Southern opinion of women Crafters of his father.
Having never been Searched, his own beliefs had never altered.

"I will require this space anyway, as I am to take up the teaching for
the next month or so here at Green Valley. I am Aydin, a Senior
Journeyman Harper." He tooks a few more steps into the room,
aggravated by the way she had ignored him. He had at first thought
she was pretty but a woman... Crafting....It was not proper

Renette ground her back molar's together as her hands froze in the
middle of her work. She'd met plenty of men like this arrogant
deadglow, but the way he announced his 'rank', as if it really meant
something to her, grated on her nerves more than anything.

Swiveling back around, Renette speared the man with her piercing blue
eyes. He was good looking, she would admit grudgingly, but the way he
held his shoulders and lifted his chin reminded her of some spoiled
child who had probably always gotten his way. **This guy's probably
never been told 'no' in his life. He has no idea what it's like to
scrap and struggle to see your dreams come to fruition.**

"And I am Renette, a Journeywoman Harper," she reached up and tapped
the knots on her shoulder mockingly, "and if you don't mind, I would
really like to finish this gitar today."

"You cannot be a Journeywoman. Why, the Harper Hall just started
accepting females very recently." His eyes narrowed at her and the
knots. Ahh. She was trained by the Weyr. A faint twitch betrayed
his opinion of that truth. Still, he wasn't sure that meant she
could serve in her Craft outside the Weyrs. He would have to
reconsider his posting here if the Holder allowed women Crafters.

"I will speak to Holder Reven. I _do_ mind. This is to be _my_
Post, and you clearly need to return the Weyr that trained you." He
shook his head in aggravation, his elation at seeing the nice
surroundings deflating.

Renette arched a sable eyebrow, her full mouth twisting into a smirk,
"Why don't you go ahead and do that? Tell my _brother_ I'll be seeing
him for dinner later. Oh," she tilted her head, "did I forget to
mention that Reven is my big brother? He doesn't mind me being here,
and clearly the Weyr does not discriminate against women, the way you
lot do down here, so they approved my posting." There was a certain
smug tone to her voice, even though she reasonably knew that she had
promised Reven to keep a tight lip about her position at Green Valley.
Everyone knowing that he had a female crafter there would only bring
Reven more headaches from other men around the the hold.

He was not frightened nor shaken by her admitting who she was, and in
fact, it gave him a rather neat explanation for finding a woman
Crafter where one should not be. She was here only because her
brother was Holder, not for any skill or ability. He did find
himself wondering just how lacking her training might have been at the
Weyr. or if it had been. His brother had told him that the
Weyrcrafters were just as talented as Hall-trained but this would be
his first experience testing out his brother's claim. He had chalked
it up to the change in J'darin that their father had often lamented
before he died.

What he said was only, "Well, that explains it then." He made no
further explanation but said, "If you need any help with
your...work... I am available. I will return when you are
finished." He did want to talk to Reven, if only to ask what the
truth of the matter might be. Was he, Aydin, the true posted Harper,
but covering for the fact that he had a female Crafter against most
Southern policies, or was it worse, and he was expected to actually
_share_ the duties that were customarily his during a posting?

Last updated on the May 9th 2015

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Oil and Water