She'll Be With Us

Writers: Avery, Emma
Date Posted: 4th August 2016

Characters: A'kades, K'sedel
Description: K'sedel lets A'kades know about Lanniya's change in status
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 20 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lanniya, Rhosyn, Cyradis, Saibra, K'ran; Follows Facing the Music

K'sedel

A'kades knocked on the door of the Weyrlingmaster's office. He had the
feeling that something very important was going on. Anaeryth had been
gone a long time and come back injured; Lanniya had been mysteriously
absent; many of the rankers had been cloistered together having a
meeting. He hoped K'sedel had called him here to clue him in on some
of it.

"Come!" this was proabably going to be a longish meeting, so K'sedel
had ordered klah and snack to be sent up. There wasn't an easy way to
even begin to explain this.

The Second entered the room. Looking at the tray, he winced.
"Good day, Weyrlingmaster. Can I assume that something's gone wrong?"
he asked, a bit of humor in his tone even though he suspected
something serious had happened.

"That perhaps, would be an understatement," K'sedel said even as he
gestured to the empty seat. "Pour yourself a drink first, you might
need it before I'm done."

At least A'kades rode bronze, it made the issue of timing easier to
discuss, although ranking brownriders had to be told. but a rider who
couldn't keep quiet about this wouldn't be told in the first place,
K'sedel consoled himself with that much.

"That sounds ominous," A'kades said, sitting down and pouring klah.
"So what had everyone in a meeting?"

"Our newest goldrider," simply said, hard to explain. "She'll be
joining us as a Weyrlingstaff assistant." That was the easy bit.

Watching A'kades face he continued. "There are two reasons, one we'll
be telling the public, but you need to know the real reason, and
that's the difficult part." He inhaled sharply. "Short version, she
pulled a crazy timing stunt."

A'kades prided himself on his self-control, but he couldn't fight off
the gasp. "She didn't. She just jumped /between/ times without telling
anyone?"

"Exactly, that is what she did. And to make matters worse, she brought
family members forwards with her."

A'kades took a deep sip of klah. "You're right, I did need a drink.
This sounds like a nightmare."

"So now you see what some of the issues are going to be." K'sedel
reached for his own drink. "And why she's back with us."

"It sounds like a wise idea for now. So what's the story going to be
for the public? That we're seasoning her before her flight?"

Since Anaeryth hadn't risen yet, and working with the weyrlings might
be seeing what would happen with her first clutch. Thin excuse, but a
potential.

"That's part of it, the other part is that she'll be telling people
she wanted to know what it was like to have some responsibilities for
others."

"That sounds sensible," A'kades said with a nod. "Are we assigning her
the same duties as every weyrlingstaff member, or does she get any
additional?"

"The same to start, but I want her to have some unobtrusive
supervision, just at first." That would be the same with any new
member of the weyrling staff. Some had a knack for teaching a
classroom, others preferred to demonstrate, some to act as one on one
tutors to those who needed it.

"From one of her peers, or one of us?" A'kades would be happy to have
Volaith keep an eye on her. But perhaps one of the younger
weyrlingstaff would be a better idea.

"Initially one of us, then once we're more certain of where her
strengths lie, we can use one of the other members of staff."

"Sounds good." He'd let K'sedel decide which of them would do it,
since they had different teaching styles.

"At least this class has been reasonably well-behaved," he added. If
they'd had a fractious class, adding a goldrider into the mix might
not have helped.

"So far," there was always one who would try something. A midnight
feast was usually the mildest, ranging up to unauthorized trips from
the Weyr at the truly scary end.

"I have a few concerns, including L'dran. Harrath is calm enough but
he's a bit of a hothead. If anyone's going to be an issue, I think it
might be him," A'kades said. "I wish we could trust Lanniya to mentor
him."

"S'mek might be a better choice, but perhaps we can tag team him with
Lanniya."

"Solid idea. I like it." A'kades said.

"We just need to keep an eye on them all, and work up some extra lectures for Lanniya, perhaps have her sit in on the responsibility ones."

"Especially the ones about the consequences of rapid actions. Between
her impulsive rescue of the weyrling, and this incident, she seems to
act before thinking at all."

"And hopefully she'll get the message. If all else fails though, we
will have to transfer her, probably North, just so that there's no
gossip following her."

"I hope we don't have to send her that far off," A'kades said. He did
rather like her. Then he hesitated for a moment, before deciding. "May
I speak completely freely?"

"Of course," K'sedel said.

"What exactly happened at that meeting? Volaith says Anaeryth is
deeply upset. I get the feeling Lanniya is probably upset, and I'd
like to talk to her tomorrow morning before we get started. But I want
your take," he said.

"Lets just say that you'd have had more sense from my youngest son."

"She's going to ruin the girl," A'kades said, shaking his head. It
felt like his worst fears were being confirmed. "I tried hard to teach
her, and I'm disappointed that she made this rash decision. But it
sounds like Rhosyn's heavy-handedness is..."

"Driving her further off the rails," K'sedel completed the sentence
for him. "They're as stubborn and headstrong as each other in
different ways." But Lanniya's seemed to come from a desire to do the
right thing, where as Rhosyn...

"Precisely. I'm afraid of losing the pair completely."

"Could be worth reviewing the topics we need to cover with her, then
organizing that transfer. Cyradis or Saibra might be a much better
mentor for her."

A'kades sighed heavily at the thought. The Weyrleader had been from
Dragonsfall, and he knew the Weyrwoman there to know how well the
suggestion would be taken. Lanniya being trained elsewhere to full
authority would be better than her being poorly trained here... Though
privately A'kades found himself wishing the source of the problem
would be gone, for it wasn't the young hears-all.

"I'd hate to lose her to another Weyr. But I think you're right. Do
you plan to bring it up to the Weyrleader after we see how she does?"

"I probably will have that conversation in a month or so."

A'kades nodded. "Let me know if there's anything else I can do."

"You'll hear from me. This is going to take both of us."

"Understood," he said. Then he thought about another weyrling-related
point. "While we're here, I have a thought about L'dran..."

Last updated on the August 13th 2016

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

She'll Be With Us