Under Pressure

Writers: Heather, Miriah, Suzee
Date Posted: 2nd April 2019
Series: The Wingleader's Surgery

Characters: Cyradis, Jeyme, D'hol, Kielya, Dheymin
Description: Cyradis and Jeyme apply the right kind of pressure to influence a decision.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 24 of Turn 9

Cyradis

Jeyme

D'hol

Kielya

Cyradis dropped her head in her hands and rubbed her temples when they
had all finally gone from her office. Tears welled up in her eyes that
he had thought she hated him and that was why she'd brought him back.
How far that was from the truth.

She thought about the arguments she could use to get him to back down
but knew none of them would phase him. There were only a couple of
things that could make him take notice. She re-read his letter and
there they were, a couple of them.

}: Dearest, can you please ask Quinneth's to come to my office?:{

}:Mine,:{ Quinneth's voice was quiet and gentle.

Jeyme was sitting in her weyr, D'hol's letter to her still clutched in
her hand, eyes red-rimmed. She felt hollow on the inside. He had
planned on telling her all of those things, those admissions of love
that she had needed to hear from him, but only when he was gone? When
Quinneth had told her that Yumath had suddenly appeared back above
Dolphin Cove, she had collapsed into a chair, weak-kneed and needing
support.

"What?" she croaked.

}:Panitath's wishes to see you.:{ Quinneth's eyes whirled a yellow
tinted with orange.

Rubbing her hands over her eyes, Jeyme let out a shuddering breath
before pushing herself to her feet. With trembling fingers she folded
the letter and tucked it inside her pillowcase for safe keeping, she
wasn't done looking at it yet.

Jeyme had no doubt as to why she was being called to Cyradis' office,
she figured that if she had received a letter, then Cyradis had as
well. "You wanted to see me, Weyrwoman?" she asked in a low, rough
voice as she shut the office door behind her.

"Yes," Cyradis said and got up to walk over to the younger woman. She
put her arm around her waist and brought her to the couch. They were
both suffering from much the same emotions. She pressed her lips
together and asked. "How much did he tell you." They both knew which
'he' she meant.

"All his letter said was that he had an illness that had gotten worse.
The pain was too much to contend with and that he and Yumath were
going." Jeyme had steeled herself to say the words outloud, but they
were still hard to force out. It had only been a little over a Turn
that Jeyme had lost A'dan in Threadfall, and to receive the letter
from D'hol....

She nodded, "That's not all of it," she said. "A few days ago Urlene
and Y'gel came to me with a case on which they'd been asked to
consult. It involved an older dragonrider with a mass in his belly.
He'd refused to have surgery and decided to suicide. He was out there
this morning over the ocean fighting thread by himself." She shook her
head. "He's still refusing even though they think they can heal him.
You know how stubborn he can be."

Oh, she knew. D'hol would cut his nose off to spite his face. The word
"mass" was frightening, nearly as frightening as the mental image of
D'hol and Yumath alone in the air with Thread. "I can't believe he
didn't tell us. It's going to sound strange but... I kept wondering
why he was being so nice lately." Now she understood what had been the
real catalyst behind his sudden forgiveness of her taking Dheymin to
Far Island, and now she understood that promise he'd had her made the
last time he'd won Quinneth's flight, about raising Dheymin to be
proud of his father.

"You and me both," she said in a dry tone. "Luckily Panitath could
force Yumath back and ground him so he can't try this again. But he's
bent on this plan of his and we have to do something to shake him out
of it. If he'll listen to anyone it might be the children."

"Dheymin's too young to understand, but I can speak on his behalf.
Would you want Kieyla to know what her father has planned?" Jeyme
asked. She was willing to confront D'hol over his hair-brained scheme.
She remembered all those turns ago when she had been D'hol's weyrmate
and Wylra had visited and told her that she sometimes would just have
to take charge and tell the bronzerider how it had to be. At the time,
she'd been too young and inexperienced to do it, but now she could.

Cyradis nodded. "I think we're going to need every advantage we can
get," she said. "Kielya is old enough to know about death," she added.
"Besides, let's see him so dismissive of our feelings in front of his
children."

Jeyme nodded in agreement, still feeling numb over the entire matter.
"I just can't believe that _that's_ how he was going to handle it. Not
a word to us, just a _note_." That was so like D'hol, to try and have
the final word.

"Yeah, me too," she turned and picked her's up off the desk and waved
it. "Three times a coward," she snorted. "He won't have the surgery
and won't face us. Never thought I'd say that about him. At this point
Yumath isn't allowed between so shall we go get the children and
find him? The healers are getting things ready. And Jeyme, they think
whatever the mass is may not be the wasting sickness. They think they
can do it. But if they can't we'll have to promise..," she clenched
her jaw to keep from tearing. "To give him mercy. He won't want to
linger."

"Yes, I understand." Jeyme pushed to her feet, shoving her fingers
through her short hair. "I'll go collect Dheymin. Are we meeting with
him in the infirmary? Or his weyr?"

"His weyr," she said.

~*~ ooc we can cut it here later~*~

They met again outside D'hols door. Cyradis held Kielya's hand.
"Ready," she asked the other woman.

"Ready," Jeyme confirmed, holding Dheymin on her hip. As she had
walked down to retrieve their son she'd found herself growing angrier,
and angrier over D'hol's decision to keep something so important from
her, and she was more than ready to convince him to have the surgery.

Cyradis knocked on the door but didn't wait for an answer but pushed
it open for them all to enter. "D'hol," she said. "We have something
to say."

The bath had at least relaxed his muscles and provided some measure of
calm, but the pain had required a drop of fellis in his water to stem
that particular agony. Finally dressed, he ran his hand over his face
to feel his damp hair fall in short curls about his ears and brow. He
needed a haircut, but at this point, what did it matter? He eyed the
little vial of fellis, considering it for only a moment before
snarling and turning away. Not like that.

He sat at his table, trying to think, when the knock sounded, he
ignored it, but had to look up as not one, but two women entered. He
rose, then his eyes fell on his children and he swallowed. He looked
up at Cyradis and Jeyme, face taut. "This is low."

This wasn't the time for anger and recriminations that wouldn't phase
him. He had so much of his own that anything she could say would
simply bounce off him so she didn't she just bared her soul in her
eyes.

"Daddy?" Kielya dropped her momma's hand and walked over to him "Do
you want to die?"

He looked down at Kielya and the expression on her face made him waver
for a brief moment before he carefully knelt, grimacing for only a
moment at the pang that fellis didn't numb. Looking her directly in
the eye, he cupped her cheek in his large hand and ran his thumb
against it tenderly. "Yes, Kielya. Yes I do. Daddy is in a lot of
pain, every day, all the time. I hurt, Kielya and I don't want to hurt
anymore. Do you understand?"

"But momma said the Healers can help you but you don't want to. Like I
don't want to take math tests but I still have to. Why don't you let
the Healers help you get better so you don't hurt?" She was a big girl
and she knew that. So was her brother Ma'din "Deyhmin is just a baby
and he won't know you like I do."

Jeyme let Dheymin down, who was wiggling to go and see his father, not
quite understanding the severity of the meeting. "You're finally
getting the time to be his father, the way you wanted, and you're just
going to give up and throw it away?"

How could he explain to Kielya the risks? How could she understand? As
Dheymin ran to him, D'hol caught him up in his arms, allowing the
small boy to nestle close. His jaw tightened further as he bit back
angry words that neither child needed to hear. That he could have had
more time with both of them if one had stayed, or he had known about
the other after her birth. He stared up at Jeyme and Cyradis."How is
me dying on a table with my belly sliced open or wasting away, sick
and weak, going to make me a better father?"

His voice broke then at the last. Faranth, he had wanted his children
to remember him whole and well, not like the option they were putting
before him. Instead he looked down at his son, then up at Kielya, his
eyes moistening, then closed his eyes in defeat. He could not look at
them, hold them, and tell them no. Tugging Kielya into his embrace as
well, he held both of his children to him. He opened his eyes to look
up at the two women, his eyes moist, but clearly resenting what they
had done. "You win. I'll go under the knife."

Relief trickled through Jeyme's insides. She knew what that look from
D'hol meant, but she didn't care, not when it came to his life. She
would rather he be alive and hate her for Turns to come than to be
dead.

Cyradis hadn't made a sound but tears ran down her face.

Kielya threw her arms around her father's neck. "I love you," she said.

"You won't waste away D'hol," Cyradis promised him. "I will give you
mercy if it's required." They all knew what that meant. She would
personally end his life if the news from the surgery were the worst
possible outcome.

"I love you too, Kielya." He rose unsteadily, pushing himself up with
the table and put Dheymin down after giving him a quick embrace. He
stared at Cyradis and Jeyme both, lips thinned. "No, you won't. You'll
have them sew me back up, at the first Fall, I'll have the death _I_
wanted and neither of you will say a shaffing thing. And if Yumath
should /between/ while I'm under, then you better make sharding sure I
never wake up. At least then, I won't know that it was for nothing and
every ounce of dignity I had left was gone."

His jaw worked from side to side before he looked down at his two
children. "Go on now. Take your mothers and go have dinner."

Last updated on the April 12th 2019

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Under Pressure