Pre-Interview Jitters

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 15th March 2024

Characters: Irrkali, Alidre
Description: Irrkali fears for her daughter's safety. Alidre fears professional failure.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 7 of Turn 11

In her weyr, Irrkali paced around, occasionally reaching out to touch
Jeath's hide for reassurance.

She was so nervous at sending her baby out to the Harper Hall. Alidre
had been raised at Weyrs her whole life. She'd never been to Holds or
Halls. Unlike her, who'd been born at a Hold, whose father had moved
because of the ban, wanting his daughters to have the freedom the
Holds sought to deny. Leaving the Hold had let her have an
apprenticeship with weyr-trained (and some hall-trained transfer)
crafters. It had been a gift for her to be at the Weyr, and Alidre
continuing the lineage of crafting made her so happy.

For her daughter to go to a Hall...

Even if the Hall accepted female crafters, it was located at a Hold,
still. Had gone back there after its time sheltered under the Weyr's
wings, which had happened because malcontents at the same Hold had
chosen to burn it in protest of women taking up "men's work". A Hold
which might have a sympathetic Lord, but in which territory had been
having dangerous anti-Weyr behavior - the infiltrators, the
poisonings, plus whatever was going on within cotholds...

It terrified Irrkali, if she was honest, to think about her daughter
at the Hall, potentially at risk if some of the disaffected holders
decided to again make examples of women in the crafts and the Hall
that allowed it and the Lord who encouraged it.

**Damn the malcontent holders who are making it unsafe to be
weyr-affiliated!** All Irrkali felt was fear for her daughter's
safety. (A mother's prerogrative!)

But Irrkali wanted to be able to be as proud of her daughter's
decision to pick out an independent life and seek the highest standard
of Harper education as she ought to be. (A mother's job!)

Her daughter was ambitious about her Craft, as ambitious as Irrkali
herself was about wingrank. That was an inheritance she was happy to
leave her girl with. But if only Alidre thought she could do her best
at a Weyr...

Meanwhile, in the apprentice barracks...

Alidre's fears were entirely different. She had been more isolated
from the news of what was happening in Hold-Weyr politics. Oh everyone
knew about the bad meat, but Alidre didn't know about anything else
that was going on. Unlike her mother, she thought it was just a few
scattered incidents.

The apprentice knew that she was close to walking the tables. That
she'd been told by her masters that she had excellent skill with
string instruments even as an apprentice. That they had said she might
be able to play the rare coveted ones at the Hall - the cellos and the
giant harps - the most complicated instruments, the rarest ones - _of
course _ she wanted to go. It had been two of the Weyr's instrumental
specialized Master Harpers said she could do it. And one of them had
been Hall-trained but stayed in the Weyr when the hall left.

The only fear in her mind was not passing the interview - not being
good enough to be trained at the Hall. That she'd have to reapply
after a few Turns as a journeyman, and lose valuable time she could
have spent there.

**They wouldn't tell me that I had the potential if I didn't have
it,** she reassured herself. **If it's just a spoken interview, I have
my mother's composure and careful tongue. If it's a performance
assessment, I can do that. I had an instrumental solo at Turn's End.
This will be fewer people listening to this.**

And she'd repeat that to herself until tomorrow's interview was over.
As many times as it took.

Last updated on the March 19th 2024

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Pre-Interview Jitters