I Didn't Do Anything!

Writers: Devin, Estelle
Date Posted: 27th April 2024

Characters: R'fal, N'vanik, Terren
Description: R'fal brings Terren to N'vanik after his return to the Weyr
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 15 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: Aviday, J'ackt, Enali

N'vanik

Marlath felt none of his rider's apprehension as he reached out to
Loseth with his message. The man always made his rider feel miserable
and ashamed, and he hoped that the bronze's rider would decide to send
him away for good. }:My rider asks me to say that his sire has returned
to the Weyr, and he is reporting it as yours ordered. Kobeth and her
rider found him.:{

A moment later Loseth told the brown, }:Yours must bring his sire to
the Weyrleader's office. _Now_:{

R'fal felt the echo of the command in Marlath's voice as he spoke, and
he hurried his steps, a reluctant Terren trailing behind him. "We can
see the Weyrleader now, Da. Better than waiting, right?" he added,
trying to encourage him.

"You wouldn't say that if you were in my boots," Terren moaned. His
flight with Kobeth had left him looking the worse for wear - his hair
was dishevelled and there was a tear at the knee of his trousers - but
R'fal didn't think they should stop for him to change. "I'm headed for a
fate worse than death. We can still go back," he pleaded. "That wretched
girl and her dragon aren't here to see."

"No, we can't," R'fal said shortly. As worried as he was, his sympathy
for his father was eroding with each insult to Aviday. "It's too late."
He came to the door of the Weyrleader's office and knocked.

"Come in!" Time to find out what this tunnelsnake had been up to.

R'fal entered the office and saluted, followed by Terren, who grimaced
and glanced back at the door as if he might make a run for it at any
moment. "Weyrleader, my father, Terren, has returned to the Weyr. You
wanted to see him."

"Sit." N'vanik pointed to the chair and glared at Terren. "You're
lucky. There's a price for your capture. I specified alive, but some
might interpret that as doing anything short of killing you."

Terren's face drained of color and he half-collapsed into the chair.
Even if he got out of here, where could he possibly hide if there was a
price on his head? Most of the men back at the tavern would sell their
own grandmothers for a handful of marks. "But I didn't do anything!"

"That remains to be seen. Why did you run after the Hatching?" Part of
N'vanik wanted Terren to be innocent. Well, innocent of _this_ at
least. Another part of him wanted to have someone else to blame. To
hurt.

"I heard that a bronzerider was looking for me, and I thought he was
going to accuse me of the poisoning." The man's voice took on a
self-pitying whine. "Everyone always blames me, when I've done nothing
wrong! And that J'ackt has it in for me. He's threatened me before."

"What? Da, you never told me that." R'fal stared at his father in disbelief.

"Why did he threaten you?" N'vanik asked, trying to hold his anger in check.

"I don't know. He was trying to turn my son against me." Terren was only
too happy to get off the topic of his own misdeeds and on to J'ackt's.
"Suggesting that I might bring him trouble."

"You did." N'vanik gave him a hard look. "You ran off after the
hatchlings were poisoned, and some people, including me, thought he
might have helped you escape. Made him an accessory to an unthinkable
crime."

"But I had nothing to do with it. My life was in danger," Terren
protested. "The whole Weyr was in uproar, and that bronzerider is known
to be violent. Even R'fal would have turned me in. What an example of
loyalty to a father," he added bitterly.

"What an example of loyalty to his Weyr," N'vanik said flatly. "I
needed you here for questioning. Enali accused you of being involved."
N'vanik thought it was likely she'd lied, but now he was starting to
have doubts. Maybe the conspirators had offered him something.

"That's a lie! I would never have poisoned dragons. My own son is a
dragonrider." Terren pointed at R'fal. He sounded outraged, but even
though R'fal couldn't believe his father would have conspired with
Enali, it did sound uncomfortably like a performance.

"So why would she say something like that?" N'vanik watched him carefully.

"I don't know." Terren looked a touch shifty, and fidgeted in his chair.
"We may have had a - ah - a small dalliance. Perhaps she was offended
that I didn't want to continue it."

"Da!" R'fal was completely mortified. He'd not known Enali, but from
what he'd heard she was about _his_ age - and besides, his father was
still married. Before he could say more, though, he remembered where he
was and closed his mouth. "Sorry, Weyrleader."

N'vanik felt a tiny flicker of humor at R'fal's reaction, but it was
soon gone. "So she blamed you because she's mad at you? And then you
fled the Weyr because you were afraid of J'ackt. Where did you go?
Back to your little den of thieves that you've been giving sweepride
schedules to?"

"Thieves? Schedules?" A panicked expression crossed Terren's face. "Why
would you think..." Recalling who he'd told, he cast a reproachful
glance at R'fal. "I found a dragonpair who were taking a family back to
Emerald Falls territory and asked to ride with them. There were dragons
leaving every minute after the Hatching, no one noticed me. Then I made
my way to the tavern from there. But I've been working! I'm not a thief!"

"Why did you give them sweepride schedules? And what did they give you
for it?" N'vanik asked.

"Nothing," Terren replied. A thought occurred to him, and his expression
shifted to one of injured innocence. "They said they were traders. They
wanted to travel when dragons would be in the sky, so they'd be safe.
The sweeprides aren't secret, are they?"

R'fal listened in growing consternation. He knew that was a lie; Terren
hadn't said any such thing when he'd admitted to taking the schedules
before. Should he say something, and betray his father to the
Weyrleader? What about the people the bandits might have robbed, with no
dragonriders to help them? The words wouldn't come out, but his
discomfort was evident.

Everything was deflection and excuses. The Weyrleader gave Terren a
hard look. "This is going to go very, very badly for you if you lie to
me."

Before the man could speak, R'fal hastily intervened. "Da, please tell
the Weyrleader what you told me." **Tell the truth,** he pleaded
silently, wishing he could speak to his father like he could Marlath.

Terren scowled, but he seemed to have got the message. "Well - they may
not have said exactly what they wanted the schedules for. Not in so many
words. But I didn't do anything wrong."

"Nothing wrong?" N'vanik's voice rose. "You sell information about
sweeprides, and then you disappear after the Hatching. And then Enali
says you were involved. You understand how that looks, don't you?"

"What happened at the Hatching was nothing to do with me," Terren
protested. "Enali's lying because she has a grudge against me, and she
thinks she can accuse me because I've spent time in the mines. I was
only ever there for trying to protect my family." A whine crept into his
voice. "I was falsely accused then, and I've been falsely accused now. I
thought there'd be more justice at the Weyr."

"Justice?" N'vanik stood, barely restraining the urge to jump across
the table and shake him. "I gave you a _chance_, and yet your record
is full of laziness, drinking on the job, and whining. Then you go and
sell sweepride information, and you _know_ they weren't using it for
anything good. Don't you dare pretend otherwise!"

Terren shrank back in his chair. "It's not my fault! I just - look, I
had some bad luck at the card table one evening. It happens to us all,
but I ended up with a small debt to pay off. I didn't think it would do
any harm. Certainly not to the Weyr."

Still with the excuses. Still taking no responsibility for his
actions. "The only reason I'm not throwing you out right now is
because I'm worried you'll be bitter enough to join the conspirators."
N'vanik wondered if the best solution might be to take Terren to the
top of the Weyr and hurl him into the sea.

"My father would never join those people, sir." R'fal gave his father a
meaningful look, and getting the message, Terren shook his head
vigorously. "I'm sure he had no idea what Enali was planning, and as for
the sweeprides..." He bit his lip. He didn't _want_ to say this, but the
way the Weyrleader looked at his father scared him. "I take
responsibility for that. I invited him into the Weyr. I should have..."
His voice trailed off - he wasn't quite sure what he should have done.

"What kind of lowlife scum are you?" N'vanik asked Terren. "Conning
your way in here so you could gamble and drink and laze about and
generally be a _worthless_ piece of shit. Now you've got your son
defending you _again_. You ever once in your life take responsibility
for _anything_ you've done?" What in the back of /between/ was he
going to do with this man?

"But I didn't _do_ anything," Terren protested again, though he seemed
encouraged that no punishment had been mentioned. He held up his hands
in a placating gesture. "All right, I'll work harder in future and I
won't gamble. Though after what I've suffered, a little rest would be
welcome."

N'vanik stared at him, wondering if the brief satisfaction of getting
rid of a problem would be worth the guilt later. Probably not. And the
man _was_ R'fal's da. The Weyrleader's eyes snapped up to R'fal. "Take
him to one of the seaside weyrs until I figure out what to do with
him."

"Yes, Weyrleader." R'fal sounded worried, but at least his father would
be safe for now, and there was no indication he'd been involved in the
poisoning. "Come on, Da." He hurried Terren out of the office while the
man still had the sense to keep his mouth shut, and spoke silently to
Marlath. **Tell Kobeth we'll be there soon - we just have one thing to
do first.**

Last updated on the April 30th 2024

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I Didn't Do Anything!