Five of Wands

Writers: Devin, Halyonix
Date Posted: 20th March 2025
Series: Bronze and Blue Entwined

Characters: K'mai, I'serin, A'len
Description: I'serin remembers something from childhood
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 20 of Turn 12

K'mai

I'serin

Notes:
~*~

It was another sharding cold rainy night at the Weyr. Where he had
once welcomed the rain because it forced a sort of contemplative quiet
across the Weyr with its endless susurrus, now I'serin wondered what
new headache he would discover from it when morning came.

His most recent conversation with his father about the Holdless that
were staying in the Weyr was the prime candidate. But the rain, still
trying to enforce its meditation upon his mind, brought up memories
instead. Its way of helping him search the past for clues about the
present.

How old had he been? Ten? Eleven? No, younger than that. Still young
enough to play in the dirt but old enough to begin looking forward to more.

~*~flashback~*~

Keemai heard the stern man's voice and paused, looking up. That was
bronzerider A'len. He was kind of scary. And that kid he was talking
to, that was his son. Keemai's father sometimes scolded him and it was
no fun at all.

"There is _no_ skipping out on your lessons, you hear me?" A'len snapped.

Ioraserin visibly flinched. "I...I wasn't! I...I got distracted
with...with the history of--"

"Don't give me that same excuse! There's more for you to learn besides
just old records from centuries ago. You're my son! You need to focus
on learning the Threadfall numberings and patterns. And your math
skills! How else are you going to lead a Wing if you're slacking like
this?"

Ioraserin looked down. In a very small voice, he said, "But...but I'm
_not_ a dragonrider. Not-"

"You will be," A'len snapped with such certainty that if a dragon had
walked up to the young boy and Impressed on the spot, no one would
have been surprised. "No more shirking your lessons just because you
found a new book to read."

"I know all of the interpretations of the Charter," Ioraserin tried to
defend himself in a tiny voice.

"Good, so you know how to work with Holders," A'len answered,
unimpressed. "I expect you to have those Threadfalls memorized by the
end of the sevenday." With that, the bronzerider strode off, leaving a
very dejected Ioraserin behind. The boy watched his proud father go,
his young mind turning over all of the reasons why he hadn't done
anything really deserving of being berated like that, how many times
he had been at the top of his class. But A'len never listened to him.
Ioraserin was never enough.

Keemai made sure the man was gone before he slowly walked up to the
other boy. "Hey, some of us are going to go play. Do you want to
come?" Ioraserin looked so sad and Keemai wanted to cheer him up.

"No," little Ioraserin said sullenly. In truth, he did want to go play
but he knew that if he did, he would only add to his troubles if his
father found out.

Keemai frowned. "Are you sure? It would be fun."

An internal debate. A pensive look across a boyish face. Eventually, a
tiny, hopeful voice that said, "Okay."

Keemai grinned and took the other boy's hand. "Come on! We're playing
waterball."

~*~end flashback~*~

Was that where so much of his life had begun, in simple moments that
eventually became more? No one could argue that a singular incident in
someone's life was the reason why a certain course was charted -- not
the innocent holding of hands, not the high expectation set to
memorize a record -- but strung together, they formed a trend, which
became a trodden path. Well, some of those things did. Shelving aside
his feelings for K'mai to unpack another time, he followed the trend
of interactions with his father and found they all pointed to a common
theme: Was there ever a time when Ioraserin felt as though he had
been enough? When he had been seen for who he was and not some
expectation?

The immediate answer was twice. Once was when Aluneth cracked his
shell. The other was when he entrusted K'mai with his sexuality.
Surely there had to be other moments, other allies who saw him, but
those two incidents were the first to come to mind.

I'serin rubbed his forehead, feeling like he was right on the edge of
an epiphany but too cognitively fatigued to grasp it. With a sigh, he
filed the memory away to review later. He needed to figure out what
they were doing with all of these Holdless first.

Last updated on the March 26th 2025

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