Do I stay or do I dare?
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Corrin, Duskdog
Date Posted: 19th October 2025
Characters: M'kadja
Description: Akadja executes phase one of his Cunning Plan to Stand again this Turn.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 22 of Turn 12
Though the new weyrling class was over half holdless, Akadja wasn’t one of their number. Left standing while his brother and the others strode off into their shiny new lives, he was furious, he was devastated-- but he wasn’t beaten. At the hatching feast he’d heard tell of a clutch of eggs on the sands of Barrier Lake. Forty eggs. They were set to hatch before Turn’s End. He just had to find a way to get there.
---
Akadja practiced the cough for days. Dry, ragged, never too wet. A scrape at the back of the throat, not the chest-- like something clinging stubbornly, draining his strength. He stayed up late and woke early, nurturing dark shadows around his eyes. The trick of it was balance: wan, not wasted; unwell, not bedridden.
On the seventh morning he reported to the Weyrlingmaster’s office, slouching in the doorway like a man dragged there by duty rather than choice. Dagger was draped over his shoulders as usual, curled tight about him as if in sympathy, though the little blue’s sharp eyes were keen as ever.
“Thank you for seeing me, sir,” Akadja said, forcing his voice low and rough. He pressed a fist to his mouth as though holding back another cough. “I know you’ve had your hands full with the new dragonriders these days.”
Busy days. Every passing one a reminder of his failure, of Naldhavi--N’dhavi--and his glorious bronze, while he was left to rot and wait. Akadja never liked waiting, and he wouldn’t wait any longer than he must.
T’lonas frowned, taking in the young man’s appearance. “Of course, Akadja, please make yourself comfortable. Pardon me for saying so, but you don’t look well.”
It wasn’t unusual for the unImpressed to look a bit “off” for a while, in his experience. Sometimes it was due to drowning their disappointment in alcohol, and sometimes just their general unhappiness dragging them down.
He lowered himself into the seat opposite T’lonas with the weary air of a man resigned. “It’s this blasted cough. I just can’t seem to shake it and the cold and the recent rains just make it worse. I was wondering if--” Coughcough. “--if I could transfer somewhere warm for a spell.”
“Somewhere warm?” T’lonas paused to consider, his eyes narrowing in thought as he looked Akadja over. He didn’t recall him having a cough prior to the Hatching. He _knew_, because that was the most important time to keep an eye on the health of the candidates. He hadn’t been lying when he’d said that Akadja didn’t look well… but he found it unusual that such a (usually) healthy young man would be suffering so badly now, _and_ that such a (usually) healthy young man would even be willing to _admit_ that he was suffering. Suffering badly enough to request a move, even! Usually convincing the young and usually-fit to admit they were anything other than invincible -- let alone ill enough to require a change of scenery -- was like trying to pull teeth from an angry wher.
He expected, of course, that this was a candidate who might be particularly disappointed, given that his brother had Impressed and he had not. _And_ this was a candidate who was on the cusp of aging out. He _might_ get another chance at Dragonsfall… but he might not. And even if he did, he may only have one, possibly two more shots.
T’lonas sat back in his chair. N’dhavi and Akadja had been born Holdless, from his understanding. As far as he knew, there had been no other family at the Hatching to see N’dhavi Impress. Perhaps they didn’t have any? Perhaps all they’d ever had was each other?
Until now.
“Somewhere warm,” he repeated again, thoughtfully, thinking of the golds at the other Weyrs -- what he knew of them, what was expected of them soon -- and did some quick calculations in his head. “Well. Do you suppose Barrier Lake might be warm enough? It’s no tropical paradise, but it’s certainly warmer than it is here. Perhaps better that way, less of a shock to your system than going straight into the heat. If you rest well and take the healers’ advice seriously, in fact, you might be able to recover in time for Tymborikath’s clutch.”
“I was actually thinking--” Wait a minute. Had the Weyrlingmaster just said Barrier Lake? Akadja broke off abruptly. He had been expecting to have to redirect away from Dolphins Cove or Far Island Weyr, but it seemed T'lonas was… predicting him precisely.
The embers of suspicion flared and he braced himself for a bait and switch, even as he tentatively began to speak, “I was actually thinking the same thing, sir… I've never lived so far north. One of the oceanside Weyrs might do me more harm than good. Barrier Lake would be the perfect middle ground. I wasn't--” Oh, blast it. “Of course, the clutch there is on my mind too… would they let a candidate from another weyr Stand? Like if I was good and well?”
“I can’t speak for their Weyrlingmaster, of course, but I don’t see why not. So long as you’re healthy and are still a Candidate in good standing here -- which you are -- it works like any other transfer. Hopefully you have adequate time to recover.”
For a moment Akadja just stared, waiting for a catch, for T’lonas to name a price or otherwise kick him back down. But it didn’t come. Was life really that easy once you had knots? Even ones as lowly as a candidate. Why weren’t the rest of the rejects--the older ones at least--lining up the chase the next hatching? Lazy, unimaginative slobs. Well, it was their loss and his gain.
“Well then… it sounds like Barrier Lake is the place for me,” he said. And since the weyrlingmaster had been quick enough to guess his purpose, and since Akadja wasn’t too arrogant to know when he was caught, he also added “Thank you.”
Last updated on the October 19th 2025