Power Shift

Writers: Halyonix, Corrin
Date Posted: 13th February 2026

Characters: I'serin, K'valdran
Description: Power changes hands at Dragonsfall. K'valdran confronts I'serin about his tenure.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 13, day 3 of Turn 12
Notes: Mentioned: Saibra

I'serin

K'valdran

Saibra left I'serin alone with his map and his thoughts and the inanimate objects that were the only things that easily agreed to be packed away. There were a great many thoughts to process -- and a transition still to happen. A transition that I'serin would be smooth and without ire. **Is Karcalanth's rider joining us?**

Aluneth was decidedly _not_ pleased to be speaking with the now leading bronze of the Weyr but relayed his rider's question still.

Karcalanth's response was not long in coming and surely offered no more pleasure to Aluneth: }:He is in the Summit Wing meeting room, preparing for tomorrow's 'fall. Your rider may report there at his leisure.:{

I'serin paused in what he was doing, taking stock of what else needed to be packed away (just another box of old journals it looked like), before palming the Weyrleader knots and sliding them into his pocket. **Relay that I am on my way,** he asked Aluneth, who grumbled but did so.

The Summit Wing meeting room was quite familiar to I'serin -- he had made certain it had all of the updated maps and records during his Turn -- but with K'valdran in command of it now, there was a moment where I'serin had to remind himself to step _back_ mentally. "Congratulations, Weyrleader," he offered politely as he entered the room.

K'valdran had set up station at the head of the central table, an array of hides and ledgers before him. "I'serin," he said, acknowledging both man and congratulations with a nod. "Thank you for joining me. The timing of Chioneth's rising and our next 'fall has made this a busy changeover, but I have been meaning to speak with you. Please, sit."

I'serin was familiar with that scenario: he had been thrown into it as well. Just two days after Aluneth had caught Chioneth, he had been leading the Wings against Threadfall. And it had not gone well. "May you rise to the challenge better than I," he said as he went to sit. Aluneth grumbled at the self-deprecating tone his rider used. "If there is anything that I can do to be of assistance, please let me know," I'serin offered.

Putting aside the hides for a moment, K'valdran settled back in his chair and focused the full weight of his attention on the other bronzerider. "I have heard a lot since my return and seen more, but now I would like your account of your tenure and the current state of Dragonsfall."

This inquiry came with some difficulty for I'serin. How was he to crystallize, summarize everything that had occurred over the last Turn? What should he include? What should he discard? Surely the external factors like his father and K'mai played heavily into his decision-making but was he ready to reveal those relationships? Or how those factors had affected him?

Eventually, after a silence that was stretching too long, I'serin said, "It was my first appointment to leadership. I have never lead a Wing, even as a 'third, much less a Weyr's worth of them. I believe my inexperience showed. There were..additional factors that played heavily into my decisions, namely my father, who felt that the former River Bluff riders should have more representation amongst the leadership of the Weyr. There is still...tension...there." The fact that there was such tension, five Turns on, now bothered I'serin. But it would be K'valdran's problem now.

"The crisis with the Holdless did not alleviate things either," I'serin went on to say. He would stoutly defend his decision to save lives, though he would accept criticism of what happened afterward readily enough. "While many have since left the Weyr, some have remained, primarily those that were Searched and have Impressed. The situation is still strained but seems to be resolving as time goes on and the Holdless adapt." Mostly. The Weyrlingmasters had their hands full with that though.

I'serin pointedly did not mention his father's death. Nor his relationship with K'mai. Even though both of those relationships affected him greatly, he was not ready to accept critique on either. There were still too many emotions to unpack.

"Despite this, Dragonsfall endures," he said. He had thought to say 'prospers' but it felt...inadequate. "I have no doubt that a more experienced leader like yourself will overcome the challenges presented."

"And the 'Fall in Month Six?" K'valdran pressed, untouched by I'serin's compliment, his candor. He leaned forward, expression intent, as he honed in on the answers he now had a right to demand. "A 'Fall so disastrous that you had to dissolve a Wing. What happened then?"

I'serin felt his whole body gripped in a dozen emotions all at once. "A miscalculation," he answered, though to him, his voice sounded very far away. "I was...distracted." That much was true. "I gave the incorrect formation call." Another truth. But the reason for the distraction, I'serin very desperately wanted to keep hidden still. He would fall back to his evasive lies if need be. He _knew_ he had messed up. He did not need anyone else to berate him for it.

Unfortunately for I'serin, his needs were hardly a factor in this moment. Under his watch dragons and men had been unnecessarily maimed and killed, and today there was finally a ranker who could truly take him to task for it. Once he had all the information.

"Distracted..." K'valdran echoed, his expression growing stony. "...And what the blazes was so distracting that you lost sight of the field enough to slam two Wings into each other?" His voice was still harper smooth and deliberately level, but there was a touch of tension in its depths, a hint of warning-- his patience was on a tight leash.

And I'serin caught it. He had used that same, deceptively calm voice before. For a moment, every one of those emotions took their turn at the top: shame ousting anger, petulance pushing aside determination, logic kicking out defensiveness. Though not soon enough. Aluneth's insulted, infuriated roar could be heard audibly from outside.

K'valdran raised one dark brow, clearly unimpressed and undaunted by the outburst from I'serin's other half.

**Enough!** I'serin commanded in a whip-crack tone, his eyes closed as he rallied will and strength. When he opened his eyes, it was to meet K'valdran with the mask of the Weyrleader he had been just the day before. "A personal matter," he answered with steel edging his words, "that I have since rectified." His father was dead. He was seeing a mindhealer. He was defining happiness on his terms. He would _not_ allow himself to become so divided again simply because he was in love with someone.

Whatever reluctant respect K'valdran had for the steel in I'serin's reply was drowned out by the flames of righteous resentment that those same words provoked. Up till now he had leashed his tongue and his temper, giving the man a chance to explain himself. He owed any Weyrleader that. He had been grudgingly open to hearing of exceptional weather or circumstances, but I'serin offered none.

It was just a lapse of attention. _Incompetence_. And people--T'veen--had died for it.

He drew a slow breath, and when he spoke again his voice had gone quieter, colder. "Your lack of leadership experience is one thing-- though I have yet to discover if it was a want of opportunity or resolve." Something about the way he said it suggested he found the latter more damning. "But you are not some newly Impressed rider fumbling through his first Threadfall. You are a _bronzerider_ of nearly _two decades'_ experience. In exchange for a life finer than a Lord's, once a sevenday you are called upon to fulfill your duty-- to concentrate for three, perhaps four candlemarks... 'Brats running 'stone can do that."

The disdain was clear on his face, and he continued inexorably. "You show a dangerous lack of discipline and worse-- you lost the flow of battle. 'Fall is chaotic, mistakes happen, but barring accident or injury--neither of which you've mentioned--no experienced rider should become so disoriented that they order two Wings into each other. Yet that is exactly what I hear you did in your 'Distraction.' They say you confused Fall 77 with Fall 78. Do you deny it?"

I'serin's quiet, "No," came forth.

"That should not have been possible," K'valdran growled. "Not if you were commanding with your own sharding eyes and not just regurgitating a textbook. Seventeen years in the straps and half a Turn in the knots and you are _still_ leading by rote and it got people _maimed_ and _killed_."

"And it wasn't just that Fall, was it?" K'valdran went on. "I reviewed the Threadfall reports and those from the infirmaries. It is clear that there was an uptick in casualties under your Weyrleadership. ...20% over the previous norm. 15% even if I put aside the Teal Wing Disaster. You admitted your inexperience may have... showed. That is an understatement. From this conversation and my own observation these past months, it seems the truth of the matter is that you are a danger to this Weyr. You are slow to command, held back by doubt or ignorance. When the commands come they are formulaic rather than elastic to the situation. All in all, you are shockingly green for your age and lack not just in experience, but also in awareness, sense and discipline. Were your dragon not a proven queen-catcher I would gladly return you to the rank of wingrider and consider us all the safer for it. But Aluneth may catch again, so I will be speaking with my wingleaders in the coming days. We will find a suitable place for you-- one where you can learn to command, properly... as a wingthird. Where mistakes cost fewer lives."

Aluneth let out another outraged roar. I'serin did not command his silence. In truth, everything that K'valdran said was correct. I'serin had his own data to review that corroborated it. But hearing it so precisely, so summarily from another rider who was not his father, a rider who was now the leader of Dragonsfall, was like someone drawing a blade slowly across I'serin's skin, cutting through the thin words he had told himself: he had done his best. "I...understand, Weyrleader."

It was only then that I'serin extended his hand to set the Weyrleader's knots on the desk between them, now very, very glad to be rid of them and the legacy of pain they represented.

"Good." K'valdran did not reach for the knots. His dark gaze was still locked on I'serin.

"You are excused from tomorrow's Fall. Your lifemate is clearly unsettled," he remarked dryly. "And I will not risk you causing further havoc as he relearns his place in formation. On the 5th you are to report to Pinnacle Wing where you will remain until I have determined your 'third posting."

Straightening in his chair, K'valdran pulled the hides toward him, already shifting back to work. There was a Fall tomorrow and he would not lose people as I'serin had. "I will contact you when it's settled. You are dismissed."

Dismissed. It rang ominously in his ears, even as he obediently said, "Yes, Weyrleader." I'serin was not certain what he had expected from this meeting, even though he had considered this outcome (and worse ones). It stung to see it become reality. He had done his best. Had he truly expected some understanding from K'valdran?

It did not matter. He had completed the transition of power. He had his orders. A new chapter for him was to begin. But I'serin did not feel hopeful as he walked out of that meeting room and into his new role.

Last updated on the February 21st 2026

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