News From Home

Writers: Eimi, Yvonne
Date Posted: 6th January 2006

Characters: Thalia, Penryn
Description: Thalia recieves some upsetting news about a family member
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 9, day 3 of Turn 3

News from home. Thalia felt... unsettled, and found herself retreating to the quiet of the Headwoman's abandoned office with Aslian and a letter from her mother burning a hole in her pocket. Her baby was half asleep and offered little comfort save for that of a warm weight in her arms, and she gently kissed the top of his head and stared at the wall opposite vacantly. **What would you think of all this, Aslian? Or would you care?** she wondered.

Her silent reflections were disturbed by the newly appointed steward as he opened the door, a load full of files tucked under his arm, and strode into the room. "Lady Thalia?" he asked, surprised to find the supposedly vacant room occupied.

"I'm sorry. Am I in the way?" Thalia asked. She half-rose and inwardly winced as Aslian sighed and made a face in his sleep. She _still_ felt in the way at Garnet Valley, even though she'd been acting as Headwoman since her husband's death...

"No no," he quickly reassured her. "I'm just refiling these old records. Is... everything all right?" The Lady had an air of something being amiss. "Not... particularly." Thalia stared at his feet, and the slight rim of mud that clung to his boots just above where the soles were attached. "I suppose you'll hear soon enough. My aunt's collapsed.
Weyrwoman Jaela."

"The Dragonsfall Weyrwoman?" Penryn had never met her personally, but of course he knew her by reputation. "But... What happened?"

"Mother says they don't know, but it's more likely that no one's bothered to tell her why yet. She and Jaela were never particularly close. I've only met the Weyrwoman a handful of times." Thalia smiled, somewhat ruefully. "I don't think that she was overly impressed with me."

"Oh, I'm sure that's not the case," the Steward quickly reassured her, though privately he hadn't been too impressed with her either when he first knew her.

"Thank you, but I'm quite sure that it was. She's Weyrwoman. What use would she have for someone like me?" Thalia shook her head. What use would anyone have for someone like her - who was pretty much just ornamental? "I don't think we've ever exchanged more than the usual pleasantries."

"Well, I hope that very soon you will have a chance to speak with her more in depth." The steward shifted his weight a bit uneasily. It was obvious she was upset, and yet he didn't know what to say to make her feel better. He had a feeling it was something deeper than just a family emergency that was bothering her, and yet it was not his place to ask. "So... I suppose you come here to look for solitude and I am disturbing you."

"No. Please don't go. I think I've had enough of being alone." Thalia smiled ruefully up at him over Aslian's head. The baby was beginning to grow soft tufts of hair as pale as her own. "I shouldn't be dwelling on something that I cannot change."

"Well, I'm sure the Weyrwoman will be fine. She is still young, and she is said to be very strong." He wondered just how much of a family resemblance there was between the two Ladies.

"Well, she's certainly very strong-willed. And stubborn. She and my mother would sometimes disagree, and it was always my mother who came out the worse for it." Thalia's small smile was lost as she stared over Penryn's shoulder. "Although Jaela was always closer to Lord Jaryd than to my mother."

"Lord Jaryd was a very good man," Penryn nodded. His reputation had been well known, and even those who had never met him had mourned him.

"He was always very kind to me. My favorite uncle, save for the youngest of my father's brothers." A lump suddenly formed in her throat at she bit back tears. "Everyone's ill, Penryn, or dying, or dead! What's happening to my family?"

Penryn knew that feeling all too well. "These times will pass Lady Thalia. You will not be left alone."

**I already am alone,** she thought miserably, and held Aslian a little tighter. Away from her family, widowed, and left in a Hold to guard her infant son's legitimacy... but her mother's lessons and hard-won etiquette wouldn't let her voice any of that. 'You are a Lady,' her mother would say. A Lady of the Blood had an image to uphold. "You're right. I'm sure that she'll be fine. She's Weyrwoman."

He was only too aware that the fact that she was a Weyrwoman would not save her from the inevitable. But he hoped for Pern's sake, and for Thalia's, that she would recover soon.

Last updated on the January 7th 2006

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