They Need You

Writers: Ames, Devin
Date Posted: 4th August 2013

Characters: D'naz, N'vanik
Description: The Weyrleader has a talk with D'naz after the loss of the weyrling.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 25 of Turn 7

N'vanik

He knew what this meeting would be about. D'naz was not looking
forward to it. _He_ had been in charge of the weyrlings at the time.
It was his duty and his fault. Sure, it was something that happened
with weyrlings, but D'naz felt as though he had failed himself, the
weyrlings, the Weyr, and N'vanik.

With a serious expression on his face, very unlike the one he usually
wore, D'naz knocked on N'vanik's open door and then stepped inside.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. Have a seat." N'vanik wasn't looking forward to this. "Do you
know what went wrong?" It wasn't accusatory, his voice was soft.

D'naz heaved a rather heavy sigh. "Not completely, I'm afraid. Both
Keluth and I checked his image. It was _good_. There was nothing wrong
with it. Yet just at the last minute Keluth sensed something was
wrong. The image he picked up was different somehow than the one we
had seen originally. I don't know if we missed something, if M'lak got
confused." He sighed again. It was devastating to him to think that he
had failed in his duty to the Weyr already.

N'vanik nodded. It wasn't the first time a weyrling changed something
at the last moment. They got nervous, or thought of somewhere they'd
rather be ... lots of different reasons. "How are you holding up?"

He shrugged a bit. His usual joy in life just wasn't there. D'naz was
dealing with things. F'aen was helping, but it was still hard.

"It's not easy. I feel as though I failed somehow, though I know that
I'm not entirely to blame."

"Are you gonna be able to handle this job? Because you'll lose more of
them, no matter how good your training is." N'vanik leaned closer.
"I'd hate to have to look for a replacement this soon." The
weyrlingstaff had too much turnover.

"I can handle it," D'naz replied and he meant it. "This first one was
harder than I expected, but that's often the case isn't it? Once we
learn how to deal with something one time, it gets easier, in some
ways, in the future. Losing weyrlings will never be easy, but I don't
think they will hit me as hard in the future." He hadn't been all that
close to anyone he'd lost since he'd lost his weyrmate N'ril Turns
ago. He'd kept himself apart partly because of that. The loss of M'lak
had felt like that old wound had opened up again.

"Good. I put my trust in you, and losing that weyrling hasn't made me
regret it. But if you abandon your class next time, I might." N'vanik
didn't want to be insensitive, but he had to be tough for the sake of
his weyrlings. "They needed you when they lost their classmate. The
staff took care of them, but _you_ need to be their rock."

"Understood, sir," D'naz replied. The loss had struck them all hard.
He would handle it better in the future.

N'vanik sighed. "Caring about them this much is a good thing, but you
have to think more about the ones you have left than the ones you
lost."

"I know," he replied, though there was still a flicker of sadness in
his eyes. "It hit me harder than I expected. I felt almost as though
I'd lost N'ril again. I'm sorry for my loss of control there. I won't
shirk my duties again. I'm learning how to deal with this so I will be
better prepared in the future."

The Weyrleader nodded. "It might help to see a mindhealer." He hadn't
believed much in them before, but he'd seen the good they'd done with
Talryne.

D'naz paused at that suggestion. "I hadn't thought of that. Thank you
N'vanik. I'll look into that."

"Good. I need you at your best, and so do the weyrlings." It hurt to
lose any of them, but it was inevitable. No matter how good the
weyrlingstaff was, they couldn't eliminate injury and death. N'vanik
lost riders in Fall and had to remind himself of that all the time.

"I'll make sure I am," D'naz replied. "And other than this little
incident, the rest of the weyrling training has been going very well."
He wanted N'vanik to know that his choice to give him the Second spot
had been a good one.

"Focus on that," N'vanik said with a slight smile. "You'll have
another class before long."

D'naz nodded. "It looks like it will be a small class from what I'm
hearing, that next group of weyrlings."

"Probably," the Weyrleader said with an internal sigh. "Maybe you'll
get a little breathing room."

"I'd prefer it not be that way. We need all the dragons and riders we
can get," D'naz replied. "I'll be prepared for the future better now,
for sure. I assure you of that."

"Good. I don't want to have this talk again."

"We won't," D'naz replied.

Last updated on the August 4th 2013

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