A Few Fancies
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyrhold
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr (NPC)
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall
Writers: Aaron, Curious
Date Posted: 9th October 2022
Characters: Islyn, Wirnan
Description: Wirnan interrupts a gold old-fashioned bullying with lunch.
Location: Sunstone Seahold
Date: month 1, day 9 of Turn 11
It was a beautiful day at Sunstone Seahold. Rukbat was shining brightly, people were bustling about as they prepared for lunch, and in a corner of the dining hall, a beautiful young blonde girl was confronting a somewhat portly brunette.
"I'm just saying..." Islyn reached out a hand to tug at the flowing sleeve of Maera's blouse. Her touch was gentle, but the other girl flinched as if she had tried to hit her. "If you're making pairings like this shirt with that skirt, you _really_ should see a healer about your vision."
Maera glanced down at her vibrant blue skirt before allowing her gaze to drift to a spot of floor some feet before her. "Thank you for your concern, Islyn," she whispered. "C-can I go eat now?"
Islyn snorted. "I think you do enough eating, don't you?" She poked Maera in the stomach. "How about you worry more about your hair than your next meal, hmm?"
Maera tentatively brushed a hand against her unruly brown locks. "W-What's wrong with my hair?" she asked.
Islyn resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "You mean aside from the fact that it'll have tunnelsnakes nesting in it soon?"
Wirnan had not intended to stumble onto such a personal conversation on his way through the dining hall. He overheard the bullying and could scarcely in good conscience let it go on, but at the same time, he would be stepping on toes if he cut in leveraging his authority as steward.
Moreover, he was fairly sure he recognized the ‘offending party’ as the daughter of one of the hold's well-to-do master fishers, so there were political considerations to make when it came to redirecting her attention. And Wirnan had his own political considerations to take into account.
So, instead...
"Good day, my lady," he greeted Islyn. "I do hope I'm not interrupting, but I hoped you might join me for lunch."
He gave what he hoped was an apologetic glance to the target of Islyn's jibes.
Maera was shrinking in on herself. Good. If she was so uncomfortable, it stood to reason that she might actually learn something from this whole experience. Islyn parted her lips, intent on saying something that would really drive her point home-
Only for the steward of Sunstone to cut in before she had a chance.
Islyn blinked. She glanced at Maera, taking in the new hope in her eyes, and resisted the urge to frown at the thought of having to give up her current pursuit. Because she _would_ have to give it up. There was simply no way to politely turn down Wirnan's request.
Still... He _was_ the steward. Maybe she could make something fruitful out of lunch with him.
"Of course," she said, offering the man a bright grin. "If you'll lead the way?"
"It would be my pleasure." Wirnan was used to playing a part. It had been the only way he had survived the time after he had disappeared.
He smiled and turned to lead the girl to usual table â€" out of the way, but still visible to the other diners. When he reached it, he pulled out a chair for her and waited for her to take it before pushing it in behind her and then taking the seat across from her.
"Thank you for the honor," he said. "How fare you and your family of late?" He suspected it should not be too hard to get her talking about herself.
If Islyn weren't already smiling, that would have changed upon Wirnan's question. "We're doing very well!" she said. "My father is master fisher Lysod, perhaps you know him? His work has been going very well, and the entire family has been allowed to flourish."
Islyn paused, tilting her head to the side quizzically. As much as she wanted to delve deeper into the subject of herself and her own life, a voice in the back of her head reminded her that it wouldn't be polite. Nor necessarily safe, as she did not know the steward well yet.
"And what about you? How are your affairs?" she prompted.
What affairs did Wirnan have? None of his own.
"All in order, and nothing much exciting to share, I'm afraid," he answered with a bit of a chuckle. "I am familiar with your father." He confirmed. "He has certainly distinguished himself well, both on the sea and in the home."
"You have a large family, then?" Wirnan, too, had once had a large family. It would be nice to have one again.
Islyn didn't bother trying to hide the pride that flickered across her face at the praise to her father. After all, he was worth being proud of. Her enthusiasm flickered somewhat when the subject of family as a whole was brought up, but she quickly found her stride once again.
"Very," she confirmed. "I'm the oldest girl, but I have two older brothers, Tolson and Nysol. They're both fishers. Then there are my younger sisters, Doretta, Lyette, and Soret, and my little brother, Ryota."
A large family, indeed. And not far from the kind of connection Bryvin was likely to want to solidify with family ties, if he was not sorely mistaken. The slight flicker in her expression may have been brief if it was, indeed, real, but Wirnan was fairly certain he had seen it. Father was prideworthy â€" brothers, perhaps not as much. And no mention of a mother. As far as he remembered, Lysod was no widower. He would not press her on them, then, but that did open up potential avenues of conversation for pursuing the possibility of courting.
"I had a large family myself, once," he said. "I miss it." He swallowed the pain of knowing that he would not build that family with Suynie. "Do you have big plans for yourself?" he wondered.
Islyn's smile faded. "Oh," she whispered. "I'm sorry."
_What happened?_ she wanted to ask, but that wasn't her place. He had asked her a question, and it was impolite to pry. Maybe... Maybe, she'd get a chance to look into it without raising any red flags later. For now, it was better to stay in safer territory and answer his question.
"Nothing too fancy," she said with a shrug, "I hope to make a respectable match and start a good family. Or, perhaps-" Islyn cut herself off, biting her lower lip. So much for staying on safe ground. "I might have a few fancies," she weakly added.
Wirnan was not quite sure whether he wanted her sympathy or not. He supposed he wanted a wife who at least liked him if he could not have real love, and sympathy was at least a starting point for that.
"Oh?" Wirnan smiled. "Who're the lucky lads?" The competition, he supposed. Ashes, the thought of competing with young men barely out of boyhood was a bitter one. Or perhaps a sour one. He was not fond of the flavor.
A vivid red blush erupted over Islyn's face. "Not that kind of fancy!" she rushed to clarify. "It's..." The young woman pursed her lips and looked down at her lap. It wouldn't be a shameful or inappropriate dream to confess. However, confiding in the Steward was different from talking to one of her peers. What if he deemed her a silly, delusional little girl and stopped taking her seriously? What if it lost her whatever opportunity she may be able to pull from this situation?
Shards, but she had gone so far. If she didn't elaborate, she would be leaving him to fill in the blanks by himself. That was how rumors got started. Islyn would _not_ tolerate rumors.
She looked Wirnan in the eyes and she admitted, "Sometimes I think that it must be amazing to be a goldrider. I would never accept search for a clutch without a gold egg, of course, but if I had the chance to impress a queen? Well, sometimes I have to imagine."
"Ahh, I see!" That complicated things. He could hardly be married to a goldrider. And as unlikely as it might be that she would end up one, getting to the Weyr was easy enough for those of means, and if she were gone, then she was gone.
And if he kept her from going, that might be all the worse. It might be that he could not hope for love, but he was through with resentment and would have no wife who hated him.
"I think everyone must dream it at least once," he said. "You'll go if they call you, then?"
Islyn tried to keep the relief from bleeding through onto her face. She succeeded for the most part, but was unable to keep her lips from curling up ever so slightly.
Yes, every girl dreamed of impressing gold at least once. It was perfectly normal and acceptable for her to have such a goal. There was no reason for Wirnan to think less of her for it - which meant that there had been no reason for her to fret in the first place. Something to keep in mind for the future, perhaps.
For now, Islyn shrugged. "It depends," she said. "If there's a gold egg on the sands and they search me, I'll go. I also may if they search me before a clutch is laid, in case there is a queen. But I won't strike out on my own, nor would I leave for a clutch that will yield nothing but greens." She would _not_ relegate herself to the life of a greenrider.
"Of course." Dreaming of dragons often yielded that disdain for greens when it came from holdfolk. There was the matter of status. And they had a way of saying something about you that most holdfolk wanted to keep secret.
"And if you stay home â€" what do you fancy then?"
Right. No more talk of dragons, which was probably for the best. Islyn had gotten off lucky with her first round of pointless worry, there was no need to press that luck by letting her know that she dreamed of a gold more fiercely than an average girl might. This, whatever was going on here, might just be an opportunity that she couldn't let herself sink for a flight of fancy.
"What does any girl fancy?" she asked. She idly ran a hand through her hair, spinning her pointer finger when she reached the end to wrap a blond curl around it. "A kind, attentive husband. A bright future. To make my family proud, and make sure that my children enter the world with more prospects and opportunities than I did. Which..." she dropped her hand into her lap. "I suppose that would have to mean someone who isn't too put off by ambition, wouldn't it?"
Shards, was she doing it again? Was she being too bold and forthright? Potentially even unladylike? Islyn could feel herself wobbling on the highwire of social niceties. Yet she couldn't help but wonder if it was right to let herself wobble a bit, so long as she didn't fall. She would never be able to make herself seem perfectly quiet and demure. It was one of her more unfortunate traits that she'd had to make peace with over the turns. If she entered a courtship, assuming that there was potential for courtship there, under the guise of being a girl too different from what she really was, the whole thing would be doomed to fall apart. If she took it slow though, let him gradually see the harsher sides of her nature, then maybe there would be a possibility of acceptance.
Wirnan grinned and held back a chuckle. He was not sure whether she could possibly worldly enough yet to be playing at games he could not see the end of, but there was part of him that did wonder. She could be playing a game she had not built. After all, someone had been pulling Kaya's strings.
But she could just be a genuine, young girl. Crackdust, but she _was_ young.
"Ambition is no vice," said Wirnan, "on its own. A wise man cherishes a woman who knows her mind and means to have what she wants, because when a woman who would work to have whatever she's after chooses him, it's because she wants him." Or she wanted what he had. But in marriages like these, there was little difference.
A second round of relief manifested as a tentative smile. "That's a good way of looking at things," Islyn said. "It makes me suspect that you may be a wise man."
"Every day just a little bit wiser than the last is the goal." Wirnan returned the smile. "But I hope you may forgive me should I fall short from time to time."
Islyn nodded. "It's an honorable goal. One that more than warrants a little forgiveness when the need arises, I think."
"Might I have the pleasure of sharing a meal with you again sometime?" Wirnan asked once the food was eaten. It seemed like a safe enough prospect at this point.
At first, Islyn could scarcely believe what she's heard. Then she fully processed the question and her heart _lurched_. Wirnan wouldn't ask to have dinner with her again for no reason, would he? She knew that he was a bachelor - had known that going in. That and his status as the Steward had been the entire point of going along with this. However, hearing him ask the question was something else entirely.
Was it possible that... Might he be interested in her?
"Certainly," Islyn said, a delicate smile weaving its was across her face. "I would be honored, in fact."
"As would I."
Last updated on the October 30th 2022