The Long Vigil

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 24th December 2015

Characters: A'kades
Description: A'kades waits for the Healers to tell him if Lenala will live.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 3, day 20 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Lenala, Jadirah; Follows Sweet Child of Mine

Because it was the early candlemarks of the morning, the Infirmary waiting room was quiet and still, and the lights were turned low. The night shift Healers had more important things to do than check on the people waiting to hear how their loved ones were doing, Especially since visiting time was long since over. They were all working on tending the injured who had to stay overnight.

A'kades sat alone, with his hands pressed together, waiting to hear any news from the Healers. It was easy for his mind to run away with grim pictures of what was going on in the main Infirmary. He imagined Lenala lying on the white sheets, her pallor matching them; Jadirah's hands covered in blood as she worked on the goldrider; the other journeymen there who were also trying to save her life. He imagined all the ways that events could be going horribly wrong. The baby dead;
Lenala slipping away to follow; Vilarth going /between/ to follow her rider, leaving the eggs abandoned on the Sands...

}:Vilarth is worried about her rider. But she is still here,:{ Volaith told his rider. }:She will not leave while her eggs are here.:{

And wasn't that thought horrific in its own way? Lenala gone, and Vilarth curled around her eggs, golden hide going ashy grey in color, staying parted from her rider just long enough to ensure that the eggs
hatched and the dragonets made their way to meet their lifemates and become weyrlings. And then she would /between/ to join her rider...

**No!** he thought, shaking his head, as though the violent motion could dispel the vivid images in his mind. He couldn't think about that. It would drive him insane.

A'kades was a man who prided himself on control. Of the environment around him, planning for what was happening and able to adjust so that nothing went too far out of control; of himself, so he didn't panic,
and could retain his calm. He was not a man accustomed to feeling helpless or panicked. And yet that was what he felt at this moment.

He could handle Threadfall. As a wingsecond, he had once prepared his wing by drilling them in formations and making sure they were able to handle changes. As a weyrlingmaster, he was training the weyrlings in the fundamentals that the wingleadership could build on. And always he was master of himself and Volaith, making sure they were alert and ready to handle their job in the fall. Thread itself wasn't something he could control, but he could prepare himself - and he could _fight_.

This was nothing like that. This was the failure of a human body -_Lenala's_ body. It was a battlefield he was ill-prepared to understand and impossible for him to fight on. He had to rely on the competence of other people to determine the issue and fix it. It was an unfamiliar feeling, and one that he disliked intensely.

**Jadirah will save her,** he told himself. Hadn't he fallen for her because of her competence, as much as her beauty, or her charm? He knew she was just as good at her job as he was at his. She had saved badly-wounded riders from what he thought was death before. Surely she could treat Lenala's miscarriage. And he knew that she had faith in him for Threadfall; he would have to have faith in her ability to meet this challenge.

But until he knew whether Lenala would live, he would wait vigil right here in the Infirmary.

Last updated on the December 27th 2015

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The Long Vigil