Family Favours

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 1st August 2016

Characters: Solynt, Quier, Lynta, Iresdu
Description: Quier does a favor for Solynt
Location: Harper Hall
Date: month 7, day 9 of Turn 8

"What happened to you?" Solynt asked his elder brother as Quier limped in to
their father's room, the venue for their family gathering that evening. Their
father hadn't yet put in an appearance but that didn't stop the others enjoying
the more spacious accommodations than they enjoyed as journeymen and women.

Quier's reply was muttered and indistinct, but he glared at Solynt.

"What? It can't have been my fault," the journeyman protested. "This is the
first I've seen of you all day."

Quier lowered himself gingerly into the large armchair which was his father's
special preserve and ignored the expressions on his siblings' faces. Let them
be surprised or, in Iresdu's case, impressed. If they were feeling as sore as
he was they would no doubt be willing to usurp the right to the most comfortable
chair in the room.

"Are you hurt?" Lynta asked, deciding only being nearly crippled with pain or a
head injury could explain Quier's behaviour.

"Not permanently."

Solynt again found himself the recipient of his brother's glare. "Whatever it
was, it wasn't me."

"Did you not ask me to take the class on early mechanisation for you today?"

"_My_ class on -" Iresdu stopped his words before the sentence was complete but
it was enough to distract Quire from Solynt. "So," he said brightly in an
effort to distract. "What exactly happened?"

"That baby off-set that's on the platform -," Quier looked between his two
brothers. "Stupid place to set it up."

Solynt shrugged, not having seen that particular classroom since the early days
after their arrival at the new Hall.

"Looking a little too innocent there, Iresdu," Quier said, his eyes narrowed.
"Which is odd, because Solynt asked me to take the class."

Solynt nodded, glancing in puzzlement at his sister. "Well, I did but -"

"Are you going to tell us what happened?" Lynta asked, her tone almost as bright
as Iresdu's had been.

"Two of the apprentices decided to move it to allow more of them to work around it."

Despite himself Iresdu looked impressed. "Two of them? If they managed it then
good on them."

"_Not_ 'good on them'," his brother growled. "They moved it right off the edge."

"Onto you?"

"Not onto me. My glow's not quite that dim. But nearly onto a couple of your
less observant apprentices," Quire said, looking again at Solynt. "Only they're
not yours, are they?"

"Er -."

"You can't remember?"

"No. I mean, I can remember. Not mine."

"But you asked me to take the class for you? As a favour."

"Yes."

Lynta cleared her throat. "So, were the apprentices all right?"

Quire turned his dark eyes on his sister. "_They_ were."

"Did you save them at great personal cost?" Iresdu asked. "Heroic action saves
apprentices and all that?"

Quire looked over his siblings. Solynt was puzzled and only faintly guilty.
Lynta was expressing concerned interest in such a way that nobody in their right
mind would be fooled. Iresdu was looking shifty - not actually unusual for him,
but in this case probably significant.

"Something like that," he said, absently answering the question. "I pulled the
idiots out of the way and they had the ineptitude to trip me - the lighter of
the two - and land on me - the heavier, naturally - as they escaped." He
straightened in the chair and winced as his ribs and back protested. He didn't
want to think about his twisted knee. "Solynt, you asked me to do you a favour
by taking the class."

"Yes."

"Was it your class?"

"Sort of."

Loyal Solynt. Quire resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Perhaps you were
taking it as a favour for somebody else? Iresdu, perhaps?"

"Oh _no_."

Loyal but not nearly as clever as the younger two. "He was doing a favour for
you, then, Lynta."

Lynta shrugged. Quier would go on and on until he got to the bottom of it and
really there wasn't any problem with getting another journey-ranked printer to
take the odd class as a favour. Everybody did it.

"And was it your class?" Quire watched for a glance in Iresdu's direction but
Lynta was not as easily rattled as Solynt. "Of course it wasn't. Iresdu's all
but said it was his."

"What a drama you're making of it all," the youngest brother said dismissively.
"I asked Lynta to take it for me - she owed me a favour as I'd taken one of
hers last month. Hardly my fault that the apprentices were able to do something
stupid while you were in charge."

Quire might have let it go but for the tone - and the thought of the discomfort
he would be in for a few days and the annoyance of the report he would need to
write about the damage to the historic teaching item.

"No drama, Iresdu, but no more favours, either." He looked at the three of
them. "No more for each other or anybody else."

"Not my fault," Iresdu grumbled, though he was aware he had let the apprentices
move the printer around the platform a number of times and possibly not pointed
out to them that it wasn't a game to see how many - or few - of them it took.

"Solynt owes me for a couple of things," Lynta said, not minding that her tone
was sulky.

"Clean page. No more favours owed or done."

"Not ever?"

"Not until I've forgotten all about this."

Solynt thought that might take a while, but wasn't too unhappy. The favour had
done him a favour - which was more than the others could say.

Last updated on the August 16th 2016

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Family Favours