Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows

Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold

Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold

Elsewhere on Pern
NPC Weyr
River Bluff Weyr
Seacraft Hall

Story Listing
Series Listing

Weyrling Training

Writers: Curious
Date Posted: 10th April 2024

Characters:
Description: The new leader of the anti-Weyr movement makes a move. Warnings: Death, Gore
Location: Emerald Falls Hold
Date: month 10, day 19 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: Corofel, Shuvan, Enali, R'ayl
Rating: PG-17

It happened quickly.

Everybody should have seen it coming.

It happened without warning.

It had been building for a very, very long time.

It was a quiet day at Emerald Falls Hold. The watchrider on duty, a whip-smart, half-blind young man by the name of Tr’fal, had told Corofel that he needed to meet with him. Few knew about this, however, and fewer had any reason to suspect that it may be anything truly urgent " only those who had the opportunity to see the whisper of fear on the bluerider’s scarred face. To all but those few, it would have been a perfectly normal, quiet, peaceful day.

That peace, quiet, and normality was shattered with blue Vindorith’s screaming keen. With his eyes an agonized gray and his vibrant hide rapidly draining of color, he launched himself into the sky and jumped _between_ for the last time.

It would not take long to find Tr’fal. When the searchers laid their eyes on his body " stabbed thrice and stuffed in a storeroom, his decapitated head left abandoned in the hall " perhaps they would wish that they had not.

There could be no doubt that the culprit was already running. There could also be little doubt that they would be caught.

That was not the point. The point was the dragon that had been sent _between_, never to return. The point was the message that had been sent to the Weyr, impossible to ignore as it had been written in the blood of one of their own. The point…

…

…

… Was something that a woeful few could possibly understand.

Enval was a bright, promising, loyal, ruthless, _heartbroken_ young man. Now that he had killed a dragonrider, he was also a dead man walking. He had known that when he agreed to this mission, accepting his assignment from a leader whose name he did not even know. He had accepted his fate in the name of avenging those whom he had lost at the hands of the dragonmen. He had walked into death knowing that he was preventing the potential downfall of all that they had known for.

His sacrifice would not be in vain.

Shuvan had been a fool. Oh, he had been brave. Yes, he had been driven. Certainly, he was a visionary. But he did not know how to wage war. He did not understand the things that would allow one to see victory no matter the cost. His first mistake was that he gave out his name too freely, allowed himself to be tracked too easily.

His second was that he did not understand human nature. Not the way that The Shadow did.

There was a line between loyalty and love. Loyalty would cause a man to follow you into battle. It got a girl to seduce a dragonrider, temporarily sacrificing her body for the sake of a mind game. It got a naive boy to feed information back to those who would use it to do others harm. But there were limits to that loyalty; one was done with the hope that it would not be the end, the other without the knowledge that any harm would come of their actions.

It was love that would convince a man to follow you into the dark. To take your hand and walk into a battle that there was no returning from, to sacrifice yourself for a cause far greater than yourself.

When The Shadow spoke, it was love that fueled their words. When they asked people to do their bidding, to do the unthinkable, it was with the full knowledge that they would one day disappear into the same oblivion as them. There was only one way this story ended, but the point was not the destination, but the journey. This was not a song about their tragedy, but all that they would burn with them.

For no one understood the point of this story. Not really �" not the self-righteous riders, not the people caught in the middle, not even the brave men swayed by the undeniable compulsion of the words they spoke and the whispers they spread. The riders would argue that it was the most vile of evils to harm their beloved dragons, for they were the saviors of Pern.

They were not wrong.

But Pern was not worth saving.

Last updated on the April 16th 2024