The Histories We Seek

Writers: Halyonix, Sia
Date Posted: 31st July 2024

Characters: B'nell, Aleriand
Description: A visit to familiar territory for an errand
Location: Printer Hall
Date: month 8, day 24 of Turn 11

Aleriand

B'nell was actively humming as Vorath took flight.

Yes, the brownrider usually had something musical going on around him -- a song he wanted to compose, a rhythm his fingers had to tap out -- but this was slightly different. This was a conscious decision because he was happy. Happily imagining Harper Hall with a warm feeling filling his heart.

B'nell was going home.

Even if for part of a day, it made him happy. He had grown up in Harper Hall and had never expected to leave it. And he didn't regret Vorath one bit but it meant that his heart was always going to feel divided -- his love of Vorath versus his love of music.

At least today, those two things would coincide.

Vorath shifted /between/ and reemerged over Harper Hall. He began a slow spiral down, letting B'nell look at the area, before neatly landing the courtyard. Apprentices and hallbrats ran out to greet them. "Shouldn't you be in classes? _Learning_?" B'nell said to them, trying to shoo them away. After some of them proved insistent, the brownrider said, "Okay, okay, take us to Master Aleriand then. And don't drop those hides!" Several of the youngsters ran ahead to warn the Masterprinter that he had a guest arriving, while B'nell watched the helpers like a hunting dragon.

The apprentices caught Aleriand cursing over the Little Press, again, and colorfully and aggressively enough that the less precocious kids scattered and the nosy ones backed away, filing the words away for later (whispered) use. It took a moment for Aleriand to notice that there were apprentices underfoot, and another moment to try and place the brownrider amongst the ones he did know- Wingseconds were getting younger and younger each turn. He raised his glasses up onto his forehead even as he squinted at the younger man. "To what do I owe the honour, Wingsecond...?"

"B'nell," he replied. "You um...you definitely don't remember me. That's okay. I was Barnell." And before he had Impressed, B'nell had been quite easy to miss -- the quiet kid with glasses in the back of every lesson, scribbling out notes on a page furiously.

"Barnell." Aleriand repeated, though that did not bring much clarity. "Were you an apprentice with the harpers or printers?" He remembered the printer kids better; there were fewer of them, and his favorite. The name was vaguely familiar though, so his family or one of the master harpers might have mentioned the name in some sort of context before.

"Harpers," B'nell answered. "I was mostly drums. Composition. I think I took one lesson with you about print and writing." The brownrider made a dismissive gesture. "It's fine if you don't remember, really. I'm not memorable."

}: Excuse you! :{ Vorath vehemently cut in. }: I remember you just _fine_ and I'm a dragon with a _terrible_ memory. :{

**Yes, well, you _have_ to remember me. I'm your rider.**

B'nell could "hear" Vorath shuffling his wings indignantly. }: Fine. You're right. But I will not stand for that self-deprecation. :{

Before he had to explain his dragon's opinion on the matter, B'nell continued smoothly with, "I'm here for your help though today! We need some Records reprinted. Well, transcribed first and then printed. If that makes sense." He opened the first one, handwritten and worn, to show Aleriand what he was up against.

"Oh yes, that makes sense. I'm glad you're still using what you learned, even as a dragonrider." Aleriand said. He extended a hand to take the records, frowning thoughtfully. "What are they records of?"

"Weyrlingmaster notes," B'nell replied. "We've been trying to locate any reports, notes, that sort of thing about any Impressions outside of the usual. We haven't found any but we've found some helpful indications from clutches and Weyrlingmasters about how they've handled some of the unexpected pairings they have seen." He realized how confusing and vague that all sounded and exhaled. "Basically, we've been trying to find if there's ever been another woman Impressing a blue dragon and we haven't found _that_ but we have found times where dragons picked people from the Stands or other unexpected Impressions and we want to preserve what the Weyrlingmasters wrote about those. In case." Knowledge was power. B'nell felt that all too keenly ever since Harper Hall had been burned and so much of its information had been lost.

Aleriand listened to the explanation as he nonchalantly flipped through the files. "Sure. Believe it or not, I lived at a Weyr once. Even witnessed a Stands impression or two in my time." He deadpanned. "Hm. Some of these will be harder to print. They've degraded so much that it's hard to decipher some of the letters. We'll do what we can, but some of it might be lost."

"You lived at a Weyr? When?" B'nell asked with obvious intrigue.

"After the Harper Hall fire. The Printers were absorbed into the harpers and we moved to Dolphin Cove Weyr with them." Aleriand said.

B'nell smacked his forehead. "Right, of course, I forgot. And I was _at_ that Weyr! I was just...busy." Busy learning how to be a dragonrider after totally not expecting to Impress at all. "You know, I guess...that was for the best," he said thoughtfully.

"You were probably a weyrling, by the look of you." Aleriand said mildly. "Anyway, how quickly do you need copies of these? It'll probably take us a couple of sevendays to get it transcribed into better quality, and to make our best guesses at what's degraded. Do you prefer on vellum, like the original copy?"

The brownrider nodded absently to Aleriand's guess that he had been a weyrling at the time. But when the old Master asked about the copy medium preference, the decision-making process that B'nell went through showed on his face. _He_ preferred vellum because of the feel beneath his fingers but should the copies be on that? Or just regular paper, which was terribly more fragile but easier to circulate. Eventually, he decided on a compromise. "We'll need at least one copy made on vellum, for longevity of records. But the others can be on paper since we'll be sending these along to other Weyrs."

"We can do that." Aleriand said with a nod. "We can provide it for all the Weyrs, if that makes more sense for you. Surely they'll want to keep this in their records too, if it's giving any extra insight about why the dragons are suddenly changing like this. Y'know, it makes me think about when greens started Impressing girls again. What records have we lost over the centuries?"

"Exactly!" B'nell said emphatically. "Exactly. What other information have we lost? And not to mention what was lost in the fire!" It seemed like the bespectacled brownrider was about to get all sorts of riled up over things in the past that he could not control but then he let out a long exhalation of breath, probably as Vorath reminded him to do so, and said, defeated, "...we'll never know."

"Have you considered visiting the other Weyrs, too?" Aleriand asked. "If Dolphin Cove doesn't have the records, maybe Dragonsfall or Dream's End. Fort Weyr and their Harper Hall like to pride themselves with their long history, they might have something in their undoubtedly _endless_ records room." His tone did not belie that he actually believed that.

B'nell nodded. "It's on my list. Again. Vorath asked the Weyrlingmasters but then they got busy and it wasn't as important as newly Hatched dragons, which is fine, I understand, so after here, I'm going to visit the other Weyrs again." Besides, it had been a few months since he had seen some of them and it would do him well to refresh his visualizations while improving inter-Weyr relations. "But even if they do have records, it'll still take time to be found, so I doubt I'll go home with anything more today." He then cocked his head, as if he had finally processed Aleriand's tone. "You...don't think I'll find something?"

"Look at the Harper Hall." Aleriand said with a shrug. "Fires, flood, Thread. A particularly arrogant or foolish Weyrleader or Weyrharper is all it takes for records to be destroyed. Could be that women Impressing blue was such common knowledge in the Second Pass that the Harpers didn't think to write it down, or that keeping those records would be worth the space or time. That's if nature didn't get in the way. Not to say that your cause isn't noble, by all means. I doubt the dragons are suddenly choosing differently now. It's whether those records were properly preserved or even made in the first place."

The brownrider's eyes widened as he considered that. "You...you might be right! And, of course, no dragon would _remember_it, not even the golds!" He raked his hands through his hair. "If that's the case..."

}: Nothing changes, :{ Vorath remarked. }: We can't change the past. We can only preserve now for the future. :{

"Oh, you're _right_," B'nell muttered, forgetting that he was leaving Master Aleriand out of an important half of the conversation.

Aleriand waited patiently for whatever conversation was happening to end. He'd seen this happen enough with J'ine and Iyoth to not think much of it. "Of course I'm right." He said mildly when he thought B'nell was finished. "The dragons have memories like bugs, and I bet any one of them look at you like _you're_ weird to suggest that there are rules behind anything they do. And that's the only thing we can really trust."

He paused a moment, looking like a little sheepish. "I think I've vented enough about it, Wingsecond. I'll get these copied for you. Come on back in a sevenday and we'll have them ready."

"Thank you!" B'nell said sincerely. He gave the Masterprinter a polite bow and then left.

Last updated on the July 31st 2024

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The Histories We Seek