Afternoon Tea with Impending Doom

Writers: Halyonix, Yvonne
Date Posted: 17th March 2025

Characters: Ketlyn, V'dryn
Description: The two weyrlings talk after the disaster at BLW
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 2, day 8 of Turn 12

The next morning was supposed to be a rest day but Ketlyn and the rest of the weyrlings found themselves watched over more than usual. For once she was glad of it, and she let herself be led around from the feeding pens to the weyrlake to wash Varinth, and then oil her half-grown green dragon until she declared herself sticky and went to go sun herself and sulk.

It was better than grieving.

Ketlyn sat on the beach and ran her greasy hands through the stones, sorting them into untidy piles of dark and light. Every so often one caught her eye and she set it aside on a small bit of driftwood she'd found until she had a row of rainbow coloured pebbles glinting in the sun. A shadow crossed over her and she looked up to see V'dryn. "Finished oiling Zhomoth?"

"As much as he wanted to be," he answered flatly as he situated his lanky form beside her. He looked at the organized stones for a moment, as if trying to glean the pattern to their divisions, and then asked, "Are you creating a rock collection?"

"Not really. I just like rocks. Sometimes you find a good one with stripes or the impression of a leaf or something." She shrugged a shoulder. "I thought I'd challenge myself to make a rainbow. How are you doing? Did you sleep okay last night?"

Not yet ready to talk about the herdbeast in the room, V'dryn said, "I once saw a harper-artist that did something quite similar. He would create these intricate patterns with different size and color stones, like a mosaic that stone masons sometimes put in the floors of Holds, but his were more...temporary. Especially the works he did with leaves. He would collect leaves of all different colors into a kaleidoscope image but they, of course, decayed and..."

It seemed that he would be speaking about that herdbeast sooner than he thought, given the ephemeral nature of the artwork he was referencing.

"Zhomoth slept," V'dryn answered as he picked up an unsorted rock and added it to the light pile. "I...could not. Much. I feared something else would happen if I did."

"Me too," Ketlyn said softly. She stared out over the lake. "K'lvin said that we're safe but they don't know everything. And they're lying, anyway. We're going to be flying Thread soon so we are most definitely _not_ safe."

The mention of Thread turned V'dryn's gaze away in yet another harsh truth he did not want to face that day. "Eventually," he said, trying to shove it away. "But how safe can we be if someone....if someone within the Weyr did this?"

She sighed. "Makes me think twice about bringing my little siblings here."

V'dryn mutely agreed. "They caught him though. From what I heard." And hopefully, he was working alone. Just a singular, terrible grudge or something like that. Hopefully nothing like what had happened at Dolphin Cove months ago, with a group of plotters. If so, V'dryn might never sleep again. No one would!

He didn't know what else to talk about because every subject seemed to be a sore one in that moment. He tossed another stone on the pile and scanned for a new one. "We will at least soon by flying together. And we can get away," he noted. And while he meant 'get away' to be hopeful -- thinking of beach days and mountain vistas -- he realized that it could be interpreted in other, dire ways.

Ketlyn stared at the water with its busy little ships and far horizons. "Where are you going to go?"

"Anywhere, really," V'dryn said. "I won't be leaving Barrier Lake, I don't think. Here...feels right. Well, it did. Before yesterday." He believed that it would feel right again, given the healing of time. "But there is so much of Pern to see," he said, his gaze lifting to the horizon. "Places that I have always heard of but have never visited." Vistas that he wanted to experience with Zhomoth. And maybe someone else.

There was a pause while he let that hope set in. Then, as his gaze shifted to her, he asked, "And you? Is there anywhere that you would go?"

"That sounds nice," Ketlyn said wistfully. V'dryn was lucky. He had big dreams and no anchors to hold him down. "I'll just be going home, though. I made a promise to my siblings that I would."

"They will be happy to meet Varinth," he said with a small but hopeful smile. "How long have you been away?"

Ketlyn smiled, a bit wistful. "Since I came to a Weyr. Did you know that I have a sister I've never met?"

"You do?" V'dryn queried. "A baby sister?"

"She was born just before I Impressed." Or had it been after? Ketlyn felt guilty that she didn't remember. "I... is it bad that I'm glad that I couldn't go home when she was born? I want to meet her but I know that I'll just end up doing chores the entire time that I'm there. Hold the baby, change the baby, wash the baby, wash the dishes, cook dinner, chop wood, weed the fields... I wanted to bring my siblings here so that they can choose what they want to do, like I could. Except now..."

V'dryn's expressed was written with empathy. He put a hand on her shoulder. "I understand. My younger brother, I'd like to see him come into his own -- not whatever our father has in mind for us -- but it's a decision that he'll need to make. With recent events also coming into play."

"Yeah." His hand was warm through her tunic. "How old is your brother?"

"He should be just passed his fifteenth birthingday," V'dryn answered. "Almost old enough to decide his own course. If our father would let him, I'm afraid." Since V'dryn had bucked the tradition, he assumed that their father had tried to rope his younger brother into taking up the mantle. "I have a younger sister, around twelve, but she still has some Turns to go before she can make any decision on her own."

"Two of my brothers are fifteen and twelve," Ketlyn said. She sighed. "I thought I didn't miss my family anymore, but today... I do."

V'dryn was quiet for a moment before saying, "We miss a lot of things that we thought we no longer did when given a new lens to view the world with." It sounded a lot wiser than he felt. He squeezed her shoulder sympathetically before his hand fell away. "Just a few more months and you can see them."

"Yeah. And you can go... wherever you want." She managed a small smile. "Maybe take me with you when you do?"

The blue weyrling's smile was still tinged with sadness but held hope. "Of course. Let's start a list. And we can begin crossing them all off once we graduate."

Ketlyn thought for a moment, grateful to have something else to concentrate on for a while. "I wouldn't mind seeing the Sea of Azov. I want to know how different it is from the sea..."

Last updated on the March 20th 2025

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Afternoon Tea with Impending Doom