There is a life about to start (2/3)

Writers: Aaron, Avery, Corrin, Duskdog, Estelle, Iluva, Sia
Date Posted: 9th October 2025

Characters: Sybana, L'keri, Yvase, Tiyo, A'garyn, N'dhavi, H'lem, K'valas
Description: Galgaith reluctantly allows the candidates to touch her eggs
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 12, day 7 of Turn 12

Sybana

Lemhask felt exactly the opposite about this clutch. With so few, there would only be a handful who would get to ride dragons from Galgaith's maiden flight.

Plus, the (entirely self-imposed) pressure was growing for him to catch up with M'rhas. This class was going to be special. If he was doubly lucky, he might even get to share it with Tannock.

Lem bowed to Sybana and to Galgaith. He could not hide his excitement, try as he might to look dignified.

"Thank you for letting us see your babies," he said to the gold as he practically danced with anticipation.

Slowly, Galgaith craned her neck down to examine Lemhask, her gleaming eyes a muted whirl of yellow, orange and red. She tilted her head, breathing him in-- and out. She bathed him in hot dragon-breath and must have been pleased with whatever she saw, because Sybana waved Lemhask in as the gold turned her attention to the next in line.

Naldhavi’s desire to make himself known to Sybana, and perhaps twist the knife a little, warred with the part of him that insisted keeping a low profile would be smart. He wasn’t entirely sure how much power she held here -- certainly enough to get him kicked out of the egg-touching, it seemed, but did she also have the power to keep him from the Sands entirely? There was a limit to what he could get away with, certainly, so maybe he should be on his best behavior.

And yet here he was, next in line, and Sybana was right there. It seemed there wouldn’t be any flying beneath her notice, no matter what he chose.

“Goldrider,” he greeted with a smile, inclining his head. “Thank you for the opportunity to get to know your lovely clutch.”

Maybe his presence, alone, would have to serve as sufficient irritant.

It was.

Sybana stiffened as _he_ stepped up, a momentary tremor in her posture that was probably only perceivable by Galgaith and by L’keri, who stood so close. Naldhavi. She had supposed he would be there, but knowing that didn’t make enduring his presence any more pleasant. He could smile all he liked. She didn’t believe his ‘charms’ for a second. Not in the dining hall when he first accosted her, and certainly not after he got her called into the weyrlingmaster’s office for daring to question his Search.

Galgaith swung her head over him at once, her breath gusting sharp and damp over the holdless youth. She tasted her rider’s unease and did not like it.

“Yes…” said Sybana, eyeing Naldhavi coolly, mindful that T’lonas was not far off. “It _is_ a lovely clutch.” She couldn’t tell if his comment was a jab at its size, but she darkly suspected it was. “Please, enjoy the opportunity. I expect this will be the last clutch of the Turn.” She smiled sweetly. That should be an innocent enough comment for the weyrlingmaster, but Sybana had read the candidate records. She knew his age. She knew his birthingday was on Turn’s End, same as hers. (A commonality that galled her no end). In another month his dragon-dreams would be over.

Was that deliberate? He wasn’t sure if she knew his birthingday or not. _He_ would have read all the files on all the candidates, if he were her, but he didn’t think she would be that smart. Either way, he doubted very much that she was sincerely wishing him well.

“As they say, all it takes is once,” he replied. “We’re all thrilled to have the chance.”

"Then I wish you the best of luck at the Hatching," L'keri said pleasantly. Though he didn’t recognize the candidate, he'd not missed the sudden tension in Sybana's manner when the young man approached, nor Galgaith’s reaction, and there was a definite suggestion of 'time to move on' in his tone.

Naldhavi’s smile slipped just slightly, as the interloper caught him off-guard. He glanced back at L’keri -- ah, the clutchfather’s rider -- and nodded. He knew a dismissal when he heard one, but couldn’t quite peg whether it was intended to be curt and pointed or not. “Thank you, sir.”

Either way, he moved on.

Yvase had hung back while a few others spoke to Sybana first. It wasn’t because she was shy about greeting Sybana and Galgaith. It was because her father had told her to be polite and _not_ be the first one in to approach the goldrider, and to let other people have that chance. She had rolled her eyes, but promised to do so. After all, he could check up on her by asking if she was being good. Galgaith might not tell him, but maybe Rhalith would. Assuming the dragons could tell the Candidates apart! Maybe they couldn’t, and then her father couldn’t check up on her. That thought was cheery.

She did have to admit that hanging back had one advantage. Watching the Holdless interact with Sybana had been interesting. She didn’t like the fact they were Standing very much, and she wasn’t sure the goldrider did either. Since one had just spoken with her, Yvase decided she’d go speak next. Make the line kind of go weyrbred - holdless and give Sybana a break.

She quickly tried to push a few escaping curls of black hair that were falling into her eyes back behind the hairband that were keeping them out of her face, and straightened her posture, and then stepped herself forward.

“Goldrider Sybana. Brownrider L’keri. Pleased to see you both. I’m Candidate Yvase. Thank you for letting us come see the clutch,” Yvase said, approaching the pair and bowing politely.

A genuine smile warmed Sybana’s features as Yvase stepped forward, a breath of fresh air after the unpleasantness with Naldhavi. And such good manners, was that the touch of the holds? Yvase. Sybana recalled her file from the candidate records. Her father was wellbred and from the Pearl Shoals area. That might explain things. “You represent your weyr and blood well, candidate,” she said. “I wish you luck.”

"As do I," L'keri added politely. He had recognized his Wingleader's daughter, and so refrained from any joking about Galgaith's temper, or how many candidates she had gobbled up already. But he did wink and lower his voice so the rest wouldn’t hear. "Alpine Wing will be rooting for you."

Yvase was trying to be prim and polite and behaved and remained so for her interaction with Sybana, but at L’keri’s quiet comment, she bobbed up and down on her toes and said, “Thank you, sir!” with a squeaking chirrup of enthusiasm.

Tiyo, like Yvase, had no wish to unsettle Galgaith or her rider more than this visit required. Candidate boldness had cut the last touching short, after all, and she meant to keep her greeting warm but brief. The sooner she reached the eggs, the better.

Now inside, the cavern’s heavy heat wrapped around her with a pleased, nostalgic sigh. She kept busy flexing her fingers, eager to get the chill from them before they met any shells. It had been too long since the last clutch. Hard to believe just a few frigid months, though she suspected it was her own impatience (and dwindling time) that had it feeling all the longer.

Harder still to believe those were Galgaith’s eyes glinting at the end of the line, pulling them forward like a golden tide. Another queen, another clutch.

No high hopes for this one, only vague ones. The ones she was willing to entertain. Even those frayed a little as droves of candidates descended on them like feeding time at the pens. When she caught a glimpse, they were so sparse that she did a few double takes. Faranth, fifteen was all there was. Tiny for a Pass, and far too small for the sheer number of bodies pressing in. Still, Tiyo wasn’t going to complain. Not yet. And she would share, if she must. If one egg was meant for her, it would be enough.

Tiyo’s excitement was sincere as she finally greeted Sybana and L’keri, her smile warm and body curving into a lean apostrophe of a bow through the heat.

The candidate waiting behind Tiyo also had his eyes hooked on the eggs.

With so many bodies crowding further into the belly of the cavern, amongst the mammoth queen and a small sprinkling of eggs, it was hard not to stare. Intriguing, but the clutch wasn't like Zolta's anymore than this queen was like her. These eggs were more like strange, distant planets pocking the boiling sand, pulling people into their orbits. Aegaryn noted the calmer clutchsire, picking up wherever Rhalith's attention strayed as he waited. But he followed with no wistful hopes, no desperate hunger to be chosen. He and Kav knew better. Over his shoulder he sent the other man a quick, knowing look that was met with much the same. There, and gone before he faced forward again.

As Tiyo stepped back, Aegaryn moved forward, gaze roving over the two riders and their respective mounts, and his bow came with the ease of old muscle memory.

His holdless label had done the bulk of the work since coming to the Weyr, a natural protectant by way of disgust. Aegaryn’s smile was a flash of white through his dark beard. His words were no different than the others: “Goldrider Sybana, Brownrider L’keri.” But his throat grew tight. Neither of them were those two children trailing after the skirts of Opal Cove anymore, but the recognition cut sharp all the same, something he couldn’t ignore: her eyes, her smile, the glint of her preferred emotions worn like finely-set jewels. “Thank you for the honor of seeing your dragons’ clutch.”

Kavalas lingered nearby, close enough to bow to Galgaith himself (just for good measure- Faranth, he remembered when she'd rampaged through the encampment) and assumed he didn't need his own well-wishes. He didn't have more than a passing fascination with the eggs in the cavern, as something so new and foreign and entirely outside any experience he ever had. Though his gaze lingered on them, he wouldn't stray too far from Aegaryn.

“Alengar--!” Sybana had been expecting Naldhavi, but she hadn’t been expecting _this_. This was a ghost out of her past. Even as she said the name she knew that it couldn’t be right. Alengar was not so scarred by life, he had no cause to be. It must be Aegaryn.

It had been five Turns since she last saw him, five long Turns that had changed him from a beardless boy into a towering man-- but she recognized the foster brother that had been driven from her life in shadow and disgrace.

Sybana drew a steadying breath, both for her and Galgaith who had crouched protectively above her. She'd already revealed more than she meant in her shock. His name hadn't been in the candidate records, so perhaps he was hiding his identity, perhaps he had developed more reason to in his exile. She had a million burning questions, but this wasn't the time or the place.

“Forgive me,” she murmured, her polite mask slipping beautifully back into place as she regarded Aegaryn and the silent brute that was clearly with him. “Only you look so like someone I used to know. Please, proceed.”

She gestured them onto the sands.

"And thank you for accepting the Search. Good luck," L'keri said. He'd been distracted for a moment, his gaze following the lean, graceful form of Tiyo as she walked out to the Sands, and had only just caught Sybana's exclamation. He turned to eye the two new candidates warily. More holdless men - but the goldrider was a lady by birth. Surely she'd have no reason to know either of them.

"Everything all right?" he asked quietly, once they'd gone.

“I hope so.” Honestly Sybana wasn’t sure, but they couldn’t get into it now, the next candidate was already stepping up.

Last updated on the October 18th 2025

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There is a life about to start (2/3)