Wayward Student

Writers: Devin, Shawna
Date Posted: 11th October 2026

Characters: Cirina, R'lor, Viseya
Description: Cirina is caught far from home and Weyrlingmasters discus the job
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr, Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 7 of Turn 13

R'lor

Dolphin Cove Weyr had an interloper. A half-grown little blue had appeared low in the sky that afternoon and dropped off a familiar red-head. It felt like it had been both forever and no time at all since she’d been home, and Cirina had been making the most of a few free hours to catch up with family and friends. Last on the list of visits was Vianne, but if she didn’t hurry to get back from chores, Cirina was going to miss her.

They hadn’t been cleared to go /between/ unsupervised yet, but she reasoned that, as long as she made it back before her next lesson, no one would notice she and Saejith had left Barrier Lake Weyr. But, that meant she needed to leave soon, and couldn’t keep skulking around the Dolphin Cove Weyr weyrling barracks.

"Cirina! Hi!" R'lor said when he spotted her.

Cirina flushed at being 'caught', but forced herself to relax. It wasn't like she wasn't allowed to be here, she wasn't doing anything wrong at the moment. "Oh, hi, weyrlingmaster. I was trying to catch Vianne real quick."

"Going /between/ already? Time flies." Then R'lor frowned as he did some calculations. "One of the weyrlingstaff came with you, right?"

"Oh, yeah, we started learning last month. Viseya says my Dolphin Cove visual is best in the class, but duh. I've seen it from above a lot. We're going to learn the Crafthalls next week," Cirina deliberately babbled anything but the direct answer to whether or not she'd been accompanied.

After Turns of working with Weyrlings, R'lor had a finely tuned sense for when something was amiss. "Who did you come with?"

"Saejith, of course. Like I said, he's very good at this, and we had our image checked before we came." By Aeoluth, but she didn't add that. "Oh, I didn't mean to bother you, though, I'll just be going. I have to be back for lessons in half an hour, anyway."

"You didn't get permission, did you?"

Cirina opened her mouth to lie, then sighed, "No. S'ros would have insisted on following me around. But my Dolphin Cove visual is perfect," she insisted, indignant.

R'lor gave her a stern look. "It doesn't matter how good your visual is. You broke the rules, Cirina." In typical teenage fashion, she thought she was an exception. "I'm taking you back to Barrier Lake right now."

"Oh, come on," Cirina whined, "At least let me see Vianne first. Her letters have seemed very stressed. I think she could use a friendly face."

"You should have thought of that before you went /between/ without permission. Call Saejith. Now." R'lor reached out to Kularth, who grumbled about having to leave the green he was flirting with.

"Oh come onnnnn, I'm already here." Cirina didn't actually expect the whine to work, however, and Saejith was already slinking away from Aeoluth's ledge. The blue landed with the awkward thud of a young creature still growing into all his limbs, eyes whirling anxiously as he loomed protectively over Cirina.

}:Why do we have to listen to him? He's not our weyrlingmaster,:{ Saejith said, indigent.

**Shush.**

"_Now_," R'lor said as Kularth landed nearby. "I'm very disappointed in you."

Cirina rolled her eyes, though she scurried up onto Saejith's back quickly. "But we really are very good at this. I'm way more used to seeing places from dragonback than most of my classmates."

"Disobedience will not serve you well in the Wings," R'lor said as he strapped in. "Have Saejith send your image to Kularth and _wait_ for confirmation before going /between/." Might as well have her get some additional visualization practice.

Saejith did send the image to Kularth, and it was a good one- the blue had mastered his two 'home' visuals before any of the others, and he picked a visual that focused on the lake's distinctive lighthouse.

Cirina muttered something grumbly too low to be easily understood as the blue launched himself into the air to get high enough to go //between//. The take off was worse than the visual, the blue was still all awkward too-large wings during this particular growth spurt.

R'lor took longer checking over the image than he needed to. Finally Kularth told the young blue, }:The image is good, you may go.:{

Saejith vanished before "go" had even finished, reappearing over the lake near the familiar lighthouse. }:We're home now. We have to go to lessons in a few minutes.:{ As if that would keep R'lor from reporting their transgressions.

Cirina was less hopeful, but stranger things had happened in her life.

}:Mine is taking yours straight to the Weyrlingmaster,:{ Kularth told the younger blue as they came in to land.

}:The Weyrlingmaster is away today,:{ Saejith said, feeling very clever. It had been part of why it seemed safe to sneak away for a few hours.

"It's fine, really. We know the way," Cirina said.

"Then we'll see the Weyrlingmaster Second," R'lor said firmly.

}:Cholsinth, we are here. One of your weyrlings has gone /between/ without permission.;{

There was a several second pause before Cholsinth said, }:Mine said she has a good guess which one. She'll meet you near the training grounds.:{

Viseya was slightly out of breath when she limped onto the training grounds, almost as mad at that as at the antics of her student. Ignoring Cirina for a moment, she fixed R'lor with a look, "How do you still have hair if you've had this one under your care for Turns?"

"Hey!" Cirina puffed up indignantly, "That's not nice!"

"Weyrlingmaster Second," R'lor greeted. "I hope this incident doesn't reflect poorly on my ability to teach Candidates."

"Put away your straps and go straight to class," Viseya fixed Cirina with a glare, "I'll have to discuss with the Weyrlingmaster how long you're grounded to the Weyr for. It will be much longer than the week you should have waited to go home."

Cirina was muttering sullenly when she turned away.

To R'lor, Viseya said dryly, "Lucky for your reputation that the class also has L'leb, so they aren't all coming out of Dolphin Cove overconfident and with zero patience. The dragonrider children always tend to think they're farther ahead than they are, but I suppose every Weyrling needs at least one bad habit to break."

"Oh, Cirina." R'lor sighed. "I'm torn between relief that she's your problem and being sad that I'm not the one teaching her." He smiled slightly. "She can be overconfident and frustrating, but to be honest she was one of my favorite Candidates."

"She must have been less rambunctious without Aydhara to be a bad influence," Viseya drawled. "I still suspect they planned this, I just don't know how. I certainly didn't do anything to deserve it. I just wish Cirina was settling in better."

"Having to move with no choice or warning has to be hard. She's from River Bluff, so she was forced to leave one home already," R'lor said. "I am glad she has a good friend here. Two girls on blue in the same clutch, that really is something."

"I recognized her when she Impressed- I knew her mother at River Bluff." Shaking her head, Viseya said, "Two blues with women was surprising. Aydhara was an easy guess for blue, but the more I get to know Cirina, the more surprised I am. She doesn't seem the type. I worry it says something about our Candidate pool."

"There's only a handful of women who have Impressed blue, I don't think we have enough information to know what types of girls they're likely to choose," R'lor said.

"True, but Cirina is... Such an ordinary little Weyrbred girl, I'd have assumed a nice green." Viseya's lips twitched at a funny memory, "But Saejith insists she's the best, because she had experience. So maybe this is all your fault," she teased R'lor, "I got an earful from Cirina day one about how she's fed baby dragons before, and spent a month cleaning the infirmary... As if she had to convince me she was qualified."

R'lor shook his head, wondering what the girl could have been thinking. "Maybe she was just out of sorts from Impressing from the Stands at another Weyr? Cleaning the infirmary was a punishment, by the way," he added with amusement.

"Maybe. She should have known that was a risk. This is why candidates should probably stick to attending their own Weyr's hatchings only," Viseya said dryly. She hoped no foolish candidates decided to start spectating hatchings after this example. "Do I want to know why she was punished?" Viseya asked, eyebrow raised curiously. "I'll be sure to pick something different; we can compare notes later on if she adds my punishment as a skill set too."

He chuckled at her comment and then grew more serious. "She snuck onto the Hatching Grounds in the middle of the night, angering Panitath and Loseth. The Weyrleaders were furious. And so was I."

Viseya was silent for a moment, and then she threw her head back and laughed, "Oh, I miss being young and dumb and thinking I was immortal. I know, I know, it wasn't funny when it happened, I'm sure."

Despite himself, R'lor let out a little huff of laughter. "If those holders hadn't tried to kill hatchlings so recently, I would've been a little more forgiving. Though I do hope I can embarrass her with that story someday."

"I'm sure you can. She bragged about how good she was at cleaning after the punishment, but NOT what she did to deserve it. I'll give her points for her positive attitude at least." In an abrupt change of topic, she said, "How long have you been Weyrlingmaster now? Q'vettan has pushed me to take the knots officially." Sighing, Viseya admitted, "I don't know that J'nic will reassume his duties."

"I'm very sorry to hear that," R'lor said, and then added hastily, "about J'nic. If you do replace him, it would be well deserved. I've been Weyrlingmaster for . . . close to two Turns now." It felt both like the blink of an eye and much longer than that.

"Oh, I'm qualified for the teaching," Viseya agreed, without any attempt at false modesty, "I'm a Harper by craft, and not the musically talented kind. But being the actual Weyrlingmaster seems to come with... External baggage I don't care for. I don't have the patience to deal with the other Weyrlingmasters, for one. Present company obviously excluded." He'd been at that meeting, would know who she really meant. "Do you have to do that often?"

R'lor shook his head. "A meeting like that is very rare. Generally I only see other Weyrlingmasters at Hatchings." A smile curved his lips. "You certainly handled those bronzeriders well." He wished he could speak like that to M'talis himself. Maybe it was something he could work up to -- he was sure that at least he wouldn't be as intimidated by his former superior the next time their paths crossed.

"Hm. I wonder if Weyrleader Q'vettan would let me make not inviting them to hatchings a condition of my accepting the position. The older I get, the less patience I have for the blustering of incompetent men," Viseya shook her head. "Still, you did your best to prepare them. If they prefer to stick their heads in the sand, that's their prerogative." Sighing, she said, "Well, I shouldn't take more of your time. Thank you for returning my wayward student. I hope she didn't cause too much trouble."

"I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't have the weyrling training schedules memorized." R'lor smiled a little. "At least she didn't wake a Senior Gold in the middle of the night this time."

"Eh, you should let the ones dumb enough to try that get eaten," Viseya joked, "I bet only one will try. Well, I'll be in touch, especially if I take the promotion against my better judgement.

"I hope you make the right decision, whatever that is. Fair skies, Viseya."

Last updated on the October 27th 2026

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Wayward Student