Logs:Naming a Weyrsecond
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| RL Date: 9 July, 2013 |
| Who: F'manis, K'del, Sisha |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Sisha has chosen a Weyrsecond. |
| Where: Council Chambers, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 13, Month 3, Turn 32 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Aishani/Mentions, Ali/Mentions, Azaylia/Mentions, C'wlin/Mentions, Eire/Mentions, Ezalea/Mentions, F'der/Mentions, H'kon/Mentions, Iolene/Mentions, K'zin/Mentions, Mielline/Mentions, N'hax/Mentions, Nakasha/Mentions, Seani/Mentions, Taikrin/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions |
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| Council Chambers, High Reaches Weyr
Interspersed between glowsconces upon the smooth walls, ancient tapestries depict the territories High Reaches protects in a particularly pastoral fashion, all fluffy clouds and fluffier llamas, or else fishing crafts sailing merrily out to sea. Among them is also a natural alcove, its several wooden shelves primarily stocking fine wines and liquors as well as the glasses to serve them, though the lower shelves also hold whatever hidework requires particularly frequent attention. A narrow wooden door leads to the Records room, while the tunnel that extends to the weyrleaders' ledge is wide enough for three men to walk abreast, with just enough kink in it to block the wind.
F'manis has known Sisha a long time, and he's quick, then, to crack a smile for her joke and to say, "Frankly, my dear, he never learned that, not properly. All those airs and graces... I mean, a good Wingsecond, but shells." It's all in good fun: there's a gleam in his eye, one that's visible for a moment as he meets her gaze, and then gone, when he lowers it to reach for the klah he hasn't really been drinking much. "I told him, when I offered the knot he's currently wearing, that I wouldn't lose my wing to him, if he became Weyrleader again. I think I can manage this. If you're sure." Sisha chuckles, shaking her head before spreading smoked fish on her narrow flatbread. She covers it with a practiced hand, not worrying overmuch about the corners. "I'll be sure to remind him, and not just about your wing, either. It's a shame. He seemed so satisfied working for you." She eats a couple bites, smacks her lips with pleasure, and then wipes them with her napkin. "But I still think he's the right piece for right now, and if he does crack again, better he do it here. Unless you came up with someone better to keep an eye on Z'ian? And are you sure you want to trust him to bargain for your weyrlings? I know how you love it so." Sisha's choice of snacks is foreign and peculiar to straightforward F'manis; he reaches, now, to take a piece of flatbread, but seems content enough to eat it straight, without the fancy smoked fish, the olives, the onion confit. "I think he has been," the bluerider answers, with a tip of his chin. "Though I think he might have liked to be standing in your shoes right now, for all that he respects you. He's adjusting, but I think he's itching to have involvement again - to 'fix things', he'd say." F'manis might also say such a thing but he's not, not right now. "No, I think K'del's the one. Besides, you know you can work with him. As long as he remembers that he listens to you, and not the other way around. But then... you led his wing for him, didn't you." As far as bargaining for weyrlings goes, he grins, all teeth. "It's a good test, in a way. Does he pick for the wing... or for himself?" Sisha might also say such a thing, and has, but she doesn't now either. She does cluck her tongue against her palate. "So this is making your life easier, is it, F'manis? Is that what it's all about? Keeping him busy enough that he doesn't find his own Hold to raid like the two kids?" No, C'wlin and N'hax, the wingleaders haven't forgotten. "All this tithe that we have, who needs it. Eating whatever bread we have plain, it builds character." Dark eyes drop to the bluerider's plain, plain flatbread before she gives him that grin right back, one wingleader to another. "Even if it is for himself, I'm sure he'll be able to make it sound good. So maybe that's a good test for you? All right. Let's finish up, and then you can send him to me." F'manis is, after all, still his wingleader. "Guilty as charged," returns F'manis, but without any implication of seriousness. "It's all about me. Though, shells, I'm not sure he was ever as stupid as those two kids, not even when he was a scrawny kid overbalanced by the heaviest of knots. And I could've gladly wrung his neck a couple of times, in those days." Given his expression, it's rather likely that he's fond of those memories, in a distracted kind of way. His bread is given a glance, a wave in the air, and then he returns Sisha's grin, unrepentant. Utterly amused. "Maybe it is, Sisha m'dear. Maybe it is. All right - I'll have him here promptly. Make him sweat." He takes another bite of that flatbread on his way out the door, ambling quite as if he hasn't a care in the world. Isplonath reports back to Balreth a few minutes later, confirming that the invitation has been issued, and that Cadejoth promises his rider will be in attendance shortly. And so it is: a damp-haired K'del, still bundled up in riding gear, who sticks his head through the door, and then ushers himself in. "Shall I salute? Being in the presence of someone with that knot whom I actually respect is making me feel a little overawed." His grin is cheerful, if hidden again after a moment as he turns around to doff his coat and gloves, hanging them on a hook at the door. "Congratulations, Sisha. You're perfect for the job." "If I thought you were overawed instead of flippant for one moment," responds his onetime wingsecond, "I'd owe someone a drink. Be seated, K'del, take a load off. The klah isn't hot," and it's also the strong, gritty stuff she favors. "Thank you. Why do you think you're here?" K'del's nose is wrinkling as he turns around, following her instructions (but not fetching himself any of the klah). "If it's that awful stuff you prefer, I'll pass, thanks all the same. I--" He stops, silent as he folds himself into a seat a few spaces down the table from hers. It's as he turns his upper body to look at her that he finally answers, "I could hazard a guess, and it could be I'd be disappointed. Could be you just want to talk about weyrlings, since I do know F'manis is going to get me to bargain for Taiga." Her seat is the Weyrleader's. Her seat used to be his. Sisha pats its back before she sits in a way that's fast becoming habit, a reintroduction to a willing but still unfamiliar runner. Once she does sit, though, it's hers and she leans back against it without more thought. "Why don't you hazard, K'del. Lay it out there." It's a strange thing, to be in here, one-on-one, and not sitting in that particular chair. It's different, during Wingleader meetings, somehow. This... K'del squares his shoulders, then relaxes them again, leaning back into the chair's back. "Some people have been saying you'll replace Iceberg's leaders, since they're Taikrin's appointees, but I don't think you will; and even if you did, you'd pick from within, so this isn't a promotion to something like that. Not to Glacier, either." She's too smart for that. "So it comes down to this: either you want to remind me that I'm not Weyrleader, now, and lay down the law against protests of any kind - not that I'd protest against you, Sisha - or you're looking for a Weyrsecond. Or both." "Got it in four, or let's say three and a half." Sisha shoots her cuffs before she leans back, taking the opportunity to better survey the lanky bronzerider. "I could be looking for you to propose a Weyrsecond, but instead I'm looking at you. Do you want the job, K'del? Right now, I'd keep you in Taiga. F'manis says he can survive without your full attention." K'del's head shakes as she suggests, even in the negative, the idea of him proposing a Weyrsecond: he doesn't seem to believe she'd do that. It's pretty obvious he also thinks that doing so would have been cruel. "I do," he says, quiet, and somehow placidly confident. "Not that I'm not enjoying being Wingsecond, mind, but... I'd like to help you with this." "Good." Sisha drinks. "Tell me why I should pick you, K'del. Let's see if you come up with all the reasons I did. If you come up with more, all the better." She would certainly have questioned him without the placidity to his confidence, but there might not have been that lift to her chin. K'del presses his hands flat to the table, focusing in on them in lieu of the greenrider. "I-- well. Got working relations, more or less, with most of the Holds. Not High Reaches, but most of the others. Experience leading the wings, which is different to experience leading a wing, not that I don't think you'll be as good at the other as you already have been at the one. I'm a bronzerider, so I bring some of the complainers inline. You and I, we work well together, I think. And... I love this Weyr, Sisha, you know that. And she's hurting, and I can't stand to see it." "This gives you reason and right to take action, yes. Do you have more?" Sisha questions. She sits, composed. Now, his expression so much less confident, so much less comfortable, K'del lifts his gaze so that he can look at Sisha, and swallow heavily before answering. "Feels like... for me, anyway, and maybe it's got nothing to do with you, it could be a way for me to move on. Fix some of the stuff that went wrong - including stuff I did - and... let go. Maybe." He sucks in a breath, and then exhales. "So you have personal motivation, and well you should fix them. You understand that I'm not in the business of providing bronzeriders opportunities for feeling better about themselves." Sisha's smiling when she says that, though. "So that much isn't much motivation for me, though in this particular circumstance, it helps. You're right, we have worked well together. I hope that will work out when I'm more than just your wingleader, instead of the other way around. Do you have more?" She's smiling, and K'del's opening his mouth, as if to clarify - but she moves on, and he closes his mouth again, content to wait until she's finished. Now, one of those hands slides from the table, and lifts, letting his fingers run through his winter-long curls. "Pretty sure it's better for the Weyr, though, if I can... let go, when there's a new Weyrleader. Assuming Cadejoth doesn't win. It's... Sisha." He studies her. "Could say I bring some of the rebelling wings closer in line. Could tell you that I'm good at this, and that's why. Guess I'd like to know what you think, though." "If," Sisha agrees. "You'll have to, if he doesn't. I'd be counting on you to want to make yourself, even if you don't want to. To want to bring some of those wings in line. To be good at this, and to support me at being good at this, not to earn points or to show how good at it you are in your own right. Even if it's tempting. And to not tell wingleaders to shove it, even if that's tempting too." He's known her long enough that likely he's been able to tell, too, when she has been tempted at these recent meetings. Her self-control's stayed rock-solid when it's come to that, though, and if it helps that she has allies, she's built those allies and they, her. None of Sisha's points seem to surprise K'del, though that hand drops again and his shoulders straighten, and then get drawn back: he sits up. "It's not an audition for taking back the big knot," he agrees, and he's abruptly quite calm about it again; very sure. "It's doing what needs to be done, in helping you, until that gets decided, one way or another. It's not-- not interested in trying to lead you from behind, Sisha. But if it seems like I am, you tell me, and I'll stop myself." "Good. I'm not interested in a yes-man, not in front of them, not anywhere else. But if I see you pulling anything, especially in front of them but not limited to that, and you don't stop... I will have your knot, K'del, like you though I do." Sisha lifts her mug to her mouth with her other hand, this time, giving him a silent moment to interject if he must. K'del's nod is a solemn one - a promise in and of itself, though he follows it up with a quiet, "I'd expect nothing less," interjected into her pause. "Good." With that other hand comes a change in tack. "What I want you to think about, K'del," Sisha says, "is how a weyrsecond is like a headwoman. You know that we haven't had one since before Cadejoth got you that knot. You know that a Weyrwoman can raise or dismiss a headwoman, in fact, it's common enough... though she'd best be careful if she knows what's good for her. You know that a Weyrleader can do the same with his, or her, Weyrsecond. From what I understand, that happens regularly. But it isn't automatic, it doesn't happen with the flight, the way the other two do. It keeps going until an action is made to change it." Evidently surprised by that comparison, K'del's brow furrows, for all that he gives Sisha a short, sharp nod of confirmation. It's as she continues that he seems to get what she's saying, and that's a visible moment: the 'oh' moment, the nod that follows. "Weyrsecond," he supposes, "needs to fill a niche. Chosen to fill that niche, and dismissed again when they're no longer needed. But," his brows have furrowed, slightly. "Imagine I'll hand in my knot, when there's a flight, even so. Or offer to do so." "I'd like you to not hand that knot in, when that flight happens. Unless it's Cadejoth, of course, I know his track record." Sisha stops, looking at K'del. K'del makes a face for reference to Cadejoth's track record - and who can blame him? Four failed queen flights in a row. "His old track record, good enough. I won't dismiss your chances together, is what I mean to say, even if you do." Sisha could smile, fine lines crinkling lightly into place about her eyes. The clarification makes K'del nod, his smile a little wan for what Sisha has to say, but still present. "We'll see," is all he says. That, and, "You... want me to ease the transition for the new Weyrleaders, if it's not Cadejoth? Is that what you mean?" "Precisely. Give it at least a seven, with how emotions run high around queen flights, even if you're feeling, 'I can't possibly work with the man.' There will be some... riders," Sisha might have said 'bronzeriders' there, before, "who won't have the guts to ask for it." She might also have said 'balls.' Slowly: "And some who may take great pleasure in taking it off me. But that's the point, isn't it? Serve at the Weyrleader's pleasure." There's something in K'del's expression to suggest he's well aware of how hard that may be for his ego... but there's also determination, and a careful, solemn nod. "I'm afraid so. I'm not asking you to fight that, far from it. There may even be a situation where it would suit the Weyr for you to not show your face and your knot for a couple of days afterward, to let matters cool. I know that wouldn't be your first choice, but it may come to that." Sisha's thought about it considerably, it seems. Sisha, and her allies, and possibly not just her allies. K'del makes a face, but nods, pressing his hands together, one on top of the other. "No," he agrees. "That makes sense on all counts. May be that distance from me, and everything I've stood for in the past-- decade and more, I guess, is necessary. It's fine. I'll... man up, as it were, Sisha. Won't cause any scenes. Not even if the new Weyrleader is someone I'm not wholly pleased with." "Not that sort of distance, K'del, I mean that someone else may be thinking, 'I can't possibly work with the man.' He or she," Sisha's not so modern-minded that she doesn't grimace for the awkwardness of saying that, "may also think better of it." K'del's "Oh," is quiet, as if this is something that hasn't occurred to him - something that makes him nod. "No, of course. That... makes sense." "So we'll see. Continuity is important. Even if his," Sisha grimaces again, this time for not replacing it, "decision is to replace you, at least it's a decision instead of just sitting there on his ass while you make it too easy for him. Which I'm not saying not to ever offer, there's a lot to be said for smoothing things out, just don't let it be kneejerk, or anything else-jerk." Squaring his shoulders, K'del nods his confirmation. "No jerks. Just... responsible decision making. May even be the first decision he makes, and that could be good: something relatively easy to lead in with, one way or another." "You think that's easy?" Sisha looks at the once-Weyrleader with focused inquiry before draining her mug. Her napkin removes the klah's grit from her teeth, and she pours a refill. "Compared to a lot of Weyrleader decisions? Oh yes." K'del's absolutely sure of this. "Yet you never did," Sisha says, adding just one spoonful of sweetner and starting to stir it in with slow, thorough circles of her spoon. "Though, yes, it's not as though there was one already." "Seemed to me, when I first ended up in the job, filling that position - especially when there hadn't been someone sitting in it already - would both make me look weak, and potentially encourage someone to try and manipulate me. It was a conscious decision." K'del runs his teeth over his lip, and then grins. "Getting B'sil to mentor me, but not 'second me felt better. He had no authority: just a willingness to listen and advise." "Nobody officially standing over your shoulder," Sisha surmises. "I don't recall whether I'd wondered before," but her shrug dismisses her own wondering. "About Z'ian," she says. K'del's nod confirms that conclusion, though his confidence in that shades rapidly to consideration, and something far less sure when she references Z'ian. "About Z'ian?" he echoes. "What do you make of him? What do you think he wants? Do you consider yourself friends at this point, and just how much do you think he listens to you?" Sisha makes no comparisons to before or after anything at all. Time for another turn of fingers through curls, K'del's mouth twisting up at one corner in an expression that isn't wholly comfortable or pleased. "Used to be good friends," he says. "Maybe we still are. He... didn't like some things that I did." And, K'del's expression owns, in retrospect, he doesn't like them either. "Pretty sure he'd listen, at least, if I said things. Not just dismiss it out of hand. He wants what's best for High Reaches - that much I'm sure of. He's not in it for glory." "I won't ask you to patch things up with him on my account," Sisha says. "I am interested in what he's after, and we'll be talking about that in the future, I expect. He and I, and I'd like you there when we discuss the distribution of weyrlings. Meara tells me he wants more than the two troublemakers. I think we can work together on this." "We're okay, him and me. It's not like... me and H'kon." Oh look, it's time for K'del to make another face, even if he's so quick to answer the rest of what she's said. "Always enjoyed puzzling out wing assignments," he tells her, a nod confirming his attendance at such a meeting. "He... well. If he's taking those two of our hands, it doesn't seem wholly unreasonable. Depending on who he wants, I think." "Depending on what he trains them up to do, too," Sisha points out. "Although I think, here, his interests and mine align well enough for High Reaches. He's more minded to intervene than I would be, but when the two of you aren't putting me on the spot," here she eyes K'del, "we get along fine." "I think his intentions are good. He'll be attentive, stop them from getting into trouble, if he can." K'del doesn't blush when she eyes him, but there's contrition in the abrupt shift of his expression, even if it's only slight, and lingers only a moment. "He's a good rider." "He was in Avalanche, too, but sometimes other wings suit people better. I can tell you now that I invited H'kon to find another one, some months back. He hasn't, and I'm in no hurry to boot him out. If we can make matters go smoothly enough," Sisha explains, "I don't expect what he does to be a problem. If it is," she shrugs. H'kon may well be her court jester. Of H'kon, K'del says, "He told me... what was it. Something about hoping you will provide enough time after things settle. Makes me think he's thinking about it, at any rate." Sisha acknowledges that with a musing nod, resting her mug against her mouth before drinking. "There may be a time or two," she says abruptly, "that I will expect you to speak in my name for a few days. The circumstances are unusual, but I have spoken to the weyrleaders of Igen, and they will accommodate Balreth and me. If they enjoy having even High Reaches' acting weyrleader in their possession... at least Ezalea is hospitable, and we got on when others didn't." K'del's expression clearly illustrates that this is not something he'd considered, though now that it has been raised - yes, he understands immediately. "Of course," he says. "That sounds like a reasonable solution. And, of course, it goes without saying that I would be acting as you, and not taking on the role myself." "As the incapacitation is expected to be of predictable duration, yes." Sisha's mouth quirks. "Were I to come down with some plague and be isolated there indefinitely, circumstances would of course be different. If we're lucky, it won't be more than once or twice." "Hope not. Not that-- it's good to have Acting Leadership. But it'll be better to have it sorted." K'del's smile is warm enough, despite those heavy thoughts, and his fingers have gone back to tangling with each other. "It will. Do you have any issues about staying in Taiga?" Sisha asks. "F'manis must keep his wing, for now, and this provides disincentive for anyone to try and relieve him of it. I plan to keep Avalanche, of course." She doesn't underscore that, but then she wouldn't have to, would she. "If you aren't yourself a wingleader, you aren't a direct threat to the others, nor are you likely to be supplanted if the new weyrleader proves to be of your own wing... and yet you stay available, if I need you." F'manis' smile had been all teeth. Hers, deliberately, isn't quite. "None." It's firm. "F'manis is a fine wingleader to serve below; it was, and is, an honour to be chosen as his wingsecond." K'del twists up the corners of his mouth again. "It always bothered me, that Cadejoth's win supplanted you. It's not something I'd want to see happen again, by my hand or any other." "Good." Sisha studies him, nods once, and considers what remains of her flatbread before pushing the small plate away. "You were right, I don't plan to throw you to Iceberg or Glacier, but it may come to that. Temporarily, I would hope." K'del answers that with another nod. "If it needs to, then of course I'll do what I can to assist. Here to help any way I can, of course." Sisha slides back her chair and rises to walk over to K'del's, rather than ask him to come over and crouch so that she could reach. "It's a good thing you said yes," she says conversationally. "After all, it would have been a waste of a few inches of good cording to make a Weyrsecond's knot differenced as a wingsecond's. I had to get creative. You'll want to keep your old one?" His new one is, by now, in her hand. "And we've not so many supplies, at the moment, that wasting them is in any way reasonable," allows K'del, with the hint of a smile, for all that it's obvious he's not well pleased with the supply situation. "Mm, I'd better. Could be putting it back on sooner rather than later." He turns in his chair, sliding around so that he can face the Acting Weyrleader, his gaze dropping towards that knot, thoughtful. "Tomorrow." Sisha doesn't entirely sound like she'd mind. She goes about the process of disengaging his old knot, holding it out where his hand can reach, and then starting to replace it. "This could have more ceremony, I suppose, but I could do without harpers caterwauling." "Tomorrow," laughs K'del. "Wouldn't that be dramatic timing, after everything." He sits straight and tall as she swaps the knots out, gaze lifting towards hers, now, rather than turning to follow the knot. The old one he takes, dropping it into the breast pocket of his shirt - snug, not far from his heart. "Oh shells, no. No harpers, that's just fine by me." "Good. We can't afford more now anyway. At least the smiths and the weavers earn their keep. Not that I suppose that's directly my business, or yours." Sisha fastens the clasp and steps back, looking him over with a discerning eye. "You'll do." Her smile crinkles about her eyes again, but she doesn't laud him like the weyrling he isn't. The complexity of the knot looks better (to K'del's eye, anyway, most likely) on a twenty-nine turn old shoulder than the even more complicated one did when first put on a seventeen-turn-old shoulder; K'del turns his head to glance at it, and then nods, approvingly. "Reckon I'll do my best, in any case. Appreciate it, Sisha - on a lot of levels, but mostly it's just nice to get to help again." "Good. Not that you weren't helping, once you got back to helping," instead of what some would say was making matters worse, "but there's nothing like having your own spoon in the pot." Sisha walks past him to the shelf with the liquors, pouring for them both. It's a distinction K'del is aware of; it's even possible that his cheeks darken, ever so slightly, with a blush - but if so, it's a subtle difference. Mostly, it's obvious in the solemnity of his expression, and the nod that follows Sisha. The glass she sets before him has that whiskey he likes, neat. Hers is nearly clear, a spiced vodka today, but Sisha roams with it rather than sit down. It's common to these last days since she took the knot, a change from how she'd sat with all the other wingleaders before, at least the others that weren't up and throwing things. "Speaking of tithes, the weyrlings won't have as tricked-out graduation gifts as last clutch, though I'm told there were some things that couldn't be exchanged. They're fairly spoiled even so, to my mind. 'Back in my day,' and so forth." His nod serves as thanks for the drink, long fingers wrapping around the fine glass, though he doesn't sip until after she's finished speaking. His gaze drops, seeking out the ring that still sits on his finger - the only part of his set of graduation gifts that still exists. "Always seemed like there was stuff in there that didn't matter as much. The rings, though - that's the one thing I'd always keep. The rest is just stuff." "The rings, yes." Sisha's gaze has dropped to where his has, but then she walks on, a little too purposeful to be a proper amble. "It's too bad about yours. It may be stuff, but it's our stuff. I don't begrudge them a set of sheets, either. Now that we have more crafters, it's good that they can chip in, even discounted rather that given." She sips. "Not yours and my business, I suppose, but I don't want to distract Azaylia by opining in a way that she'll take as second-guessing," so K'del's the lucky conversationalist of choice. "She came off as surprised, by the way, that you might want the job." "Our stuff," agrees K'del, just quietly, though he's already moving on: focusing instead on the rest of what Sisha is saying (and, too, on his glass: he takes a sip, and seems pleased with it; he takes a second). "Mmm, that's a decision she's got to make on her-- did she?" He sighs. "We argued, months ago. She was upset that I'd let Cadejoth chase Isyath at Fort. Told her that we weren't Weyrleaders... why shouldn't he get to chase a dragon he likes? She may've taken my 'I'm just a Wingsecond' the wrong way." "'May have'?" Sisha laughs. She also bends a still-smiling look at the bronzerider. "Well, and is it just the dragon you like?" One benefit for sticking with F'manis: he probably never asks these kinds of questions, which isn't to say the bluerider doesn't rib the other man heartily when he gets back all banged up. K'del makes a face. May have, did; same difference. "Ali and I are friends. Isyath and Cadejoth like each other-- she seeks him out, a lot. Think she appreciates having me there... though, of course, we'll stop going if Cadejoth catches one of the queens here." "You and F'manis are," Sisha considers with a tip of her glass, "friendly enough. Well, K'del. You don't need permission, but so far as I'm concerned you have mine to seek out any junior flight you like in the whole wide world, so long as you're not barred and one of our queens isn't ready. But it's not about permission, is it? I won't even ask you to come home unmarred." She chuckles at that, and sips at her vodka. He opens his mouth to say something, and then stops. His nose wrinkles. "We ended up in the middle of Benden's senior flight, last month - purely by accident, let me assure you. My sister invited me and-- anyway, it's not relevant. I don't go chasing flights, if you know what I mean. And our queens will come first." "I did hear that," Sisha says with understated amusement that doesn't last, her dark eyes pausing on the younger man. "Although not about your sister. How is she? The one that you slipped out of contact with, yes?" As though it were as simple as slipping out of a jacket. "She's... she still doesn't want to be in contact with the family, but I think her weyrmate pressured her, a bit. They have a daughter." His gaze lifts to meet Sisha's, wide-eyed. "That's what she wanted to tell me. That I do. So... that's been... fun." Ha-ha, fun. Uncertain fun. "That you do?" Sisha frowns. "You and your sister? It can't be you and your sister, you can't have forgotten that much of what she looks like. This can't be right." Sisha may never have come this close to asking that K'del tell her she's wrong. K'del flushes, abruptly, his head shaking violent: he looks horrified. "No, no. Her weyrmate, Eire. Cadejoth caught Tansayth, turns ago. That's how I-- found out where she was in the first place." "You and flights, K'del. You and flights. First the weyrmate," of which Sisha looks relieved. "Then Benden's senior," and of course everything else that came before that. "Cadejoth has a nose for something." "Trouble," says K'del, but he's abruptly grinning again. "Never catches the simple ones, Cadejoth. Never chases them, maybe. Or - who knows. Imagine we'll try and stick to High Reaches as much as possible, for now, though. Except when we're on your business, here and there. Safer." "Your boy likes to travel, though," Sisha points out. "Still, if it suits you," she shrugs. It's not as though Cadejoth's chased Balreth yet, and he's had every opportunity, so it's easy to shrug as these things go. "By the way, are you and that weyrling going to make a habit of going at each other?" It's true, and K'del acknowledges it with a wry expression, and a shrug. They'll work it out. It fades - and he looks hesitant, even confused. "'Going at each other'?" It could mean a number of different things; it's no wonder he's hesitant in answering. Sisha visibly wonders, frowning, but then she knew what she meant. "He can't have knocked the memory clean out of your head, can he? Good for you, not punching him back, too." Not just because it might not have gone well for K'del, but also, "Him being a weyrling and all." "Him," says K'del, with a grimace. "Rather not rise to anyone's bait like that. If he thinks hitting me, when he's drunk, is a good idea... not going to engage. No point. He's like a dog with a bone, Sisha, on this whole tangent of solving Seani's murder, and apparently Iolene's, too, even though that one is cased-closed, end of story, you know? He seemed to think that every part of that investigation should be public, and took offense at the idea that I didn't think so." "Teenagers. Faranth save me from the entitled ones, they're even worse than the lovesick lot with all their carrying on." Sisha pushes out a breath through her front teeth. "Well, you handle it, I don't want to have to deal with it, or lose any more tithe either." K'del bites back something frustrated - or something that seems frustrated - but ultimately nods. "I'll deal with it," he promises. "Aishani said I should just make something up to tell him, and let him look stupid over it, but..." "You're talking to Aishani now?" If K'del had been looking for Sisha to frown about the untruthfulness about it all, he's not getting that today. "I can't say as I agree, but the girl has style. Only come back to bite you, though, maybe that's her plan." "Only in passing. We're the quitters club and all." K'del's nod answers the rest of what she's said; his agreement is quiet. "That was my thought. I don't want to get a reputation for lying to people. There's a difference... between things that shouldn't be for public consumption, and actively telling lies." Sisha outright guffaws at that. "Never would have thought it." She looks at her glass, which is empty, and back at the bottles... but shakes her head. "No. I agree, important to keep on the right side of that line. Keep me informed if there's anything you think I should know, but in the meantime, it's all yours. Not that you don't have a whole lot of bigger fish to fry, too, but let's make sure this one stays," there's no help for it, "small fry." K'del seems troubled, somehow, but perhaps it's just the weight of the topic at hand, and how close to his own experiences it is: K'zin, Seani, Iolene. "Right," he confirms, after draining the last of the liquor in his glass. "That I can do. Think the key is... not letting it all get blown out of proportion, if I can manage it." Sisha's sharp nod agrees. "Now, I haven't changed sweeps since Taikrin set those up, but one of these days we should think about taking a look at them. For now, let's address how to broach the next meeting. Not that they won't know what's up, seeing that knot on your shoulder tonight, especially if you happen to parade it around the Snowasis..." "'Parade it'," snorts K'del, leaning back in his chair, abruptly very pleased. "Do you really think I'd do something like that..." And on it goes.
Well. He was Sisha's Wingleader for turns, wasn't he? They must be close. Maybe it's nepotism. Or maybe it's a good choice. Opinions, it seems, differ. Some people seem to think it's a wise move, good for bringing everyone together-- and a good use of turns of experience. Others point out K'del's more recent reputation, which is not... entirely stellar. But his Wingleader, F'manis, seems happy enough with it, and so does Sisha. So... we'll see? In the meantime, the two seem to be presenting a united front: it's time to get things done. And so far - well, there hasn't been a return to yelling in wingleader meetings, which has got to count for something. Outside of meetings, K'del seems to be making every effort to be approachable, listening to anyone who has something to say, and, despite some occasionally provocative encouragement, seemingly keeping his calm. If one thing's for sure, he actively cares about the Weyr, and is dedicated to trying to bring it back together, in whatever time he has before a flight. |
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