Logs:To Spy Or Not To Spy
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| RL Date: 20 January, 2016 |
| Who: Roszadyth, Farideh, K'del, Cadejoth |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Farideh and K'del meet following the meeting at Nabol. |
| Where: Council Chambers, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 16, Month 11, Turn 39 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Tevrane/Mentions, Jocelyn/Mentions, Irianke/Mentions, Telavi/Mentions, Keysi/Mentions |
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| Cadejoth must be watching out for the return of Aidavanth and Roszadyth, because no sooner have they arrived above High Reaches than he's reaching out towards the elder of the pair. « He'd like to know how it went, » he says, without giving the impression that his rider was too worried (such things don't bother Cadejoth, anyway). « When she's ready. He'll be in the council chambers. » And so he is, managing not to pace though it's likely K'del has not managed to get much work done in the interrim. Roszadyth is positively radiant, all bright sunshine and inundating warmth. It's not her normal, gentle lightness of being, which might be the first warning sign. « She comes, » the gold passes along, and not ten minutes later a cranky looking, rain-splashed Farideh stalks into the council chambers. K'del isn't her target of anger this time, but it might be hard to tell with the way she bears down on him, arms akimbo and her hazel eyes bright with ire. "We're to play fucking spy for Nabol," she tells him, in strident tones. "Jocelyn put it in her head. I swear, I will strangle her with my own bare hands." And to illustrate, she balls up her fists, on top of each other in the gesture for strangling someone, and then makes a loud cry before throwing herself in a nearby chair. Clearly, upset. Oh good. K'del... K'del stiffens in the wake of Farideh's stalk, and positively blanches as she continues. "What?" And then: "What?" Deep breath, as he straightens, blinks, and then frowns, clearly trying to get his head around it. "Tell me," he says, then, "Exactly what happened." Can she? Farideh is quite desolate, with her fingers covering her eyes, but she peeks a look at K'del anyway. "I thought everything was going well, until--" With many major embellishments, and hands gestures, and emotions, she relays the whole story of their afternoon at Nabol Hold with Lady Tevrane. In the end, she drops her head into her hands and groans. "What do we do now?" K'del's face, it's true, grows longer with every word. "Ah," is his eventual conclusion, failing to actually put a positive spin on the whole situation, though the way he scrunches his face it does seem as if he's trying to find one. "We're dragonriders. Sure, we've heard one or two things, but there's no guarantee that anyone is going to tell us anything more. So we report back saying it seems to be isolated. If it turns into more... well. We tried. We failed. Evidently dragonriders aren't actually, you know, spies." It might sound better if K'del sounded more thrilled about it. When Farideh lifts her head from her hands, it's to look at K'del with a frown and a sincere amount of puzzlement on her face. "Do you think Lady Tevrane will actually believe that? That doesn't fix the problem. Us spying on the holders doesn't fix the problem. If she had just kept her mouth closed--" Her anger resurges, briefly, and then she turns her head to consider the bronzerider. "I'm concerned that if word gets out that our riders are eavesdropping, digging around for information, for Tevrane, that they'll never trust us again. I'm not sure that they do entirely, now, but especially then. Even if it's fake." "Mistakes happen," is simple and quiet, and manages to be so despite the fact that K'del is obviously less than thrilled about this whole stupid situation. He hesitates after that, rather than immediately answer Farideh's concerns. Finally, he rises out of his seat, pacing back and forth. "You're not wrong," isn't even begrudged. "Do you have a better solution? Believe me, I'm all ears." The goldrider sinks back in her chair to silently consider their situation as the weyrleader paces, quite unhelpfully. "No," Farideh says, sounding less than happy to admit, "my solution was to stay out of Lady Tevrane's mess. Now, it's our mess. On the one hand, we could take back our promise and land in hot water with her, or, we could follow through and anger her holders. In neither situation do we win, K'del." Wryly, "Welcome to the world of impossible decisions." K'del rests both hands upon the back of one of the chairs, briefly stilling his passage although agitation keeps his fingers moving. "Guess the question is... how bad is the situation. From the perspective of the holders, I mean. Are we talking a few casual dissidents, or is it actuallly a movement against her." "It sounds like you're suggesting we send our spies to find out," Farideh retorts, deadpan. "Well," says K'del, after a moment. "Why shouldn't we?" Farideh stares at the weyrleader for an unnecessary amount of time, and then her head drops back against the chair back. "My mother never prepared me for this type of thing," she mutters, looking at the ceiling, as though it might have all the answers. "Who do we send? When do we send them? How do we keep it from getting out? Holders are less likely to send their children to be candidates for places they don't trust." Finally, rolling her head to the side so she can look at K'del: "I assume you have experience with this." Well, well. At another time, K'del might be amused by Farideh's reaction; but not now. "It was easier when we had Savannah," he says, simply, quite as if this explains everything. "There's Keysi, though. Telavi, if she's the time. But... mostly, it's just about listening. You don't have to do it undercover when the real thing we want to learn is whether people are happy or not." "Savannah," Farideh repeats, marveling over the wing's name, and the implication of its being gone, with its long time wingleader; no tears, now. "Keysi and Telavi. Will that be enough? Will you tell all of your riders to listen? That sounds--" She sits up and shifts anxiously in the chair. "I don't feel good about it being a well-known topic among the wings." Beat. "But I don't know, K'del." K'del's fingers wrap more tightly about the back of that chair as he exhales, tightly. "I can tell the wings that we're concerned about a repeat of what happened already, so if anyone happens to hear anything... it's all about how it gets presented. It's not like people aren't supposed to report back on what they hear anyway." Farideh shifts again -- restless energy, post meeting -- and rests her elbows on the table, her fingers cupping her mouth while she listens. She doesn't look pleased to hear any of it, but it's after a resigned sigh and a flick of her eyes towards K'del, that she says, "I suppose that's all we have to go on for now. I just-- I don't feel good about any of this." She gives her head a barely-there shake. "It's my first real-- big issue to resolve, and I've already fumbled it. I should have planned for this. Irianke would have." "Two turns out of weyrlinghood she wouldn't have," K'del points out, simply. Luckily, he's not petty enough to make a point of it-- of the mistakes a person makes, of having to live with them. "Don't think I feel good about it either. But... things happen. Sometimes you can't predict the way they will. It may be that it was Tevrane's agenda all along, to put us in this position. Could be there wasn't a better way out of it. So the point is to... do what we can, now. Do the best we can, with the information we have. All right?" Beat. "And maybe review Jocelyn's diplomacy lessons." "You're right," Farideh says, and seems astonished by it. "I suppose it's better to do this in lieu of-- nothing, and Tevrane-- she could have. She seems sharp. I'll have to trust you to say the right things and handle it properly, and I'll-- speak to Quinlys, and Jocelyn, about her lessons." She glances up at him then, still surprised-looking but appreciative for the advice, somehow. "We'll be fine?" Finally, slowly, K'del's shoulders release just a little of their tension. "Do my best," he promises, sincerely. "We'll be fine. One way or another. Just a... glitch. Okay? Don't beat yourself up over anything. Not like any of this would have happened, maybe, if we hadn't been sending you out into the holds in the first place. So. Go have a drink. Take a bath. Some kind of break. And we'll work it out." "Maybe," hangs in the air. "I should." Treat herself, evidentially. Farideh pushes back her chair and stands, now having a care for her frizzing hair and rumpled dress. "Do you need anything? I can have them send up a bottle of something, if you'd like?" But she's already looking towards the council chamber's stock, eyeing the shelves. K'del's gaze follows Farideh's towards the shelves, but in the end he shakes his head. "Got a nice bottle of whiskey back in my weyr-- reckon I'll have some of that, when I sit down. Go, Farideh. I'm fine. Look after yourself." There's a thoughtful look for the weyrleader, but Farideh only shakes her head and takes her leave. Probably to go harass some poor bartender somewhere. Woe to their ears. |
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