History

Timeline

Turn 49	Lysanne and A'quin Impress
Turn 1	Lysanne and A'quin graduate and weyrmate.
Turn 3	Lyarel is born
Turn 5	Quinlys is born
Turn 10	Arysane is born.
Turn 11	Comet Pass begins; Arysane is 1, Quinlys is 5, Lyarel is 7.
Turn 13	Anquin is born.
Turn 15	Lyarel leaves for the Star Smiths.
Turn 16	Comet Pass ends; Anquin is 3, Aryssane is 6, Quinlys is nearly 11, Lyarel is 14.
Turn 22	Quinlys Stands for the first time.
Turn 24	Quinlys does not stand for Iskiveth's first clutch.
Turn 26	Quinlys Impresses blue Olveraeth.
Turn 27	Quinlys and Olveraeth graduate.
Turn 28	Quinlys is promoted to Assistant Weyrlingmaster.
	Arysane (Rysa) Impresses green Elsarath at Monaco.
Turn 30	Anquin (N'qui) Impresses blue Trevisath.
	Iolene is murdered.
Turn 31	Quinlys is promoted to Co-Weyrlingmaster.

Background

Quinlys is High Reachian born and bred: there are riders on both sides of her family going back as far as anyone cares to look, with only the occasional crafter or resident thrown in for good measure. Quin's parents Impressed in the last Turn of the Pass, safe in the knowledge that they would never have to fight thread; as a result, they were quick to begin their family, intending to raise their children with closer attention than their own parents had been able to provide. Lyarel was their first child, a son born in the second turn of the Interval; Quinlys followed less than three turns later, and Aryssane four turns after that. For those first turns, they were a close knit and happy family, with full-time parents who enjoyed their children very much.

In Turn 11, however, only a few months after Quinlys turned five, the Comet Pass began out of nowhere. For Quin's parents, Lysanne and A'quin, it was a bolt out of the blue - a terrible thing. Quin and her brother were old enough to have some understanding of what was going on, but little Rysa was barely a turn old; it was a difficult time for everyone. Lysanne resented the intrusion on her life: she wanted nothing more than to be left alone with her family, the children she loved so much, and this... she had never expected this.

To complicate matters, A'quin and his green Kianneth were scored badly in that first Turn, destined to spend months and months out of harm's way while they healed. Lysanne was jealous of her weyrmate, who was suddenly able to spend so much more time with their children than she was; at the same time, she hated her own jealousy, so aware of how unhappy her weyrmate was, unable to fight alongside his wingmates.

For Lysanne, it was a relief - an unexpected one, but so desperately longed for - when she discovered she was pregnant in the middle of Turn 12. Certainly, it bothered her that she was now unable to assist her wing, but oh it was a relief to be able to enjoy her children again. Her fourth child, Anquin, was born in Turn 13, just short of two turns after the Comet Pass began.

For Quinlys and her siblings, these few turns marked a time of change. No longer did they have the full and undivided attention of their parents; no longer did the Weyr seem a place of relative contentment and ease. It was impossible to miss the impacts of thread-- for all of them, it made a deep and lasting impression. For Lyarel, it promoted an interest in the stars and planets, and all those things that moved and changed far beyond the planet's surface; he dreamed of such things the way most Weyr children dreamed of dragons, and perhaps, then, it was no surprise when he departed for the Starcraft when he was twelve and Quinlys nine.

It made sense... and yet. Having part of her family live away from the Weyr like that was a new experience, and it made Quinlys nervous: out there was where you visited, not where you lived. It was foreign. No doubt that is part of the reason that she never considered any of the crafts; besides, once the Comet Pass ended, when she was nearly eleven, it only made sense that she would become a rider. It was safe, now! In the meantime, however, she fell into a position with the cleaning staff after she graduated from harper lessons, a job she liked well enough for what it was.

It was, nonetheless, not a job she intended to keep forever, whatever happened. She was pragmatic enough to know that Impression was no certainty... even if she dreamed enough to hope, desperately, that it would happen. She was still settling into her position when Iovniath laid her first clutch: at fourteen, her mother worried that she was still too young, and in a way, she certainly was. She did, however, Stand for Iovniath's second clutch three turns later, but left the sands without Impressing. She might have stood for Iskiveth's first, but her mother - a rather more cautious soul - convinced her otherwise. Thus, her second chance came around only after she turned twenty, for Iovniath's third.

She joined the ranks of the candidates late, choosing to stay in her cozy dorm rather than join the madness of the exiles-infested candidate barracks. Still, she quickly became a visible member of the group: confident, bubbly, a font of knowledge, and considered by many to be a likely candidate for the gold egg. WHen the eggs hatched, however, it was not gold she walked away with, but blue: Olveraeth. Was it a surprise? Perhaps. Was it a disappointment? No.

Unlike many of her classmates, Quinlys found weyrlinghood an adjustment, but not an onerous one. Olveraeth was the other part of her; they bonded together instantly and completely, a balanced pair. It surprised no one when they were chosen as one of the silver thread pairs, a position Quin used - with Meara's encouragement - to share her knowledge with Iolene as much as possible. It was thrilling, in a way, to be so trusted; the two became friends, in a loose sense, in a way that Quinlys could never have imagined beforehand.

Early on in weyrlinghood, Quinlys and Olveraeth developed an ambition to work with Meara as Assistant Weyrlingmasters. They were too recently graduated to do so for Rielsath and Vysravth's clutch, but after Ysavaeth rose for the first time, that ambition was realised. It was more difficult than Quinlys could have imagined-- she was still young enough to be a weyrling herself, after all, and not everyone respected her authority. But there was something about it that appealed to her, and despite early missteps, she and Olveraeth proved that they could do this; that they could be good at this.

(Granted, their extra-curricular activities were not necessarily deemed appropriate by all, but Quin was relatively discreet: certainly, she enjoyed the company of both men and women, and rarely the same ones for extended periods, but what did that matter as long as she did her job?)

It bothered Quinlys a great deal when Meara began to look for a replacement further afield, shortly before the hatching of Rielsath and Svissath's clutch. By now, she had developed an ambition of her own: to be the next Weyrlingmaster in her own right, answering to no one but the Weyrleaders. In a way, she was pleased when Iolene's murder ruined Meara's plans in that area... even as she was horrified, disgusted and appalled by the goldrider - her friend's - death.

It wasn't ideal, but the whole situation did work to her advantage: after the dual flights of Hraedhyth and Iesaryth, Meara seemed to have no choice but to promote mercurial Quinlys to be her Co-Weyrlingmaster. Though formidable in her position, Meara is getting old... and sooner or later, she will have to step down. Then, finally, Quinlys will be in a position to take over the weyrlings altogether, and that is something she is looking forward to a great deal.