The longer the journey

Ferrix had paid well, for speed and for silence, and apparently so well the boatman didn't even speak as they finally made their approach to the canyon.

He'd known though, of course he had. A dragon-shadow there, the faintest trail of firestone-smell here, the bugling cry half-heard on the wind...

Each one sunk deep talons in his heart and left rents behind, but he was in such pieces already he could ignore further holes. Everything for a time.

He stood and lifted his bag, swinging it around to rest against his back. No idea how many days he'd been on the road, or a boat, or a wagon, or whatever else he'd found to move him further on and further south. Months, easily, but a large part of his mind veered sharply away from considering time, because counting back meant counting to or from something, and that he couldn't do.

Just a little longer. A turn at most, and then...he grunted, nodding to the boatman, and stepped off the little boat with the ease of someone long-used to moving on unsteady surfaces.

Everything for a time.

Ashrah sat on a rock near the river, brooding as she watched the dark water. Her heart was heavy with the events of the passing days; damn shadow dragons. They were a blessing, a challenge, a burden and a mystery all wrapped in one dark package. Her back ached with the tension that came with training weyrlings and her heart ached. Clutched in her head a missive wrote in a shaky hand, damp from tears.

To the Weyrling Master of White Lightning Weyr, Ashrah of Scarlet Hesriath...

I am grieved to tell you that the Wingrider R'hant has committed suicide following the death of his blue dragon Miramath. It pains me to also tell you that your brother R'hast is in a bad way as Pivolth continues to worsen. After the death of her green dragon Ytandith, your mother Ashlanthi returned to Eastern Hold to be with her youngest sister's family.

I beg you, dear Ashrah. Come to your brother's side...he has such little time left.

All my love and sadness,
Zania

Ashrah wasn't sure how Zania had gotten hold of a quill and hide, let alone a way to ge the message to her but all the same, a firelizard had arrived with the letter. Her soul felt heavy, as if it was full of cold stones. Then, a sound like footsteps made her sit up sharply and dash the welling tears from her eyes.

"Who goes there?!" she called out, her voice rough.

"Ferrix," he replied, scanning for and finding the figure after a moment. "Here to see your Weyrleaders." Still hard, to use that name after all these Turns. He'd slurred it a bit, by reflex, and frowned at his own mistake. He could not be any less F'rix, any more.

Barely Ferrix, at that, but enough to be going on with. "You the sentry?" He didn't know who he'd need to talk to in order to make it work - soon after they'd received word of Eastern's decision, everything had started to fall apart, and all he knew was tales of dragons led here.

"I am tonight, it would seem." Ashrah said, rising to her feet. She extended her hand.

"I can take you to the Weyrleaders. Ashrah, Rider of Scarlet Hesriath. Weyrling Master."

She was looking to him now, catching the color of his eyes and the length of his hair. She noted his clothing quickly. His face didn't ring any bells in her memory; she didn't think he was from Eastern but she could be wrong. He looked tired and need of rest.

'Don't we all?' Ashrah thought and resisted the urge to rub her eyes.

Weyrlingmaster. Scarlet. Woman. Ferrix held out his hand to greet her. He'd heard of a femal brownrider Weyrlingmaster once, who'd done well. He imagined this would be similar.

Or, if not, that there wasn't much choice. Of course he hoped the former - Weyrlingmasters were just as important to the function of a Weyr as the 'Leaders (young F'rix hadn't understood that, but young F'rix had been a bit of an arrogant idiot. A bit. And long ago besides.)

"Thank you Weyrlingmaster. Seems you'd be too busy to be taking on guard duty too?"

"See a need, fill a need." Ashrah said. That was the most needful motivation in this place; if you could help then help you should.

"You are welcome, Ferrix. Come with me and I will see you to our Weyrsenior Br'son, rider of Queen Yllaveth. Weyrleader Sidran of Cobalt Gaveth as well." Ashrah said, pushing her blond hair back from her face. She beckoned him to follow her, turning to walk up the bank from the water.

"Where do you hail from, Ferrix? What's your trade?" she asked.

No reason to hide it, but it was the first time he'd truly said it aloud. So it took a moment, before he answered.

"Ista Weyr. Was a Weyrleader. Now my trade will be training Weyrleaders until I join Mazinith." His voice, already low and graveled, creaked over the name. He stared straight ahead though, giving no indication how hard it was to keep his thoughts focused on exactly the words themselves, no accompanying images, memories, or emotions. Just words.

His shoulders slumped, only slightly, only for a moment, then that focus did its job and he looked merely as slouched as he had before, getting off the boat.

Ashrah was silence as he spoke, her face betraying little except in her eyes a knowing ache. When he was finished, she blinked slowly. The screams of dying dragons long since past faded as the sight of him filled her green eyes once again.

"White Lightning...is humbled by your contribution." Ashrah said. There was a lingering pain in her eyes but also something else. Respect, for to linger was not a choice easily made.

He lifted a shoulder, managed a half-smile (smile adjacent, at any rate), and was grateful she hadn't made a big deal of it. Easy to get emotional, which made it worse for him, harder to focus, and this wasn't that. Straightforward. Like a Weyrlingmaster should be.

Promising. Still, he turned the conversation away from himself, make the most of the walk. "How are you all doing, settling out here?" A male Weyrwoman - or Weyrsenior, it seemed - and a female Weyrleader. Not for the first time, he wondered who would be better to train. Both, he decided (also not for the first time) and any of their promising cobalt and bronze riders, beside. To be sure.

Ashrah forged on. "As well as can be expected, given the circumstances. Our recent hatching was a complete success. Every egg hatched and every dragonet Impressed. Though Yllaveth is are only adult queen, we have added two queens of a new color. We call them 'Shadows'. We have also seen a new male dragon color appear, a light gray type we call 'Smoke'. We have solid leadership in Sidran and Br'son, with a capable and ambitious Wingleader in Casriel of Cobalt Maraxith. I also have recently appointed a Candidate Master in Brielody, a greenrider."

Ashrah lifted her chin a shade at this last bit, unwilling to look concerned at hiring on another female rider and a green at that to hold such an important position as Candidate Master.

"She's a capable woman and knows her duty to the Weyr. As for the others, we gained Weyrsinger T'kal of Thortoth from Eastern and four wher candidates managed to bond successfully to the four wherlings that hatched."

Ferrix considered, scaling up his time and numbers. Shadow queens? Bloody shards. Fitting, though, for this new world. He wondered if he'd even recognize what Weyr structure would look like after all this, then realized it didn't matter. If dragonkind survived, if they could make it through this...

Well, he wouldn't live to see that regardless, so just do the best with what we had. "All good to hear, and congratulations are clearly due. No," his voice, subtly, hesitated here. Not a break, not a wobble, just a pause that wasn't quite just a pause, "sign of the sickness, here?"